President John Dramani Mahama has taken critics of the nation’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah to task for opposing him when he embarked upon various projects in the country.

The first president had received flaks from his opponents and was accused of having over ambitious dreams by constructing a number of projects. The current president, John Mahama who has also embarked upon a number of infrastructural developments said he is receiving similar attacks by his opponents who are seeking to unseat him during this year’s election.

Unfazed by the attacks, the president who ended his two day “accounting to the people tour” in the Upper West region last Friday said Ghana’s first president would have received apology statements from detractors today and to beg for forgiveness for unfairly attacking him.

“Dr Kwame Nkrumah built the Akosombo Dam, but at the time he was accused in investing in ostentatious white elephant projects. If those, who criticised him look back, I am sure that they will apologise to President Nkrumah for what they did,” Mr Mahama stated.

He continued: “They said the motorway was a white elephant, but today go and see, the motorway has become like an ordinary road and if the motorway was not there, I do not know how we will commute between Accra and Tema”.

Mr Mahama expressed qualms about groups, who criticise projects without any basis and fail to recognise the positive aspects of development projects undertaken to develop the country. “There is a group in society, who makes it their duty to criticise development that takes place.”

Relating it to projects that are being undertaken by the current National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Mahama urged citizens to appreciate the benefits of social interventions and avoid pessimism.

Later the president addressing a gathering of Christian spiritual leaders said, government has set the country on a path of prosperity, but added that the problems confronting Ghana will require sufficient time to get resolved, adding that nonetheless the country is on the path of development.

“It will take time to resolve all the problems, but I do know that Ghana is on a good path,” Mr Mahama said at a breakfast meeting with the clergy in the Upper West Region on Friday July 8.

“Whoever leads this country going into the future, as long as they continue on the path that we have set, we should make Ghana one of the most prosperous countries on the continent,” he said.

To this end, he urged the leaders of faith-based organisations to fully participate in new developmental challenges in order to make positive impact on society. He said issues such as terrorism, climate change, tidal waves and interconnectivity were paramount in growth and development and, therefore, needed full participation from all especially the religious leaders due to their huge following.

According to him, the world had become a global village and it was only full participation of all that could salvage the world of calamities.
“Some of our farmers for example need to know much about climate change in order to re-adjust to maximise production and we need all hands on deck to achieve this,” President Mahama said.

He said religious leaders and faith-based organisations had, over the years, contributed immensely towards the peace and stability of the country and it was only fair and appropriate to frequently interact with them to share common challenges for workable solutions. He said the major challenge of the world now was terrorism and the religious leaders had a vital role of educating the youth against using weapons of destruction to achieve selfish and wicked interests.

President Mahama explained that because no government succeeded in isolation, the Government had decided to engage the religious leaders in all development issues owing to their huge audience throughout the country. While playing their mandated role of building society religiously, the President urged them to embellish the socio-economic challenges of society in their educational programmes.

He said the major challenge of the world now was terrorism and the religious leaders had a vital role of educating the youth against using weapons of destruction to achieve selfish and wicked interests.