Dedicated V8 for Akufo-Addo’s chair untrue, it's NDC propaganda – Bawumia’s aide

Dr. Kabiru Mahama, a Technical Advisor at the Office of the Vice President has justified why President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo carries a presidential chair to all functions he attends in Ghana. Mahama insists that the fixation by National Democratic Congress officials on the chair is for mere propaganda purposes. “This propaganda about this presidential chair ought to stop because we know that the president goes with his handlers and presidential staffers. If a president is for national security reasons… “I even say that a president ought to be the number one, he is the sovereign. The president is the sovereign,” he stressed on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana programme, November 1, 2022. When asked by host Randy Abbey if he was “justifying taking a special chair to a radio studio,” Dr. Mahama responded: “I am justifying the fact that what the president eats, what the president wears, what the president sits on must be checked made against the National Security standards. Asked why the same standards are not applied when Akufo-Addo travels outside the country, he responded: “Let me tell you why it may not be applicable outside Ghana, one; systems elsewhere are different.” He cited the example of the American president, Joe Biden, when he went to the Queen’s funeral, with his own fleet. “That’s the American system,” Dr. Mahama stressed adding that the US being in economic difficulties would not mean they lower their security standards. On the issue of the chair having a dedicated V8, as advanced by co-panelist Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Bawumia’s aide said it was untrue to the extent that the chair could be carried in a vehicle with other members of the presidential entourage. “To suggest that this chair is having its own car and is being fueled when it can easily be placed in the boot of a car and go anywhere they want, you try to make a lot of noise about it,” he added. Watch this episode of E-Forum below. SARA/PEN