Kufuor more "inspiring" as president than Mahama – NPP

President John Mahama is a better communicator than former President John Kufuor, but the current president’s speeches are drab, a communicator of the main opposition New Patriotic Party, has said.

“In terms of communications, [President] John Mahama is a [better] communicator, comparatively, [than former President Kufuor] but anytime President Kufuor talks, you can sense some inspiration,” Saaka Salia said on Radio XYZ’s news analysis programme ‘The Analyst’ on Saturday.

According to him, “You can sense that indeed this is a president talking no matter how difficult it is for him to even talk, but any time he [Kufuor] talks, there’s a presidential aura [around him] and I think that gives a lot of people inspiration. But this president is fast becoming an incorrigible enthnocentrist.”

Salia made the observation during a discussion about a purportedly “doctored” speech of President Mahama in which he supposedly hurled an attack against the people of Kumasi in the Ashanti region as ingrates who won’t appreciate the efforts of his government even if his administration gilded all Kumasi roads.

The Presidency says the tape was manipulated for mischievous purposes. The government subsequently released what it referred to as an “original” tape as part of efforts to discredit the alleged “doctored” tape.

Rebuffing Mr Salia’s observation on the same programme, a member of the governing party’s communications team, Chris Ackumey said: “I think he’s totally wrong.”

“I just want to find out - I might be wrong - whether Kufuor’s speech of ‘corruption starting from Adams’ has inspired the followership of the NPP or whether Nana Akufo-Addo’s ‘y3n Akanfuo’ statement has also inspired?” In his view, “to say that the Presidency does not inspire, I mean he’s totally wrong.”