Kufuor appeals to Dagbon to unite
Former President J.A. Kufuor has appealed to the people of Dagbon to use the occasion of the first anniversary of the passing of former Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama to reconcile.
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“I want to appeal, on this auspicious occasion, to the princes of both gates of Dagbon to reconcile with each other in the name of God and the love of our country in order to restore their powerful traditional authority to its rightful place in our nation, Ghana,” he pleaded.
Former President Kufuor made the appeal at the first Aliu Mahama Memorial Lecture and launch of the Aliu Mahama Foundation in Accra to mark the first anniversary of the death of Alhaji Aliu Mahama, former Vice President of the Kufuor-led administration.
The lecture was attended by Ministers of State, Members of Parliament, all the heavy weights in the New Patriotic Party, traditional leaders and a cross section of the society, especially members of the NPP.
He said the Yendi crisis was the only major and sad episode during their otherwise “high achieving government” because the late vice president was a son of the area.
Attributes of Alhaji Aliu Mahama
He eulogised the late Alhaji Mahama, stating that the former vice president served his country very well and would always be remembered for his advocacy campaign for greater discipline.
‘’He was part and parcel of all the major decisions that my government took and our many successes are also his successes.’’
President Kufuor debunked assertion that the late Alhaji Mahama was picked from obscurity to be his running mate, “I assure you that was not so. Indeed, he had been a major backbone of our party in the Northern Region in Ghana,” adding that, “I selected him also for his industriousness as shown by what he did.”
He said Alhaji Mahama had the quality of loyalty in abundance; a cardinal attribute a president always expected from his vice.
“In spite of his loyalty, he did not agree to my every word. No! He would politely tell his opinion. This ability to combine loyalty with speaking your mind is a very rare combination of a politician,” he confessed, stressing that Alhaji Mahama was not a coward.
He described himself as being extremely privileged to have had Alhaji Mahama as his vice president for eight years, stressing that Alhaji Mahama was a very good team player.
Message from government
A goodwill message from government, delivered by a Presidential Staffer, Dr Clement Apaak, said the services the late vice president rendered to the country were exemplary and worthy of emulation.
He said President John Dramani Mahama had asked him to indicate that the late vice president was a great and humble man whose style of politics appealed to both sides of the divide.
Dr Apaak remembered that the former vice president was very determined to make an impact in the lives of Ghanaians, particularly in the area of discipline.
Immortalising Aliu
A former diplomat and a sports administrator, Dr Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe, in a statement added his voice to the call for the Tamale Stadium to be named after the late Alhaji Mahama for his role in the football administration in the country.
“That gesture will fittingly memorialise what Alhaji Mahama stood for. What had been achieved through visionary politics,” he explained.
Earlier in a welcome address, the minority leader in Parliament remembered the late former vice president as someone who demonstrated lots of tolerance and showed enthusiasm towards activities of the party.
Financial discipline
The 2012 running mate of the NPP Presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who was the guest speaker, chastised government “for mismanaging the country’s economy.”
He blamed government for what he described as “indiscipline in its management of our public finance,” adding that the “NDC government is the first government in the history of Ghana to have access to oil revenue, yet finding it difficult to pay its bills.”