Mahama Should Have Thanked Akufo-Addo and Atta Mills - GPHA Ex-workers
Former President John Dramani Mahama’s recent promise to expand the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) and employ more hands at the country’s port administrator agency has hit wrong nerves.
The over 4,000 ex-workers of the GPHA whose severance benefits remain unpaid 22 years after their retrenchment have hit back at the former President saying Mr. John Mahama showed political chicanery when he created the impression that the GPHA had done well under his tenure.
“Yes, the GPHA did well under President Mills whom you were Vice to and not under you, and so as far as growth at the GPHA during the Mills government is concerned, this is not directly attributable to you,” said Mr. Stephen Ashitey Adjei, leader of the ex-workers.
Popularly known as Moshake, Mr. Ashitey Adjei spoke to the media on the sidelines of a meeting that the ex-workers held in Tema.
He and his comrades also expressed disappointment in Mr. Mahama for not acknowledging Professor Mills and President Akufo-Addo for what they have done for the GPHA.
“It is obvious that these two presidents did more for the GPHA than Mr. Mahama, who actually awarded a controversial contract to Meridian Port Services (MPS). And so, the least John Mahama could have done was to acknowledge the contributions of these two predecessors.”
While addressing party supporters at the official manifesto launch of the NDC in the Central Region, Mr. Mahama as usual attacked the record of the Akufo-Addo government, with his jabs including accusations that the government has mismanaged the GPHA.
Mr. Mahama, who was on a promising spree then said his government, if voted into office, will clean Akufo-Addo’s mess at the GPHA, expand it and employ more Ghanaians there.
But the thing about Mahama and GPHA is that whenever the two come up, an annoyance is created among the GPHA ex-workers who have remained unpaid after their retrenchment in 2002 because John Mahama was a key contributor to the denial of these mistreated workers, injustice.
In 2012, just before President Mills would die in office, he had directed the Transport Ministry to pay the ex-workers. And so after his death, the responsibility for completing what Mills had started lay with John Mahama, but he ignored the ex-workers.
Meanwhile, upon assuming office, President Akufo-Addo has also given another order for the GPHA to pay the ex-workers.
“If you notice John Mahama’s grandiloquent promises about what he intends to do for the GPHA, you see clearly that even up till now, he has no remorse about the injustice he did us and therefore has no plans whatsoever to rectify it and ensure that we are paid.
John Mahama does not care about GPHA workers or ex-workers, and there is no way he can be trusted to improve the conditions of service of the GPHA’s workers if he is elected into office again.
In contrast, Prof. Mills and Akufo-Addo have shown that they are caring and can be trusted with the welfare of Ghanaians,” Moshake said adding that this is why Dr. Bawumia who is President Akufo-Addo’s vice is more attractive than John Mahama.
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