‘Take a chill pill’ – Eugene Arhin to John Mahama

• He asked John Dramani Mahama to ‘take a chill pile’

• He spoke to journalists at the Jubilee House

Eugene Arhin, the Director of Communications at the Presidency, has asked former President John Dramani Mahama to “take a chill pill and wait” for how the budget, which will be read by the Finance Minister will address the concerns of Ghanaians.

According to him, the 2020 flagbearer of the opposition NDC should just allow the Akufo-Addo led government to perform the duties that Ghanaians have mandated them to do.

John Dramani Mahama during a public lecture in Accra on Wednesday, November 10, blamed the hardships Ghanaians are going through on the mismanagement of the economy by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

He said the present economic decline is more shocking when viewed against the backdrop that this administration has been the most fortunate government in the history of Ghana in terms of the quantum of resources received.

“The tragedy of our current national situation is that we have a government that appears completely unwilling to acknowledge the problems and even begin the process of addressing them. We are instead confronted with an administration that believes that these major problems can be wished away through PR, sloganeering, divisive rhetoric, populism, and plain political deception.

“Take our present economic state for example. At a time when everyone is crying out over the excruciating hardships brought on by excessive taxation, ever-increasing cost of living, weekly fuel price increases, this government chooses to recite a hackneyed mantra, that there are indicators that show that the economy is doing well.

“Even if we were to overlook the mismatch between these claims and the very visceral suffering and pain people are going through in their daily lives; it beggars belief, that the same people saying this were only six years ago, dismissing any linkage between the welfare of Ghanaians and economic indices,” Mahama explained.

But in a response, Eugene Arhin told journalists at the presidency that, “everybody in Ghana acknowledges that there are hardships, even the President himself has acknowledged it, that is why every effort is being put in place to make sure that these hardships are relieved. And I will just suggest that the former President should take a chill pill and wait and see how best the budget would address the concerns of the average Ghanaian.”

He noted, the Akufo-Addo led government is not aloof to the situation, but working earnestly to relieve the sufferings of Ghanaians.

“It is not as if this government is sitting down and has thrown its hands in despair and waiting for a divine intervention from the almighty, we are going ahead to do whatever we have to do [to relieve Ghanaians],” Eugene Arhin stressed.