Confusion Rocks Otumfuo’s Claim of Mediating Election 2016 Animosity

Ex-President John Dramani Mahama and the Asantehene- Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, have clashed over conflicting claims on how potential armed conflict was averted immediately after the  2016 Presidential Elections.

The Office of ex-President John Dramani Mahama has denied narrations by the Asante monarch that a mediation initiated by him averted a potential civil conflict immediately after the  2016 presidential election.

Ex-President Mahama states unequivocally that he conceded defeat without the prompting of a special mediation as the Asante monarch claimed.

On Friday, September 13, 2019, told the United Nations General Assembly in Washington DC that a high-profile mediation between him, Nana Akufo Addo, the then-presidential candidates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Ex-President John Dramani Mahama, the then incumbent presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), resulted in ex-President Mahama accepting defeat and publicly conceding.

“…Fortunately, the moral authority of the palace was at hand. We were able to intervene to persuade the losing candidate to accept his fate and fly both candidates for a quiet encounter to pave the way for a handover,” said the Asantehene.

However, a quick statement from ex-President Mahama, signed by his Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, has rubbished the Asantehene’s claim, saying: “I state without equivocation that the decision to concede and congratulate Nana Akufo-Addo even before the official results were declared was taken by President Mahama himself without any persuasion from any quarter.”

“On the day President Mahama willingly conceded defeat, he met with then-Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah- Arthur, NDC Chairman Kofi Portuphy, General Secretary of the NDC Johnson Asiedu Nketia, together with some high ranking members of the party and informed them of his decision to call and congratulate Nana Akufo-Addo,” the statement from Mr. Mahama’s office read.

According to the statement, following the meeting with the party where he communicated his decision to concede defeat, ex-President Mahama went ahead to call a number of prominent personalities in the country to inform them of his decision. This included the Otumfuo Himself, ex-President Jerry John Rawlings, ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor, the  National Chief Imam Sheikh Nuhu Sharubutu, Rev. Ernest Agyei of the Ringway Assemblies of God Church and Archbishop Duncan Williams.

As Otumfuo himself has already stated publicly, under his auspices, there were three meetings held in Kumasi between President Mahama and then Candidate/President-Elect Nana Akufo-Addo during the period.

Setting the records straight, ex-President Mahama’s office admits that he had indeed met with the Asantehene on three occasions and that these meetings were not directly to avert conflict over him refusing to accept defeat. The statement explained that the first was prior to the December 07 election in which the two frontline candidates promised to play fair and respect the will of the people.

“The other two meetings took place after the official declaration of the results of the elections, and to re-emphasise after President Mahama had publicly conceded and congratulated Nana Akufo-Addo. Those two meetings focused on matters arising out of the transition process. President Mahama made a commitment to the people of Ghana, never to be the one to subject them to the periods of unease, political instability and the doubts they experienced after the 2008 and 2012 elections. He remained true to that commitment and exemplified it after the 2016 elections,” the statement concludes.

This counter-revelations around the turn of events immediately after the 2016 that saw a clearly crestfallen President Mahama conceding defeat has whipped up issues of credibility of facts being presented by both the ex-president and the Asantehene.