President John Mahama says the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) would not be bothered should the New Patriotic Party (NPP) plagiarises policies contained in its 2016 manifesto.
Addressing some chiefs of the Ga Traditional Council in Accra Thursday, the President said the NPP should feel free to “copy as many things in our manifesto as possible.”
“We’ve been governing this country, we are running the programmes and we have the ideas,” he said.
The NPP has accused President Mahama of plagiarising its policies when he delivered highlights of the NDC’s 2016 manifesto on Tuesday at the State Banquet Hall.
The President promised to explore the possibility of creating five addition regions to the existing 10 regions, build stadia, improve the road networks, transportation, the traffic system as well as stepping up the creation of factories across the country to absorb the growing unemployed Ghanaians.
At a news conference in Accra Wednesday, NPP Communications Director, Nana Akomea said most of the ideas the President put across were stolen from them.
Nana Akomea said most of what the NDC stated in their 2016 manifesto highlights have been said by the NPP flagbearer Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on his campaign tours.
The creation of new regions and factories across the country among other ideas are NPP policies he said.
But in his reaction, President Mahama said he was part of the NDC manifesto drafting and there was no way they adopted NPP ideas.
“When somebody says we have plagiarised their manifesto I don’t think he understands plagiarism,” he said, adding, it only amounts to plagiarism when one “steals from a known document and put it in another document but there is no document called NPP manifesto.”
He challenged the NPP to make known its manifesto if it exists for Ghanaians to believe in their accusation.
Having governed the country for almost four years, President Mahama said he has the ideas and policies to make Ghana better.
“I am certain we will win this election and by 2021 when I leave office we would have made Ghana a model in the sub-region.”
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