The former president, John Mahama has said the president must apologise to Ghanaians for reneging on his campaign promise of not engaging in borrowing.

Mr Mahama who wants to lead his party, National Democratic Congress (NDC) again in the 2020 elections, is on a tour of the Greater Accra Region where he expressed surprise at the Akufo-Addo administration’s borrowing spree.

He said it was unbelievable that after lambasting his administration and promising not to borrow when elected into office, the almost two-year-old Akufo-Addo administration seems to have borrowed even more than they (NDC) did.

The former president’s comments come after President Akufo-Addo said at an entrepreneurship forum organised by the Tony Elumelo Foundation in Nigeria that, Ghana will continue to borrow to put up projects he described as assets.

Defending a $60 billion Chinese facility for Africa, of which Ghana is expected to benefit from, the president said “Borrowing money is not aid, what President Xi Jinping offered is a $60 billion fund which Africa countries can assess, not as aid but loans.

“If you can produce a project which the Chinese think it is worth supporting you can have access to such money and you have to pay it back. We’ll borrow money, everybody borrows money,” he added.

But Mr Mahama says the president has changed his tone and must apologise for leading Ghanaians on.

“They don’t understand. The problem is not that something is bad. Nobody ever said borrowing is bad, when we were in government we never said borrowing was bad. You borrow to invest in assets and everybody knows that and when we were in government we borrowed to invest in assets.

“It was they who said borrowing is bad so when Ghanaians are criticising you today, it is because of what you said in the past. It is the hypocrisy that Ghanaians are angry with…you said the money is here we don’t need to borrow to develop Ghana so today if you have turned around and you see that you can borrow and invest in assets, the first thing you do is to apologise to Ghanaians and say ‘we didn’t know’”.

Mr Mahama said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) used “beautiful promises” to win the elections but are struggling to govern, as the current economic hardship is causing many Ghanaians to suffer.

The only solution, for him, is the NDC and Ghanaians are looking up to them to salvage the country from the Akufo-Addo administration.

Joy News’ Kwasi Parker who is covering the former president’s tour said Mr. Mahama is expected at Amasaman, a suburb of Accra, later Monday where party supporters had beene waiting to see and hear from him.