The Director of Communications of the United Party, Solomon Owusu, has described President John Mahama’s first year in office as “phenomenal,” saying no well-meaning Ghanaian would wish for the President to fail.

Speaking on Prime Insight on Joy Prime on Saturday, January 10, Mr Owusu said the President has largely delivered on his promise to stabilise the country’s macroeconomic environment.

“President John Mahama went to innovation and told the entire country that when I come, I’ll stabilise the macroeconomic environment. And true to that, inflation is down, the exchange rate is down, fuel prices are down, debt-to-GDP is down, and our position has improved.”

He questioned why anyone would deny the progress made under the current administration.

“Why would I come and say that the President hasn’t done well?” he asked. “The point is that the first year has been phenomenal. It has been phenomenal.”

He said that national interest must always come before political differences, saying that the success or failure of a President affects every Ghanaian.

“No Ghanaian must wish that his President fails because when the President fails, it is all of us that have failed,” he said.

Mr Owusu reflected on his experience under the previous administration of President Nana Akufo-Addo, particularly the decision to construct the National Cathedral.

“I remember in 2018, I was on GHOne TV when they were about to start the National Cathedral,” he recalled. “At that time, I was a member of the NPP national communications team.”

According to him, he publicly warned that the project could harm the administration. He said he faced backlash from party supporters after speaking out, but insisted that his concerns were valid.

“I went on air and said, ‘Mr President, what you are going to do will destroy your administration. The videos are there. When I left the studio, party people attacked me. I told them I was not taken to school to follow nonsense.”

He said that the unfinished National Cathedral project later became a major weakness of the Akufo-Addo administration. “What has been the main nemesis of the erstwhile administration? The hole is still there,” he said.

Mr Owusu maintained that members of political parties have a duty to speak out when decisions harm the party and the country.

“When you belong to a political party, and that party is doing something that is not good for the image of the country and the party, you must voice out. That is what will shape your party.”

He criticised what he described as a culture of silence within political parties, where members are discouraged from raising concerns. “We have been coerced into submission. There is this fear that when you are within a political party, you must not speak.”

“They say don’t wash your dirty linen in public,” he said. “But if you don’t wash your dirty linen outside, how will people see that it’s not clean?”