A senior lecturer at the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU), Mr. Ishaq Kyei-Brobbey, has observed that he believes former President John Dramani Mahama was under the influence of alcohol before describing people who are calling on him to return his ex-gratia as “silly”.
Incessant calls have been placed on the doorstep of the former President to return every ex-gratia he has taken home before promising Ghanaians that if he returns to power, he would scrap the payment of it.
The plea infuriated the 2020 presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who took some known persons to the cleaners describing them as “silly” for leading in the call for him to set an example.
On March 4, 2024, Mr Mahama said “I said categorically that when we come into office we will cancel ex gratia for the executives because the president is in charge of the executive, so he can cancel it for the executives but then you have to persuade the other arms of government to see that there is no fairness in continuing to pay ourselves ex gratia when the ordinary worker does not receive it because you are the leaders, you must show by example. If the economy is in crisis why should we continue to take ex gratia when the rest of the public and civil services don’t take it? So, I said categorically that we will cancel exgratia.
“And then somebody who should know better, a lawyer, he said, then I should refund all the ex gratia we took before to show Ghanaians that yes, we are serious about cancelling it, he does not even know the principle in our constitution that says that you can’t pass retroactive legislative if you pass legislative today, it does not affect what happened in the past, what he says is a bit silly…”
But reacting to the news on the Wontumi Morning Show, Mr. Ishaq Kyei-Brobbey stated that “I believe he (Mahama) knew he was going to reply them so in the morning, he took in something before describing them as silly”.