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The flag bearer of the All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga, has challenged Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom – presidential nominees of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), respectively – to a debate ahead of the December polls.

Mr Ayariga has recently mounted an attack on his fellow presidential aspirants describing them as the wrong persons to take over from President John Dramani Mahama.

In Mr Ayariga’s view, Mr Akufo-Addo and Dr Nduom contributed to the hardships in the country because they both served as Ministers in the erstwhile Kufuor administration and did not do anything to transform the lives of Ghanaians.

Mr Ayariga has gone to the extent of describing Nana Akufo-Addo’s One-Village-One-Dam policy as the joke of the century and also referred to Dr Nduom’s GN Bank, with branches scattered across the country, as “single-room” businesses.

Speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM, Mr Ayariga dared the two candidates to a debate.

“I want any debate about issues, policies. How are we going to transform Ghana? Everybody should come and let us talk about our manifestos. Let’s talk about what we have achieved for Ghana, what we can do for Ghana and how we are going to transform Ghana. Let them come and debate [me],” he said.

It would be recalled that during the IEA debate in 2012, Mr Ayariga, who was the presidential candidate of the People’s National Congress (PNC), coughed persistently, especially each time Nana Akufo-Addo took his turn to answer questions. Assin Central MP Kennedy Agyapong has said Mr Ayariga was paid a huge amount of money by the governing NDC to put up such a show.

However, Mr Ayariga told show host Prince Minkah: “As for coughing, I coughed because I had an issue but I am not having that issue now. They should come and let us debate and we will see the best man to manage Ghana, whether it is Nduom with his single-room banks or it is Nana Akufo-Addo with his one-dam-one-village thing. Ghana has been reduced to that nonsense: one is to this, one is to that. Very soon they will say, ‘Buy one and get one free.’ What kind of joke is this in this country?”