Ghana is in a state of despair, former President John Dramani Mahama has said.

According to Mr Mahama, he discovered the hopelessness after touring the country to thank Ghanaians for their votes in the 2020 election.

In a television interview on Accra based TV XYZ on Tuesday, (November 8, 2021) ahead of his last "Thank you" tour in Greater Accra, Mr Mahama said the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the lies of the government.

He said he observed during his tour across the country that: “We’re in a state of despair; people are sad, people have regretted because this is not what the government promised them.”

“Before the elections, they did a lot of things, i.e., free water, free light, free this and they spent GH¢11.9 billion of the COVID funds from March to December and a lot went into convincing people”.

“They gave small business loans via MoMo of about GH¢2,000 but today, we are all paying that back,” he stated.

According to the 2020 flagbearer of the main opposition NDC, the economy is in tatters.

He said: “Very soon the finance minister will be presenting the budget and you’ll realise the economy is in tatters”.

“They said the economy was resilient and the vice-president said if there was any external shock, for six months, Ghana will not need any external intervention. But within two weeks of COVID, we went to the IMF for money. What happened to that resilient economy?” he quizzed.

In his view, everything the government promised and said was “lies”.

“The economy had no buffers and, so, within two weeks of a COVID situation, [there was a] lockdown; we were begging the IMF for money… , so, it shows there’s a certain culture of lying about things and all that to deceive Ghanaians and we can see that it has all unravelled and the truth is here for all to see,” he added.