He said as a former head of state, it behooves on him to be available for all state organised events.
Pius Enam Hadzide said his checks showed that the state did not receive either a confirmation or a cancellation of the invitation.
"I have not seen any explanation as to why former President Mahama did not attend the 63rd Independence Anniversary," he said.
" . . normally, we don’t often receive a confirmation except a cancellation. It is the norm for us to provide a seat for the former President and so if he does not write to tell us that he is not coming, the seat will be there without any occupant. . . he disrupted our plan . . . we didn’t know if it is due to lateness or absenteeism and we didn’t want a situation where someone will sit on the seat and later the former President will show up and then ask the person to get up, it will be embarrassing to witness that situation,” he stated.
He said it will be wrong for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to compare the action of former President John Dramani Mahama to that of then Presidential Candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo who was a private citizen.
He added that "after the Supreme Court ruling on the 2012 election petition, even though Nana Addo at that time was a private citizen, unlike John Mahama, he attended national events under Mahama’s reign as President of Ghana."
"We must know that Ghanaians are feeding former President John Dramani Mahama, the vehicles he drives and the state security he enjoys, as well as the staff in his office are paid, including the salary we pay him every month and so he does not have any option of serving the nation or not; he doesn’t have that choice,” he emphasized.