John Dramani Mahama
It is a generally accepted norm in most communities that names have meaning. For this reason, careful searches are undertaken before a child is named after a family member or someone notable in society.
Parents who make the mistake of naming their children after nonentities have never been forgiven by their children. Names such as Nkrabeah, Hope, Nyamekye and Future have followed such people to the grave for the wrong or good reason.
We have been wondering whether or not the flagbearer of the opposition NDC, knows that names have meaning. If he did, perhaps he would not, out of frustration tell Ghanaians that he is a dead goat (oguan fun), a statement which is following him everywhere he goes even as he is attempting to “reset” Ghana.
In the true meaning of the dead goat syndrome, John Mahama and his NDC, have no life in them to rekindle the “reset” of Ghana.
In March 2015, then President John Mahama while responding to a series of protests said he is unperturbed by the demonstrations and agitations against his administration, and likening himself to a dead goat he said he was not afraid of death.
Speaking to the Ghanaian community in Botswana, President Mahama said, “I have seen more demonstrations and strikes in my first two years; I don’t think it can get worse. It is said that when you kill a goat and you frighten it with a knife, it does not fear the knife because it is dead already,” he said, noting that “I have a dead goat syndrome.”
President Mahama, therefore, said he was unfazed by any demonstrations that would come up, so Ghanaians could probably cry all they wanted.
Later, unable to stand the public backlash, he said he used the idiomatic expression due to the frustration associated with the deregulation of petroleum prices.
Continuing, he said that he knew that if the fuel prices went up, the leadership of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and other unions will not leave him alone.
Speaking during a lecture at the Academic City University College when he was pushed to the wall and lost his balance and spoke “by heart” he said, “I am the only government in the Fourth Republic where all Organised Labour came together and went on strike to shut down the country. I was one of the most harassed Presidents by Organised Labour. That is what led to the dead goat syndrome…because when you kill a goat, you cannot frighten it with a knife again, really!… I don’t know why I said that, but of course our opponents took it out of context. They said I have said that I won’t listen to anybody,” he lamented.
Frustrated about four years of dumsor, then President Mahama was on record to have told the people that the charging of their mobile phones caused the dumsor.
In another vein, when pushed to the wall in 2015 by the Unemployed Graduates Association, he retorted, “I am not a magician to create jobs.”
There is something in a name, and we believe the “dead goat syndrome” has cast a spell on him like the “Indian spell.” The name he adopted is leading him astray and whatever he touches turns into ashes. And in the almost injury time of the campaign for the 2024 elections, the “dead goat” has to contend with another scandal, this time, that poses a possible health challenge.
It must be clear to all of us by now that the inner circles of the NDC, know something about John Mahama, which the rest of the society are not aware of. A member of the Duffuor for President in 2024 raised issues of alcoholism in the higher echelon of the NDC.
As usual it was ignored, but when Atta Akyea, MP for Abuakwa South, said something to the effect that the NPP’s flagbearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is a teetotaler and Ghana is destined have a President who does not drink, the NDC General Secretary, accepted the tag of drunkenness for John Mahama. He then asked Atta Akyea to retract his statement and apologise to the NDC flagbearer, although no such reference was made to the NDC.
Let them wear it who the cap fits.