John Mahama
After eventful, tortuous, nerve breaking and heart-raking campaign, the wheels have come to a halt. In 1991, Ghanaians chose the path of democratic dispensation over cruel military rule and we must thank God for bringing us this far without any military intervention as we have seen what is going on in our neighbouring countries.
Ghanaians have spoken and so be it. No warrior goes to war with the intention of losing battles and so at times like this, the now opposition NPP should be brave and bold enough to swallow the bitter pill. After all, did they not say curative medicine is often bitter? Permit me, my cherish reader to first congratulate the NDC and the flagbearer of the party for their resounding victory. I will also like to congratulate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for his gentlemanly gesture by quickly accepting defeat and going ahead to send a congratulatory message to his political opponent even before the EC could declare the final verdict.
That is the mark of any democrat who loves his country more than his personal ambition. Unlike Mr. Mahama who never accepted defeat in the 2020 presidential polls and never congratulated President Akufo-Addo, meek and mild Dr. Bawumia has shown that indeed, he loves peace and cherishes peaceful co-existence.
Ghanaians were faced with the decision of choosing between a great future and the current economic hardship and they chose voting against the bright future promised by Dr. Bawumia. To those who voted for the NDC, to hell with the future. It was a matter of eat, drink, enjoy and die, damn any legacy for the children yet on born. The sages say you can force a horse to the riverside but you cannot force it to drink the water.
During the Soviet era where Communism reigned supreme, the USSR chose to close all shoe manufacturing factories and channeled all resources into the production of tractors to embark on an agricultural revolution. Citizens had to bear the pain of mending their only pairs of shoes for close to ten years. In no time, food became sufficient for the people and life was fine.
Singapore under Comrade Sen had to bite the bullet and chose austerity measures as they developed the nation. Today, Singapore is counted as one of the Asian Tigers even though they had their independence at the same time that Ghana became independent. Ghanaians prefer luxurious lifestyle to austerity measures and that is the more reason why we keep on marching backwards and wallowing in the dark. One of the reasons given by the soldiers for removing Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Prof. Busia from power was that the cost of milk was very high. That was why when Nkrumah was in exile in Guinea he said if he knew Ghanaians preferred milk to the Akosombo Dam, he would have made sure milk was so abundant that when you open your tap water, what you would have got was milk.
We heard the NDC very well when their campaigners went around promising the good people of this country a prosperous future, and that is what we will pin them to it in the four years before us. We will consistently remind them of their flagship programme of a 24-hour economy. When Nana Addo promised free SHS, he delivered it within the first year in office. A 24-hour economy will not take money to execute like the free SHS, so it stands to reason that from next year the Ghanaian youth and Ghanaian workers for that matter should be ready for the promise.
John Mahama says the programme will not be compulsory but we say it is compulsory because a promise is a promise. Mr. Mahama’s promised of cancelling the End of Service Benefit is still embedded in our mind. Those Parliamentarians and others who are looking forward to receiving their ESB should begin to think twice.
The NDC accused the Nana-led government of not continuing with projects they left behind and so this time around, we expect a John Mahama-led administration to continue with the free SHS programme, the Agenda 111 Hospitals, the digitalisation, the railway network, the various road constructions going on, the teacher and nursing trainee allowances and of course, the overhead bridges construction going on at Suame and Takoradi.
The affordable housing projects should be completed and distribution of nkokonkentente must start as soon as Mr. Mahama holds the baton because all what he needs to do is to import day-old chicks to be distributed to households to rare and make money. As for the teeming boys and girls in all the SHS, they should begin clapping for Mr. Mahama because they will be fed with goat and sheep meat and eggs at their dining halls. Galamsey will go away for our rivers to be pure and clean and Double Track system of SHS will be a thing of the past because the Mahama-led administration will build more classrooms to accommodate the students!
There will no more be “traffic light” system of education as Mr. Mahama said. Asem bi reba!! The state of our currency vis-à-vis the Dollar must see improvement and prices of petroleum products as well as other commodities must start coming down. Good and happy days are coming! We will not settle for anything but what they have promised.
The NDC said the economic difficulties the country is facing has nothing to do with the Ukraine-Russia war because the war is not being fought in Ghana, so they do not have the moral right to cite the war if they fail to improve the economy. They said taxes will be reduced and others will be removed, like the E-Levy and so we are looking forward to that so that traders will smile. Thankfully, the NDC has majority in Parliament so they will not have any difficulty removing the law. His promise of a lean government is what we are looking forward to. Mr. Mahama has four years to accomplish all these promises but if he fails to keep his promises, he should expect the unthinkable.
You see, Mr. Mahama will have no excuse for not being able to keep all his promises because he was quick to say that when he went in opposition, he had learnt his mistakes and will perform better than Bawumia who has not been president before and so do we believe. If even there is a Third World War, Mr. Mahama cannot attribute the war to any economic hardship that the nation will face during his tenure of office.
The truth is that Mr. Mahama lied his way to power and he will pay a heavy price for doing so.
As it stands now, Mr. Mahama will have more than six months to assemble his ministers for vetting and appoint his MMDCEs who will also go through the District Assembly process of approval by their respective Assembly Members. Then he will take some time to appoint Board members and other appointees. By the time all these are said and done, Mr. Mahama will be left with three and half years to perform his magic. In fact, he will have two and half years because his last year will be an election year and he will also be called upon to render account to the good people of Ghana.
Since he will not have the opportunity to contest again, he will have nothing to lose but his honour, which will be tainted if he is not able to perform as he promised. I laugh when I see an NDC member jubilating because the NDC has come back to power. They should be weeping by now because the gospel truth is that the John Mahama-led government will not be able to make anything better. The Dollar will keep on rising and the prices of petroleum products will not see any improvement because the world is in crisis with wars and rumors of wars everywhere.
They are going to use propaganda to blindfold Ghanaians, knowing pretty well that the typical Ghanaian is shortsighted and forgetful as Mr. Mahama told us. Mr. Mahama should be told that not all of us are shortsighted and as sure as the sun will shine tomorrow we will keep on reminding him of all the promises he made before being voted into power. Full stop.
By Eric Bawah