Election is about choices. It offers the people the opportunity to cast the ballot to determine their future. There is a school that holds the view that in the true sense of the word, there is no serious contest on December 7.
While one of the main contenders in the race is raising issues of concern to the people, the main challenger, John Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) are engaged in trivia and other matters that the people find very difficult to comprehend. In crucial elections in the coming days, majority of the people remember John Mahama for his insults and escape from a presidential debate.
What John Mahama is showcasing on the campaign trail is the distinguishing characteristics of the NDC and their allies. We have followed John Mahama ever since he popped up on the political scene with insulting and cheeky responses to those he disagrees with. Remember his response to the noble former President John Agyekum Kufuor when he counseled that charges levelled against the maverick politician, Kennedy Agyepong for making statements believed to be akin to genocide, was like trying to kill a mosquito with a sledgehammer. John Mahama retorted that he would go after him with a bulldozer.
A few years ago, John Mahama told Ashantis that no amount of the dance style of the chicken will please the hawk, and also that if he used gold to pave roads in Kumasi, Ashantis will not show gratitude to his government.
John Mahama cannot stand debate because although a communicator, he has a very weak argument. He takes delight in insults, and that is why he is credited with absurd expressions such as ‘baloney and economy, stupid.’
The NDC and its allies have a difficulty tolerating divergent opinions. NDC apparatchiks and their leaders including John Mahama and Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang are candidates for US visa restrictions because the NDC poses a threat to our democracy.
The NDC hates democratic principles as the Constitution stands in its way to have their way.
Speaker Alban Bagbin showed that character in the case of the four Members of Parliament (MPs) at the Supreme Court and got his fingers burnt.
Right from the advent of the Fourth Republic, the NDC under its various leaders showed their intolerance for divergent opinions. In the days of Jerry Rawlings, he was not satisfied with the leadership of the country and went round threatening business people like Appiah Menka, owner of Apino soap and Kwabena Darko’s “akukor darko.”
Even during the era of Atta Mills, believed to be Asomdwehene, people like Professor Attahfuah and Professor Frimpong Boateng were dismissed because they did not share the NDC ideals. Whenever we postulate that the NDC is a threat to our democracy, some civil society groups disagree with us.
Nonetheless, we insist we do not make unsuspecting claims as our positions are backed by facts and data.
Those civil society groups should come again and challenge us to a debate whether they are satisfied with the messages from John Mahama. Clearly, we have seen that the December 7 polls is a contest between Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s brighter future and John Mahama’s future of gloom and doom. Again, there is no originality in the NDC’s campaign strategy, except their T-shirts. When the campaign started, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia decided not to drive in long convoy but to ride a bus, the NDC’s apparatchiks laughed at him but today the NDC and its leaders have resorted to the use of buses, including rickety ones.
As if that is not enough, they are copying other strategies of the NPP like community engagements and visits to the markets and streets. One needs to be good at something to copy without being exposed.
The NDC has become the political copycat. The party and its leaders are merely making ugly noise that portend gloom and doom for our country. Very discerning voters do not see any alternative in the NDC as that choice is scary and cannot offer any bold solutions to our challenges at this stage of our democratic journey.