Former President John Mahama
Former President John Mahama continues to live up to his ‘movie star’ appellation. He earned it during his mammoth campaign which did not get him the winning votes rather disappointingly.
If as the Prof Kwesi Botchwey investigation into what accounted for his dismal performance in the elections which threw him out of office identified the movie star performance in the campaign trail as a key factor, his newfound template could also lead him to another seismic fall.
His fun-laden remarks and usually outrageous promises have been as consistent as the North Star never ending as he crisscrosses the country canvassing for votes.
Unfortunately, there is a problem. Is he directing his messages at all Ghanaians or just delegates of the NDC who would decide on the party’s presidential candidate?
Living in a fool’s paradise is a regrettable thing to do which is exactly what the former President is doing; he somewhat concludes rather bizarrely that his choice by the delegates is a foregone conclusion. That is why he carries himself as a presidential candidate for the NDC rather than one waiting for the nod of the majority of the party delegates.
The former President might expend all his ammunition even before the all-out campaign commences. That informed President Akufo-Addo’s decision not to engage with aspirants. He would rather do so with presidential candidates the President said in one of his most poignant remarks yet since he came under a barrage of low level attacks from former President John Mahama. Crossing the bridge when they get there is another way of putting the President’s response.
For now, the hot air would continue because the former President’s eagerness knows no bounds even as most of the remarks he spews are self-inflicting shots.
He could be driven by his conviction that Ghanaians suffer acute amnesia. With such short memories, they would, in his estimation, forget his frailties and regard him as a newfound angel with no governance record to refer to. It is left to his compatriots anyway to prove whether the conclusion is justified or not.
Assuming rather unashamedly that his galamsey management or rather mismanagement record is not available, he has provided us with yet another balderdash: when he makes his second triumphant entry to the Jubilee House he would regulate galamsey in the country.
Just why he did not do that when the country’s water bodies were rendered undrinkable having been contaminated by various chemicals when he was in charge, can best be addressed by him.
Throwing dust into our eyes, especially the galamsey men, is exactly what the former President is doing. One thing about the Machiavellian tactics is that examples of it abound in our everyday politics especially in the hands of the desperate.
Galamsey and how he would deal with it should not be a subject the former President should find fanciful at this time.
But as we have always said, desperation can lead its victims to do all manner of outlandish things including not being truthful. Or?