Former President John Mahama has found his lost tongue. He is still maintaining a wide berth from the Airbus debacle though. That is still an active subject spewing fiery public comments. A flight on it now could attract more spanners into his political works, the last thing he wants now.
He is still despondent and would rather remark about the pain the decision by the independent Electoral Commission (EC) to go ahead with the compilation of a new voters’ register has inflicted on him than tell us who Government Official 1 is. The NPP’s poser still stands, unanswered, although they did not intend it to be rhetoric and therefore expect a categorical answer. It appears they won’t be mollified with an answer, not now.
The new voters’ register is impacting on the former president’s demeanour. So heavy is the impact it has left him with recurring dreams about long queues of Ghanaians turning up to have their names entered onto a fresh IT enhanced register.
Of the two debacles ? the airbus and the reality of the compilation of a new voters’ register ? it is difficult telling which of them gives him more insomnia.
The reality of a new voters’ register is so impactful on him that even while visiting the Mormons in Accra, he could not pretend that all was well with him. He is reported to have complained bitterly to his hosts last week about the new voters’ register, an exercise which for him is unnecessary. Unfortunately for him, the EC is as independent body today as it used to be when Charlotte Osei called the shots there. She was so independent that she decided to change the logo of the Commission. For those who opposed the move, she could only mock them with her cynical response ‘we saw it, we liked it’.
Whatever he expected the Mormons to do for him can best be told by him. Spiritual intervention by the church would not be forthcoming, such subjects hardly attract intercessions.
It was difficult linking the former President with the ‘tikusagi’, ‘yempini’ and ‘workpene’ until now. Distancing himself from the demonstrations was a protective measure. Not even a statement of expenses for the Kumasi version of the demonstrations as it was posted on social media and said to have been sponsored by him prompted a response. The silence left those who doubted the document with no option but to accept it as a reflection of what happened. For someone who when Charlotte Osei was in charge of the EC asked that the independence of the Commission be respected, it would be paradoxical if his subtle support for today’s NDC street marches become public knowledge.
No longer so as he now comes out loudly against a new voters’ register, warts and all. The Mormons can testify to their guest’s worry.