John Mahama
Former President John Mahama’s ‘thank you tour’ series have become synonymous with invectives and hubris.
We would have expected the series to be about expression of gratitude to Ghanaians who voted for him during the last polls. The series have rather, regrettably, become opportunities for him to hurl direct and subtle invectives at persons he thinks stood between him and a chance for him to become President once more.
The moniker ‘thank you tour’ has by the contents of the trips become incongruous with the attacks he launches during the trips.
‘Time heals’ but in the case of our former President this time-tested adage appears to have failed to live to its billing. So many months after the elections in which Ghanaians rejected him, he is not only bitter but still unable to see clearly and logically.
Not even the premises upon which the Supreme Court based its judgment in the case of the petition he filed before the apex court have convinced him that he has no case fretting over a so-called electoral cheating against him.
At one of his latest stops he turned his guns on the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), his favourite target.
Sadly, the gentleman in him appeared to have escaped from his corpus. His description of the lady when he was delivering a remark about the Commission not being interested in his party’s electoral reform proposals suggest that the subject is no longer institutional but personal.
“Since this woman was appointed…” as it appeared in his remarks when he was hosted by a radio station in Kumasi is bereft of an iota of the deference the lady deserves from a former President. This amazes and baffles us to the marrow because we expect the source of the remarks to appreciate better the import of the remarks.
Unlike the ‘do-or-die’ remark with its assortment of imports, this one is clear enough not to warrant confusion of comprehension. ‘This woman…” could have been expressed alternatively.
As he continues the tours, we wish he would steer away from these integrity pitfalls which are incompatible with his status as a former President.
We are not oblivious however, to the fact that with others lacing their boots to contest him in the 2024 flagbearership race of the NDC, he must be seen to be flexing his political muscles.
Such muscle-flexing should however, be devoid of the kind of invectives being hurled at state institutions such as the EC and the judiciary and their leaderships.
Such traits will rob him of the little deference he requires to fight an electoral race.
Another thing he must consider is a return of his party to the IPAC fold. His party’s reform crusade will come to naught if tabled outside the comity of the IPAC.
Where is the next ‘thank you tour’ headed? Perhaps unlike the others that one would be rid of invectives.