Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
The election fever is here as the political parties gear up to reach out to the electorate.
This year’s polls in particular are about the future of the country. It is not a generalised statement but specifically, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has throughout his campaign tour extended an invitation to all voters to cast their ballot to protect the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s social intervention policies, especially the most audacious intervention of our times, the Free Senior High School (SHS).
The NDC that carried over 40 adverts against the Free SHS in 2016, and took to the streets to describe the Free SHS as 419, are today singing from a different hymn book.
Suddenly, John Mahama who was on record to have said the Free SHS will collapse our education system, is now singing a different song, promising to fix the challenges facing the policy.
The NDC flagbearer takes Ghanaians for granted because the people, according to him, are suffering from short memories.
What is interesting is the various polls conducted by some shadowy researchers such as the Global Info Analytics of Mussa Dankwah, who is churning out figures that defy logic and commonsense.
The Goebbelsian theorists in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have made propaganda their main tool for the campaign towards the December 7 polls. The party’s strategy is to focus on falsehoods in the hope that the electorate will believe the claims of John Mahama to have the capacity to “reset” the country.
Just about eight years ago, John Mahama was the President of the Republic, under whose watch the country experienced more than four years of dumsor. It appears the short memories curse imposed on us is working, as Ghanaians have forgotten about the pain of dumsor in our homes and the effect on businesses such as cold stores, dressmaking, barbering and hairdressing services.
John Mahama has a very good semblance of a young man that his peers in a suburb in Accra used to call, “Kwame No Plan,” because as a young man he had no ambition. In our present context, it will not be out of place to refer to the NDC flagbearer as “John Mahama No Plan”.
John Mahama and his NDC have been very boring on the campaign trail, offering Ghanaians no hope for the future. He and his allies take delight in highlighting the challenges facing the country and accusing President Akufo-Addo of mismanagement without offering solutions to the problems.
Yes we all know the prices of goods and services have shot up. So also can one say the salaries and other forms of compensations have been increased. Cocoa prices have also gone up, and if the NDC and John Mahama are sincere politicians they will admit that the present price of cocoa can buy more bags of cement than his time between 2012 and 2016. Besides, when then running mate Mahamudu Bawumia launched a scathing attack on John Mahama for his stark incompetence, he offered grounds for it and suggested ways to fix the challenges.
The government of President Akufo-Addo in 2017 took certain bold decisions such as the abolition of nuisance taxes, reduction in water and electricity services, the drone services and the “almighty” Free SHS. Those following John Mahama blindly should pause for a moment to ask him how in the unlikely event that he is elected he can keep the power on 24/7, provide jobs for the youth and sustain Free SHS when he claims the economy is in shambles.
After almost 70 years of our independence, Ghana is still constructing major roads in Accra and to major cities from the capital, even in the wake of global economic challenges. We invite the naysayers in the NDC to open their eyes very wide and take off their wooden glasses and take a trip to Nsawam and Winneba, and perhaps their narratives may change. The Nsawam road project is unprecedented, and will bring Europe to Ghana when completed.
Again, we invite these naysayers including John Mahama on a trip to the Agenda 111 Hospitals and their applause will be deafening for Addo Showboy. Rhetoric do not win elections.
December 7 is not about “John Mahama No Plan” but a dream about the future anchored on the Bold Solutions being proffered by the man of vision, humility, integrity and hard work, known simply as Mahamudu Bawumia.