Former President John Mahama
Just take a quick look at the NDC’s desperation, especially looking at the ex-president Mahama’s bizarre campaign tactics around the country, none of us needs to be told the main opposition party has mortal dislike for staying out of power. Hence, whatever strategy the Mahama-controlled NDC can employ to enable them regain power in 2020 appears to be their existential goal. In fact, there may not be anything wrong for a major opposition party to devise strategies in an effort to win back power it lost so humiliatingly and unexpectedly.
However, what is upsettingly wrong is the psycho-drama politics of disinformation Mahama-run NDC is promoting with the hope that millions of politically-vulnerable Ghanaians will buy into it. The fact is JDM and his must-win-at-all-cost-in-2020 cabals are waging misleading campaigns aimed at destroying the unseen yet one of the most significant socioeconomic predictors: General optimism. Certainly, economic optimism gives the people the sense of confidence and hope that there is, at least, light at the other end of the dark tunnel. But, former president Mahama is busy undermining this valuable element.
It looks like Ghana’s opposition spearheaded by the desperate NDC is almost succeeding in spreading fears and economic insecurities among a large number of Ghanaians that the “world is coming to an end” and that it’s starting from Ghana because of Nana Akufo-Addo’s government. Indeed, a sizable segment of Ghanaians is consciously or otherwise echoing the misleading sentiments put out by the NDC and some uninformed media outlets that the nation’s economic fortunes are heading toward the wrong direction, although the current administration is steadfastly revamping the economy after years of JDM’s misrule.
Based on their campaign messages all over the place, it is crystal clear former president Mahama and his “hosanna gangs” strongly believe Nana Akufo-Addo’s presidency is an aberration. So, everything must done to wrestle power back from President Akufo-Addo to where it “rightfully” belongs. Surely, JDM conceded in December 2016 before the whole world that he had miserably lost the presidential election to his then main challenger, Nana Addo of the NPP fame.
Nonetheless, since his outward concession of electoral defeat to NPP, the NDC, cheered on by ex-president Mahama has never conceded inwardly or accepted in sincerity that Nana Akufo-Addo soundly beat him to his own game. Rather than give the current Ghanaian leader enough time to clean up all the gargantuan mess JDM administration left behind, the psycho-drama naysayers at the Camp-NDC are leading a marathon of misinformation to fool the “forgetful” Ghanaians for power.
Thus, in their avowed determination and desperation to win back power to cause more damage to the country’s economic prospects, JDM and his die-hard supporters, given the chance, would not mind putting the “devil” straight from the hell onto the party’s vice-presidential slot to help former president Mahama regains the presidency.
So, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to hear Mahama’s NDC floating around the name of the MP from Klottey Korle Constituency Dr. Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings as a potential VP candidate in the event of JDM’s presidential candidacy. This political calculus goes to underscore Mr. Mahama’s desperation and greediness for the nation’s presidency at all cost. For JDM, It is a matter of whatever it takes for him to come back to power, even if he has to solicit the assistance of a unicorn that does not exist; as we know it.
This is far, far from saying that the Klottey Korle MP is not good enough to be vice presidential candidate of her party. Instead, the implication here is that Zanetor’s possible VP candidacy is to serve one and only one purpose: To appease and lure back the full commitments of Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings into the NDC fold. For all the tough talks from the current leadership of the NDC against their party’s founder, Mr. Rawlings and his wife, JDM and many others know that the “Rawlings Factor” is real within the NDC.
In other words, JDM’s faction of the NDC has realized to its chagrin that ex-president Rawlings is like the proverbial “Asantrofi anoma,” bring it home and incur the wrath of the gods; let it go and lose a priceless possession. This is the dilemma confronting JDM’s creeping presidential ambitions. It also is one of the likeliest reasons that has precipitated many members of the NDC to warm up to the possible idea of Ms. Zanetor’s preeminent role around the VP slot.
Again, for JDM, Asiedu Nketia, Kofi Adams, and others, it is not that they care or like the Rawlingses that much hence they may be entertaining the notion of pairing Mr. Mahama with Zanetor Rawlings as the party’s contenders for the 2020 presidential election. The point is if Mr. Mahama thinks he can win the presidency one more time by using even the “devil” from wherever, trust me, he would never hesitate to go for it!
Bernard Asubonteng is a US-based social commentator.
By—Bernard Asubonteng