President John Mahama must be frustrated; the intransigence of his compatriots being the reason. His situation is understandable and we can only pity him.
He is at his wit’s end as to why most of them are not showering plaudits on him for his ‘outstanding performance.’
Not even the support of his propaganda machinery and the engagement of some media players are making them respond to the high dose of treatment being administered to make them come to his side when he needs them most.
With high rise and overwhelming billboards- some publicizing his so-called compassion for kids in a country where a story of two kids from same parents using the same uniforms interchangeably went virile recently, the President would have to rethink his modules when his compatriots remain aloof.
Ironically, persons who do not reside here and to whom our utility bills, including other economic challenges do not apply, according to him, are impressed with the progress being made by the country.
When a President makes such observations especially in the run-up to crucial elections, it is almost impossible not to gauge his level of frustration.
The expectations were high when the President promised milk and honey to his compatriots, baiting them effectively as it were.
If milk and honey are flowing incessantly, they would be ingrates to turn their backs on a President who is plaintively pleading for understanding.
Ghanaians are better assessors of the success or otherwise of government policies and above all sincerity of their rulers.
Outsiders whose generous marking scheme he appears obsessed with are the last persons to appreciate the temperature of the country.
Ghanaians, pushed to the wall by the rather difficult times and failed social interventionist policies introduced by a previous government, can only wonder why their President would want to call their attention to what non-Ghanaians are thinking about their country in his estimation.
They would not be voting when the time to do so is due and so their impressions are of no value, not even for propaganda. Perhaps the President would have loved a situation where such persons, who are with no franchise but see him as doing very well, would vote.
Unfortunately such aberrations do not hold in democracies: if wishes were horses beggars would mount at will.
Remarks at this time of the country’s all-time economic temperature from the President should be tempered with a high level of finesse otherwise, as in the case of the reference to the so-called impression of some citizens of other jurisdictions which he did not mention anyway: it would attract avoidable opprobrium.
Inconsistency on the part of a government, changing form, as it were like mercury, bespeaks of indecision. We are promised of a new Ghana in which money would be put in people’s pockets when Ghanaians vote for another term for the status quo, a suggestion that things are not well.
Turning round to create an impression of wellness is incongruous to the above.
Vowing that student-nurses’ training allowance would not be restored even if that would cost him the approaching polls only for him to make a U-turn puts the President in an unenviable caste.
Maybe he is telling his compatriots that only fools do not change their minds. Perhaps he is making a point, an important one, that we should not take him seriously when he speaks to national issues.
When people start taking everything that comes out of the mouth of their President with a large quantity of salt, all is not well, regardless of the so-called positive impression of some aliens from Mars.