Every election year throws up its peculiarities and the choices available to the electorate.
Despite the rancorous nature of our electioneering, it has some positives worth celebrating.
During the run-up to any elections, there is growing trade in party paraphernalia, especially of the duopoly of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC). Also, the media space becomes exciting with the good, noisy and ugly just like our current experience of contradictions, hypocrisy and promises to take us to the Promised Land.
As John Mahama said sometime ago that on the campaign platform, the politicians peddle truth and lies in order “to convince or confuse” the electorate. We are in the era of John Mahama’s “mix mix” epistle. The message of the politicians is not only gloom and doom but one of hope and possibilities or the choice between 24-hour economy and the fourth industrial revolution anchored on digitalisation.
In the attempt to “mix mix” the messages, the NDC has managed to deceive the people to believe that the present economic difficulties are the results of mismanagement by the Akufo-Addo government. Notwithstanding the challenges, the Akufo-Addo government is reversing the infrastructure poverty it inherited from previous government.
We are certain that in the not too distant future, posterity will judge President Akufo-Addo as a legacy President as pronounced by IGP Dr. George Akuffo Dampare. President Akufo-Addo has made it clear that, in view of his desire to hand over to his Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia so that there can be change in continuity, the NPP will campaign on the strength of the party’s record.
It is in this vein that we reiterate the call on the NDC flagbearer, John Mahama, to accept the challenge to debate Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia. Something historic “gonna” happen in December, that we can sum up in Akan thus, “biribi bƐ si.”
Another humiliation beckons John Mahama and Grandma Naana Jane, but that something “gonna” happen in the five northern regions. The strongholds or “world banks” are shifting from the established traditions.
Those who watched the Tamale jamboree could see the chaos and lack of focus in the messages. The two leaders of the party, John Mahama and Grandma Jane Naana could not articulate their visions of 24-hour economy and the women’s banking concept. Even with a friendly crowd, the two failed miserably to convince their supporters about those two policies.
Perhaps, the presidential and vice presidential debates can save or collapse their 2024 campaigns. Luck could shine on John Mahama and Jane Naana at the debate if they are able to sharpen their messages around the policy initiatives to avoid Joe Biden’s misfortune.
The debate will settle the controversy about the better pair of hands to steer Ghana into the Fourth Revolution.
In Tamale, John Mahama, among other issues, said to his supporters or to Ghanaians, “I’ll be a truthful president”, “four years is enough to change Ghana”, “I will never lie to you”. To begin with, how truthful was John Mahama with his previous mandate from 2012 to 2016?
Just a few months ago, John Mahama told Ghanaians, “Give me a second chance and I’ll be truthful, meaning that when he was president he was not truthful to us.
The same person at a ceremony in 2013, promised Ghanaians, “Economy will turn around in 2014”, but what happened, the people were told we needed to go for an IMF bailout in order to secure policy credibility.
We wonder whether the handlers of John Mahama remember what he told Ghanaians about job creation. Under pressure to respond to mounting unemployment rate in the country, John Mahama said he was not a magician to create jobs for unemployed graduates and also that he is not a magician to put money in people’s pockets.
Now that another opportunity beckons for him to become president again, John Mahama speaks with a different tongue. With these few references, is John Mahama a man of integrity, honesty and trustworthy? The verdict rests with the good people of Ghana on December 7, 2024.