WELCOME, MR. PRESIDENT

Your Excellency, John Dramani Mahama, I affectionately welcome you to the highest office of our Land, Ghana. In some few hours ago, you took the Oath of Office and that of Allegiance as the 4th President of the 4th Republic of our dear Country. Welcome, Mr. President.

Mr. President, I must first acknowledge the already new insights you have brought into your 'new' office. At the presentation of the last State of the Nation Address to climax the end of the tenure of the 3rd President of the 4th Republic led by the Late President, H.E JEA Mills, which you had the opportunity to complete due to the death of your boss, you introduced the use of the teleprompter in our public address system. Pretty amazingly, media report had it that some honourable Members of Parliament and some journalists who were right before you did not know you were using this device during your delivery despite some of us who were watching afar even knew right from the commencement of your delivery. I dare say this might just confirm the widely held notion that there are some members in the august House who in this 21st Century do not use email and by extension internet. Anyway, this still remains a rumour! Mr. President, you have introduced a sense of modernity and the use of technology (for example, your ipad/tab used in some other public addresses such as today) hence rightly a post-independence day born president. You, thus, represent the changing phase of leadership that we need at this crucial period of our nationhood.

Indeed, many are the expectations of the Ghanaian electorate who stood in the ever scorching sun to let go of the power of his/her thumb to elect you as the President of this great nation of ours at this special period in history. I need not tell you the problems and challenges that confront the masses of our people. Mr. President, since your birth, our challenges in most cases have not been solved but rather intensified. Just as you narrated in your autobiography (My First Coup d'Etat: And Other True Stories from the Lost Decades of Africa) the difficulty you went through when you embark on the journey of attending the admission interview that was required for placement in the masters in communication programme in the School of Communication Studies at UG which culminated in you not even bathing after an almost two day's journey before attending upon the panel of interviewers but only used some small quantum of water that you have pleaded for from a good Samaritan to wash the dust off your head and face, these challenges are still staring right before us. The bad state of our roads as you navigated while on that highly loaded truck at the start of that journey is same and in some cases worsened. You may “not” know they still exist maybe because of the cars you use now but I wish to draw your attention, Mr. President, that they are still with us today.

Ours at this time, Mr. President, is not the hi-tech, scientific discoveries. No, not about rocket sciences, for example. Please, I hope you won't mistake this to think that despite being a science student, am not for great scientific inventions. Far be it from that. I highly want it. However, we cannot get there when we can't even get potable water in to our homes. Mr. President, for instance, my home locality is called “Tongu” literally meaning “around/near the river” implying that our villages are just a stone throw to the Volta river. The water needed for potable water is got from this river. Unfortunately, we in the Tonguland and indeed in most parts of our country cannot still access potable water. I don't want to bore you with the implications, for that, you know very well. Must I remind you that people in most of our villages including where some of my family members live (at other places) and maybe your home village too, may as we speak, continue to share the ever coffee coloured water with their farm animals?

Mr. President, ours is simple as you also acknowledged in your inaugural address: the very basic things of life that will bring a smile unto the faces of our people is what we ask for: health, education, roads, energy (electricity), jobs and a well-planned advancement towards technology development and improvement. Many share the view that the Association of Graduate Unemployed was instigated by graduates loyal to the opposition NPP. I think so too. However, Mr. President, the truth is the proportion of unemployed graduates in Ghana far outweighs the total number of members of that association. Yes, I meant there is a high rate of unemployment despite both you and I know there is no official record of that. I appreciate and admire the development of entrepreneurial skills of individuals but this does not waive your responsibility of providing the right avenue for job creation in the country and actually providing sustainable jobs to your people especially the teeming youth.

Many thought the on-going challenge of the elections that just brought you into office may distract you. However, you have started proving them wrong. I must congratulate you on getting the second phase of the Better Ghana Agenda you and the NDC presented to the good people of Ghana underway already. Last week, I heard you have directed the district assemblies in which the 200 community SHS (in the NDC manifesto) are to be built to start the preparatory works assiduously. Yes, that is the best way to go.

Due to the tension and anxiety that has characterised the 2012 general elections and its aftermath, the call for national unity is on the lips of every Ghanaian and even none Ghanaians who wish us well. Just last week, in the State of the Nation Address, you tasked politicians to remember that what Ghana wants of them is “partnership” and not “partisanship”. Just after that, many challenge you to walk the talk. Sooner than later a golden but technically tricky opportunity came up for you to truly show that you meant what you said: the election of the 2nd Deputy Speaker of Parliament. Due to the precedence set by the opposition NPP in 2005 (then majority), you and the NDC majority now have a 100% chance to retaliate. This, indeed, was the position of many of your numerous supporters especially the youth. However, you walked your talk. You and the leadership of the NDC in parliament freely and willingly gave it to the NPP and rightly reminded them that you have the chance to retaliate but for the sake of good governance and the development of our democracy.

Mr. President, some critics say your “E dey be k3k3” with a twisted mouth slogan meant “E dey beee give you alone k3k3”. You have the opportunity to prove that it really meant “E dey be give us all k3k3”, which I know you meant. You have the mandate of the good people of Ghana. Mr. President, you said to Ghanaians in your investiture address, “I will not let you down”.This is your time and this is our time. History beckons. You have the privilege of making it great. I know you can and I wish you the very best as you embark on making Ghana far better than you have come to meet it. May God lead you.

Remember, Mr. President, your thought today can make Ghana and the world better tomorrow. Think about it!

Thank you.
Lawer Egbenya ([email protected])