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17.09.2014 Opinion

Choose Akufo-Addo Over Mahama In 2016; He Would Never Deceive You

By Dr Okoe Boye, NPP, Ledzokuku Constituency
Choose Akufo-Addo Over Mahama In 2016; He Would Never Deceive You
17.09.2014 LISTEN

My writing of this article is more or less a rejoinder to an article published on 'myjoyonline.com' titled 'NEVER TRUST AKUFO-ADDO. HE WOULD DECEIVE YOU IN 2016.'

The title of the article, coupled with the attached pictures of Nana Addo and Bawumia, produced a strong mental impression of the inappropriateness of Nana Addo as a leader for Ghana in 2016. This false and in fact malicious mental impression of Nana carried by the said article is very harmful to Ghana because it intended to alienate Nana Addo and in the process project Alan Kyeremanteng as a trustworthy leader . Even more wicked is the impression created by the author that he is an NPP member and so should be believed when he asserts that Nana Addo is not credible.

Honestly, I weep for party members like Katakyie Kwame Opoku Agyemang who wrote the said article to disparage Nana with the hope of creating enmity in the heart of Ghanaians against Nana Addo. I weep for Katakyie because come 2016, by the grace of Jehovah, Ghanaians who have lived through this sick Ghanaian economy would vote Nana Addo as Ghana's President so as to unveil a new progressive chapter in Ghana's history.

As a party member just like Katakyie, I have the mental ability and the congnitive wherewithal of a political player to know that Katakyie's malicious article on Nana's credibility is born not only out of a preference for Alan Kyeremanteng but more importantly an agenda to make Akuffo Addo an unpredictable leader compared to Mahama in 2016. The gravamen of Katakyie's article was the claim that Nana Addo isn't a winnable candidate for 2016 because he lost the elections in 2008 and 2012. Two major election defeats for Nana Addo is a fact but a prediction of failure in 2016 is fiction.

Before I go into the discussion and subsequent address to the lame points made against Nana Addo, let me first of all say that I am a proud NPPmember, by extension a Politician, and more importantly a Ghanaian. I have no ill will towards Alan yet I am motivated to reply Katakyie's article not necessarily because the article sought to project Alan over Nana, but more importantly because he ascribed deception, duplicity as well as inappropriateness of political make up to Nana Addo's person; an act that feeds into the propaganda and fictitious claims by political opponents of the NPP against Nana's person.

Katakyie's Arguments against Nana Addo.
Key amongst the arguements made against Nana Addo in the article is the assertion that he lost two elections and so is unfit for 2016. This assertion is very superficial and needs not much energy to prove its fragility. Nana lost 2008 despite a strong NPP record in government not because he as a candidate was inappropriate; we lost because Ghanaians assumed that although we did good in government, the then Prof Mills led team might do better as claimed in their 'Better Ghana slogan'. In effect Ghanaians took a calculated risk in 2008, a decision that has proven over the years to be a high risk.

Again, we lost 2012 not because Nana Addo was inefficient but because there were two factors that strongly operated against the NPP.

The first was that Ghanaians believed largely that the mediocre performance of the NDC could be due to the four years they had had in government and that maybe given an extra four years the NDC might deliver. The second factor that worked against the NPP was the gross deficiency that our electoral system exhibited as exposed in the election petition at the supreme court. The inefficiency of the Ghanaian electoral system was so manifest that Justice Dotse rightly mentioned that the electoral commissioner by his conduct in court had been unable to acquit himself as a man acclaimed to be of tremendous knowledge in electoral issues.

We don't need to read BRITANICA or visit WIKIPEDIA to know that Prof Mills lost two major elections in 2000 and 2004 and yet won the third time in 2008.

Nana Addo promised victory in 2012 and yes, also in 2008 but we lost those elections. Anyone who claims Nana Addo deceived us assumes that Nana Addo knew he was going to lose before going into the election but told us victory was walking in our direction. How can this be?, that a political leader is considered an architect of deception for promising victory and delivery disappointment. I don't want to mention Alan that much in my writing as you can see in my constructs but the question that keeps whispering audibly is, was Alan engaging in lies and deception when he said he was going to win the NPP primaries in 2007 and in 2010 during his campaign?. I don't believe he was engaging in deception. He was only expressing strong hope, maybe faith if I may call it.

Katakyie also mentioned in his article that how could the NPP win 2016 with the same crowd, same message, same candidate and same flagbearer; what Katakyie forgets is that Alan is going to work with the same NPP party machinery should he win the primaries in October 2014. The same NDC machinery that failed to win power in 2000 and 2004 came back and won power in 2008. Sometimes the inability of a team or party to triumph is not necessarily due to inefficiency or underperformance, external factors might just not be favourable and that is what happened in the two elections that the Nana Addo led NPP lost.

Katakyie should please note that even if the NPP's message remains the same in 2016, it wouldn't be so as a result of lack of ideas but rather because our problems as a nation are too familiar and that matter likely to be confronted with messages or solutions that are too familiar as well. The message we had in 2008 as well as in 2012 is even more relevant today in the face of falling educational standards, unapologetic levels of corruption and stinking sanitation standards.

The crowd in 2016 would not be the same as Katakyie asserts in his article. New voters would be in the queue on voting day. New voters who applied to Nursing Training Colleges and were told that their allowances had been cancelled by the Mahama Government. New voters that have found themselves in teacher training colleges with their allowances stopped by President Mahama led NDC government. New voters who couldn't go to school because their teachers had been on strike over book and research allowance.

More important and refreshing is the revelation that the crowd in 2012 would be more politically alert and electorally conscious by virtue of worsening conditions of the economy and a plethora of amputated election promises . The Ghanaian today has lived through and continues to face an economy devastated by a clueless management team led by a grossly inefficient president. The load shedding of electricity, increase in fuel and utility prices as well as a traumatised cedi with its attendant price fluctuation of goods, all speak in support of an urgent need to change the current political leadership of Ghana for an Akuffo-Addo led NPP alternative.

Living Deception in Practise
On the issue of deception as a tool for political power and sustainability in government, I believe those who worry about Nana Addo's possible deception in his promises should by now have their attention hooked to the living deception that keeps manifesting it self in President Mahama. Mahama promises the 'Dumsor Dumsor' would end today and then comes another day when Dumsor in in higher gear to promise immediate completion of load shedding with no apology for the deception. What about president Mahama promising to fight corruption only to see him reassign Elvis Afryie Ankrah to the Flagstaff House after leading the infamous world cup campaign. Is that not true deception when you promise to fight corruption and yet cannot sack ministers like Kofi Humado who was implicated in the Maputo Report as well as the GYEEDA scandal.

And how about Ebo Bartin Oduro, a politician enjoying state comfort , occupying a position as high as first deputy speaker of parliament. A man who engineered the payment of judgement debts that the supreme court have described as a illegal.

Conclusion
Ghana, our beloved country is not an enviable place to be under the leadership of President John Mahama. Cholera cases in Accra and elsewhere tells a story of a country eating and drinking faecal matter. Stinking sanitation standards coupled with 'macho,' medieval and mediocre style of administration by political appointees like Alfred Oko Vanderpouye only tell us of more gloom in the future with an NDC government in place.

From single digit inflation to an ailing National Health Insurance Scheme ,to a shameful SADA experience cooked in a rotten GYEEDA pot. The message is clear- MAHAMA AND HIS BRIGADE MUST GO IN 2016.

Katakyie in his concluding remarks proposed that the NPP should vote for someone with posture ,physique, and charisma . It is very sad that people who write to media houses claiming political maturity can suggest that physique and posture are too important in choosing political leaders. Hmmmm-people said the same thing, that President Mahama was good looking in his suit and had physique; the question is that is Mahama's ideas and performance as majestic as his physique?. The answer is a big NO. A lesson for all Ghanaians to remember, that it is not how big and handsome you look that matters but rather the size of your ideas and efficiency of your delivery that counts.

God in his own wisdom led Ghana to a closely contested election and a corollary election petition at the supreme court so as to test the claim that ascribes violence to Nana Addo. Ghanaians were told by the NDC that Nana Addo is a violent man who cannot guarantee peace in Ghana; however, after the supreme court verdict on the election petition, the conduct of Nana Addo pointed to one clear message- the MAN NANA ADDO HAS GHANA IN HIS HEART AND POSESSES THE MATURITY ,CAPACITY, AND THE MEN (WOMEN AS WELL) TO FIX GHANA and get the country to work again.

2016 is Ghana's moment , even more refreshing is the awareness that it is Nana Addo's time as well to get Ghana working again.

CHOOSE NANA ADDO IN 2016 FOR GHANA TO START WORKING AGAIN.

Dr Okoe Boye, NPP,
Ledzokuku Constituency
Email: [email protected]

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