Three (3) Reasons Why John Mahama Failed

President Mahama is a gentleman and might have had good intentions for Ghanaians. Unfortunately, he has failed woefully. Many Ghanaians agree to this fact. But why did he fail? I will provide three main reasons. You are more than welcome to add.

1. President by accident – lack of vision

Mr Mahama became president as a result of the untimely passing of the late Prof. Mills.

He had not plan to be president. It just happened. As a result, he did not have a plan or vision for Ghana at the time that he became President. He has been trying to get one whilst on the job but he does not have one yet. When you get the opportunity to meet him, ask where he expects Ghana to be in 10-15 years’ time. His answer would be one of those usual ‘pep talks’ without substance. Rawlings had Vision 2020. One of the goals was for Ghana to become a middle income country. Kuffour changed the date for attaining middle income from 2020 to 2015. Fortunately, it was achieved much earlier than 2015.

As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you will plan to fail. And for lack of vision, the PEOPLE (not the President alone) perish. It has been just try and error approach to governance. This has brought a lot of avoidable hardships to many people and that makes me sad.

2. His Appointees
“…In the multitude of counsellors, there is safety (Proverbs 11:14 KJV).

President Mahama could have made up for his lack of preparedness/plan to become president by appointing experienced individuals to key positions.

Unfortunately, he focused and continues to focus more on politics rather than competence in his appointments. His appointment of the likes of Ofosu Kwakye and Fiifi Kwetey attests to this fact. Although such ministers fail to perform, he just reshuffles them from one position to another. For example, growth in agriculture has declined to 0.04% but the minister continues to be at post.

3. Corruption
One of the main problems facing Ghana is corruption. It robs us of the vital resources (human and financial) that we need for development. Unfortunately, government appointees appear to steal with impunity. The President’s fight against corruption could at best be described as sham.

His main approach has been to ask individuals/organisations to refund the millions of Ghana Cedis they ‘stole’ after public outcry. If he had fought corruption, he would have had more resources to develop Ghana and we would have applauded him. But he did the contrary. That makes me to wonder if the President is a beneficiary of the looting which is taking place. Could it be that he cannot fire because the culprits know that his hands are not clean?

Conclusion
The fruits of Mahama’s leadership is dangerous for Ghana.

1. high youth unemployment
2. rising cost of living
3. collapse of businesses and
4. high level of corruption by government officials are fruits of his bad leadership.

The worst aspect of all of above is that he thinks that his performance has been excellent. He has ridiculously compared his achievements to Kwame Nkrumah. The implication is that he would not change his course (approach or team) if he is given the mandate again on 7th November 2016. The consequences may be worse.

President Mahama probably intends to do well but the results so far has been terrible. To quote a great economist, Milton Friedman, “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results”.

We therefore have to judge by using the results of Mahama’s leadership. The results shout so loudly: ‘he does not deserve your vote in this year’s election’.

Therefore, vote for a positive future for Ghana.