Who needs Mahama 2.0

It is said that as we lay our beds so shall we sleep on it. By imposing a candidate that was rejected by the Ghanaian electorate, and by partnering him with a former minister in the same rejected government, Ghana’s main opposition party, the NDC, should accept whatever fate befalls it in the December elections.

In “The candidacy of Jimmy Carter”, the author informed us the great extent to which Candidate Jimmy Carter went to in order to seek and secure the presidency of his country.

A highly intelligent nuclear scientist and an intellectual on his own pedigree, Mr Carter nevertheless sought the opinions and advices from the best minds his country can offer. He drafted experts from various fields to help him think through and formulated ideas and policies on all the critical areas of governance.

I don’t write this in order to rate Mr Carter as the most successful of presidents, but just to highlight the importance some people attach to the highest office in their country.

What do we have in Africa but self-seeking individuals with very little in the craniums of their skulls seeking to lead their countries.

Most of the misleaders we have in the African continent are recycled politicians with little education or experience.

Some of them are even there solely because their fathers have been somebody (Kenya and Ghana comes to mind) or because they have muscled their way into power through the barrel of the gun (Nigeria is a prime example).

Not only did these misrulers come into power with little or no preparation, they come into power through political systems that is characterized by heavy monetization.

The political parties that sponsored them are not noted for any deep ideological underpinnings; they brandish only manifestos that are mere cut-and-paste jobs.

I have said it several times and I will repeat it here: I have stopped blaming the politicians for taking us for a sweet ride.

There is a popular saying: If we don’t take advantage of a fool, we shouldn’t expect a wise man to allow us to fool him.

A Yoruba proverb says: Ile ti a ba fi ito mo, iri ni yio wo / The house built with spittle will be fell by dew.

If we construct our political edifices on quicksand, we shouldn’t be surprised if they fail us.

The politicians we have in Africa have demonstrated beyond doubt that they are self-seeking and have no other interests apart from satisfying their selfish and greedy needs.

They don't even attempt to hide their contempt for us. How else do we explain their inability to provide us with life’s basic - food, housing, water, and electricity after over sixty years of independence?

Yet, we continue to sing their praises and we continue to loudly trumpet them as messiahs.

Take the case of Ghana. What better demonstrates the contempt of the leading opposition party, the NDC, for the people than the presentation of Mahama as its presidential candidate for the next election? And as though that was not egregious enough, Mr Mahama sought far and wide and couldn’t find a more suitable vice-presidential candidate than his minister for education!

As to be expected, NDC partisans are deafening our ears with loud proclamations about their candidate’s impressive academic credentials! They are also busily appealing to the base emotional gender angle.

I have urged that if we are serious about economic, social and political transformation in Africa, we should abandon our penchant to elect leaders based on religious, tribal or gender grounds.

We should seek to elect people based on personal records and demonstrated leadership achievements.

I have never been comfortable with people who seek confirmation, validation or affirmation from their tribe, religion, country or gender.

To solve our problems, one must first study and understand them. The late Nigerian politician, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, ably demonstrated that this was possible. His four cardinal Programmes are not only well-articulated, he gave all the facts and the figures to back them up.

In this age, it should not be too difficult for any serious person seeking leadership role to build a website where we can access and assess his/her plans and policies.

We should stop being fooled by people bamboozling us with academic or traditional titles.

There is no doubt that Mr. Mahama’s choice of VP possess intimidating academic credentials, but is that enough to win hearts and souls?

I am not an NPP partisan, but I can understand if the party’s rented mouths counter the question of a PhD with: And so, what? One Mr. Goodluck Jonathan also brandishes a PhD, ask Nigerians how that helped their country.

To the enthusiasm generated by the gender, NPP partisans can ask if Margaret (the milk snatcher) Thatcher, Joyce Banda (Malawi), Indira Ghandhi (India), and Eileen Sirleaf (Liberia) were not female leaders, and how did that help their countries.

More importantly, NDC partisans should get ready to answer the question: What single social intervention policy has their party introduced in its long years in power?

For all their faults, corruption and all, Ghanaians will remember President Kufuor for his National Health Insurance Scheme. And despite the gargantuan corruption in his administration, Nana Akufo-Addo will go down in history as the second president, after Kwame Nkrumah, to introduce a free education policy.