The correlation between Mahama and Trump: Is it attitudinal or behavioural?

It is often said that closely related species, more often than not, boast of identical behavioural and attitudinal patterns.

Wouldn’t it also be possible to have dissimilar species with similar attitudinal and behavioural patterns?

Take my word for it, dearest reader, this article does not seek to malign or impugn irresponsibility on any individuals, far from it.

But that being said, for the sake of balanced political annotation and to set the records straight, it is important to grub into the apparent political insobrieties of Mahama and Trump.

If you may recall, prior to the 3^rd November 2020 U.S election, the defeated incumbent president, Donald J. Trump, ignobly threatened to reject the election results as to him, his opponent could only win through vote rigging.

As if that was not enough, the beleaguered incumbent President Trumb has carried out his threat and unfortunately rejected the results of the election. He is bizarrely alleging electoral fraud.

Similarly, the NDC 2020 flagbearer, former President John Dramani Mahama, recently ventilated his arousing disgust over alleged infractions in the 2020 voter register and asserted that he will most likely reject the 2020 election results per the alleged ongoing electoral fraud processes.

If you may remember, sometime last year, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Nana Osei TuTu II delivered an euphonious and purposeful speech at the United Nations General Assembly’s High-Level Forum on Culture and Peace on September 13 2019, where he earnestly revealed that in the interest of peace and security, he held several meetings with the 2016 presidential candidates, before, during and after the general elections and persuaded the losing candidate (Mahama) to concede defeat.

Some of us, so to speak, were not the least surprised to hear that the Asantehene had to persuade Ex-President Mahama to accept defeat in the 2016 general elections, in the sense that the former president had allegedly claimed sometime last year during his presentation at the Oxford University Business School Distinguished Speaker Seminar that the 2016 election was rigged (see: 2016 election rigged-Mahama; dailyguidenetwork.com/ghanaweb.com, 13/05/2019).

Paradoxically, former President Mahama has since been blaming his humiliating 2016 election defeat on a technical hitch to both the Electoral Commission and the NDC’s results collation systems.

The former president was reported to have lamented: “As I speak, I am not aware that the Electoral Commission has carried out any investigation into what compromised their IT system,” he complained, adding that political parties, as stakeholders, have not been briefed about what really corrupted the IT system of the EC.”

Ex-President Mahama continued: “Ghanaians, in the interest of transparency, want know what really happened during the last polls before the next election in 2020.”

With all due respect and no attached condescension whatsoever, the two prominent leaders (Trump and Mahama) have something in common. Clearly, the two gentlemen are cheeky in nature.

Whilst the outgoing President Donald J. Trump goes about censuring and abusing his perceived adversaries, Mr John Dramani Mahama possesses a cheeky tongue, so to speak.

I am afraid, former President John Dramani Mahama has been creating a niche of sarcasm for himself over the years.

Interestingly, unbeknownst to many Ghanaians, former President Mahama can be pugnacious. So I find it really difficult to understand why he has been given the appellations: ‘Humble, respectful, peacemaker etc. To be quite honest, I do not think President Mahama deserves those descriptive nicknames.

The preceding assertion may seem frivolous to many of his apologists. However, President Mahama’s seemingly condescending comments on Alhaji Dr Mahmoud Bawumia during the 2016 electioneering campaign really exposed his hypocrisy.

I recall in one of his then ‘changing lives’ speeches, President Mahama sarcastically suggested that Bawumia had not been a president before and therefore cannot impugn incompetence on his government.

Strangely, though, former President Mahama went ahead and asserted that only our two former Presidents, Kufuor and Rawlings have the pedigree and therefore may criticise him.

Deductively, the rest of Ghanaians did not have the right to criticise him and his government because we have not sat on the presidential seat before.

Obviously, such thought process was extremely dangerous and undemocratic and should not have come from the lips of a supposedly humble president.

I recollect Ex-President Mahama went to Kumasi and labelled the entire people of Ashanti region as ungrateful lots. He referred to Ashantis as ungrateful lots who would never even be content with gold plated roads. How bizarre?

As a matter of fact, it was uncharacteristic on the part of a supposedly humble President to impugn that all Ashantis are unappreciative.

I remember in one of the Parliamentary sittings, former President Mahama had an impertinent boldness to insult Ashantis indiscriminately. He openly said: “People of the Ashanti origin have problem with letters L&R”.

In other words, Ex-President Mahama was implying that Ashantis cannot pronounce words that have letters L&R. That was not funny by any stretch of the imagination.

That was indeed an irrevocable cheek from a supposedly submissive leader! Do Ghanaians call such an individual as humble and respectful?

Again, in the wake of the public discourse on the suitability of the proposed burial place of our departed president Mills, Ex-President Mahama condescendingly stated that Ghanaians who took part in the debate both on radio, television and even in their private homes and work places engaged in a “USELESS” discourse.

I am afraid, that was uncharacteristic of a leader who had been tagged as humble, respectful, God fearing etc.

With all due respect, Ex-President Mahama’s ceaseless sarcasm is out of this world. He is simply not submissive.

Former President Mahama, to be quite honest, has an inherent predilection for abusing those who show divergent views to his.

I recall during a debate on the STX Housing deal, former President Mahama, then Vice President, abused our Members of parliament who opposed the deal.

He unkindly told them: “BALONEY”. In other words, Ex-President Mahama was implying that the Parliamentarians were engaging in “foolish discourse”. How bizarre? Humble indeed!

I also remember when the Attorney General’s office charged Kennedy Agyapong with Treason, Terrorism & genocide and former President Kufuor humbly appealed for calm, and further suggested that we should avoid ‘killing a fly with a Sledge Hammer. Ex-President Mahama replied hastily and lividly: “We will kill a fly with a Bulldozer”.

Honestly speaking, that cheeky remark can only come from the lips of a bellicose, but it should not have come from the lips of a supposedly submissive and peaceful President. Let us be honest, Ex-President Mahama can be very careless in his pronouncements at times.

Let us however remind ourselves that we (Ghanaians) have been taught to respect the dead. So some of us was extremely dumbfounded when after the death of Professor Mills, we heard former President Mahama impoliticly suggesting: “God in his own wisdom has taken the old man, Professor Mills away to pave the way for youthful Mahama to take over the mantle”. How pathetic?

Subsequent to that infamous declaration, Ex-President Mahama went to the Northern Region and opined somewhat unfairly that it was about time ‘Northerners’ took over the mantle of Presidency, because they (Northerners) were fed up serving in the Vice Presidency post.

In fact, former President Mahama, more often than not, fails to anticipate the dire consequences of his pronouncements.

I recall during the 2016 electioneering campaign, A number of prominent Ghanaians and civil society groups, including the Chairman of Peace Council, Professor Emmanuel Asante and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) beseeched Ex-President John Dramani Mahama to refrain from making comments deemed ethnocentric against the NPP and its running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

“President Mahama while campaigning at Lawra in the Upper West Region, said the NPP will not allow Dr. Bawumia to be their flagbearer because the party is largely not in support of northerners taking up such positions” (cityfmonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 21/11/2016).

Former President Mahama pontificated somewhat carelessly: “Sometimes I feel sad when I see some of our northern brothers running and also doing this. They will use you and dump you. Let anything happen today and let our brother Bawumia say he is standing for president in NPP. They will never give it to him I can assure you”.

In sum, we tend to believe that a leader is a person who is well-connected, who is powerful or charismatic or wealthy. We normally judge our leaders by what they have. But a true leader should be judged by his/her extraordinary qualities, not -- ego, impertinent boldness, and self-interest.

A true leader, in theory, sees his/her work as altruistic service toward accomplishing a goal. That is by putting the acquired skills, experience, knowledge and empathetic qualities at the disposal of the needs of his/her subordinates. As the sages say, “Leadership is not just power and dominance; it is service to mankind.”

K. Badu, UK.

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