Mahama Took Ghanaians Back to 1983; Gave Us Mahama-Made Rawlings Necklaces

When he characteristically peevishly asserts that life under his Dumsor-blanketed regime was far better than life under the present twice-elected Akufo-Addo Administration, Candidate John “I Have No Classmates in Ghana” Dramani Mahama conveniently ignores to remind his Tamale-Central Constituency audience, in the Northern Region, and the national at large, that the previous tandem Mills-Mahama regimes resulted in the permanent destruction of at least 60-percent of all jobs in the country, both state and privately owned (See “'Our lives were far better under my administration than Akufo-Addo and Bawumia's — Mahama” Modernghana.com 11/4/24).

But, of course, life was definitely better for the then President Mahama and his robber-baron cabinet and executive appointees, who routinely took home double salaries at the expense of our Nurse- and Teacher-Trainees and the overwhelming majority of Ghanaian citizens and taxpayers, when one also factors into the reckoning the criminal lifting of some $72 million (USD) from the Treasury Vaults of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), money that belonged to patriotic and hardworking pensioners and retirees as well as hardworking and actively engaged Ghanaian public servants, as well as private and self-employed entrepreneurs, by then President Mahama and his Labor and Employment Minister, to wit, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, the Johnson “The Mosquito” Asiedu-Nketia-ousted former National Democratic Congress’ Parliamentary Minority Caucus’ Leader.

Not surprisingly, it was the same Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, who had his largely plagiarized Master of Sociology Degree summarily withdrawn from him by Members of the Academic Council of the country’s foremost flagship tertiary academy, the University of Ghana, in 2009 or 2010, I forget precisely when, while he served as Deputy Cabinet Minister in the government of President John Evans Atta-Mills, late, Co-Architect of the Woyome Mega-Heist. President Mills, in cynical defiance of the dons of the University of Ghana, just as he had done in the infamous Matter of Okudzeto-Ablakwa & Omane-Boamah Versus Obetsebi-Lamptey, would almost immediately promote Mr. Iddrisu to the status of a substantive Minister of State. About the same time a Junior Cabinet Minister in the German Government who had been accused of having plagiarized his way to a Doctoral Degree, would be immediately dismissed from the cabinet. Are we a morally unregenerate people or a pathologically uncivilized people or what?

The Bole-Bamboi native of the Akufo-Addo-created Savannah Region would also thoroughly bankrupt the low-premium former President John “The Gentle Giant” Agyekum-Kufuor-established National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). It would take the prompt and the timely intervention of the twice, consecutively elected former Agyekum-Kufuor-appointed Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and the infusion of an excess of $2 billion (USD) loan solicitation tranches to resuscitate the NHIS and make it viable and acceptable, once again, to healthcare providers around the country.

It therefore constitutes nothing short of obscenely scandalous for the Serial and the Dynastic Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress to be impugning the quality of healthcare and health services in the country, when under the extortionate tenure of the late Founding-Father of the latter political establishment, Flt-Lt. Jeremiah “Jerry” John Rawlings, what prevailed was the outrageously genocidal “Cash-and-Carry” Health Policy Agenda, under which Social-Darwinian regime, hundreds of thousands of Ghanaian citizens who could not afford to pay instantaneously and upfront for their healthcare services or medical treatment were literally left to die like some beasts of the wild.

This is why the whole issue of a 2024 National Democratic Congress’ Manifesto could not be more insulting to the dignity and the common sense of the average Ghanaian citizen. Indeed, if he had any civilized sense of morality and/or decorum and an acute sense of leadership responsibility, instead of calling the present state and the quality of our national healthcare system into question, Candidate Mahama would rather be lauding the remarkable achievements of his immediate successor and his team of first-rate technocrats and dedicated and patriotic administrators, and be humbly wondering why he, Kwame Gonja, so woefully and scandalously lacked the kind of “creative imagination” he so callously and unconscionably accused those Ghanaian and foreign entrepreneurs whose businesses he criminally collapsed with Dumsor of being curiously bereft of.

It is also unarguably clear that he does not know what he is talking about, when the infamous “Shit-Bomber” asserts that the quality of the country’s public education system leaves much to be desired. The readily accessible fact of the matter is that the quality of Ghana’s public education system is presently at its very best in the last half century in ways that cannot be said in favor of or on behalf of the leadership of all the previous regimes of the National Democratic Congress-sponsored governments. To be certain, it was under the tandem Mills-Mahama regimes of the National Democratic Congress, between 2009 and early 2017, when the globally ions-renowned and prestigious Paris-, France, based United Nations-sponsored think-tank called the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranked Ghana’s public school system as the very worst among some 145 countries surveyed around the world.

if , indeed, the quality of Ghana’s healthcare system leaves much to be desired, in the scandalous opinion of Candidate Mahama, that is, it can scarcely be gainsaid that this is primarily because the twice-rejected, one-term former President bequeathed an incoming Akufo-Addo Presidency absolutely nothing that even remotely resembled a viable and a functionally acceptable National Healthcare System. All that the tandem previous Mills-Mahama regimes were interested in was merely making up such practically cosmetic and bogus para-institutional establishments as the so-called National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and the Mahama-tailored, off-the-cuff Kwabena Donkor-gifted Power Ministry.

For the information and the epistemic refreshment of clueless and megalomaniacal career politicians like Candidate Mahama and the hoodlum ratpack of the leadership of Ghana’s opposition National Democratic Congress, as of this writing and press preparation, Ghana’s public education system was ranked Number Two on the entire African Continent, only excelled by Tunisia, with Kenya rounding up the rear at the Tenth Position, and Togo at a decent Number Five (See Chinedu Okafor, “Top 10 African Countries with the Highest Quality Education” Business Insider Africa 10/31/24).

It is for the preceding reason that Yours Truly makes this most passionate appeal to the overwhelming majority of Ghanaian citizens to vote massively to retain the New Patriotic Party at the helm of our national affairs. Our Revered Ancient Ancestors have been credited with the wise saying that: “It is the one who makes the most diligent and progressive effort who is often given the well-deserved and needed push.” Look for Number One on the Ballot Sheet. It is Bawumia! It is NAPO!! It is Osei-Adutwum All The Way!!! Sor-Sor to Sor-Sor, Not Sor-Sor to Dumsor!!!!

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
November 4, 2024
E-mail: [email protected]