Do you know why Mahama is desperately seeking four more years at the presidency?

In so far as the critics have their democratic rights to squall, nag, and criticise Ex-President John Dramani Mahama for deciding to stage a presidential comeback despite his terrible errors in judgement which sent Ghana’s economy deeper and deeper into the mire in the absence of universal diffused economic crisis, he is permitted by the 1992 Constitution to do so.

That being said, considering the unpardonable economic meltdown under his watch (moved economic growth of 14% to 3.4% and a single digit inflation to 15.4%), Ex-President Mahama should do the right thing by eating humble pie and apologise to the good people of Ghana for wilfully messing up the economy in the absence of the deadly corona virus and Russia/Ukraine intractable conflict.

Unsurprisingly, leading to the 2020 general elections, Otumfuo Osei-TuTu II audaciously and forthrightly told former President John Dramani Mahama that Ghanaians voted against him during the 2016 general elections largely due to ‘hunger and anger’.

I could not agree more . Otumfuo was absolutely right: Mahama’s calamitous errors in judgement resulted in harsh socio-economic standards of living in the absence of any known global economic crisis.

Observers would thus contend that former President Mahama had had enough opportunity to show discerning Ghanaians his ability to steer Ghana in the right direction, but wilfully failed to do so and was rightly rejected by over one million electorates.

The sceptics would thus quiz in amazement: ‘what can Mahama do differently at the presidency next time around’?

But despite the unpardonable mismanagement which brought about his heavy defeat in the 2016 and 2020 general elections, the former president holds a faint hope that he will bounce back and recapture power in 2024.

The critics, however, insist that it will rather be easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than NDC returning into power anytime soon with former President Mahama, judging from the unprecedented economic mess he left behind in the absence of the globally diffused coronavirus and Ukraine/Russia war.

Sometime in 2022, former President John Dramani Mahama audaciously came out and told the good people of Ghana that four year term is not enough to make the needed impact on the economy.

Based on his own bizarre pronouncement, observers are rightly asking why does he then need four more years to govern the country?

My dear reader, despite the absence of pernicious corona virus or Ukraine/Russia impasse during the Mahama administration, Ghanaians became fed-up with the extreme harsh conditions amid corruption allegations (Bus branding, Brazil World Cup, SADA, SUBA, GYEEDA, SSNIT, MASLOC, NCA, Ford Expedition Vehicle, amongst others).

Notwithstanding the incontrovertible evidence of wilful mismanagement, the NDC loyalists would want discerning Ghanaians to believe that the erstwhile NDC government provided exceptional governance.

Some of us have always held a firm and unadulterated conviction that governance is a serious business and as such it requires forward thinking, serious and committed candidate to bring about the needed progress.

Nevertheless, it has not always been the case in Ghana’s democratic dispensation. We have more often than not been relying on lousy economic managers whose main preoccupation is to amass wealth at the detriment of the poor and disadvantaged Ghanaians.

If we stroll down memory lane, three years after former President Kufuor’s NPP administration had worked tirelessly and discovered oil in commercial quantities, the NDC administration led by the late President Mills only had the easiest job of turning on the valve at an offshore platform in December 2010 to pump the first commercial oil.

Ghana rightly associated itself with the petroleum exporting countries. And believe it or not, Ghana started to export crude oil which boosted the economic growth.

The economy grew favourably from around 8.4 per cent to around 14 per cent by 2011 and Ghana subsequently reached the Lower Middle Income status.

Ghana’s GDP grew exponentially from GH28 billion to a staggering GH47 billion by 2011.

Ghana was then cited as the world's fastest growing economy in 2010 (Economy Watch, 2010).

To his credit, the late President Mills continued to improve upon the excellent economic foundation laid by former President Kufuor and his NPP government.

President Mills mysteriously departed from life in July 2012. And, per Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, Vice President Mahama was the next in line to take over the presidency.

Things regrettably started to fall apart. It went from bad to worse following President Mills sudden and mysterious death.

Ghana’s total debt rocketed astronomically (GH9.5 billion in 2009 to GH122.4 billion as of December 2016). This was as a result of the unbridled spending in the 2012 election and the numerous corruption scandals involving GYEEDA, SADA, SUBA, Bus Branding, dubious judgement debt payments amongst others.

Ghana’s economic growth rate was woefully reversed from 14% in 2011 to an incredible 3.6% by 2016. The GDP was shockingly reduced by GH10 billion (from GH47 billion in 2011 to GH37 billion in 2016).

The erstwhile Mahama administration incredibly reversed the agricultural growth from 7.4 per cent in 2012 to a disappointing 2.5 per cent by December 2016.

Ghana’s economic growth regrettably slowed for the fourth consecutive year to an estimated 3.4% in 2015 from 4% in 2014 as energy rationing, high inflation, and ongoing fiscal consolidation weighed on economic activity (World Bank, 2016).

In addition, the high inflation rate remain elevated at 18.5% in February 2016 compared to 17.7% in February 2015, even after the Central Bank’s 500 bps policy rate hikes (the inflation stood at 15.8 per cent as of October 2016).

Ex-President Mahama and his NDC apparatchiks slyly took refuge in their much touted infrastructural projects after failing to initiate expedient policies to overturn the failed policies of agriculture, poverty reduction and resource allocation in the areas of healthcare, education, finance, supply chain management and security sector planning, amongst others.

As a matter of principle, some of us will keep questioning the judgement of those who have been proclaiming somewhat brashly that Ghana’s economy under former President Mahama (3.4% growth and 15.4% inflation) was better than Akufo-Addo/Bawumia record before the insidious coronavirus (8.6% growth and 7.5% inflation).

Needless to say, before the deadly coronavirus, Bawumia dutifully assisted Akufo-Addo and raised Ghana’s economic growth from 3.4% to 8.6%.

It was Bawumia who admirably assisted Akufo-Addo and within a short space of time reversed the inflation from 15.4% to 7.5%.

Interestingly, in the first two years of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration, the Agriculture sector recorded the highest growth rate of 8.4%.

Indeed, the Agriculture sector expanded from a growth rate of 3.0 percent in 2016 to 8.4 percent in 2017 (GSS, 2018).

The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration, before the unspeakable coronavirus, recorded the highest growth rate of 16.7 % in the Industry sector.

The Industry sector, the highest growing sector with a GDP share of 25.5 percent, had its growth rate increasing from -0.5 percent in 2016 to 16.7 percent in 2017 (GSS, 2018).

If Mahama is not taking Ghanaians for granted, how on earth would he consider returning to the presidency given the dreadful errors in judgement during his tenure in office?

K. Badu, UK.
[email protected]