London Bridge Is Falling Down

“London Bridge is falling down, falling down, my fair lady.

Build it up with iron bars, iron bars, my fair lady.

Iron bars will bend and break, my fair lady.
Build it up with needles and pins, needles and pins, my fair lady.

Needles and pins will rust and bend, my fair lady” – Nursery song of yesteryears

Where I come from, when you go to your farm and see eggs of a cobra burnt to ashes, you jubilate and sing halleluya. The reason why we jubilate is that burnt eggs of cobras means the number of cobras which would have grown to bite human beings has reduced. Similarly, when you visit your trap and it caught a cobra, you simply walk home smiling and you will not even touch the dead cobra with a long stick because one of your enemies has been caught by your trap. Don't be confused. Relax before you continue reading. After all, am I not Angel Gabriel, the senior messenger of God? I speak in parables.

In the run-up to the 2016, the defeated and crest-fallen NDC had their campaign launch in Cape Coast where an upstart in politics like Nii Vanderpuye took then candidate Nana Akufo Addo to the cleaners, telling the world that no short and bespectacled person will ever be the president of Ghana till thy Kingdom come. When he was asked to apologize because by his comments he insulted all the short persons in Ghana, he thumped our noses and told us that he was not going to apologize today or tomorrow. On that day, when the founder of the NDC, Mr. Rawlings took the microphone he told the gathering that he was not going to talk too much but he will wait until after the election before he will go round the country to re-organize the party.

The pride and arrogance of the NDC supporters did not open their minds to analyze the statement very well since they did not “think far”. The man knew the NDC was going to lose the elections and after they had lost the elections he was going to go out there to reorganize the party. He had continuously stated that the leadership of the party had thrown caution to the dogs and jettisoned the moral high ground on which the party was born. The good people of Ghana also knew that the party was going to hit the rocks since we did not need a rocket scientist to tell us so. Corruption had hit the rooftop and people in the NDC were grabbing wealth here and there as if they were in competition to choose the richest among themselves. When the NDC suffered a devastating defeat in the 2016 general election, Rawlings told Ghanaians that the NDC had lost the election years before the elections.

Then the party hierarchy set up a committee led by Professor Kwasi Botchwey to go round the country to interact with the NDC people to find out what made them lose the election so miserably. Wherever they went those they met had the same things to tell them. “Some greedy bastards made us to lose the elections”. “Monies meant for the campaign were pocketed by party executives”. “Ostentatious lifestyle of our leaders angered the people who rebelled against us”. “Corruption was too much at the national level so the people voted against us,” “Lordina Mahama commandeered the campaign with her huge and costly billboards which made people angry,” “John Mahama and his wife dashed chiefs and queenmothers V8 cars while we the foot soldiers campaigned on empty stomachs,” “The brothers of JM grabbed juicy contracts and received bribes from foreign contractors,” “JM was too swollen headed” etc.

On my part, what I detected as the main reason people voted massively against the NDC was the way the president and his wife junketed the nooks and crannies of Ghana, with helicopters. At a point in time, Madam Lordina Mahama made it look as if she would not go anywhere if she was not provided with a helicopter. In fact, she and her husband were not alone as far as the flying of helicopters were concerned. Kwamena Ahwoi and his team too criss-crossed the country with helicopters while their V8 cars and convoy disturbed the peace of the poor folks in the villages. They incurred the displeasure of the common man who was finding it difficult to make ends meet.

Another factor which led to the disgraceful defeat was the issue of the Montie trio. Led by this crook called Salifu Maase (Mugabe), these morons and half-wits went haywire, threw respect and caution to the dogs and went about insulting self-made ladies and gentlemen. In fact, they contributed heavily to the shameful defeat. Mugabe told the world that he was brought down from London by ex-President Mahama to do what he was doing. All along, the good people of this country called on then President Mahama to call the guy to order but Mr. Mahama thought what the boy was doing would inure to his benefit so he urged him to do more. I wonder where this ex-convict is hiding now that the person he predicted will die before the 2016 elections is the President of Ghana. If he is hiding in Moshie Zongo in Kumasi, where he was born and bred, I am afraid he will not be safe unless he disguises himself anytime he visits the Central Business District of Kumasi, the stronghold of the NPP. I can imagine Mugabe coming face to face with the Delta Force gang at Kejetia! The guy will smell pepper, I swear.

WHEN LOSERS REFUSE TO BEAR THE PAIN OF DEFEAT

I can understand why NDC members are kicking and shouting on top of their voice after their humiliating defeat at the polls. The truth is that if I, your indomitable Earth Angel were to be in their shoes, I would have done the same. The NDC supporters were made to understand that the party could not simply lose the election because of alleged good work of President Mahama. When their leadership were asked why they were not involving Mr. John Rawlings in the campaign, they were told that Rawlings did not matter in the scheme of things and that Rawlings or no Rawlings, the party will win hands down. Throughout the electioneering campaign, then candidate Mahama made the supporters understand that it was God who ordains kings and that he was destined to win the election, 'one touch'. He said the NPP was a divided party and since a divided army cannot win a battle the NPP will lose the 2016 elections. And the NDC supporters believed in the man. That was the mistake they did.

The silence of then candidate Nana Akufo Addo too helped in no small way to defeat the NDC. I will be back.

Eric Bawah