Blame Ghana's Current Precarious State On Former President Mahama

There is that old wise saying that goes, “You may be hurt by the truth, but it's better than living with a lie”. Subsequently, let me be frank with both the NDC and their agents and assigns to announce to them that the current precarious socio-economic state faced by the majority of Ghanaians is the unfortunate, but deliberate work and design of former President John Dramani Mahama.

By his commissions and omissions; fondness for corrupt practices of selective justice, nepotism, absurd encouragement of ethnic supremacy in favour of his northern extraction, cronyism and perpetration of NDC propaganda meant to underrate the intelligence of many a Ghanaian, Ghana, once a peaceful and booming country, has been plunged into lawlessness and economic hardships.

Former President Mahama for reasons best known to him and him only, decided to appoint people of his ethnic extraction to fill almost all the top positions in his government even though, most of them turned out to be corrupt and less knowledgeable about the duties of their positions. They became complete square pegs wobbling in round holes. This is an undeniable fact that only a blockhead and an equally corrupt person will make any attempt to tell differently or dispute it.

For the fact that he acknowledged by his assertion that he could not take any cogent decision himself since his infancy, there is no wonder that he mismanaged Ghana through the appointment of remarkably incompetent, disrespectful and strikingly corrupt individuals to fill high positions in his government and in the parastatal companies.

Did he sack anyone in his government found to have committed gross misconduct of say, embezzlement of public funds except one Victoria Hammer or some name of that sort? No, he didn’t but rather kept reshuffling such alleged or established corrupt persons to even much higher positions. That was President Mahama for you; a bird of same feather flocking together with his like-minded and like-feathered birds.

Former President Mahama sat watching nonchalantly while illegal Chinese immigrants were flocking into Ghana to aggressively engage in illegal surface mining (galamsey). Under his watch, as irresponsible a leader as he appeared to be, some of his Government Ministers, top security capos and some traditional rulers collusively gave protection to these illegal foreigners to wreak unprecedented havoc on our virgin forests, water bodies and in sum, our ecosystem. Is such a leader credible and fit for purpose? Tweeaaaa!!! (Not at all)

As corrupt and myopic as he was, he could not see the immediate and long term adverse effects the brazen galamsey activities in execution by the Chinese and the locals would have on Ghana. All that he was interested in was to abuse his position to amass illegal wealth to probably syphon the money into his foreign bank accounts or his perceived “Kofi Dubai” projects in Dubai.

While in office, he gleefully oversaw the perpetuation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) capitation in the Ashanti region. The NHIS capitation culminated and continues to result in the deaths of many a patient in the Ashanti region. He had that devious notion about, and hatred for, the Ashantis and people living in the Ashanti region for the simplistic belief that the people in the region do not vote National Democratic Congress (NDC) at general elections but New Patriotic Party (NPP). However, a greater percentage of the national income originates from the region.

The most incomprehensible but sad aspect of the whole scenario was that, the purported Asante Overlord, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the best buddy of the President, looked on without any concern while his subjects became victims of political victimization and social neglect. I do not want to delve into this as it brings bitter emotional memories into mind.

What is capitation at all, a layperson may ask? “Broadly speaking, capitated payment, or capitation, means paying a provider or group of providers to cover the majority (or all) of the care provided to a specified population across different care settings. The regular payments are calculated as a lump sum per patient” – British NHS.

Capitation is a fixed sum of money agreed by the government (National Health Insurance Authority –NHIA) with healthcare providers e.g. hospitals whether government’s or private, Clinics and private healthcare centres or General Practitioners’ Surgeries (private doctors) to accept a lump sum payment to cater for specified health needs of every resident of say, a region or a catchment area for say, a year. Whether a person within the area falls sick or not within the set duration of time agreed on, and regardless of the number of times one falls sick, the same one-off lump sum payment is all that the service provider is due.

In the case of Ashanti region, the intentionally selected guinea pig of the late President Atta Mills’ then newly introduced NHIS capitation pilot scheme, the lump sum fee the government decided to pay per person per year was too small (was about GHS 10 per person per year?) that most service providers refused to accept.

A patient in Ashanti region was then forced to pay for their healthcare needs when they visited hospital. Those without money to pay were/are left to their fate and to death same as it was in the “cash and carry” days of former President J. J. Rawlings. Many were those that could not afford the payment from their own pockets hence the high level of deaths among the Ashanti region patients. This is how the late President Mills and former President Mahama treated the people of Ashanti region.

President Nana Akufo Addo is compelled to pick up the pieces, mend them to redress the financial mess caused by President Mahama and his bunch of NDC thieves. Therefore, I shall appeal to all discerning Ghanaians to bear with President Nana Akufo Addo a little while he astutely searches for money to carry out his numerous promises to the Ghanaian electorates.

How former President Mahama supervised institutional corruption without shame is beyond any reasonable Ghanaian’s belief. I cannot wait for the nation’s constitution to be amended to be retrospective effective to cause investigation into President Mahama’s management of Ghana. He should not be allowed to abscond with the millions of GHS Cedis and US$ he is presumed to have embezzled through his obviously well documented acts of corruption.

Do I have anything good to say about former President John Dramani Mahama? No, not at this time of writing. No, not in a million years to come! He is despicable; although it is said, “Any bad person has their remembrance day”. No matter how bad a person had been, one day, he may be remembered for one good thing, so the proverb means to tell us. What a situation of the wicked lives longer than the good!

Do I have anything good to write home about former President Mahama and the NDC? No!!! The Rawlings’ yardstick of Probity (complete honesty), Accountability (Someone who is accountable is completely responsible for what they do and must be able to give a satisfactory reason for it) and Transparency (the quality of being done in an open way without secrets) must be used to measure former President Mahama and his appointees to see if they had passed the test and the standards set by their now downtrodden founder of NDC, former President Jeremiah John Rawlings, the altruist.

Onaapo President Mahama can run but he cannot hide? The searchlight of God is thrown on him wherever he goes. He will be compelled to give account of his stewardship to mother Ghana and Ghanaians one day. Inshah Allah!

In the political history of Ghana, he has no rival when it comes to masterminding and orchestrating corruption galore. Shame, Shame and shame! Captain Smart’s “yegye ye sika” sensitizing-demo will catch up with him.

To all the NDC faithful supportive of former President Mahama, I quote for their attention Sri Chinmoy who said, "Ignorance is an enemy, even to its owner. Knowledge is a friend, even to its hater. Ignorance hates knowledge because it is too pure. Knowledge fears ignorance because it is too sure."

Rockson Adofo