An Apology To John Dramani Mahama – “We” Are Sorry!

Before I say anything, I want all John Mahama and NDC fanatics to chill and realize that I am not writing to call on him to run to become the flagbearer of NDC or not; but just to tell him I am sorry – and perhaps, on behalf of those people like me, that “we” are sorry! Additionally, what I am writing here is not an allegiance to NDC; as you may know, I could be bashing the party tomorrow. To complete the caution, permit me to add that I am not writing to pronounce the former president an absolute angel, but I can say without doubt and fear that he is a relative God.

When I came to Ghana in 2017, I sat with an elder of the NDC and shared my reason for not believing John Dramani Mahama during the run off to the 2016 elections. I was frustrated not necessarily with him as a person; but “his boys:” I mean the boys who went to sleep when NPP won – the boys who boasted of having mansions, physical cash and even boasted of ruling Dubai. They would not listen to anybody; they either insulted those who complained; or asked people like me to go to court because we saw something wrong and pointed it out. In their worse instances, they threatened us; but because we stood for the truth, we never shivered!

The massive development that was going on made them complacent that no matter what, the party was going to win. Logically, that was not wrong! The then president brought development in terms of capital projects beyond what a 1990+ born has seen in his or her entire life – so of course, that should have been some comforting development for the party. I believe the former president also believed in this theory and relaxed on a lot of things. He was called so many names; yet he did nothing to refute the lies that were distributed and attributed to him. His silence forced some of us to believe those names – because when lies are left to die natural deaths, they make look the truth. But let me leave that here…

There was one main area that I erroneously bought into, and have since regretted taking that direction. That is why I am coming out to say I am sorry – and if you were part of that line, join me say we are sorry to former president John Dramani Mahama. Time came in 2016, that, I was 100% convinced the president was practicing nepotism and some element of “familism.” I thought he brought his family and friends too close to the government – I concluded that he gave certain people advantages over others; and I was angry that he rewarded closeness over loyalty, and appreciated proximity over people who toiled, sweated and even shed blood for the party.

Your Excellency, we did not know what friends and family government looks like. Nana has put us to shame and vindicated you. he has redefined nepotism – so much that, dictators might need his lectures to practice it to the level he has taken it to. To him, nobody qualifies more than his family members; and none of the past presidents had competent family members as his.

I arrived at this apologetic status after giving the current government the benefit of the doubt for about 17 months now – and clearly, the truth is out. Your excellency, please forgive me; it is only after carrying water and carrying alcohol that, one can determine the one which is heavier. Indeed, after experiencing your humble and all-inclusive leadership as against the “my family did this” leadership of the current president, I am convinced that you were God sent!

I became mad with you because of Ibrahim Mahama and the way his name was coming out of almost every contract; please your excellency, forgive me. Today, I have seen what nepotism means. One does not need a dictionary anymore: all you need is to Google “Ghana’s friends and family government,” and you will know what nepotism really means.

In the area of appointments, the current president just walks into one of his extended family households; picks the landlord, the landlady, their children and then in laws to occupy a given agency. When the youngest within that household is given his appointment letter, he then walks into the next household. This is how it started – and this is how it has been. Sir you did not do this, yet we called you names. We are sorry!

Then comes the rewriting of Ghana’s history. With the ascension of Nana to the presidency, the heroes or Ghana are reduced to zeros – except the Dankwa family. Toilets are named after unborn children from the family; and I shall not be surprise if some of the yet to be created regions are named after the family members of the president. To the current president, his legacy will only come from going around and writing names of his family members on projects completed by the creative and non – promise addicted past president (John Mahama).

Your excellency, please take note; I was not part of those who blamed you for borrowing. But permit me to add that to the apologies. They called you all names for borrowing – they said borrowing was the only yardstick through which competence could be measured. Today, I want to inform you that they are mega – incompetent! Ghanaians believed them; Do not blame our fathers; we the youth followed a man with PhD – thinking he is solutions, not knowing he was offering nothing beyond press conferences. Today Ghana is working because they added 19.9 billion Ghana cedis to the debt stock in one year.

Sir, just so you know, they borrowed that 19.9 billion Ghana cedis without a single completed capital project to point to. I realized that you were God sent because even though they have not completed a single project of their own, the current president has not been sleeping. You kept him busy by making projects available for him to commission; not only that, they sometimes take your name down from projects so he can go and unveil his name there – just to keep him busy.

They are pointing to the reduced Debt to GDP ratio as an achievement. That number is a fraction of our debt to our GDP. So mathematically, it can only go down under two situations:

1. If the debt stock goes down without much decrease in GDP, it will go down. Because we will be dividing a relatively smaller number over a bigger one. In this case, our debt stock increased by a whopping 19.9 billion Ghana cedis – hence that is ruled out.
2. The second situation is an increased GDP. Which happens to be the case. But I want to say thank you to you again for “planting all the crops” that led to an increased GDP. The massive work you did served as a prelude to that GDP increase. My conclusion is based on the word Bank’s GDP projection for the country in coming years. Based on World Bank projections, Ghana’s GDP will move to 8.3% in 2018, after which it will fall to 5.5% in 2019 and remain same in 2020 (Nana Addo effect).

From the above, one can conclude that those who called you names did absolutely nothing to address the so-called evil you created in the form of debt. Sir, on behalf of our fathers and mothers who did not know and bought into the deceptions, I say we are sorry.

Your excellency John Dramani Mahama – one thing that pushed me to the wall is what you are about to read here. As a Christian president with a Christian vice, we thought you were not doing enough for Muslims. I bought into the idea of Quran in the Flagstaff house. Sorry to tell you, today they are saying we should not even call one another to come together for prayers. They forgot that most of the people who voted them into power don’t have mobile phones and don’t even know what WhatsApp or a text message is: they are saying we should use text messages as replacements for the call for prayers.

Sir, sadly, the Quran is silent in the flagstaff house. I just hope they will not lock down our mosques during this Ramadan; for it is during this period that we “make the most noise.” Sorry Allah, I did not say that Azan is noise, one “professor” and a current minister said so. That Ghanaians, including several Muslims have given him power; now he needs peace to sleep and we must not disturb him. Sadly, the Quran in the flagstaff house is silent! I wonder if it has not been taken out of that house!

Your Excellency our former president, I cannot continue, I might cry out my eyes in the process. Remember that a father does not reject a son for a mistake. Please we are sorry, and need you to pardon us. I don’t know if you will come back; I have no power to determine who should take NDC through 2020; and I am not ready to even say anything about that. But I am optimistic that if you happen to get the chance or make that decision to come back, you would have known much about the boys now – just as we have learned our lessons.

Sir, we are sorry!!
Iddrisu Abubakari Sadiq – MBA, CPA
Certified Public Accountant – States of New York and New Jersey

Internal Auditor, Goldman Sach – NY, USA.