Seeking Second Term To Loot The Coffers Again!!!

John Dramani Mahama

Throughout his salad years till he became the president of Ghana, Mr. John Dramani Mahama has tasted the good things in live. His father was a cabinet minister when the Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was in power. He and his siblings were pampered and treated like the children of Pharaoh. He never tasted poverty nor want and had everything going rosy for him.

Then in his elderly years, he became the Member of Parliament for his constituency and rose from that level to become a Deputy Minister and later a Cabinet Minister under the NDC regime. As the years rolled by, he became the Vice president of Ghana and when his boss, Professor Attah Mills died, he became the acting president and later voted to become the substantive president of mother Ghana. For the four years that he ruled the nation, the world was on his shoulders and he strutted the land like Colossus. He and his wife, Lordina Mahama, held the nation at ransom as they criss-crossed the country in helicopters and presidential jet. Any criticism was met with insults. After all, was he not the Executive President of the Republic of Ghana, the first country to gain independence, south of the Sahara? He used insulting words like 'baloney' foolish' 'stupid' and look at the faces of the people of Ashanti Kingdom, thumped their noses and told them that 'as for the Asante people, if even you tar their roads with gold they will still be ungrateful' He did not know that whatever goes up comes down. The people of the Ashanti Region punished him severely when we went to the polls in 2016.

During his tenure of office, he opened the floodgate of corruption to penetrate the heart of the country and gained hugely from the booty. When we complained, he said “Yentie Obiaa” and kept the wheels of corruption running like a Ford Expedition car running from Burkina Faso to the Flagstaff House. (Apology to Dr. Bawumia). As he continued on the rocky road, he came face to face with election 2012 where Ghanaians voted massively for the opposition NPP but Afari Gyan, the then Electoral Commission Officer, threw caution to the dogs an declared him the winner after the final results. In fact, Mr. Mahama is the first person in the history of Ghana to be declared the winner of a General Election by the Supreme Court of Ghana. That tag will forever stay in his heart till he dies. He also set record of being the first president in the 4^th Republic to be voted out of power when he had his four – year term.

In 2016, his war chest was overflowing with hard currency and so he had all the confidence to win the election and told Ghanaians that it was only God who ordains kings and that by the grace of God he will be ordained the president of Ghana to continue his “good” works. He did not know that God, the Omnipresent had seen all the bad things that he and his people did to Ghanaians and decided to punish him at the appropriate time. He took Ghanaians for granted as he went around the country campaigning for votes and taunting his main opponent, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo. He even got the guts to tell the opposition presidential candidate that he had not got the moral right to criticize him because he had not been a president before.

Then the election day came and the man was still full of hope that for the second time, he will be given the nod to rule the country. Sadly he did not know that Ghanaians had decided already and his rigging machine had been made useless. As for Koku Anyidoho, he was sure of the power of the rigging machine that even before the Electoral Commission could declare the results, he told the ecstatic NDC supporters that. Mr. Mahama was in a 'comfortable lead'. He did not know that Mr. Mac Manu and his able lieutenants had diluted the poison. Instead of accepting defeat after it had become obvious that he had lost the election in an unprecedented wide margin, Mr. Mahama kept on living in fantasy until he was impressed upon by his party big wigs to accept the results and congratulate Nana Akufo Addo.

Last week, the dreamer, called John Dramani Mahama, made his intention to run for the flagbearership of the defeated NDC one more time and that to me is laughable. Before he announced his intention, he had hijacked the party and went from region to region campaigning in the name of Unity Walk which turned out to be disunity walk. Somebody out there should tell Mr. Mahama that unlike the years gone by when the NDC could easily rig elections, times have changed because the political chess game is dominated by grandmasters who know how to police the polls. And from the way the current administration is performing, Ghanaians will never risk voting for the NDC to come back and continue looting the state coffers. That is why the sages say once bitten, twice shy.

What Mr. Mahama doesn't know is that, parents whose children are enjoying the free SHS harbor the fear that when the NDC is voted into power, come 2020, the programme will be cancelled. Similarly parents whose wards are enjoying the teacher and nursing trainee allowances fear that when the NDC comes to power in 2020 the allowances will be cancelled. After all, was it not the same Mahama who told Ghanaians that he will restore the allowances over his dead body and that if even he would lose the election because he did not restore the allowances, so be it? Farmers who are also enjoying the highly subsidized farm inputs under the planting for food and jobs programme are also apprehensive that when the NDC is given the power again they will not continue with the programme like they did to the Mass Cocoa Spraying Programme under the Kufour administration.

During the wish – to – be – forgotten days of dumsor, Prophet Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia told Ghanaians that the problem is not about power generation capacity but money to fuel the barges and gas to power the thermal plants. Today what are we seeing? Because monies have been released to acquire gas and fuel, dumsor has been confined to the dustbin of history. That is why they say governance is all about priority. Instead of using the taxpayers' money to buy votes and buy expensive V8 cars for chiefs and queenmothers, Nana and his team of nation builders will rather use such money to make sure dumsor is gone so that industries could be sustained. Who say man no dey?

Nobody fears Mr. Mahama if he decides to run for the presidency again but the truth is that if he runs he will once again receive a devastating and crushing defeat and that will affect the chances of the NDC in future elections. And that too will destroy the chances of others in the party who could lead the party to come back to power again. Those who are urging Mr. Mahama to run for the flagearership are doing the party more harm than good. Delegates who will be voting to elect the leadership of the party should vote such persons out to pave the way for the rejuvenation of the party. If they fail to do so, who cares? After all if you go to your farm and see the eggs of a cobra burnt into ashes what do you do? Do you feel pity for the mother cobra whose eggs have been burnt into ashes or you thank God for small mercies? The answer is obvious because if the eggs had been allowed to hatch, there would have been more cobras in your farm.

So far, Mr. Alban Bagbin, Professor Joshua Alabi, Professor Kwesi Botchwey, Mr Sylvester Mensah and Spio Garbrah have declared their intention to join the flagbearership race but all these people have been sidelined. Only Ex-president Mahama goes about doing his own unity walk and poisoning the air with his provocative utterances. As it stands now, the party is divided and fragmented. From all indications, the founder of the NDC, Mr. Rawlings, prefers any candidate apart from Mr. Mahama and that too is worrisome not to me but to Mr. Mahama who has stirred the hornet's nest by treating Rawlings with contempt.

To add insult to injury, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings and her National Democratic Party is feverishly preparing to hit the road. The last time, Mr. Mahama and his cohorts made sure the lady was disqualified from running for the presidency. This time around, I believe Nana Konadu should keep her house in order, plug all loop holes and join the race. She may not become the president of Ghana in 2020 but if she is able to grab few seats in parliament it will send a signal to Ghanaians that what men can do, women can do same if not better. I always have soft spot in my heart for the lady because it was she and her husband who did put their noses on the grindstone to form the NDC but sadly they were treated with ordinary contempt by the likes of Asiedu Nketia and some upstarts in the NDC. When Mr. Mahama was in power and his wife, Lordina Mahama acted as the de facto Vice President, I used to ask myself where she was when the going was tough in the revolutionary days while the toughs, like Nana Konadu, kept going. This world, my brother!

If you are a cigar connoisseur and you become broke, you go in for the cheapest cigar in the shop. One of such cheap cigars is La Fontana Vintage Michelangelo. At this time of the month when salaries have not hit the accounts, I can only make do with such a cheap cigar. Please close your nostrils while I puff away because the scent is not pleasant.

From Eric Bawah