The Joke Is on Mahama, But He Is Too Slow-Witted to Get It

Listening to any one of his hot-air-blowing electioneering campaign speeches, one gets the bizarre impression that former President John Dramani Mahama is a man who is still tragically stuck in the denial mode or gear, nearly two years after the Ghanaian electorate showed him the exit out of the Jubilee-Flagstaff House. But even before we go any farther into the thematic details of this column, suffice it to say, at least in passing, that Mr. Mahama may need to be told upfront and center that in rather presumptuously telling the very voters who put him into the highest office of the land that they had absolutely no right to either criticize his abjectly poor on-the-job performance, or call the same into question, simply because they had never themselves served as Presidents of the Democratic Republic of Ghana, was not a mark of the most intelligent or visionary leadership.

The preceding snide remark which he uttered in the leadup to the 2016 general election alone decidedly ensured that the former Atta-Mills’ arch-lieutenant would never be afforded another clearly undeserved opportunity to arrogantly lord it over the Ghanaian voter – my profound apologies to Mrs. Lordina Mahama – again, either in this life or the one that is yet to come on the other shore, as it were. Well, since he was the very first person to recently accuse the leaders and key operatives of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) of having an especial prerogative over lying as Ghanaian politicians, we need to promptly and equally point out that this pronouncement alone readily gives Mr. Mahama away as the Pope or Pontiff of all political liars in the country, and uncontestably the worst of his kind since our country’s attainment of sovereignty from British colonial imperialism some 61 years ago. Even a 5-year-old toddler knows that by making such an insultingly facile statement to the Ghanaian voter and citizenry, Mr. Mahama has proven himself to be both, at once, the most promiscuous and dishonest politician in the history of our beloved country.

For starters, didn’t this same shameless licensed and certified political scam-artist tell us straight in the eye and in the face that he would recover every pesewa and cedi that was criminally stolen from our national purse, or wallet, by Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome as soon as he had been voted into office by the Ghanaian electorate? What happened? I bet my bottom-dollar that even Mrs. Lordina Mahama does not trust her two-timing Bole-born pikinabolo-producing husband. It is also comical to hear the former President tell the good and hardworking people of Gushegu, in his electoral stronghold of the Northern Region, the following trademark lie: “Don’t say that politicians don’t tell the truth; say that the NPP don’t tell the truth” (See “Don’t Brand Politicians As Liars; Say NPP Lies” MyJoyOnline.com / Modernghana.com 10/6/18).

What is also inexcusably pathetic here is that the former Rawlings’ Communications Minister seems to believe that he has an inalienable entitlement right to the Presidency. A Life-Presidency, that is. Which is why he continues to crazily and scandalously campaign for the Presidency, even long after Ghanaian voters had massively and unprecedently shown him the exit portals out of the Jubilee-Flagstaff House as an incumbent. It also goes without saying that if the key operatives of the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party could so easily succeed in winning power by merely promising Ghanaian voters the creation of jobs and livable wages and salaries, then it only goes to show the great and damnable extent to which the Mahama-led regime of the National Democratic Congress had lost the trust and confidence of the overwhelming majority of Ghanaian voters and the citizenry in the leadup to the 2016 general election.

We must also highlight the fact that, once again, the former President has resorted to his trademark attitude of insulting the intelligence of the Ghanaian voter by facilely supposing that s/he is too daft or stupid to make the most appropriate or intelligent decisions when it comes to his/her choice of leadership. As well, another problem that the petty Bole-Bamboi chieftain has in convincing the Ghanaian electorate to return him to power or the seat of governance, is the fact that Mr. Mahama cannot point to a single progressive policy initiative that he has implemented for the benefit of the average Ghanaian citizen or the remarkable progress and development of the country.

In short, what I am trying to get at here is that Ghanaians voted for the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party primarily and essentially because the NPP has an enviable track-record of creating jobs and growing businesses in the country, just as the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress is equally known to be irredeemably AWOL or indescribably incompetent when it comes to job creation and the growing of local Ghanaian businesses. Rather, the specialty of the NDC leadership is the growing of foreign business through the promotion of Judgment-Debt Decisions.

We also know that Mr. Mahama’s sole claim to any credit is in the realm of scandalously and unwisely reviewing the progressive policy initiatives of NPP leaders, and then abrogating the long-established stipends and allowances of nurse- and teacher-trainees, so as to free up more money for the thievish and criminal payment of double salaries to his cabinet appointees, his wife and himself. By the way, the former First Lady is widely rumored to have been paid a regular stipend of some $10,000 (Ten-Thousand American Dollars) anytime that he took a trip abroad during the tenure of her husband, that is, President Mahama.

It is also an open-secret that President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is unarguably the most honest and progressive leader of Ghana’s Fourth Republic. I mean, the “Giant-Dwarf” promised to make our Senior High Schools tuition-fees-free; and the latter was smack among some of the first landmark policy initiatives to be implemented shortly after his assumption of the democratic reins of governance. Maybe what any potential or prospective Mahama backer ought to do is to first ask the former Atta-Mills lieutenant to define the meaning of “a liar” before deciding to line up his/her vote behind the man. If they do, they would almost immediately realize what a total waste of time it is to accommodate this psychological basket case of a Ghanaian politician.

By the way, Mr. John “Ford Expedition Payola” Mahama, have you ever taken a bribe? Button A or Button B? “Do you mean since I became President or when I was Vice-President?” That is the profile of the man for you.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
October 7, 2018
E-mail: [email protected]