You Have Surprised Me, Ex-President Mahama!

The ugly scenes in the by-election in the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency make me feel like throwing up. Of course, the MP said a lot of things that I don’t know. However, he was not violent, so I still do not understand why he was attacked. Whatever his concerns were, they could have been thrashed out peacefully. I thought that is what a country regarded as the beacon of democracy in Africa should be doing. I never expected those security guys or men to unleash terror and violence on the Honourable MP and the other people.

While we have to condemn the brutalities in the by-election, we must have a critical dissection of ex-president Mahama’s intemperate outburst. Listening to Peace FM this morning, I was befuddled, as to who exactly was speaking: “The NDC has a revolutionary root”. “We [NDCs] will match the NPP boot for boot”. I cannot believe ex-president Mahama actually spoke that way.

It is pitifully outrageous to make pronouncements that are inimical to the sustainability of the democracy of the very country you want to rule. You cannot do that in the UK or Singapore and still expect people to vote for you in a national election. This can happen only in Ghana. When it comes to our politics, I am ashamed to be a Ghanaian. Has he forgotten that he once ruled us and is still working assiduously to come back?

And on that score, it is clear ex-president Mahama has no respect for human life. To flagrantly pontificate that they will match the NPP boot for boot presupposes that he wants to see the country in chaos. If he has no respect for life, we do. Some of us do not have bulging biceps and triceps, if not the thick skin, to handle AK 47. If he is violent, some of us are not like him. No wonder some people say all sort of things about Africans. I remember when a woman asked me in a foreign country: “Africans, you drink blood, right?” And as cool as always, I just smiled and answered: “It is not true; we don’t”. Given ex-president Mahama’s behaviour, I am not sure the woman believed me. Can two wrongs ever make one right?

That is a testament to the fact that ex-president Mahama has completely changed. He was different. His phlegmatic nature was his pride and strength. I remember in discussions on TV, whenever he was speaking and someone interrupted him, he stopped speaking and waited for the person to finish before he continued with his submission. That approbative attribute, uncommon in our politics, made me admire him a lot. What went horribly wrong? If I had not heard him and someone had told me, I wouldn’t have believed he actually said so. Nonchalantly asserting that the NDCs have a revolutionary root?

The downright obnoxious fact that our politicians keep fighting tooth and nail overpower raises, at least, one issue: They want to win elections by hook or crook because of the huge political sinecures they will get. Are they really corrupt? In modern times that leaders are thinking of how to adopt economics of innovation and other economic models to achieve development, our politicians are intemperately throwing tantrums at each other and threatening to plunge the nation into chaos. And instead of thinking of how to vote for another party and eliminate the NDC and NPP, some people still defend them. What a shame!

With the inexcusably uncouth behaviour of our politicians, the question is: Can we still say we are the beacon of democracy in Africa? Will we ever join the echelons of countries with enviably improved and developed economies?

Kwabena Aboagye-Gyan

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