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29.09.2019 Feature Article

Threats and Intimidation Cannot Win NDC the Presidency

Threats and Intimidation Cannot Win NDC the Presidency
29.09.2019 LISTEN

Former President John Dramani Mahama and the leaders of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) ought to have paid heed to the nugget-of-wisdom advice given them recently by the chief of the Agric-Nzema suburb of Kumasi, Nana Nkansah Boadu Ayeboafo, to wit, that instead of picking needless battles with the most powerful invested traditional ruler of the land, namely, His Royal Majesty, The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei-Tutu, II, they had better follow the emulative and exemplary leadership of President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo by heavily investing in the intellectual and professional training of Ghanaian youths for the rapid socioeconomic, cultural and technological development of the country (See “Stop the Insults, Tell Ghanaians Your Vision – Ashanti Chief Tells Mahama” AbcNewsGh.com/Ghanaweb.com 9/20/19).

This admonishment comes in the wake of a press statement that former President Mahama caused his election-time Exhibition Chief-of-Staff, Mr. Julius Debrah, to compose and publish that pathetically and scandalously sought to seismically derail the global stature and dignity of The Asantehene. About the only surprise here is the rather quixotic attempt by the former Rawlings’ Communication Minister to desperately launch a media blitz against the institutional paragon of Ghana’s monarchical establishment, being fully aware – or perhaps not – of the fact that both the former President and the National Democratic Congress may have effectively eviscerated for themselves any fighting chance that they hitherto may have had in the runup to the 2020 general election.

Indeed, we have observed this innumerable times before and hereby repeat the same – that next year’s election will be squarely based on the relative job performances of Messrs. Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and John Dramani Mahama, and not on the volume or degree of acoustic decibels or noise in the form of propaganda spiels displayed by the country’s two major political parties. So far, in just under three years of occupancy of the Jubilee-Flagstaff House, the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party has more than amply demonstrated that when it comes to the management of the affairs and business of the Ghanaian citizenry, it has absolutely no peer or classmate on the nation’s political landscape. It also goes without saying that the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party has fulfilled more of its electioneering-campaign promises in just a little under three years than the previous Mahama-led regime of the National Democratic Congress was able to achieve in 8 years.

But what is even more significant to highlight on this count has more to do with the quality and impact of the projects and policy initiatives executed than sheer numbers. For one, the Akufo-Addo-implemented fee-free Senior High School policy initiative, a national policy agenda that was gloriously fulfilled last September, has put more than 200,000 (Two-Hundred-Thousand) able-bodied Ghanaian youths into the educational system who would otherwise have been loitering in the streets and getting themselves into criminal acts of mischief. In sum, the general quality of life of the average Ghanaian teen and his/her parents and family members has been significantly improved. And this is also a remarkable economic gain for parents and guardians who had been having a difficult time enrolling their children and wards in Senior High Schools, thereby giving our future leaders a rare opportunity to significantly improve the quality of their lives and those of our future generations.

In other words, the Akufo-Addo-implemented fee-free SHS System is perhaps the most significant quality-of-life improvement investment initiative launched by any Ghanaian government in at least a generation. An incumbent President John Mahama looked Ghanaian citizens straight in the eye and solemnly and pontifically swore that at the most possible best, the feasibility of the implementation of the fee-free SHS System was a pipedream. And at the worst, the veritable wishful-thinking product of a fevered imagination. Now, most Ghanaians know precisely which of our politicians are the real psychological basket cases. Having been proven indelibly wrong, the leaders of the National Democratic Congress, led by the now-Candidate John Dramani Mahama, came up with some practically half-assed policy proposal called a “Gradual Fee-Free SHS Policy Initiative,” scandalously assuming that the decision regarding which of our SHS-qualified candidates, or children, had a right of accessing the same squarely belonged to a President John Dramani Mahama, and not the inalienable constitutional right of these students and their parents and guardians.

Now, tell me, Dear Reader, how can Ghanaians entrust our lives and destiny into the hands or care of a God-complex-afflicted leader who thinks that some among our equally qualified or eligible Senior High School candidates have a greater right of access than others? And that it is the exclusive right of a President Mahama to make the ultimate decision of who gets to attend any of our SHS institutions and who involuntarily gets to stay home and have their brains go to waste or literally go down the drain? This is the qualitative difference between the leadership of President Akufo-Addo and Candidate John Mahama. Now, you, the Ghanaian voter, have to decide who better qualifies to govern our country for the next four years.

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

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
September 22, 2019
E-mail: [email protected]

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