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Opinions of Wednesday, 31 July 2013

Columnist: Quaye, Stephen A.

Mr. President, ”please resign”.

By: Stephen A. Quaye.

For a rare
reason the birthday celebration of President John Dramani Mahamah escaped me.
Otherwise I would have packaged a nice birthday cake for him when he celebrated
his birth day this year.
No but is it
wrong to wish a sitting president well on his birth day? It is not wrong to
package a nice present for him on such day because he deserves it as equally as
any ordinary citizen.
After all
opposition youth activists in Uganda in 2011 attempted to throw a mock birthday
party for their president Mr. Yoweri
Museveni, that focused on his disputed age.
Unfortunately, the 20 strong group was
confronted by 200 heavily riot police and the nicely decorated birth day cake,
sweets and mangoes were seized on suspicion that they contained poison.
Anyway I care
for the president so I will never harbour such intention of contaminating a
nice birth day cake with poison for him on his birth day only for the” ABAN
PROSI” to put my hands in the iron bangle and throw be behind the iron curtain.
You received the
story recently about Toronto Mayor Mr. Rob Ford who was suspected of using hard
drugs.
After that story
came out, a group of people who were calling for his removal from office as a
mayor decorated a nice birthday cake and went on a walk on his birthday congratulating
him with no confrontation by the police. So wishing presidents, government
officials and politicians birthday is normal.
But on birth day
cakes there have been congratulatory messages that wish these personalities
well eh? Definitely on the cake there
was a message to wish Mr. Museveni well which read like this,” HAPPY BIRTHDAY
PRESIDENT MUSEVENI. HOW OLD ARE YOU 73 or 75?” Of course Mr. Museveni reduced
his age from 75 to 73 in order to stand the next election which drew a lot of
controversy.
Toronto Mayor, was
not lucky as his was an appeal on him to heed to the opposition’s call to step
down as a mayor of the area due to the suspicion that he allegedly abused
cocaine which read like this,” Congratulations Mayor Rob Ford, please resign as
a mayor”.
So for the two
typical examples given which one will you chose as a message to be put on the
cake for president Mahamah? Oh yeah? Is that what the spirit is telling you to
tell the president to resign after wishing him well? Okay.
You may be right
because the suffering has not changed since late president Mills took over
power in 2009 up till date that president Mahamah handed over power to himself
just after the 2012 elections.
The horrible
economic, social and political situation under the NDC government probably made
you choose that message of appeal for the president to step down to be put on the
cake.
The energy crisis,
high cost of living, expensive health care, high cost of education, housing,
transportation and utility deliveries, the rising rates of unemployment, crime,
ritual murders, drug trafficking and selective justice as well as the high
incidence of official corruption and discrimination has made a whole lot of
Ghanaians to plead with the president to step down.
Until the
president do some work to bring about comfort into the lives of Ghanaians the
call on him to step down will never end. It will continue so Mr. President
please do some work now and get a birth day cake with good message on it or
expect to read your wish,” CONGRATULATION MR. PRESIDENT. PLEASE RESIGN”.
END.