In part one of this article, I explained that in Development Studies, there are five key stages that a country must follow through in order to achieve sustainable growth i.e. traditional society, preconditions to take-off, take-off, drive to maturity and age of high mass consumption (Rostow, 1969).

The “preconditions to take-off” entail the installation of physical infrastructure, such as roads, schools, hospitals, markets and ports.

I explained how after winning the 2012 general elections, H.E. John Mahama embarked on massive infrastructural development in order to achieve the “precondition to take-off and take-off” status and lay the foundation for achieving a successful Ghana, because the country had spent decades dabbling in haphazard approaches that have led us to nowhere, thereby necessitating a new paradigm shift.

Between 2012 and 2016, former president Mahama focused on infrastructural development, building hospitals, ports, power generation, markets, and schools and constructing roads to position Ghana for social and economic transformation in actualising the Rostow theory for national development.

Having lived in the UK for close to two decades, I have not seen any government from Tony Blair to Rishi Sunak build any new hospital, airport, university, secondary or primary school or construct any new stretch of road in the whole period of my stay. Previous governments have ensured that all these infrastructures are available, therefore subsequent governments do not shoulder these burdens, they only embark on the maintenance of these infrastructures.

For example, the UK spent £4.5 billion on road maintenance not road construction between 2022 and 2023, because there are no new roads to be constructed. H.E. John Mahama was heading us towards this direction and will do so after 2024 general elections.

Let’s imagine a Ghana where the government does not have to build schools, hospitals, airports, markets, construct roads, and ask ourselves what would be our standards of living as Ghanaians. Governments would have been able to build social housing, offer decent salaries, pay unemployment benefits, housing benefits, child benefits and access to finance to the private sector to expand and employ the youth will be available as witnessed in the advanced economies.

This is the Ghana former president John Mahama was building, the Ghana he will build if elected in 2024.

The vision and ideology of John Mahama is akin to building a house, where laying a strong foundation is the best premise, it is the basis upon which a house is built because it needs to be resilient to ensure its ability to support the house for many years. Strong foundation connects the entire house together, without a strong foundation your house will collapse.

For a country to achieve its potential, it needs modern infrastructure that links everyone together and provides a strong foundation to provide education, health care, clean water, power and communications so that businesses can thrive and jobs can be created for the youth.

The development of these massive infrastructures as a foundation for national take-off has the propensity to change the lives of Ghanaians in diverse ways by creating employment and opening a wealth of opportunities. Construction of roads, railways and ports in a developing country such as Ghana, connects products to markets and markets to products to enhance the standards of living of the citizenry within the value chain.

Former president Mahama even expanded this vision beyond our borders to ECOWAS with the Eastern Corridor Road project.

While the former president was strategically implementing this excellent framework towards national development, the then opposition NPP was deceitfully accusing him of neglecting the economy, meanwhile, he was building the economy through infrastructural revolution, because building a solid foundation automatically set us up for “take-off” leading to sustainable economic growth.

H.E John Mahama initiated projects to ensure that every citizen in this country had access to clean running water, 92 kilometres of water pipe and built 4 new reservoirs were added, the project was ongoing until it was truncated with lies in the 2016 general elections.

The NDC under President John Mahama built thousands of kilometres of roads linking Ghana’s agricultural produce to its cities and ports. This means farmers can get faster, easier access to the markets.

Undoubtedly, this is a man with a clear plan, direction and purpose required for a successful Ghana.

H.E. John Dramani Mahama’s leadership, experience, honesty, integrity, credibility, vision and passion for a successful Ghana make him a compelling personality to trust to position this country for a take-off going into the 2024 general elections.

With a focus on improving infrastructure, human capital, economic growth, social justice and youth empowerment, H.E. Mahama has demonstrated his commitment to fulfilling every promise he makes towards building a prosperous and inclusive Ghana.

As the nation prepares for the 2024 elections, let us carefully consider the merits of his ideological stance and unite behind him, because he is a leader who has consistently shown dedication to the betterment of Ghana.