Test for President Mahama and Nana Addo

I humbly beg for the indulgence, patience, tolerance and permission of Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ghana, Mr. John Dramani Mahama and the NPP Presidential Candidate of the 2012 Presidential Election, to set both of you a test from my humble corner. The test is supposed to be completed and marked after 29th August 2013, after the declaration of the Election Petition Verdict. I am not bothering you with this test, oblivion of your tight and exacting official commitments but the pertinence of the test, Your Excellency and Nana, calls for the perhaps foolhardiness with which I interrupted your busy schedules. For this audacity, I once again unreservedly beg for pardon, notwithstanding the exigency of the test.

The test is very simple superficially but very difficult. I am, however, not unaware of the indisputable fact that both of you are intellectuals of high standing and as such will have no problem with a test by someone like me, of a very, very low intellectual standing. Sorry, I made a mistake: I have no intellectual standing at all, let alone one with a level.

The test is as follows: there is a very deep-rooted giant tree in the heart of Mr. Ghanaian. This tree keeps growing by the day and as such the heart of Mr. Ghanaian is being torn, destroyed or ruptured by the unbridled growth of this sinister tree, beyond any cardiothoracic remedy.

What I want from both of you is to see who can uproot this tree alone, to score my full mark of 100%. I can see Your Excellency laughing and gleefully examining your biceps and triceps muscles, very sure of your youthful strength. You believe you are younger and as such Nana is no match for the test and price. Nana, please I can see you weeping while hesitatingly examining your biceps and triceps muscles. You fear your age will not permit you to pass this test due to the gigantism of the tree?

Your Excellency, please limit your jubilation and listen to me because I have good news for you so that you will even jubilate more. Nana, please wipe your tears and listen to me for a piece of news that will automatically let you also jubilate with His Excellency soon. Let me tell you the biggest secret about this test. When both of you combine efforts and uproot the tree together, you will each get a prize worth more than 100% score, which you will soon know.

If it were my elementary school days I would have told both of you that, ‘well dodge’, you have both missed the point. It takes not physical strength to uproot the tree as it takes even the feeblest person to uproot this tree, and this is why and how: the tree is simply the perception among Ghanaians that politicians seek political power for self aggrandizement or personal gains but not for the development of the nation.

Both the test and the answer lie in the declaration of the Election Petition Verdict on 29th August 2013. Why would one raise a weapon or incite one’s supporters to take up weapons or arms and fight or cause mayhem when one loses an election? Is it because one’s desire to become a president is informed by ulterior motives or personal interests or propelled by nationalism? A lot of Ghanaians believe that it is the former possibility. They contend that if it were not so, one would not be bothered if the very people one would have been president over, decided that one should not be their president at a particular time, by voting for one’s political opponent. Assuming one were even cheated, would not one live to try again another time, for the sake of one’s nation and fellow Ghanaians?

How possible is it that one would kill only one’s political opponent even if that were the right thing to do after losing an election? The killing goes beyond this perceived ‘enemy’ to include millions or thousands of other innocent citizens one would have been president over. These are mostly our vulnerable women and children who may not even know what politics is all about. They are the major sufferers and victims whose only offence is that they are Ghanaians and defenseless. Wherein, therefore lie the veracity of and honesty in the claim that one would have been president in the interest of the nation and the citizens and not for one’s egoism?

So, Your Excellency and Nana, please, each of you should try as much as possible to uproot this perception by being the first not to encourage by word or gesture, your numerous supporters to resort to violence in the event of losing the Petition Case, for that is not and can never be the end of life, even if that ends your political life. When the winning party is able to prevent his supporters from teasing the losing party’s supporters just as the losing party should prevent his supports from taking up arms to fight, you would have combined efforts to uproot this perception once and for all.

The national peace and tranquility that the uprooting of this giant tree would have culminated in, as a result of your combined effort, would have been the secret prize I made mention of as being worth more than 100% if the tree were uprooted by both of you at the same time.

Prince Young