You are here: HomeNews2016 11 08Article 484319

Opinions of Tuesday, 8 November 2016

Columnist: Badu, K

Why dictators may be better economic managers than inveterate womanizers

Opinion Opinion

It is said that the occupiers of the glass house must be circumspect and avoid throwing stones at the direction of their opponents. That is a prudent axiom, so to speak, for while it is wrong to refer to someone as a womanizer, it is also disgusting to malign an innocent person as a dictator, with all honesty.

So, it becomes necessary for reflective observers to delve into the debate when a whole president and his apologists keep referring to the opposition leader as a dictator, who is unfit to lead the nation.

In fact, such a humongous allegation cannot be swept under the carpet anyhow without grubbing into the available facts and critique the competence of a supposedly dictator and an alleged womanizer.

Personally, if not for the fear of God and the inherent dignity and the inalienable human rights of all members of the human family, I would, have strongly supported the numerous calls for the castration of all inveterate and irresponsible womanizers.

Verily, I would never take it lightly if anyone needlessly ascribes womanizing on my person because it is extremely humiliating to have such a shameful accolade.

Besides, womanizers are known for disrespecting women. Womanizers would pursue women passionately, have numerous children and would end up leaving the innocent children with their respective mothers’ without partaking in their upbringing. How cruel?

Womanizers are indeed irresponsible and heartless. Most Ghanaian women have suffered in the hands of serial womanizers and they should never forgive and forget the shenanigans of a known womanizer, for such a character is extremely dangerous.

A womanizer is “an individual who pursues women lecherously or passionately”.

By inference, a womanizer is a liar. A liar is susceptible to committing robbery. And, a thief is an irreversible liar.

In hindsight, a womanizer is a manipulating geezer who preys on his victims. Besides, a womanizer would give uncountable promises, but would somehow fail to honour any of the numerous promises. In a nutshell, a womanizer is not a trustworthy bloke.

Truly, it would be extremely difficult for one to keep several concubines, unless the individual is a congenital liar. In other words, the womanizer would have to resort to a lot of 'propaganda' in order to have his way.

Besides, how does the individual provide all his numerous concubines with financial support if he has 'a shallow pocket'?

The likely scenario is: the congenital womanizer may resort to dubious practices, including corruption in order to support his income so as to feed his abhorrent habit of keeping several concubines.

Based on the preceding definitions of a womanizer, we can infer that a womanizer is disorganised, untrustworthy, incompetent, unfocused, playful, corrupt, indecisive, unreflective thinker, heartless, irresponsible, etc.

Apparently, there is a correlation between womanizing and corruption. And more so womanizers do not make good leaders. It is against this background that every patriotic Ghanaian must be concerned about the womanizing innuendoes being directed at President Mahama.

Given that there is a vineyard news about President Mahama’s extra marital affairs, one would have expected that President Mahama and his apple-polishers would be the last people to cast needless aspersions on their political opponent.

If you may recall, it was the Africawatch Steve Malory who broached President Mahama’s alleged lechery following an interview he had with the president.

In the said interview, President Mahama had this to say: “There is this notion of me being a womanizer which is certainly not true”. “I have had children outside my marriage”. “But I am at peace with my wife”. “She understands the circumstances in which it happened” said President Mahama (Daily Guide/peacefmonline.com).

It would be recalled that when President Mahama was first selected as the running mate of the then candidate, the late Mills in 2008, Mr Mahama’s official curriculum vitae released at the time indicated that he had nine children. However, the CV was quickly withdrawn and replaced with a new one stating seven as the number of his biological children (Daily Guide/peacefmonline.com).

Obviously, this bizarre omission ignited the debate over the actual number of his biological children.

Some rumour mongers mischievously put the figure at twenty three, while others pegged it at nineteen children and so on.

However, in his interview with the Africawatch, President Mahama made it clear that he Had had Children Outside his Marriage, but his Wife Understands his extra marital affairs (modernghana.com).

I am struggling to comprehend President Mahama’s explanation. May be readers will help me out here. If you have had numerous children outside your marriage, what are you then?

Obviously, if one engages in extra marital affairs, such an individual could be called a womanizer.

It is, therefore, worrying that President Mahama’s sympathisers would contend that if indeed President Mahama is indulging in extra marital affairs, it is his private matter and no one has the right to intrude into his private life.

This is where I disagree with those who hold such a sophistic view. For if anything at all, Mahama is the President of Ghana and therefore every patriotic Ghanaian has every right to be concerned with any bad name that would tarnish not only President Mahama’s image, but the whole nation.

In any case, it is worth stressing that it would be impossible to have a dictator in a constitutional democracy such as ours, because our presidents powers are guided by the 1992 Constitution and such powers are clearly stated.

All the same, it is only when the other two arms of government - the judicial and the legislative aren’t functioning properly that a supposedly dictator could survive in a contemporary Ghanaian politics.

Besides, a supposedly dictator can only exhibit his/her shenanigans in a constitutional democracy that has weak and dowdy laws such as the Criminal Libel and Seditious Laws which were used excessively by the founder of the NDC Party and former president, Jerry John Rawlings.

However, it was the supposedly dictator Nana Akufo Addo (former Attorney General ) who worked collaboratively with the forward thinking President Kufuor and repealed the inhumane Criminal Libel and Seditious Laws in 2001.

The real side of the firearm, though, is, dictators are better economic managers than incompetent and corrupt womanizers who are only good at proselytising the unsuspecting voters.

Indeed, when it comes to economic performance, history is at the side of the supposedly dictators. In fact, time and space would not allow me to enumerate all the facts. But take, for instance, even though former Libyan leader, the late Moammar Gadhafi was viewed as a dictator by his critics, he performed incredibly well in terms of the economy and he was patriotically attached to his country.

In my humble opinion, President Mahama must take steps to redeem his already tarnished image by explaining to Ghanaians and the whole world whether if it is morally right to produce numerous children outside his marriage.

K. Badu, UK.