Opinions of Friday, 1 July 2016

Columnist: Daily Statesman

Another term for Mahama will be bad omen for Ghana

President John Dramani Mahama has been begging Ghanaians to give him another term, when they go to the polls this year, for him to get the opportunity to 'continue improving their lives'.

The calls come at a time all the major opposition parties in the Northern Region, in a positive response to the cries and suffering of the masses, have come together give him a one-week ultimatum to reduce electricity tariffs by 50 per cent or face their wrath.

During the 2012 electioneering campaign, the president told the nation that the first term of the NDC government had been used to build a solid infrastructural base for the country, and to also put the economy on a sound footing. And based on that so-called achievement, he promised to deliver prosperity to the people in the second them (putting money into their pockets).

But, with barely six months to the end of the second term of the government, the realities on the ground point to the fact that President Mahama and his government have delivered excruciating hardships to the people, leaving them in a state of complete hopelessness.

Indeed, President Mahama has been tried, tested and proven to be a failure in governance, especially when it comes to economic management and the fight against corruption, and therefore does not deserve another term in office.
It is clear the number one citizen of the land has lost complete touch with the realities on the ground, or he is being insincere with the people of Ghana. That is why he can ask for another term, with the promise to 'continue improving' their lives.

Whose lives has he been improving, apart from members of his family, his cronies and his cabal of 'greedy bastards' who have been provided with the enabling environment that allows their 'create, loot and share' enterprise to flourish?

The best the President should be doing is to ask for forgiveness from the people of Ghana for putting them through hell for the last 8 years, having wasted all the opportunity he had to turn the fortunes of the country around.
The New Patriotic Party government, during the tenure of President John Kufuor, was able to, within three years, take the country from the shackles of the International Monetary Fund due to the introduction and implementation of sound and pragmatic policies.

The Mahama government has been characterized by naked corruption and gross mismanagement. This is what eventually led to the country's decision to 'return' to the International Monetary Fund for a bail-out. The concomitant effects have been the imposition of killer taxes and utility tariffs, as well as the freeze on employment. And this is the situation the president wants Ghanaians to be enthused about and vote to retain?

Once again, we at the Daily Statesman want to caution Ghanaians that another term for the corrupt President Mahama and his cabal of 'greed bastards' will only extent the opportunity they have to steal more from the national coffers, and thus create more hardships for all of us.

The only way out for the nation now is to boot out this corrupt president from power and replace him with the more patriotic, incorruptible Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who has convinced the nation beyond every reasonable doubt that he is not into politics to amass wealth, but to seek the wellbeing of the masses.