Opinions of Tuesday, 8 November 2016

Columnist: Statesman Opinion

Corrupt, incompetent Mahama can't fool Ghanaians with frivolities

President John Mahama President John Mahama

Corrupt and incompetent President John Dramani Mahama and his cabal of nation wreckers would be living in a fool's paradise to think that the ever-increasing discerning Ghanaian electorate will be influenced to retain them in power by their constant attempt to elevate frivolities above the real bread and butter issues that matter most to them in their campaign.

Acting upon the advice of foreign PR consultants, contracted at huge cost, President Mahama has been deceived into believing that launching vitriolic attacks on the personality of the Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo, is what would save him from the impending electoral defeat that awaits him.
With extreme form of desperation having caught up with him, thus making him hysterical, the 'communication expert' President now thinks the most sensible thing he can do is to tell Ghanaians that the most important criterion to depend on to decide the direction of their votes is to take a look at the internal issues in the political parties.
Now, the main campaign message of President Mahama is that Ghanaians should give him another term because the NPP is divided, after taking disciplinary actions against some of its members.
And the president makes this claim as if he thinks Ghanaians are not aware that 23 members of his party have been sacked, just recently, for contesting the upcoming parliamentary elections as independent candidates. So, you see the way our president thinks.
Now, one of the most important issues that need to be addressed by President Mahama is why he put pressure on the Attorney-General to discontinue the court processes that could lead to the retrieval of the over GHC50 million his government dubiously paid to Alfred Woyome.

This is more important to the electorate than the internal affairs of either the NDC or NPP because corruption has been the major bane of our development over the years. And the consensus, with available evidence, among Ghanaians is that this social evil has been given unquenchable oxygen by President Mahama's very corrupt nature. It is only a corrupt president who will influence his Attorney-General to act the way she is acting in the Woyome case.

On the contrary, Ghanaians know Nana Akufo-Addo remains incorruptible and are convinced by his assurance that he is not seeking their mandate, to come into office, to steal from the national coffers, neither is he going to create the enabling environment for his family members and friends to engage in the 'create, loot and share' agenda religiously being carried out under Mahama's watch.

These and other more pressing issues like the escalating unemployment, skyrocketing cost of living, humongous utility tariffs, stealing of loans contracted on behalf of the country through sole-sourced outrageously inflated contracts and the gross ineptitude in the handling of the affairs of the country are what will influence the direction of the votes of the discerning electorate.
While Nana Akufo-Addo has been explaining to the electorate how he intends to tackle these pressing issues of concern to them, President Mahama thinks it makes more sense to be telling Ghanaians that they should renew his mandate because Nana Akufo-Addo will not only destool chiefs when he becomes the president, but also the NPP he leads is divided.
We at the Daily Statesman want to assure President Mahama and those who think like him in the NDC, such as Communications Minister Omane Boamah, that Ghanaians are now more than wide-awake and can read between the lines. The propaganda and lies about Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP will never cut any ice on the electorate.

Let Mahama continue paying huge sums of money to a failed Nigeria politician like Dele Momodu and other PR consultants for all the personality attack strategies against Nana Akufo-Addo; let him continue to pay huge sums of money to some selected journalists to perpetuate their attacks on Nana Akufo-Addo, as well as sustain their unpatriotic agenda of burying the real issues of concern to the masses; let him continue influencing some chiefs with V8 and other freebies; let him continue doling out freebies to other influential people, as well as a section of the electorate; we can assure him that Ghanaians will certainly say 'good riddance to bad rubbish' on December 7, 2016.

The people simply can't give President Mahama another term because they see him as a corrupt, incompetent and indecisive leader, who is seeking to fool them with frivolities, lies, deception and despicable propaganda.