If Mahama is itching to stage a comeback, let him eat a humble pie

Interestingly, in the wake of the 2020 electioneering campaign, The Otumfuo Osei-TuTu II hit the nail on the head when he boldly and forthrightly told former President Mahama that Ghanaians voted against him in the 2016 general elections largely due to ‘hunger and anger’.

I couldn’t agree more. Otumfuo was absolutely right: Mahama’s calamitous errors in judgement resulted in harsh socio-economic standards of living.

Mahama, therefore, should have accepted his catastrophic mistakes and apologised to Ghanaians for wilfully imposing untold economic hardships.

Rightly so, Ghanaians did not take it lightly when Ex-President Mahama refused to apologise for egregiously giving away 58% of Ghana’s bauxite to his sibling Ibrahim Mahama and his partners on 29th December 2016, just a little over one week before exiting power.

In fact, former President Mahama should have eaten a humble pie and apologised on behalf of his brother Ibrahim Mahama for allegedly evading import taxes to the tune of GH12 million during his tenure in office.

Besides, former President Mahama should have acknowledged the concerns of Ghanaians over the purported GH800 million dubious judgment debt payments, including the GH51.2 million to Woyome, $30 million to the Waterville and $375,000 to Isofoton which resulted in the drastic reduction of capital expenditure, and as a consequence, most contractors were not paid by the erstwhile NDC administration.

In fact, Ex-President Mahama should have shown concern over the wilful misappropriation of a $175 million loan facility secured in 2012 which was meant to provide seven district hospitals but the NDC hierarchy misapplied on the blind side of Ghanaians.

To be quite honest, some of us were extremely surprised when Ex-President Mahama failed to beg Ghanaians for forgiveness before the 2020 general elections for surreptitiously diverting $6 million of a government loan facility of $175 million meant to provide seven district hospitals into researching the then governing NDC chances of winning the 2016 general elections.

Moreover, the over GHC200 million SADA funds invested in trees that were reported to have burnt down and the guinea fowls that miraculously flew to nearby Burkina Faso without a trace invariably stencilled on the mental sheets of Ghanaians, but Mahama blatantly failed to apologise.

Even though a competent court of jurisdiction convicted and sentenced four former NDC officials over the embezzled GYEEDA and NCA funds meant to provide suitable employment for the youth of Ghana, former President Mahama should have apologised to Ghanaians for superintending over such a mess, but woefully failed to do so.

If anything at all, discerning Ghanaians were expecting an unconditional apology over the scandalous Bus Branding, the Brazil World Cup, SADA, SUBA, amongst others, but were disappointed once again by Mahama.

Some of us, as a matter of principle, cannot comprehend how and why the people we choose to entrust with the national coffers could team up with shifty individuals and dip their hands into the national coffers as if there is no tomorrow.

In Ghana, in spite of the fact that corruption is a serious economic, social, political and moral impediment to the nation building, our corrupt officials are bent on siphoning our scarce resources regardless.

There is no gainsaying the fact that Ghana’s transgressed and incompliant politicians and other public officials often get away with murder.

Take, for example, a few years ago, the former Joy FM’s investigative journalist, Manasseh Azuri Awuni’s investigative work exposed Ex-President Mahama’s furtive gift of a brand new Ford Expedition vehicle worth over $100,000 from the Burkinabe Contractor, Djibril Kanazoe.

According to Manasseh, the Burkinabe Contractor Kanazoe carried out a number of contracts that were secured through sole-sourcing and handpicking, which sparked allegations of former President Mahama’s influence.

Manasseh reported that Djibril Kanazoe had previously been bidding for contracts in Ghana. However, he was not successful until a middleman led him to meet the then-vice president, Mahama.

Manasseh, however, stressed that subsequent to meeting the then vice president, Mahama, Kanazoe was handpicked to build the $650,000 Ghana Embassy fence wall in Burkina Faso.

According to the report, in September 2014, when officials of the Bank of Ghana met the Public Accounts Committee of Ghana Parliament (PAC), it was revealed that an amount of$656, 246.48 had been spent on the construction of a fence wall over a parcel of land belonging to the Ghana Embassy in Burkina Faso.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, PAC requested the Bank of Ghana to look into what it referred to as: “the outrageous” cost of the project.

Nevertheless, it came to light that the procurement process was violated to the advantage of President Mahama’s Burkinabe friend.

Astonishingly, during an interview with Manasseh, Djibril Kanazoe admitted that he did not put in a bid for the contract, however, the Ghana Embassy in Ouagadougou wrote to his company to request price quotations for the project. He, however, forwarded the necessary quotes and was selected.

According to Manasseh, subsequent to winning the bid, the Burkinabe contractor delivered to President Mahama, “the ‘gift’ of a brand-new Ford Expedition vehicle in 2012, the same year his company was selected, again through sole-sourcing, to execute more projects” (See: ‘Burkinabe Contractor offers a controversial gift to President Mahama’; myjoyonline.com,15/06/2015).

From the look of things, unless former President Mahama decides to render an unqualified apology, the good people of Ghana will continue to vent their arousing disgust over his calamitous errors in judgement which culminated in harsh socio-economic standards of living.