By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
December 11, 2016
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

He may be preoccupied with reorganizing his party for a gubernatorial comeback; but I pretty much doubt that come Election 2020, the decisively trounced and ousted President John Dramani Mahama would still be the main opposition National Democratic Congress’ most fetching presidential candidate material. The man has already amply demonstrated that he has neither the aptitude nor the capacity for the job, which was why not very long ago, the former Rawlings Communications Minister bitterly lamented that such formidable political opponents as Messrs. Akufo-Addo and Bawumia would call his administrative competence into question.

Back then, his main problem was far less the widespread perception that he was grossly not up to snuff for the job, as it were, but rather the fact that his main political opponents did not appear to charitably recognize the fact that the job of being President of Ghana was an extremely complex and difficult one. Well, our elders have said that “We do not slap an angry man.” Actually, “We do not slap a deeply troubled man” comes closer to this maxim when translated into the English language. What this means is that I do not intend to make an already miserable situation even more desperate for the man who was so mercilessly routed in the country’s most recent presidential election that he is likely to become effectively comatose for at least the next several weeks.

Still, if I were Mr. John Jinapor, the Deputy Power Minister and the defeated leader’s arch-lieutenant, I would be singing the same logically addled tune vis-à-vis my generous paymaster’s strategic comeback (See “Mahama to Reorganize NDC for Election 2020 – Jinapor” MyJoyOnline.com 12/10/16). He has a far better chance resuming the doctoral studies he claimed to have embarked upon, when a grossly misguided Candidate John Evans Atta-Mills decided to tap him for the “thankless job of a presidential spare-tire.”

The fact of the matter is that there are too many presidential wannabes standing on line and have been standing on line for so long that if the former National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for Bole-Bamboi attempted to come back to play peek-a-boo with the sacred destiny of Ghanaians once more, he is almost certain to be jackbooted so hard that he would fall flat on his face long before reaching the front of the ten-deep queue of air-chopping contestants scrambling to succeed him.

But give it to Little Dramani; he has made at least one historic milestone that absolutely nobody can deny him or begrudge him of. And it is the fact that he has made history as Ghana’s first president to have been born in the postcolonial era, although, personally, I would rather not reckon his gross and crass political incompetence as one that typifies the caliber of the members of my generation. For that kind of indelible and tar-brushing record, I would rather wait on the arrival of the Oxbridge-educated Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, however long it takes. I mean, why would anybody want to be a part of the dismal and the apocalyptically sorry-assed record of a “presidential spare-tire” (mind you, dear reader, those are his own words), whose first order of business was to heartily celebrate the “auspicious” passing of his immediate predecessor and former boss?

More than four years later, the man has yet to tell the nation and the rest of the global community precisely what and exactly how the former University of Ghana’s tax-law professor met the proverbial Leveler or his Maker. And then there was also the close-range brutal assassination of the Nkwanta-North – or was it Nkwanta-South? – District Chief Executive Officer whose killer or killers have yet to be apprehended and brought to justice. There may as well be the suspicious deaths of two or three more political appointees that have yet to be creditably accounted for.

If, indeed, Little Dramani wants to be taken seriously vis-à-vis his strategic comeback, it is these sorts of incidents that the Ghanaian voter who so delightfully showed him the exit the other day is interested in. I mean, what really can a man who so facilely and cheaply falls for the bribery offer of a Ford Expedition SUV, in exchange for doling out millions of dollars of the Ghanaian taxpayer’s hard-earned moolah, be expected to do towards the general upkeep and development of the country?

And so, to Little Dramani’s wistful cant about having hoped to have been offered another four-year term to do more for the country, I say “Opoo man, keep the rest of your plans and intentions for Lordina and the rest of the family. They may need it far better than the rest of us.”

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs