Why Bawumia shouldn’t take anti-corruption and incompetence lessons from Mahama (I)

It was not surprising a bit at all when the vast majority of the NDC Delegates gleefully threw their unflinching support behind Ex-President John Dramani Mahama in the NDC’s 2023 flagbearership race.

That being said, we cannot stand accused of harbouring risible and inherent proclivity for suggesting somewhat forthrightly and passionately that there are not many patriotic Ghanaians who will gleefully shrill and thrill over the return of Ex-President Mahama with the exception of the diehard supporters, many of whom perhaps, laid hands on big chunks of the national cake, ostensibly, shared unequally by the former president during his tenure in office.

We would, therefore, like to venture to stress forcefully that the Mahama’s praise singing bandwagon never experienced the harsh socio-economic standards of living their ‘redeemer’ Mahama wilfully brought upon the nation in the absence of globally diffused corona virus and Russia/Ukraine conflict.

If you may recall, during the NDC’s 2020 flagbearership contest, the other potential presidential aspirants and their supporters emitted vehemently and inexorably that former President Mahama was the main reason why NDC lost the 2016 election.

The aggrieved supporters uncompromisingly ventilated their illimitable indignations over the comeback of former President Mahama.

While the sceptics were insisting that Mahama was not up to the task during his tenure in office and must therefore be ditched and replaced with a much more capable flagbearer, the Mahama loyalists were moving heaven and earth to have him back as the party’s next presidential candidate.

To be quite honest, some of us cannot get our heads around how and why anyone with reflective thinking prowess could aim accusing fingers at the critics for insisting that Mahama kept his eyes off the prize and therefore does not warrant another chance at the presidency.

But all said and done, much as former President Mahama commands some respect among the NDC foot soldiers and a section of ordinary Ghanaians, the sceptics could not be far from right for being doubtful over Mahama’s electoral chances.

So it came as no surprise to some of us at all when a group of organisers within the opposition NDC urged the then National Executives of the party to allow Mr Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin to go unopposed in the party’s 2020 flagbearership contest (See: Alban Bagbin must go unopposed – NDC organisers; ghananewsagency.org/ghanaweb.com, 12/03/2018).

“So many people in the party feel Hon. Bagbin is the best person to lead us into 2020 and the reasons are pretty clear: he is the exact contrast to former President John Mahama in the matter of marketability and yet retains the Northern extraction that will satisfy the need to have a Northerner complete an eight-year mandate.”

Back then, the spokesperson for the group insisted vehemently that since corruption was going to be a key campaign theme in 2020, and the fact that former President Mahama administration had issues with corruption, Ghanaian voters would be forced to reject him if he was to be elected as the next flagbearer.

In fact, it was not only the aggrieved NDC organisers who expressed concerns about the corruption in the erstwhile Mahama administration.

The NDC founder and the former president of Ghana, the late J. J. Rawlings, audaciously came out and disclosed that the corruption in the Mahama administration was so pervasive to the extent that a former NDC minister licentiously bought two luxurious mansions worth at a staggering $3 million from an estate agent in Accra shortly after the Mahama’s government exited power (see: ‘NDC minister grabs two mansions’; dailyguidenetwork.com, 12/06/2018).

Besides, prior to the NDC’s 2020 flagbearership contest, the Honourable Bagbin, the then MP for Nadoli Kaleo and a contestant of the NDC’s presidential race, attributed the humiliating defeat of Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2016 general elections to bad governance (See: ‘Mahama's boys bought V8, built mansions in 4 years – Bagbin; myjoyonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 19/08/2018).

Mr Bagbin was reported to have quizzed somewhat dejectedly: “Don’t tell me that the boys that suddenly came closer to the president within four years can build mansions and buy land cruisers and you say there are no resources, where are they getting the money, their salaries?”

The rot in the Mahama administration, so to speak, was as pervasive as the odour of garlic.

And even more so, it was the so-called anti-corruption crusader, former president Mahama who secretly accepted a brand new Ford Expedition vehicle worth over $100,000 from a Burkinabe Contractor called Djibril Kanazoe, whom he allegedly showered with Government of Ghana contracts.

Then again, an investigation by the Office of the Special Prosecutor in 2020 confirmed that Mahama was the Government Official One who was cited in the Airbus bribery and corruption investigation carried out by the United States and the United Kingdom officials.

So, let’s pose humbly: how many opposition bribery and corruption suspects did Mahama arraign before a competent court of jurisdiction during his tenure in office?

I have always held a firm and unadulterated conviction that the numerous corruption allegations hanging on the neck of former President Mahama largely led to NDC’s 2016 humiliating election defeat.

The truth is, not every single Ghanaian was oblivious to the happenings in the country prior to the 2016 general elections.

K. Badu, UK.

k.badu2011@gmail.com