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Opinions of Friday, 18 November 2016

Columnist: Badu, K

Why President Mahama must not be allowed to ‘toaso’

President John Dramani Mahama President John Dramani Mahama

By K. Badu

Of course, to relentlessly write and shout about the sorrowful state of Ghana’s economy which some people strangely perceive as a benign or a convivial issue, is to be regarded as a political extremist, or even as a radical conservative, who is seeking to discredit their beloved government, but we must be true to the faith, uphold and defend the good name of our beloved Ghana.

Truly, the good people of Ghana have witnessed so much shiftiness, corruption, incompetence, nepotism, cronyism and frequent abuse of power in the NDC government led by President John Dramani Mahama, and rightly so, the vast majority of Ghanaians have lost trust in President Mahama and his government.

In a way, I would like to go with those who fret that President Mahama was never prepared for the presidency, hence his laid-back attitude towards his duty. Apparently, the sceptics insist that President Mahama fortuitously became the president following the sudden and inexplicable death of President Mills. He was indeed not expecting such a high profile position.

Even though President Mahama somehow claimed that it was God who put him in charge of the presidency, I do not want to buy such sophistic pronouncement, because God is not wicked to take away a more competent Mills away and only to replace him with unprepared Mahama to bring all sorts of hardships to Ghanaians.

For me, President Mahama and his laid-back appointees have wilfully collapsed Ghana’s economy, yet President Mahama and his apologists keep trumpeting their vague rhetoric , political insobrieties and meaningless slogans-‘Mahama Tuaso’; ‘We care for you’; ‘people matter, you matter’; ‘we are transforming lives’.

In actual fact, the NDC apparatchiks are only interested in the power and the massive remunerations that come with the job (e.g. ex gratia).

Indeed, NDC apparatchiks do not have the wellbeing of the electorates at heart, for they only scramble for power in order to pursue their vested interests.

Take, for instance, while President Kufuor and his NPP government helped to move Ghana from the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) status to a Lower Middle Income status, President Mahama and his NDC government have sent us back to the HIPC status.

In that regard, why must anyone accuse some of us of displaying subjective fit and harbouring irrevocable malice, for commending former President Kufuor and his NPP government for quadrupling Ghana's economy to US$ 28billion in 2008, a period of eight years?

And more so why must we stand accused of exhibiting inborn propensity for criticising President Mahama and his NDC government for wilfully collapsing the economy during the last seven and half years?

Without mincing words, I can dare state that there is an irreversible incompetence on the part of President Mahama and his NDC government.

For example, in the last seven and half years under this NDC government, Ghana’s total debt has ballooned from GH¢9.5 billion to a staggering GH¢110 billion as of September 2016.

What it means is that about 90% (i.e. GHC99.5 billion) of Ghana’s total debt since independence has been accumulated under this NDC government from 2009-2015 i.e. the last seven and half years.

Ironically, despite President Mahama and his appointee’s persistent dereliction of duty, they have the impertinent boldness to tell discerning Ghanaians that they are actually transforming Ghana.

Tell me, dearest reader, if President Mahama has really transformed Ghana positively, as he would want us to believe, why is it that the good people of Ghana are struggling to pay their utility bills, and more so cannot afford their children school fees?

Dearest reader, does it worth putting square pegs in round holes? Let’s face it; we cannot advance meaningfully as a nation if we continue to appoint unsuitable people to fill important positions in the country because of narrow political coloration.

As a matter of fact, we cannot expect to build a prosperous nation if we continued to elect unqualified leaders, but we can only develop as a nation by choosing suitable people to important positions.

In the great scheme of things, it will, be devilishly suicidal to vote one more time for the incompetent NDC government led by President Mahama.