NDC punished in Kunbungu by-election

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) which has always won the Kunbungu constituency parliamentary seat has suffered a humiliating defeat in a by-election that was conducted by the Electoral Commission on the 30th of April 2013.

Moses Yahaya, an Assemblyman for the Saakuba Electoral Area of Kunbungu who contested on the ticket of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), won the by-election to replace Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni who resigned to take up an international appointment.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) did not contest the election in protest against the constitutional and statutory violations that took place in the 2012 elections and currently an issue under hearing at the Supreme Court of Ghana.

Before the elections, political and other social commentators had predicted doom for the NDC in view of the current hardship in the country including the torrents of strikes in the country.

One can therefore confidently say at this juncture that the victory of the CPP in the by-election is a certified verdict on the NDC for putting the economy in ‘coma’. It would have been strange if the NDC had won the elections in the face of the annoying unemployment level in the country coupled with the directionless nature of the current government.

There is no doubt at all that the President is yet to validate his credibility at the Supreme Court. But that notwithstanding, he is the President of Ghana until the Supreme Court rules otherwise. What single thing has President John Mahama done since he was sworn in as President to ameliorate the excessive and excruciating problems facing Ghanaians? I keep wondering.

What we are rather seeing is a President who behaves as if he is unaware of happenings in the very country he is governing. For instance we have a President saying the current power rationing in the country was to take a certain dimension and then the public relations officer of the VRA came out to cast doubts and undermine what the President said.

President John Mahama had also told Ghanaians that the power rationing that was ongoing was to end permanently by the end of April 2013. You can tell a sick horse by the look so goes the adage and I can vouch that what the president said about the ending of power rationing was more of propaganda than a reality.

How could NDC have won an election at a time medical doctors at public hospitals were on nearly a month’s strike with government struggling to undermine the doctors than it was willing to solve the grievances that led to the strike in the first place?

At the time of typing this article, government had hinted of bringing in 300 Doctors from Cuba to douse the effect of the Ghanaian doctors’ strike. What economic sense does this make? Your trained doctors are on strike then you are willing to go to another country to hire doctors at a cost to come and do the work of the striking doctors rather than solve their problems at once!

These days I don’t want to be talking about this government. They don’t listen or take suggestions. They have lots of “Mr. Know Alls” among them and therefore erroneously always think that everybody else is wrong and they are always right. They have with this attitude sent the economy straight into the Intensive Care Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and now that the doctors are even on strike, only God can tell what will happen next.

At least we have the Kunbungu by-election as a case study for now to prove how a government that was more interested in propaganda rather than the truth was punished in its own backyard by the people who were virtually saying that ‘Enough is enough’!

I wish to conclude by lauding the people of Kunbungu for carrying the protest message on behalf of all Ghanaians to the propaganda government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).