In this column on Thursday, October 20, 2016, I made the following observation: “In all honesty, President John Dramani Mahama does not deserve to be on the ballot paper after his romance with a Burkinabe contractor led to the loss of US$650,000 to the state, in that gamut of a contract to construct, what I call, a Jericho Wall in Ouagadougou, which in turn begat the Ford Expedition bribery scandal.”
The administration of this country, under Mr. John Dramani Mahama, has been disastrous, to put it mildly. The economy is in a mess, trickling down to a life of despondency for many nationals depending on state largesse.
The situation at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, where vital services to in-patients have been suspended, tells the story of a nation unable to cater for its own, in spite of overlays of state funds being spirited away in various acts of cronyism. It is not only psychiatric patients who are being denied basic health and food care. All specialised institutions for underprivileged Ghanaians are facing paralysis under President Mahama.
Nana Oye Lithur, President Mahama’s Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, is too busy identifying households belonging to sympathisers of the ruling National Democratic Congress, to enable the Ministry dish out state pittances meant for destitute homes to oil the NDC campaign. Oh yes!
Nana Oye was one of this nation’s acclaimed human rights activists. Since joining the Mahama administration, she has been conspicuous by her silence on human rights issues. I was just composing this piece when a colleague reminded me of an experience with a similar activist who was given a top job in Nigeria. Asked why he had been quiet on naked human rights abuses by the Nigerian administration, his response was simple. “In Africa, it is rude to talk while eating,” which tells a lot about the happenings in the country under Mahama.
The Mahama administration is so desperate that it would stop at nothing to pull off the impossible. As you read this piece, the entire governance system of this country has ground to a halt. Virtually all political appointees have abandoned their briefs and taken to the road to campaign, in a desperate bid to retain President John Mahama and his moribund administration.
The President himself is now in the Volta Region. In all honesty, the Head of State has spent the better part of the year on the campaign trail. President Mahama is barely seen at his office these days.
Whoever advised Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur to enter the realm of politics at the very top, might not have done his image any good. Seeing him on television, walking through the market in the Assin area of the Central Region at the week-end, he cut a forlorn figure. The Vice-President was off colour, and appeared completely disinterested in his assignment.
One might have thought that with his background in academia, the Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana would find his interactions with students more relaxed. At the weekend, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, who has also abandoned his brief at Government House and taken the torrid route in electioneering campaign, was at the Assin Foso College of Education.
He appeared contradictory on the main issue he was supposed to educate the trainee teachers on. Certainly, this is not the time to justify a policy that has been already been reversed for political expediency. Everybody knows how this administration has goofed big time by ordering the cancellation of allowances meant for trainee-teachers.
It is certainly the pressure of the vote that has forced the Mahama administration to back-pedal on the allowances. Instead of raising the spirit of these students, by narrating how positive the restoration of their allowances would impact their lives, Paa Kwesi tried, rather too hard, to justify why it was cancelled in the first place. If cancellation was the best option, why would this administration want to restore the allowance system?
This administration knows no shame. If it does, this would certainly not be the time to ruffle the feathers of trainee-teachers. With most of their seniors, who completed the course for the past two years at the 32 Colleges of Education, yet to receive their wages, in spite of teaching our kids all this while, none of the 32 Colleges of Education in this country would be the ideal ground to preach the hopelessly out of tune ‘Changing Lives and Transforming Ghana’ message.
One of the comedies of the electioneering campaign is the sight of the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, with his frame, virtually trudging on the campaign floor, instead of covering for the Head of State at Government House.
The Jubilee House is naked. It is without any of the officials of state that makes it function as the Presidential Office. It is all in the name of getting John Dramani Mahama re-elected.
National democratic Congress (NDC) officials virtually scream in Twi, the largest spoken local dialect in this country: ‘JM TUASO,’ (JM continue).
For me, the whole gamut of electioneering is becoming a comedy. Political dinosaurs like Kofi Totobi Quakyi, Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi, Cecelia Johnson, Ama Benyiwa Doe – men and women who created the fear factor in national politics in the so-called revolutionary era, and aided Jerry John Rawlings to turn this beautiful republic into the culture of silence, have all been dusted and are in the campaign trenches out there.
When I saw the women triumvirate of Benyiwa-Doe, Cecilia Johnson with Faustina Nelson of the Verandah Boys and Girls fame in tow, on television, they looked tired and hopelessly out of touch.
It tells a lot about the exigencies of the moment. The task is daunting. When President John Dramani Mahama, the man touted as a communication expert, and with an arsenal of all state information machinery at his disposal, complains of some media practitioners blocking his message, ‘Enibre’ has come. Which reminds me of pronouncements by the late General Kutu Acheampong, Chairman of the Supreme Military Council, when the die was cast.
When the man who rose from Colonel to a four star-General in six years of mis-administering this country, announced his coup d’état, he told Ghanaians that even small amenities the military were enjoying in the Nkrumah regime, had been taken away by the Busia regime he had overthrown.
It tells much about the pressure of the time that when the going got harder for the military in government, General Acheampong and his military answered critics by throwing them in jail without trial. They prisoners of conscience were saboteurs, the regime and its hangers on explained.
Last week, President John Dramani Mahama granted an interview to the Ovation Magazine, a Nigerian-owned publication which circulates in Ghana, and blamed saboteurs in the media for the failure of his so-called message of ‘Changing Lives’ and ‘Transforming Ghana’ from reaching the people.
Read the lips of the Head of State: “It is populism; a certain group has taken control of the media in Ghana; and it makes it difficult for the people to discern the truth. So, as much as you are putting out the information, it is either being blocked or distorted.”
This is the juicy bit. Day in and day out, the four state publishing houses – the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation with its television network GTV, the Graphic Communication Group Limited, publishers of the Daily Graphic and six other weekly newspapers, the New Times Corporation, publishers of the Ghanaian Times and Weekly Spectator, and the Ghana News Agency – behave like Mahama bulletins. If all these publications cannot compete with those so-called saboteurs, obviously in the private sector with comparatively little resources, then life in this country is getting interesting.
What this means is that the President is beginning to understand what has been obvious for some time now. The people are tired of the lies and half truths answering for state policies. With the state economy unable to support the needy as a result of cronyism, the people are yearning for change.
All this reminds me of a very popular saying: “The day the monkey is destined to die, all branches of trees become slippery.
JM Twaso. (JM cut it short).The die is cast.
I shall return!
Source: The Chronicle
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It amazes me how some folks are still endorsing Mahama. What other prove do people need before they realize that we are going to be in jeopardy if we grant this people another 4 years. The one that surprises most is Nana Oye, after all the rantings and raging on human right she has completely gone silent cos her sagging tummy has been filled. Atta Mills was selfless and incorruptible but this dude called Mahama together with his brother are amassing so much wealth. For Lordina the least said about her the better. She shud work on her terrible speech and grammar. LET OUR GOD ARISE AND LET THE ENEMY BE SCATTERED. GOD ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. You can buy votes by giving gifts to people but when the FINGER OF GOD COMES INTO ANY GIVEN SITUATION MIRACLES HAPPEN. THE BATTLE REMAINS THE LORD'S AND ON 8TH DECEMBER THEY WILL KNOW THAT WE SERVE A LIVING GOD.
Mahama is c0r.rupt, incompetent and a th!ef.....
NDC is in a panic mode-and so is the prez. Can you imagine that the seat of goverment-the Jubilee House (NDC's Flagstaff House) is now 'empty'? The president is in the volta region, his vice somewhere in Brong Ahafo? and the Chief-of-Staff in the Eastern region-they're all 'selling' NDC Green Book. As mentioned in the article, the prez has spent the big half of this year going round with acounting to the people and now doing campaign proper proper. If you did well in the past, wouldn't Ghanaians see your good works and vote for you again. All the monies this govt has siphoned out of the country will be probed. NDC Julor Fiafitor s tea lers. JDM kwa so because we tired of the waste-Ekua Donkoh, Dumelo, Nollywoods ladies, Mzbee aaaba!!!
@SERWAA A ADDO...I bet you Ghanaians have made their mind to CHANGE Mahama and his corrupt and incompetent gov't.If CHANGE wind is blowing nothing can stop it,you hog!VOTE NANA/BAWUMIA for a world class economy,true development in freedom,beautiful competent governance,rule of law,private sector and Agric boom etc.
A very good article. Change is coming amd no one can stop it. Nana Addo beba. NPP all the way
I WANT SOME BODY TO BET WITH THAT NANA ADDO WILL NEVER WIN ELECTION IN GHANA. IT IS VERY SIMPLE BUT BITTER TO SOME PEOPLE. JM WILL STILL STILL CONTINUE WITH HIS WORK. NO AMOUNT OF OF TRICKS ON THE MINDS OF MOST GHANAIANS CAN CHANGE ANYTHING. OLD MAN GO AND REST. THE TIMES ARE NOT IN YOUR FAVOUR. I WOULD HAVE WISH YOU GET THE OPPORTUNITY BUT UNFORTUNATELY, YOU ARE COMPETING WITH THE WRONG CONDIDATE. MAHAMA IS TOO MUCH FOR YOU TO HANDLE. IT IS NOT ONLY POLITICS THAT MAKES ONE TO WIN ELECTION BUT DESTINY COUNTS. YOU HAVE IT BUT YOU MISS THE TIMING. FREE ADVICE TO NPP.AND NANA KOTOKO ADDO.
the editor of this paper said he cannot sleep with his eye closed under Nana Addo as a president of Ghana. what has changed here. please we will sleep under mahama as a president of Ghana
The Publisher of Chronicle has strongly admonished Ghanaians NOT TO vote for Nana Addo. The call came not today, not yesterday but in 2008. So please spare us this rhetoric. It is dangerous to vote Nana Addo as President and it still remains so. Nothing will stop Ghanaians from not voting against Nana Addo. The media is trying hard to enhance Nana's image but they must be told that , Nana's image cannpt be enhanced at this time when nothing has changed about him over the past 8 years he's been languishing in opposition. All Die Be Die Man!!!