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Like many discerning Ghanaians, the sharp U-turn by President John Dramani Mahama to place new trainee nurses on allowances, which were withdrawn by his government, did not come as a surprise to us at the Daily Statesman.

First of all, the whole issue brothers on effective decision making; and President Mahama in a book written by himself has made the confession that his major problem as person is indecision.

“All the decisions I have made in my life were regularly plagued with doubt. It can be challenging to sustain that feeling of hope or the belief that things will turn out for the best. Again and again, I have felt like that boy Dramani, on the bicycle going downhill fast, without any brakes and not knowing which way to turn,” Mr Mahama states in his book, “My First coup d'etat.”

Secondly, the president has shown that he does not believe in politics of principles, and is rather engaged in politics of convenience that satisfies his parochial agenda at any point in time.

When the Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, assured the trainee nurses that he would restore their allowances, President Mahama insisted it was impossible.

Instructively, President Mahama and functionaries of his government had mounted a spirited defence for the cancellation of the allowances, describing it as the best ever decision in the education sector, meant to ensure increased intake and to ensure equity for all Ghanaians.

President Mahama’s sudden change of mind to bring back the trainees’ allowances is a mark of desperation, knowing very well that defeat awaits him, come December 7.

The current announcement by the president to restore the allowances only confirms what had been earlier said by some Ghanaians, including former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, that he lacks critical leadership skills.

It is very interesting to see the President eat back his words after telling students and faculty heads of the University of Cape Coast in the Central Region last month during a campaign tour that he would not restore the allowance even if it would cost him the December presidential election.

“For partisan politics purposes you have your political opponent come and say when we come back we will restore trainee allowances to colleges of education. For me it is better to lose the election on principle than win it on falsehood,” Mr Mahama told his audience.

We would have expected the President to remain principled, for once, as far as the issue of trainees allowance was concerned. Nonetheless, we are not surprised at the sudden change of mind by a president who has shown that he is more interested in the next election than the next generation.

Auspiciously, the intended beneficiaries of the planned restoration of the allowance have read between the lies and deception by the President. They cannot be wrong to believe that the allowances will be withdrawn again in January 2017, even if it is indeed restored, in the unlikely event of President Mahama winning the December presidential election.

Ghanaians are now wide awake in their determination to say ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’ on December 7; therefore President Mahama will be living in the fool’s paradise to think that his politics of deception can save him.