GHANA DAILY NEWSPAPER: WE ENDORSE MAHAMA

On December 7, Ghanaians will be heading to the polls to elect a new president and a new parliament. The entire staff of your authoritative Ghana Daily newspaper wishes all Ghanaians all the very best in the quest to cement Ghana’s democratic practice in Africa.

From the ages of old up to colonial and post-colonial periods, patriotic citizens laid down their precious lives to secure the current freedom we have today. And we on the Ghana Daily have no option than to join efforts to jealously safeguard this democracy. Our democracy should not only be about holding free, fair and transparent elections; it should be about the totality of efforts to broaden access to healthcare, education, provide potable water, reliable power supply and other social amenities to the citizenry to make human habitation in Ghana a sight to behold.
So, one of the fruits the nation can get from holding free, fair and transparent polls is the election of credible, competent, pragmatic, intuitive and responsible leaders to govern it. As General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Asiedu Nketiah once put it, “Any idiot can join the race to be flagbearer.” It is by same extension that any idiot can register a political party and contest to be president. In the event of an idiotic candidate winning elections, leadership will be about idiocy and idiotic policy decisions which will have idiotic effects on all Ghanaians.

It is against this background that Ghanaians must open their ears and eyes very wide to evaluate all those contesting to be president before making a choice. As a media house, we have been very privileged to have had first-hand information on the quality and ability of all the seven candidates parading themselves to lead Ghana. One person that stands tall is Mr. John Dramani Mahama. He appears more experienced, pragmatic and intuitive ahead of the pack of other presidential aspirants. His track record is rock solid. It is not our duty to be recounting the numerous developmental projects he has initiated. What we can say with all cocksureness is that in every part of this country, there is one relic or the other to show that President Mahama is not asleep and that he is busily at work. The president has signposted his desire to finish off his developmental agenda when given another four-year mandate. We therefore endorse his candidature.

His closest contender, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is not credible and does not have any track record of providing solutions to developmental challenges. His campaign promises are unimaginably phantom, surreally phantasmagoric and practically unrealistic. Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom is not credible and he still has the investigations of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) hanging around his neck. In that SFO report, Nduom has serious issues of impersonation, conflict of interest, corruption and tax evasion to answer. The other candidates have no track records and are only blowing hot and cold just to remain politically relevant. Their support base from the generality of Ghanaians is very weak and obviously provide no threat to capturing political power. Their rhetoric in order to be elected president is shambolic and shallow, and only makes a mockery of our democracy.
The only serious candidate among them who can sustain the prevailing peace as well as keep the democratic space for free speech and the enjoyment of fundamental human rights is Mr. John Dramani Mahama. That is the obvious choice. He is number 3 on the ballot paper. We therefore fully endorse him under no solicitations to win this year’s presidential election. We call on all avid readers of the Ghana Daily newspaper to vote for him to continue his good works. All loyal followers and sympathisers of our editor, Livingstone Pay-Charlie, are equally entreated to vote Mr. John Mahama for president. It is the love shown by these loyal readers that has kept our editor going in his journalistic work. Our editor fully recognizes their faithful dedication right from his days at The Insight, Daily Post and Republic newspapers.
We want to stress that our support for Mr. John Mahama is not something that must be toyed with. All his close confidantes must do well to remind him of our resolve to see a continuous positive change in society. Ghana Daily wants committed leaders who can fight corruption, smash smuggling rings and raise revenue to finance development projects. Ghana loses a whopping US$15 billion annually at the ports of entry through fake invoicing, under-declaration, under-valuation, warehouse fraud and misdescription of imported goods. We need a concerted effort to track down these crimes and make sure the companies who are owing, pay with hefty penalties to serve as deterrent to others. Some of these companies are using huge cash to buy political influence, patronage and support, and the time to halt their activities is now, not tomorrow. There are customs exemptions still outstanding in the books of the Ghana Revenue Authority for well over seven years and there is no serious effort at perfecting them for Ghana to have the revenues. When we pluck all these revenue loopholes, there is no need for Ghana to go searching for loans for development projects.
After the election, it will be back to business as usual and we appeal to John Mahama to join us fight these ills plaguing our society. That is a patriotic duty and the President must lend a helping hand. In the event of a John Mahama victory, Mr. President should not forget our stance that we are here to help him fulfil his campaign promises so that he will leave a lasting legacy for posterity. Our job will basically be about signposting appointees who are misbehaving so that he gives them the sack immediately. Appointees who are lazy, corrupt and are way below governance standards are a danger to Mr. President’s survival in office.
What is paramount now is to support his candidature and we fully support him.
VOTE JOHN MAHAMA, NO. 3 ON THE BALLOT
#JH, TOASO!