THE “MAHAMA POLITICS”

John Mahama fought the 2012 election with a mystic that completely overwhelmed the Npp his internal opponents. On paper, Mahama was no match for Akufo-Addo. Akufo-Addo was much better known and much better hyped by a section of the media. He had been an Attorney General, Foreign Minister. He joined frontline politics in the 70s ,and had refused to leave the political space thereafter. He fought the election for the Presidency twice and lost twice. Then he had to face Mahama after Prof’s death.

The election was not close. New entrant John Mahama dismantled Akufo-Addo with a plurality of over 300 thousand votes. His performance in the strongholds of his opponent was very impressive. From then on, the fear of John Mahama became the political wisdom of the cabal. This was manifested in a number of shenanigans in his four years in office. Having lost the 2012 election to John Mahama, Akufo-Addo became a prophet of doom.

The threats of Akufo-Addo before and after the 2012 election led to widespread violence by his supporters across the country. His “all die be die ” mantra inspired his supporters to go on a rampage. In spite of the fact that,by all accounts, the elections were adjudged free and fair, his supporters still caused mayhem across the country. Undaunted, Akufo-Addo and his henchmen went on to declare in a statement delivered by Peter Mac Manu that “they will make Ghana ungovernanble for John Mahama if the EC didn’t declare them winners of the next election”. The objective remained the same. Akufo-Addo and his Npp knew they could not defeat John Mahama at polls; therefore their primary assignment was to instil fear in the electorates, and intimidate the electoral commission. The Npp in their 2016 campaign, relied on cheap rhetoric, well packaged propaganda, social media and other linguistic devices, to make their message more persuasive and appealing. They were not sincere in their promises, they lied about the Mahama administration, levelled wicked corruption allegations against Mahama and his appointees. Although Akufo-Addo tried to conceal his partnership with some vigilante groups and mercenaries, his tendency to invoke blood, in whatever context , whether ill-intentioned or not, gave away the human right advocate’s penchant for inciting violence.

The latest political phenomenon in Ghana is the “Mahama politics”. Having realised that by some political alchemy, John Mahama is politically impregnable, the first strategy of his opponents was that they will make sure he does not contest in the 2020 Presidential election. His political opponents in collaboration with some internal hawks suddenly came up with a “kindergarten” story that his family had advised him not to contest the 2020 election. His opponents could not produce evidence to support that evil ploy, leading to the conclusion that it was nothing more than another ruse.

The next strategy was attempts by his opponents via some internal hawks to contest his eligibility to see reelection in the court; on the grounds that he has been President for two terms already. The strategy failed woefully. They forgot that we have a well written constitution guiding our political administration. The forget that Mahama’s assumption of office after the untimely death of Prof Mills fell under the doctrine of necessity. The position of the constitution is that “no man could be elected President more than twice for a total of eight years”.But Mahama had only been elected once.

This called for yet another strategy, therefore the government and its propagandists decided to employ fire and brimstone. They started throwing out unsubstantiated corruption against him and his appointees only for them to retract after they have been exposed. Since the now know they cannot stop Mahama from contesting the 2020 elections, they have started planning for their anticipated defeat in 2020. Like every new project, the prospects look attractive. Wherever the former President visited, thousands mass up to meet him. The opposition and some of his internal opponents feel very much uncomfortable with current trend. Allies of the Npp in particular section of the media who went into an override painting an illusory and delusional picture are still struggling to explain their why their agenda failed to the masses.

In truth, not all Ghanaians may be entirely convinced about the NDC. Even then, they are more circumspect about the desperate moves of the Npp and its allies in the NDC and their messianic pretensions.

What still rankles, however, is why the same Super incompetent Npp administration and its internal allies that have labelled Mahama as incompetent are running away from defeating him at polls in 2020 and claiming as well a deserved psychological victory over their opponent?. If you wondering why the Npp leadership is obsessed with John Mahama as the incoming Presidential candidate of the NDC instead of fulfilling their promises and finding a formidable candidate, the answer is simple: it is safer to discuss John Mahama because the very thought of fulfilling their promises and getting a formidable candidate may be nunc dimittis for them.

THE OLD TIME STRATEGY

When Busia took over from the military regime, the latter had destroyed all it inherited from the Nkrumah administration. Busia never accused his immediate predecessors of corruption. He attributed all the challeges he faced to the Nkrumah administration when he knew that Gen Ankrah who was the first leader of the military administration was removed from office over a bribery allegation, when he knew that Afrifa had built a whole city from our loans and grants, when he knew that the world bank and other multinational organisations had predicted economic doom because of the military leaders nefarious activities, when he knew that the cedis started depreciating under the military government. He attributed all his woes to Nkrumah who had left the scene long before he took over. His own bad policies led to serious economic crisis and in 1971, he announced that there was a balance of payment problem for the deteriorating economic situation. He accused the Nkrumah administration of over borrowing when he was in opposition. But in 1971, accepted that external support was necessary to support government business. The acknowledgement of failure formed the basis of the policy formulation within the framework of economic liberalisation that culminated in the exchange rate adjustment to about 42% by December 1971.

The current administration has adopted same strategy. They attributed the doomsor problem to Mahama as if he was the first President of Ghana. They attributed the unemployment situation to Mahama but never told us how the Kufour administration used the billions of cedis it received as a result of the HIPIC initiative for job creation in Ghana. They never produced any policy document to guide how the funds were utilised. The Npp under Kufour did not establish a single factory, it created artificial jobs with no policy guidelines to ensure their sustainability. They blamed and continue to blame their super incompetence on the Mahama. Busia never deemed it wise to attribute the mess he claimed he inherited on his immediate predecessors. But blamed them on Nkrumah who had bequeathed to the state the harbours, silos, railways, schools, hospitals etc and that huge international image. Akufo-Addo and his henchmen do not see the wisdom in tracing the root cause of our problems and why Mahama inherited many challenges, will not blame his boss who could not take advantage of the huge space granted Ghana as result of the HIPIC initiative to develop Ghana, who wasted billions of cedis we accrued from the HIPIC deal on trivialities including toilets and monkey sanctuary, who lined up prophets to pray for Ghana when we were hit by the power crisis, who sold Telecom to pay salaries, who attempted to sell GCB and ToR…But finds it more convenient blaming few challenges he is facing and his super incompetence on Mahama who bequeathed to the state the Atuabo gas, district and renovated regional hospitals, ultra-modern secondary schools, first class international and local airports, expanded ports, excess power, first class roads and interchange, huge investment in the oil and gas industries, Exim Bank, stabilisation levy, Kumasi shoe factory and Komenda sugar factory etc. Because of super incompetence, he cannot even see that he is the luckiest President in Ghana, he doesn’t know that Atuabo gas saves Ghana over GHC 500 million annually, he doesn’t see the economic importance of exporting the excess power he inherited from Mahama to neighbouring states, he does not know that the new hospitals, the schools, the Enhanced Community Information centres, etc employ thousands of Ghanaians and still struggling to understand why the world bank attributed its projected 8.3% economic growth in 2018 to investments the Mahama administration made in the oil and gas industry. The new president doesn’t know that all projects he has commissioned so far, are part of the projects started and completed by the Mahama administration. It is now clear that Akufo-Addo has so far failed to demonstrate that he has the wherewithal, and even the political will to implement the promises he gave on his campaign platforms. He and his henchmen have therefore resorted to use of the Mahama politics strategy to cover their shame.

INTERNAL HAWKS

What makes me more optimistic (2020) is that the common man of Ghana has not only begun to identify Mahama’s wonderful initiatives but has also begun showing admiration for his sincerity. He told us the truth about the economy and unprecedented in the annals of our politics, told Ghanaians was ready to leave power if telling Ghanaians the truth will see him off. Few months after leaving office, he creates pandemonium wherever he goes. Ghanaians are craving for his return, Taxi and trotro drivers have started pasting his pictures on their vehicles, market women having started calling for his return, spare parts dealers and other traders have become allies of the party they condemned vehemently few months ago. The call for the return of the NDC is as a result of Mahama’s achievements and that’s what the internal hawks should know.