Akufo-Addo's cold confession: Intended or a slip?

"God is not so wicked as to punish Ghanaians again with the rule of John Mahama and the NDC. God brought the NPP government, so Ghanaians can appreciate the NDC," so spoke the president, His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, publicly, when delivering his address to a cross-section of Voltarians during his working visit to the region, recently.

Quite unusual of all the president's highfaluting speeches, his recent statement in Volta region, whether intended or unintended, eventually turned his address into a sore oration – a situation disturbing enough for a party in government - as he chose to extol the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the main opposition party.

As it were, his extolment has invited crits from large sections of the Ghanaian populace. While the president's sudden contradiction left many in a daze, it seems to me that what transpired was an intended act of God. Sincerely, I find the president’s confession highly on point as it seeks to shed light on the limits of populists' rhetoric in politics.

That said, who's actually a populist? And why would any Ghanaian politician be given such a label? To be honest, a politician is described as a populist when his pretentious talks always claim to care about the interests and opinions of ordinary people rather than those within the elite class (Collins English Dictionary). Sometimes, a populist can unsuspectingly take cover in the name of God and give false outward shows, especially, on the promises they made to the people.

Certainly, no one would disagree that appealing to ordinary people is a bad thing. However, it suggests to me that the recent speech of the President has gone bad for a couple of reasons: first, as usual of him, he's always found of taking a slighting position on issues that are requiring of positive remarks and commendations just to score cheap political points. Second, the President and his party functionaries frequently present themselves as having all the solutions (some of which are largely unworkable) to the numerous crises or challenges that are bedevilling our country. In so doing, they aren't prepared to entertain any opposing view.

In the meantime, I want to ask that whenever President Akuffo Addo makes references to God in speeches, to what end does he do that? Also, at the time Mr Akuffo Addo mentioned in his Volta speech that God has gifted his party power so the people of Ghana can appreciate the NDC, what exactly does he mean?

To begin with, any student of metaphysics who's familiar with the seven hermetic principles would agree that polarity, which explains contraries and opposites, is what sustains life and the universe, and politics as a form of human activity isn’t an exception. Having said that, if one reads the statement found in the president's speech, carefully, one could infer that both NDC and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as political parties are opposed to each other in terms of ethos and policy execution, among other things. As such, the creation of one pole (political party) would mean the destruction of the other.

Obviously, situating the President's utterance in the context above is as equal as saying that, through the ballot, Ghanaians have mistakenly brought into existence a pseudo regime as opposed to a genuine one in 2016. To this end, it’s only fair to thank God for the twist by allowing the president to openly confess and show gratitude for the successes which the opposition party has chalked in recent times.

I’m absolutely certain that, God isn’t a mortal to be used and dumped. And reflecting on the president's short trip to the Volta region, at some point, he was spotted among other officials receiving the glory that was God's—the Messiah, in poetry read in his honour. Truly, any avid reader of religious documents would discover that no matter how tolerable God is, He wouldn't suffer anyone to share His glory. And I thought the president should have known that.

Besides, supposing we care to understand how God relates with his creation and man, in particular, we'll get to know that He doesn't hold onto the errors of penitent souls. Conversely, telling Ghanaians that God isn’t wicked to bring back the NDC; a party that has admitted its past errors and seeking to make amend, what exactly was the president seeking to achieve? I wonder why the cold logic if it isn’t one of those populist tricks to hypnotise his listeners.

At this juncture, before any clear-minded person thinks of the president's cold confession as a mere slip of the mind, let that person reflect on this question: what at all were the irreparable or damaging things that the Mahama-led NDC done that we aren't seeing under the current NPP administration?

Rather than what the pro-government elements would want us to believe, I think people who claim life in Ghana today is far more bearable than previously are in the minority, simply because the majority of Ghanaians are yet to see anything super exciting happening in their lives. So, why'll anybody still think God is pleased with what is happening?

Coming events, they say, cast their own shadows. And I strongly believe the recent cold confession by the President sounds too premeditated to be considered a slip. Clearly, it sends a signal that the outcome of the 2020 election is going to be a penanced political party triumphing over a fibbing one.

In all this, the following lessons are bound: one, the politicians whose turn it is to administer our dear nation, today, should know that no matter how smart they could be, the one who owns Ghana and all that is in it, God, is always smarter. Two, all public office holders should know that God is able to initiate confusion to confound anyone who desires to share His glory. And lastly, all political saints should know that God frowns on hypocrisy.

In the final analysis, politicians who think they can become God's activists by talking for Him - when in reality they don't have any relationship with God - must know that anybody who, for the sake of convenience, decides to use God's name in vain would naturally attract His rod of embarrassment.

Email: komlalokoe@gmail.com