John Dramani Mahama
The fact remains that former President John Dramani Mahama is one of the luckiest politicians in contemporary Ghanaian politics.
In fact, ex-President Mahama acknowledged after the untimely death of President Mills that he was extremely lucky and most grateful to the late Mills for giving him the opportunity to superintend over Ghana’s economy from 2009 to 2012.
My dear reader, in a fairly stable democracy such as ours, governments pop in and out, and, considering the political dynamics in Ghana, it is a trend we can expect to continue unabated.
The all-important question we should be asking is: should we trust every sound adult Ghanaian to ascend to the presidency with the excuse of steering the nation in the right direction?
There is no denying or ignoring the fact that we are more often than not electing ‘a semicircle’ of negligent and selfish officials whose only preoccupation is to sink the nation deeper and deeper into the mire through unpardonable incompetence and unbridled corruption.
Some of us, as a matter of principle, could not get our heads around how and why former President John Dramani Mahama would consider returning to the presidency given his dreadful performance during his tenure in office.
If we go down memory lane, the vast majority of unhappy Ghanaians, who regrettably found themselves in the doldrums of poverty, rightly voted against the NDC and Ex-President Mahama in the 2016 general elections, largely due to the unresolved business crippling dumsor, the wanton corruption (four out of innumerable suspects have since been convicted and sentenced), and the unpardonable incompetence (moved economic growth from 14% in 2011 to a miserable 3.4% and a single-digit inflation to 15.4% by December 2016).
It is, therefore, quite ironic to keep reading and listening to the NDC faithful’s somewhat flimsy and uninspiring excuses that the loyalists of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) maliciously lied about the NDC's incompetence and corrupt practices and deceptively pledged juicy, albeit unachievable, manifesto promises that led to their 2016 landslide victory.
The teeming supporters of the NDC should engage in a carefully considered reflection and accept the painful truth that their dreadful errors in decision-making, which unfortunately sent Ghana’s economy deeper and deeper into the mire, to some large extent, cost them the power in the 2016 election, and not the supposedly ‘wicked’ lies put out by their opponents.
Discerning Ghanaians ventilated their arousing disgust when the Mahama’s administration disastrously collapsed social interventions such as the School Feeding Programme, the National Health Insurance Scheme, the Metro Mass Transit, the Free Maternal Care, SADA, and GYEEDA, amongst others.
The truth must be told, no patriotic Ghanaian would have jumped for joy over the GH800 million dubious judgment debt payments, including the GH51.2 million to Woyome that resulted in the drastic reduction of capital expenditure, and, as a consequence, most contractors were not paid by the erstwhile NDC administration.
While it may be true that some people participate in politics due to their love for their nation, others just view power as an excellent opportunity to amass wealth and enjoy other trappings that come with the job.
All said and done, some politicians do not care about the plight of the masses; they only scramble for power in order to pursue their parochial interests.
If that were not the case, what else would make a leader dole out large portions of our scarce resources to inveterate apologists like the founder of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), Madam Akua Donkor, who, in all honesty, contributed nothing meaningful towards Ghana’s wellbeing and yet received a melodious gift of two four-wheel-drive vehicles and a luxurious bungalow purported to cost a staggering $475,000.
In his time in office, the previously single-digit inflation and budget deficit doubled astronomically.
The GH9.5 billion debt former President Kufuor and his NPP government left in
2009 ballooned miraculously to GH122.4 billion as of December 2016 with nothing
or little to show for.
Ghana’s economic growth slowed for the fourth consecutive year to an estimated
3.4% in 2015 from 4% in 2014 as energy rationing (dumsor), high inflation, and
ongoing fiscal consolidation weighed on economic activity (World Bank, 2016).
More disturbingly, President Mahama’s nauseatingly dragged economic growth
from around 14% in 2011 to around 3.4% as of December 2016.
In addition, the high inflation rate remained elevated at 18.5% in February 2016 compared to 17.7% in February 2015, even after the Central Bank’s 500 bps policy rate hikes (the inflation stood at 15.4% as of October 2016).
The fact of the matter is that the late Mills left a sound economic growth of 14% and Mahama wilfully reversed it to 3.4%; the late Mills left an agricultural growth of 7.4% and Mahama perfunctorily dragged it to 2.5%; the late Mills single-digit inflation was reversed to 15.4%; and the GDP of GH47 billion was squeamishly shrunk to GH37 billion by Mahama.
Unsurprisingly, during the epoch of Mahama’s coarse governance, some concerned patriots like Jake Obetsebi Lamptey of blessed memory lamented: “Ghanaians are worried because the economy is being handled in a manner reminiscent of the NDC’s mishandling of the economy in 2000. We do not need to return to HIPC status.”
As a matter of fact, ex-President Mahama did not work his socks off to improve the socio-economic living standards of Ghanaians.
Take, for example, that former President Kufuor worked strenuously and quadrupled Ghana’s GDP to a staggering GH28 billion in 2008, and the late Mills inherited oil in commercial quantities and managed to increase the GDP to GH47 billion by 2011.
However, President Mahama disappointingly dragged the GDP to an incredible GH37 billion as of December 2016.
Evidently, Ghana’s economy under former President Mahama was not so good. Succinctly, he willfully imposed untold economic hardships on Ghanaians.
I shivered and sweated profusely over the GH9.5 billion debt former President Kufuor left in 2009, which rocketed to an incredible GH122.4 billion in just five years with little or nothing to show for it under Mahama.
I was not convinced of former President Mahama’s capability to lead Ghana again when he woefully shrank Ghana’s GDP from GH47 billion to GH37 billion in five years.
To be quite honest, there is nothing absolutely wrong with any patriotic Ghanaian raising concerns about Mahama’s leadership qualities when he abysmally dragged an economic growth of around 14% in 2011 to a squeamish 3.4% as of December 2016.
Truth be told, Mahama could not have been an economic Messiah when single-digit inflation in 2012 was reversed to double figures by 2016 (15.8%) under his leadership.
My dear reader, of all the numerous scandals that occurred during Mahama’s administration, the most telling was the 30-year bauxite mining lease issued by the Ghana Mineral Commission to Ibrahim Mahama and his partners on December 29, 2016, just a little over one week for his brother’s government to exit power.
We cannot also deny or ignore the fact that, for well over four years, Dumsor unfortunately crippled businesses as a result of the mismanagement of the economy by the erstwhile Mahama administration.
The dumsor was so irritating to the extent that my uneducated, albeit reflective-thinking mom, who had a soft spot for NDC, underwent a carefully considered reflection and graciously detached herself from the Umbrella fraternity.
But despite Mahama’s coarse leadership, the NDC faithful would never agree with some of us for persistently criticising their beloved leader.
The truth is, His Excellency former President John Dramani Mahama cannot steer Ghana to the ‘promise land’.
