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I have been inundated with hate, or to put it euphemistically, unpalatable messages from the brassbound admirers of His Excellency Ex-President John Dramani Mahama for persistently and honestly highlighting his catastrophic errors in decision-making, which regrettably sent Ghana’s economy deeper and deeper into the mire in the absence of the ecumenically diffused coronavirus and the intractable Ukraine/Russia conflict.
Of course, His Excellency, former President John Dramani Mahama, has many unrepentant critics, both outside and inside the NDC fraternity.
I, in particular, as a matter of principle, have been a stubbornly impenitent critic of former President John Dramani Mahama over the years.
That being said, I am neither a faceless tribal, as being alleged by his admirers, nor a Lucifer in his flesh, far from it.
But the point of departure has always been the political ideology. And, in spite of our divergent views on political ideology, I cannot deny or ignore the fact that the former president contributed his bit towards nation-building, albeit not well enough.
How can anybody call me an inveterate tribalist for upbraiding Mahama and heaping praise on Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia?
My dear reader, there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary when the vast majority of the NDC delegates gleefully threw their unwavering support behind ex-President John Dramani Mahama in the NDC’s 2024 flagbearership race.
We cannot also stand accused of tribalism or harboring an inherent and risible proclivity for suggesting somewhat passionately that there are not many patriotic Ghanaians who will shrill and thrill over the return of ex-President Mahama, with the exception of the diehard supporters who probably laid hands on big chunks of the national cake, ostensibly shared unequally by the former president.
It is quite obvious that the Mahama’s praise singing bandwagon never experienced the harsh socio-economic standards of living their 'redeemer’ Mahama wilfully brought upon the nation in the absence of the globally diffused coronavirus and the Ukraine/Russia intractable conflict. So what do you expect? They will definitely clamour for the return of the spoon that overfed them.
In his time in office, former President John Dramani Mahama was given the descriptive epithet ‘the incompetent one’ by his adversaries. His opponents would argue that although there was no known diffused global crisis such as the pernicious coronavirus or the intractable Ukraine/Russia conflict during his time in office, he could not manage the economy.
Needless to say, before the deadly coronavirus, Bawumia dutifully assisted Akufo-Addo and raised Ghana’s economic growth from 3.4% to 8.6%.
It was Bawumia who admirably assisted Akufo-Addo and, within a short space of time, reversed the inflation from 15.4% to 7.5%.
Interestingly, in the first two years of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration, the agriculture sector recorded the highest growth rate of 8.4%.
Indeed, the agriculture sector expanded from a growth rate of 3.0 percent in 2016 to 8.4 percent in 2017 (GSS, 2018).
The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration, before the unspeakable coronavirus, recorded the highest growth rate of 16.7% in the industry sector.
The industry sector, the fastest-growing sector with a GDP share of 25.5 percent, had its growth rate increase from -0.5 percent in 2016 to 16.7 percent in 2017 (GSS, 2018).
Given the circumstances, some of us cannot get our heads around how and why anyone with reflective thinking prowess could aim accusing fingers at the critics for insisting that Mahama kept his eyes off the prize and therefore doesn’t warrant another chance at the presidency.
If you may recall, sometime in 2020, a group of organisers within the opposition NDC urged the National Executives of the party to allow Mr. Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin to go unopposed in the party’s 2020 flagbearership contest (see: Alban Bagbin must go unopposed – NDC organisers; ghananewsagency.org/ghanaweb.com, 12/03/2018).
Back then, the spokesperson for the group insisted forcefully that since corruption was going to be a key campaign theme in 2020 and the former President Mahama administration had issues with corruption, Ghanaian voters would be forced to reject him if he was to be elected as the next flagbearer.
“So many people in the party feel Hon. Bagbin is the best person to lead us into 2020, and the reasons are pretty clear: he is the exact contrast to former President John Mahama in the matter of marketability and yet retains the Northern extraction that will satisfy the need to have a Northerner complete an eight-year mandate.”
In fact, it was not only the aggrieved NDC organisers who expressed concerns about the corruption in the erstwhile Mahama administration.
The NDC founder and the former president of Ghana, J. J. Rawlings, of blessed memory, audaciously came out and disclosed that the corruption in the Mahama administration was so pervasive to the extent that a former NDC minister licentiously bought two luxurious mansions worth a staggering $3 million from an estate agent in Accra shortly after the Mahama’s government exited power (see: ‘NDC minister grabs two mansions’; dailyguidenetwork.com, 12/06/2018).
The late President Rawlings further disclosed that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration, unfortunately, inherited national corruption at its worst from the erstwhile National Democratic Congress administration, led by former President John Dramani Mahama (see: Akufo-Addo inherited ‘corruption at its worst’-Rawlings; ghanaweb.com, 2/11/2017).
Besides, prior to the NDC’s 2020 flagbearership contest, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, the former MP for Nadoli Kaleo and contestant of the NDC’s presidential race, attributed the humiliating defeat of Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2016 general elections to bad governance amid gargantuan corruption (see: ‘Mahama's boys bought V8, built mansions in 4 years – Bagbin; myjoyonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 19/08/2018).
Mr Bagbin was reported to have quizzed somewhat dejectedly: “Don’t tell me that the boys that suddenly came closer to the president within four years can build mansions and buy land cruisers and you say there are no resources, where are they getting the money, their salaries?”
Why should the Mahama loyalists think that every single Ghanaian was oblivious to the happenings in the country prior to the 2016 general elections?
The fact of the matter is that the diehard NDC supporters were living in denial about the harsh economic conditions prior to the 2016 general elections.
Back then, the vast majority of Ghanaians struggled to make a living or eke out an income.
The dreadful errors in decision-making, the incompetence, and the unbridled corruption culminated in untold economic hardships.
one cannot help but agree with those who insist that former President Mahama lacks effective leadership skills.
The sceptics would argue that it was due to former President Mahama’s poor leadership qualities that a GH9.5 billion debt in 2009 rocketed to an incredible GH122.4 billion in the absence of the universally diffused coronavirus and the Ukraine/Russia protracted war.
Besides, the critics have been maintaining that former President Mahama’s dreadful errors in decision-making accounted for Ghana’s economic downslide.
Take, for example, Ghana’s GDP, which shrank from $47 billion to $40 billion in just five years.
Somehow, Ex-President Mahama’s poor decision-making came under sharp scrutiny when he abysmally dragged an economic growth of around 14% in 2011 to a nauseating 3.4% in the absence of the deadly coronavirus and Ukraine/Russia intractable impasse.
The critics would thus argue forcefully that former President Mahama and his government’s woeful errors of judgment and alleged corrupt practices resulted in excessive public spending, a less efficient tax system, needless high public deficit and destabilization of national budgets, heightened capital flight and the creation of perverse incentives that stimulated income-seeking rather than productive activities.
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