Jittery, Insincere Mills-Mahama Government

Kwabena Amankwah

The 2012 general election is more than two years away, but developments in the country make it clear that the Mills-Mahama-led National Democratic Congress government appears to have become jittery as a result of how unpopular it has become in the eyes of the electorate.

Insider reports from government and party circles indicate that many functionaries of the government fear the party would find it extremely difficult to retain power in the 2012 elections because of how the electorate feels let down by the Mills-Mahama administration.

This perhaps explains why many government and party functionaries appear to be obsessed with the business of amassing wealth through the execution of dubious contracts that often attract the wrath of even other party faithful, especially the disgruntled youth.

While canvassing for the votes of the electorate in 2008, the duo and their (or Rawlings’s) NDC promised to deliver heaven on earth to the good people of Ghana, making wild claims that the then Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party government had made life unbearable for the people.

But now in government, President Mills, Vice President Mahama and their people are delivering real hell to the people who are now reeling under unbearably harsh economic realities, where the average worker even now finds it difficult to get his daily bread.

And instead of making confessions to Ghanaians about their failure to deliver on the promises they made, they keep insulting the intelligence of the people by constantly insisting that things are now better than they used to be under the previous Kufuor-led NPP government.

It is a pity that this is what the bootlickers and apostles of President Mills and Vice President John Mahama still call SINCERITY – promising one something and doing otherwise. That is NDC’s version of SINCERITY!

It is worth bringing to the fore that throughout his first term in office, President Kufuor’s government enjoyed massive goodwill from the people because they saw clearly the progressive directional path on which the nation’s development agenda was being carried. That was why many Ghanaians at the time felt the government deserved a second term in office.

This has not been the case with the Mills-Mahama-led NDC government that has clearly convinced many Ghanaians that it offers little hope for the future development of the nation.

It is even for this reason that many key NDC functionaries, including founder Jerry John Rawlings, have been subjecting the government to an avalanche of attacks for its glaring failures in the administration of the nation.

The Daily Post newspaper, one of the mouthpieces of the NDC in its Friday, September 24, 2010 edition, warned the party against the defeat that awaited it in the 2012 election, making allusion to a so-called plot by the NPP to manipulate some identifiable groups in the country to take actions that would make the government unpopular, and ensure the defeat of the NDC.

Among the groups mentioned by the paper are the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG), and the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

Oh, that is the extent of how jittery the Mills-Mahama NDC government has become, making elements in the party think that almost all identifiable groups are now collaborating with the NPP to dislodge the party from power in 2012.

And isn’t it insulting to the credibility and integrity of the these groups when elements in the NDC begin to think that members of these groups are not discerning enough to know what is good for them and the nation?

The fact of the matter is that teachers, students and other workers who make up these groups have always been discerning and so would no allow themselves to be taken for a ride by a government that does not know what is about, and imposes needless hardships on them.

Talk with teachers and other workers, and they will tell you that under the Kufour regime, bank officials were in their schools and offices on daily basis on the mission of making loans available to them, but now under “Better Ghana” the situation is the contrary.

The cry of majority of Ghanaians, including members of these identifiable groups, is that their economic circumstances have worsened under the Mills-Mahama-led NDC government as a result of the unusually high cost of living.

Talk with students in the tertiary institutions, and they will tell you many of them now attend lectures on empty stomach because “soakings” has even become unaffordable under Mills-Mahama’s “Better Ghana”.

How do NDC elements expect graduate students to remain quiet if they are left with less than a year to complete their programmes without any hope of receiving their bursaries to support their academic work? How do you expect those who have been compelled by the harsh economic realities to defer or abandon their programmes to feel about the government?

Could the NPP be accused of being the master-minds if these disappointed students should embark on demonstration to pour out their frustration against this clearly incompetent government that has demonstrated its lack of interest to cater for their legitimate needs?

So what is the talk about a plot by the NPP to manipulate these groups to advance its agenda of dislodging the NDC from power?

What is taking place in Ghana is simple – the electorate has realized the monumental harm the change of government from the NPP to NDC in the 2008 election has done the nation. They indeed feel nostalgic about the progressive, forward-looking previous NPP regime as opposed to the retrogressive, timid and uninspiring Mills-Mahama-led NDC government that is making a mess of itself with respect to the administration of the nation.

That is why, like many other Ghanaians, these groups appear ready to support the NPP to return to the corridors of power in 2012. Members of these groups will indeed do this without any manipulation by the NPP because they have the capacity to read between the lines, and take decisions they think will be in the best interest of the nation.

This realization has clearly dawn on the NDC. That is why the government has become jittery, and has started resorting to panic measures even though the 2012 electioneering campaign is yet to be in motion.

It is only a jittery, confused and insincere President that will resort to cheap, useless populist tactics to create the false impression that “I CARE FOR YOU” when the reality on the ground is that majority of the people cannot even afford regular meals on daily basis.

But for the pursuit of populist nonsense, how can President Mills decide to waste the nation’s resources to return home while on an official trip to China to take part in a population census only to return after being counted. Is there not any means by which we can get his particulars? What kind of governance is this? Are we joking in this country?

Oh, God save mother Ghana from the hands of this jittery, insincere Mills-Mahama NDC-led government.

Kwabena Amankwah is a member of E/R NPP Communication Committee, NPP Youth Wing Communication/Publicity Committee and former TESCON-UCC Secretary. amaskwabena@yahoo.com. 0244-217504.