Playing the blame game in politics: An open letter to John Dramani Mahama

Dear John

In politics, there are winners and losers. Defeat is always difficult to swallow. Accepting defeat is a challenging task and this is why other authorities are blamed.

For example, the Electoral Commission has been blamed for favouring the winner of the 2020 elections. The military has been blamed for the rigging of the elections. The Electoral Commission has a duty to perform and the performance was good. The military has a duty to help the police maintain order and this was done successfully.

The incoherent monologue spreading baseless disinformation about a rigged election claiming victory after losing by more than 500,000 votes cannot change the minds of the good people of Ghana. They have spoken and it is not a change of government they want but a continuity. Statistical calculation from a loser can not change the declaration by the electoral commission that Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo defeated John Dramani Mahama in the presidential elections of the 7th December 2020.

The bitterness, combativeness and self-interest are not what the nation needs right now. The country needs love and respect. The bad loser will not give up the fight that he has lost while the good loser will accept defeat and will review his campaign strategy to gain deeper insight into the reason why he lost the elections and how he can consolidate his success journey moving forward.

It is clear that mistakes were made during campaigning which may have caused the defeat. Negative campaigning may have been the cause. For example, the disinformation that a Ghanaian was arrested at London Heathrow airport carrying an amount of £26,000000 and this person was from the Akuffo Addo’s government in view of the forthcoming elections the government of Akuffo Addo siphoning the country’s money abroad. This sort of fake news is not in the interest of the country but rather damaging to the image of the country. The verification of such disinformation helped the people of Ghana to make their decision.

Your actions demonstrated that you do not have any sympathetic understanding of the social and economic needs of the people of Ghana which means that you can not observe your duties towards the nation.Moreover, you did not show any willingness to sacrifice for the sake of the nation but rather your self-interest. The fake news was shameful and negative campaigning which showed no love for the country and the people.

The advantage to prove to the electorate that you can do better than your opponent by offering alternatives to his already started policies was not utilised. For example, the electorate has a good knowledge of the one district one factory,planting for food and jobs for farmers, free SHS for the citizens,one constituency one ambulance, one village one dam, one constituency one million dollars etc.

The video about Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo for taking bribe was unnecessary negative campaigning which yielded no significant results. The electorate thought it was another deception to win their votes. The deception was not only to the electorate but to you as well because you didn’t win 140 parliamentary seats as your campaign team informed you and the public. The presidential elections was won by the incumbent president who led all the way from start to finish but your campaign team gave you the wrong information.

You and the NDC party can help the country and yourselves by acknowledging the results and move on. There’s no denying that irregularities occur in every election but these irregularities do not add up to a stolen election. Bitterness as a political strategy rarely works well. If election protests turn to violence in the streets you will be blamed whether you deserve it or not. There is a time to fight and a time to concede. You will do far better now to tout your gains and accept your not so horrible results as one of the presidential candidates who were close but lost to a veteran political opponent. I hope you will accept my apology for being frank.

Happy Christmas and better luck next time.