The face of incompetence

Former President John Mahama has triggered interesting issues for a public conversation. His successor President Akufo-Addo, according to him, is super incompetent if he is incompetent.

We find it intriguing that he is now accepting the fact that indeed he was incompetent at the throttles of the state. Stretching his position that the incumbent head of state is worse than him in terms of incompetency is a matter which can best be deciphered by the people of Ghana.

Within a year and a few months of being at the helm, President Akufo Addo can be credited for certain decisions and actions which stand him apart from his predecessor; Mahama’s years of managing the country resulted in some of the worst moments in recent times.

We are excited at the former President’s admission of incompetence. Perhaps a look at incompetence in relation to the management of a country can provide us with the appropriate context to analyse the subject under review.

Presidents take decisions which are intended to move the country forward in terms of the economy and governance.

For a person who found it difficult to believe that there can be a free SHS in a country he has, through his bad policies and corruption, reduced to the point of a pauper state to watch as the programme is rolled out, can best be regarded as an ailing pessimist. Today the policy he saw as a 419, a ruse, simply put out to get the votes of Ghanaians, is being implemented. A President who makes good his promise in consonance with his party manifesto is a competent personality who should be taken seriously.

A President under whose watch the economy was so ravaged by multifaceted factors – the key being corruption and bad policies, cannot meet the standards of competence.

A President who can allow the kind of rot which took place in certain state institutions almost crippling them, cannot be spared the tag of ‘incompetent.’

The National Health Insurance Scheme was on the verge of collapse and the allowances paid to nursing students and teacher trainees were stopped under the watch of the then President Mahama.

Corruption reached an all-time high as party supporters including so-called financial engineers received payments for contracts which were not executed.

The national currency became as unstable as mercury, as unemployment became an insurmountable hurdle.

Today, the government is executing projects which should have been carried out during the tenure of the then President John Mahama.

Is it a mark of competence when COCOBOD was operated the way we saw it? The so-called cocoa roads and the Eastern corridor roads are living testimonies to what this country went through at the hands of an incompetent President.

Let him hold his horse before we descend hard on him with a sledgehammer. The wound he inflicted on the nation is yet to heal and so any attempt at pinching it can raise our adrenalin level beyond control.

Did we hear him say his party is not interested in toppling the government of President Akufo Addo? Is he now distancing himself and the party from the reckless coup talk of Koku Anyidoho? Too late JDM. These are inconsistent with his support for the demonstration by the NDC shortly after the coup talk.

Incompetence comes in many forms and former President John Mahama when he was the CEO of Ghana exhibited many of these symptoms.