John Mahama’s recent outburst that President Rawlings’s comments do not augur
well for the NDC is quite interesting.
He said the party must find ways and means of addressing Mr Rawlings’ concerns
as his comments do not augur well for the party.
“It gives the impression of a party that is not united and solid and often that
can affect your chances electorally. So it is an issue that the party needs to
confront and deal with. He has some grievances and if I pick some of the issues
that he normally raises, one is about justice, you can’t just pick people and
put them in jail, you need to go through a process to prove their guilt”.
Was I really reading the above from the vice president of the republic? Or was I
dreaming about an imaginary politician who has nothing of substantive value to
say, yet chose to say something, anyhow, because he was being interviewed? Is
John Mahama’s reckless statement a cursory insight into President Mills’s better
Ghana democratic governance? Has Mr. Rawlings stated that you should pick people
and put them in Jail? Who said justice should not take its course? Again, who
said the wrongs of the past should not be investigated?
This reckless assertion that Rawlings wants Mills to jail former government
appointees under John Kufuor is just one of those outdated propaganda which used
to be peddled by pseudo-capitalists ages ago. Who doesn’t know that, the
re-election of the NDC to power in 2009 was as a result of the people’s believe
in the NDC as having the capability to clean the rot that had engulfed the
social fabric of the country, after the NPP had virtually taken the country as
its private property and dissipated our natural resources in a wanton abuse of
power that virtually brought Ghana’s economy on it’s knees? Do we need a rocket
scientist to tell us that former government functionaries ought to account for
their stewardship? So what is wrong if Dr. Rawlings calls for accountability?
If the likes of John Mahama are happy that the current government has dithered
in investigating and prosecuting the fraud perpetrated by the Kufuor’s
government, some of us are not and he should not fool himself into believing
that the better Ghana that was promised is being delivered.
Did the manifesto for better Ghana not promised social justice and punishment
for economic and political crimes? So what is John Mahama talking about? My
questions are endless and I need unscripted answers from the vice president.
John Mahama’s comment must not be taken lightly. It is one of the many sad
episodes in Ghanaian politics. In twenty-first century democratic Ghanaian
politics, some of our respected leaders have the habit of intellectualizing
idiocy. They speak ill of commonsense where their nascent ideas are laid bare in
the face, and their intellectuality questioned.
And again, what was he thinking when he said that President Mills was voted into
power by Ghanaians and as such is a president of Ghana and not an NDC president?
Who said President Mills is an NDC President?
Which party’s mandate brought President Mills and John Mahama to power? Was it
an independent ticket or the NDC? I seriously wonder if John Mahama and his
boss are really running this country or a bunch of sycophants who have their
ears are the ones ruling Ghana. What has the pair done to protect the principles
and ideals of the NDC? Instead of protecting the ideals on which the NDC was
founded they have rather encouraged their trusted median contacts to run down
the ideals, principles and idiosyncrasies of the party. How can you be a
Christian and not be Christ like? How possible can somebody claim to be an NDC
and not believes in the principles and ideals that gave birth to the party?Where
was John Mahama’s conscience when he made this bizarre remark?
How many times are we going to allow ourselves to be victimized by the unbridled
folly and reckless remarks of our experimental politicians? John Mahama, and
many who think like him, has conveniently forgotten the machinery that won them
their elections. As an elected official of a political party, you are sworn to
uphold the ideals, philosophies and idiosyncrasies of the party you serve. You
have been elected to serve the interests of the party and a mandate to further
the goals of the party.
Politics is a very interesting phenomenon. It avails all manner of people with
an opportunity to flaunt their peccadilloes on the unsuspecting public. For me,
John Mahama is a phony little fake who preyed on the gullibility of the
uninitiated to propel himself into the ranks of those that must be listened to.
In terms of substance, he is considered a non-starter. Why do Ghanaians tolerate
the morally obnoxious, and justify their eccentricity? As a citizen, I lament
deeply over the many bad choices we have made by electing some human-caricatures
to positions of trust.
Why do we as a people fear so much to speak the truth and live by it. The vice
President has no moral authority to admonish we the young ones because he is
part of a leadership that is making the NDC a laughing stock in the eyes of
Ghanaians. Let our leaders be principled, else our society shall never make that
progress we the young ones are optimistic about.
I am amazed at the level of extreme obsession by people in government to run
down the Mr. Rawlings. Why is it acceptable for Mills and his cronies, to treat
Jerry Rawlings as a fugitive in his own party, yet see the scrutiny of John
Mills as a taboo? I weep when l hear outrageous verbal attacks on former
President Rawlings. What makes these verbal assaults and distortions all the
more painful is that, they are being orchestrated by nomadic minds in government
who have abandoned our nations many problems and are making unsolicited careers
out of a perverted politics. Rawlings has sacrificed so much for the NDC and
does not deserve this from the people he brought into political limelight.
Who in the NDC doesn’t know that John Mahama got compromised by Francis Poku
with cash inducements which made him burry his conscience and the truth when he
was supposed to be defending the avowed principles of the NDC in opposition?
Even if President Mills decided not to contest the 2012 elections or (God
forbid) something untoward happens to him, the NDC would not suffer one bit. Its
foundations are indeed strong. For those still in doubt, what else explains the
phenomenon of a party that was pursued in opposition for eight years and still
emerges as strong as ever especially within the context of African politics? It
was not by dint of the personalities like John Mahama who in any case was
compromised by the security capos of the time. It was precisely because of the
principles underpinning the party’s strength. You can never claim to be an NDC
and not be loyal to the avowed principles of the party. It is not a cliché. It
is indeed the practical reality.
Let this be a warning to those acerbic politicians in our political parties, who
think rather pathetically that their political careers have spanned over decades
and therefore cannot be wrong. There is a new breed of interpreter in Ghana
today. That breed is generically called “Youth” and they are as smart as they
are vicious and eager to overturn any semblance of pretentiousness at the
highest echelons of any political party. I have always held that those who
cannot understand and comprehend the changing dynamics of political activity
today have absolutely no business trying to become political players.
Those at the helm of the NDC's affairs must think ahead, or the party risks
getting defenestrated at the earliest possible opportunity due to a seething
popular sentiment that, the president "is in over his head", and out of his
depth. Every political party has its own ideals, ideologies and idiosyncrasies.
The NDC is not different and the President and his vice must sit up and offer us
a leadership that befits the status of true sons of the NDC. We cannot continue
with the same broken ideological policies of Mills and John Mahama.
I shall be back!!!
Emmanuel Dela Coffie
www.delacoffie.wordpress.com
