Who says Mahama’s second stint at the presidency won’t be as dangerous as the pernicious coronavirus?

After carefully considering the situation, I have come to a sad realisation: Ghana, your beloved country and my country of birth, indeed has a long way to go.

Make no mistake, dear reader, politicians are true descendants of Biblical Adam, unmistakably imperfect human beings, and therefore susceptible to human foibles like everyone else.

As such, it would only take a pugnacious character or a doubting Thomas to argue somewhat incoherently that there are no corrupt, unpatriotic, and incompetent politicians among us.

That being said, Ghana, like any other democratic dispensation, cannot afford to do away with the crucial role played by forward-thinking politicians.

We are, therefore, resigned to electing politicians who are obliged to implement advantageous policies and programs to impact our lives.

Thus, it will be impossible to do away with politicians, despite the endless disappointments.

But all said and done, we do not necessarily need politicians to run the country; rather, we need patriotic, honest, and capable men and women to take charge of affairs.

So it is quite troubling when some Ghanaians keep shrilling and thrilling for the return of someone who had the opportunity to steer the nation in the right direction but woefully failed to do so.

Moreover, it is quite unfortunate for the brassbound party loyalists to emit somewhat incoherently that even if former President Mahama was perceived as corrupt and incompetent during his tenure in office, such despicable practices are allegedly widespread in the current administration, and therefore he is the only Messiah with the ‘Midas touch’ to turn around the fortunes of the country.

Interestingly, some concerned Ghanaians believe that it will be devilishly suicidal if Mahama were to reclaim the presidency, given the dreadful errors in judgment which led to the massive economic collapse and unbridled corruption.

The vast majority of unhappy Ghanaians, who regrettably found themselves in the doldrums of poverty, rightly voted against the NDC and Ex-President Mahama in the 2016 and 2020 general elections, largely due to the unresolved business-crippling dumsor, the wanton corruption (four out of innumerable suspects have since been convicted and sentenced), and the unpardonable incompetence (moved economic growth from 14% in 2011 to a miserable 3.4% and single-digit inflation to 15.4%.

But despite the conspicuous mismanagement, the loyalist NDC supporters would want concerned Ghanaians to believe that the erstwhile Mahama administration provided exceptional governance.

Truly, a clumsy comprehension of patriotism exists in the minds of many Ghanaians, who prefer needless praise-singing to defending the national interests.

I am afraid, we Ghanaians hate anything of quality and rather prefer to worship mediocrity; thus, our leaders, having first-hand knowledge of our servile compliance and hero-worshipping gimmicks, continue to take us for granted and provide mediocre leadership and services.

If that were not the case, how on earth would former President John Dramani Mahama consider returning to the presidency given the apparent abysmal performance during his tenure in office?

My dear reader, trust me, I am not seeking to ‘play God’ and pass judgment unnecessarily, far from it. But for the sake of balanced annotation and to set the records straight, I shall grub into the revoltingly ugly events that took place during former President John Dramani Mahama’s coarse administration.

In his time in office, Ghana’s economic growth slowed for the fourth consecutive year to an estimated 3.4% in 2015 from 4% in 2014 as energy rationing (dumsor), high inflation, and ongoing fiscal consolidation weighed on economic activity (World Bank, 2016).

In addition, the high inflation rate remained elevated at 18.5% in February 2016 compared to 17.7% in February 2015, even after the Central Bank’s 500 bps policy rate hikes (the inflation stood at 15.4% as of October 2016).

Ex-President Mahama, as a matter of fact, did not pull his weight to improve the socio-economic living standards of Ghanaians.

Take, for example, former President Kufuor, who worked strenuously and quadrupled Ghana’s GDP to a staggering GH28 billion in 2008, and the late Mills inherited oil in commercial quantities and managed to increase the GDP to GH47 billion by 2011.

Nevertheless, President Mahama disappointingly dragged the GDP to an incredible GH40 billion as of December 2016.

Former President Mahama and his NDC administration regrettably failed to implement the one-time NHIS premium; jobs were not readily available for the jobless; the economy sank deeper and deeper into the mire; Ghanaians became poorer and poorer; sleazes and corruption escalated to immeasurable proportions, among other issues.

But despite the obvious economic meltdown back then, President Mahama and his apologists ridiculously kept trumpeting their vague rhetoric, political insobrieties, and meaningless slogans-‘Mahama Tuaso’; ‘We care for you’; ‘people matter, you matter’; ‘We are transforming lives’.

Suffice it to stress that the good people of Ghana struggled endlessly to pay their utility bills and could not even afford their children's school fees.

Incredibly, back then, whenever the suffering Ghanaians complained about the economic hardships, former President Mahama and his vociferous communicators would ungraciously chastise the same people who gave them the electoral mandate for expressing their grievances.

Former President Mahama, regrettably, could not work his socks off but only managed to undo all the excellent performances put in by his predecessors.

Take, for example, Mahama moved the economic growth from 14% to 3.4%, GDP of GH47 Billion was reversed to GH40 billion, Agricultural growth of 7.5% was dragged to 2.5%, and single-digit inflation was moved to 15.4%.

Besides, some observers maintain that former President Mahama has more alleged bribery and corruption scandals hanging around his neck than any other president in the history of Ghanaian politics.

The skeptics insist that the former president has serious questions to answer over the bizarre corruption scandals such as Airbus, SADA, GYEEDA, SUBA, NCA, SSNIT, the infamous Bus Branding, the Brazil World Cup, the STX housing deal, the Brazilian aircraft, the Ford Expedition Vehicle, the Armajaro saga, among others.

The critics have been wondering how and why the former president could secretly accept a gift of a brand-new Ford Expedition vehicle worth over $100,000 from a Burkinabe Contractor called Djibril Kanazoe.

As if that were not enough, the Attorney-General under the Mills/Mahama administration, Martin Amidu, audaciously came out and told Ghanaians that the late President Mills set up a committee to investigate a suspicious Brazilian Aircraft deal negotiated by the then Vice President Mahama.

If you would also recall, following the embarrassing Airbus bribery and corruption scandal between 2009 and 2015, President Akufo-Addo tasked the then Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, to establish the identity of the said Government Official One who allegedly took a bribe in the international thematic report.

The Special Prosecutor sadly concluded in 2020 that the said Government Official 1 in the Airbus bribery scandal was the former president and the 2020 flagbearer of NDC, John Dramani Mahama.

The report, however, stressed that since we were in the election period and the said protagonist was a presidential candidate, the Office of the Special Prosecutor was not in a position to take any immediate action.

Nevertheless, the current Special Prosecutor is seriously probing into the alleged involvement of former President Mahama in the Airbus bribery and corruption scandal between 2009 and 2015.

Fellow Ghanaians, we cannot and must not sit aloof and allow the manipulating geezers to take us for a ride; let’s put them under strict scrutiny.