John Dramani Mahama
I do not want to go with those who think that since the baton changes hands every 8 years, an NDC presidential candidate will most likely be sworn into office on 7th January 2025.
Of course, that has been the convention. But it is bound to change sooner rather than later.
As elucidated by the reputable Economist Intelligence Unit a few years ago, the NDC’s 2024 chances would depend on the calibre of its presidential candidate.
I have always held a firm conviction that discerning Ghanaians made a calamitous mistake by voting the NPP administration out in the 2008 general elections, as
Ghana, as a matter of fact and observation, was heading in the right direction following the eight years of prudent governance by Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor’s administration.
But in spite of all the advantageous programmes and policies that put the country in a highly favourable economic position, discerning Ghanaians disastrously bought into the NDC’s propaganda and voted out the NPP administration in 2008.
Let us face it, we need true leadership with vision and ideas, altruistic leadership devoid of vindictiveness, corruption, greed, and Incompetence, and capable of transforming us into an industrialized and robust economy.
Some of us were not the least surprised at all, when prior to the 2020 general elections former President Mahama owned up to the unpardonable errors in decision-making which led to the massive economic mess.
There is no denying the fact that the former President made catastrophic mistakes during his tenure in office and therefore could not steer the nation in the right direction.
As a president, Mahama really disappointed the good people of Ghana with his laissez-faire style of leadership and the good people of Ghana rightly voted him out in 2016 and presented his pension package in 2020.
Therefore it is quite ironic that former President Mahama and his teeming supporters would move heaven and earth to reclaim the presidency given his terrible errors in judgment which led to the massive economic meltdown.
With all due respect, former President John Dramani Mahama had enough opportunity to show discerning Ghanaians his ability to steer the nation in the right direction but woefully failed to do so. So, what else does he want in the presidency?
Perhaps more than anything else, Ex-President Mahama and his teeming supporters are still holding on to the elusive belief that Ghanaians suffer from memory loss and therefore cannot recollect the revoltingly ugly events which took place under their watch.
If that were not the case, what would then drive the same person who brought the country to its knees through catastrophic decision-making to desperately stage a comeback?
There is no denying or ignoring the fact that we have more often than not been electing ‘a semicircle’ of negligent and selfish officials whose only preoccupation is to sink the nation deeper and deeper into the mire through unpardonable incompetence and unbridled corruption.
It is absolutely true that Ghana’s economy was in shambles under the erstwhile NDC administration led by Mahama and every honest critic can attest to the fact that Akufo-Addo is steadily fixing the huge mess left by Mahama’s administration.
Therefore it is quite unfair for anyone to claim that Ghana’s economy under former President Mahama (3.4% growth and 15.4% inflation) was better than President Akufo-Addo/Bawumia's record before the insidious coronavirus (8.6% growth and 7.5% inflation).
Where was the sound economic foundation under the NDC when 14% economic growth in 2011 dropped to 3.4% by December 2016?
How can the NDC loyalists claim excellence in economic management when single-digit inflation was dragged to 15.4% by December 2016 in the absence of globally diffused coronavirus and Ukraine/Russia intractable conflict?
What do you call a solid economic foundation when the agricultural sector recorded negative figures consistently?
Where was the favourable economic foundation when the industry sector recorded dreadful figures?
How can NDC operatives beat their chests and claim ownership of solid economic foundations when the GDP shrunk from GH47 billion in 2011 to GH37 billion by December 2016 in the absence of pernicious coronavirus and Ukraine/Russia's protracted impasse?
Where was the sound economic management when the erstwhile Mahama administration
spent profligately and invariably raising Ghana’s debt from $9.5 billion in 2009 to a staggering $122.4 billion by December 2016 with little to show for it?
Where was the solid economic foundation when former President Mahama unabashedly
claimed that his administration had edaciously consumed all the meat on the bone?
The fact of the matter is that the late Mills left a sound economic growth of 14% and Mahama wilfully reversed it to 3.4%; the late Mills left the agricultural growth of 7.4% and Mahama dragged it to 2.5%; the late Mills single digit inflation was reversed to 15.4%; GDP of $47 billion shrunk to $40 billion by Mahama.
Take, for example, 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).
Moreover, 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 15.8 percent as of October 2016).
It is worth stressing that before the insidious coronavirus, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration efficiently raised economic growth. Ghana’s economy grew provisionally by 8.5 percent in 2017 compared to 3.7 percent in 2016 (Ghana Statistical Service, 2018).
Indeed, Ghana’s economic growth, just before the pernicious coronavirus, stood at around 8.6% from 3.4% in December 2016.
Interestingly, in the first two years of the Akufo-Addo administration, the Industry sector recorded the highest growth rate of 16.7 percent, followed by Agriculture at 8.4 percent and Services at 4.3 percent.
Services share of GDP decreased from 56.8 percent in 2016 to 56.2 percent in 2017. The sector's growth rate also decreased from 5.7 percent in 2016 to 4.3 percent in 2017.
However, two of the subsectors in the services sector recorded double-digit growth rates, including Information and Communication at 13.2 percent and Health and Social Work 14.4 percent.
The Industry sector, the highest-growing sector with a GDP share of 25.5 percent, had its growth rate increasing from -0.5 percent in 2016 to 16.7 percent in 2017.
The Mining and Quarrying subsector recorded the highest growth of 46.7 percent in 2017.
The Agriculture sector expanded from a growth rate of 3.0 percent in 2016 to 8.4 percent in 2017. Its share of GDP, however, declined from 18.7 percent in 2016 to 18.3 percent in 2017.
Crops remain the largest activity with a share of 14.2 percent of GDP.
The Non-Oil annual GDP growth rate decreased from 5.0 percent in 2016 to 4.9 percent in 2017. The 2017 Non-oil GDP for industry recorded a growth rate of 0.4 percent, compared with 4.9 percent in 2016. Growth in the fourth quarter of 2017 reached 8.1 percent compared to 9.7 percent in the third quarter (GNA, 2018).
Honestly, Ghana went into the throes of economic collapse due to the calamitous
errors in decision-making under the leadership of Ex-President Mahama.
