I had a dream: The winner of the 2020 election will get 56.62%

A story is told, somewhat anecdotally, that in ancient Egypt, as early as 2000 BC, the ancient Egyptians wrote down their dreams on ‘papyrus’. The story stresses that persons with significant and vivid dreams were considered blessed, and therefore seen as special species.

The story goes that the early Egyptians were of the view that dreams were like oracles that bring messages from the gods.

Since then people have been mulling endlessly over the meaning of dreams.

Suffice it to reiterate that “early civilizations thought of dreams as a medium between our earthly world and that of the gods.”

“In fact, the Greeks and Romans were convinced that dreams had certain prophetic powers. While there has always been a great interest in the interpretation of human dreams, it wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century that Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung put forth some of the most widely-known modern theories of dreaming”.

“Freud’s theory centered on the notion of repressed longing, that is the idea that dreaming allows us to sort through unresolved, repressed wishes”.

So it was not something out of the ordinary when I vividly saw the winner of the 2020 general elections in my dream. The winner (Akufo-Addo) had won the election by 56.62%.

In retrospect, the late President Rawlings may well have predicted accurately when he declared during the 2019 NDC Cadre’s conference at Ejisu in Ashanti Region that in spite of the fact that the leaders of NDC disgustingly bought their way to the top of the ladder, they cannot win the 2020 general elections-emphasis mine (see: NDC leaders know they cannot win 2020 elections – Rawlings; kasapafmonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 30/09/2019).

The late President Rawlings could not have predicted it any better. I bet NDC would have stood a better chance in 2020 if the party Delegates had elected a different flagbearer instead of Mahama.

Besides, we can neither deny nor ignore the fact that Ex-President Mahama abysmally mismanaged Ghana’s economy by moving the economic growth of 14% in 2011 to 3.4% and single-digit inflation to 15.4% by December 2016.

Take, for instance, a chunk of Ghana’s scarce resources was wasted on dubious judgment debt payments, purported to be around GH800 million, including the GH51.2 million to Woyome, $30 million to the Waterville, and $325,000 to Isofoton which resulted in the drastic reduction of capital expenditure, and as a consequence, most contractors were not paid by the erstwhile NDC administration.

Besides, Mahama’s government could not mobilize our revenues efficiently as the likes of former President Mahama’s brother, Ibrahim Mahama, was caught evading import taxes to the tune of GH12 million.

Shockingly, the Mahama’s government wilfully misapplied a $175 million loan facility secured in 2012 which was to provide seven district hospitals.

The good people of Ghana were shocked to the bone when over GH200 million SADA funds invested on trees burnt down and guinea fowls mysteriously flew to nearby Burkina Faso without a trace.

Honestly, but for President Akufo-Addo’s timeous intervention, Mahama’s administration would have shockingly given away over 58% of Ghana’s bauxite to family and friends just about a week before exiting power.

Discerning Ghanaians, unsurprisingly, became fed-up with the extremely harsh conditions amid corruption allegations (Bus branding, Brazil World Cup, SADA, SUBA, GYEEDA, SSNIT, MASLOC, NCA, Ford Expedition Vehicle, amongst others).

As it was expected, on 7th December 2016, discerning Ghanaians found in NPP, a redeemer, in whom they reposed their absolute trust to set them free from the Mahama government’s unpardonable economic enslavement.

Given the circumstances, the thoughtful critics cannot be far from right for suggesting that if discerning Ghanaians had not graciously intervened by showing the dreadful economic managers (NDC) the exit through universal adult suffrage, the terrible errors in decision-making and the rampant corruption would have wiped out Ghana off the world map without a trace.

In the grand scheme of things, we can confidently deduce that discerning Ghanaians made the right choice on 7th December 2016 by electing the septuagenarian Nana Akufo-Addo and retiring the middle-aged John Dramani Mahama.

Truth must however be told, to be elected as a president of a country is a lifetime privilege that comes with juicy trappings and enormous responsibilities.

Thus, ideally, someone with vast life experience, a catalog of suitable employable skills, a portfolio of relevant qualifications, tried and tested competency and requisite knowledge should be a suitable candidate for the position given the absolute importance attached to the presidency.

That being said, the emergence of democracy has energized every sound adult Ghanaian to compete for such an important position.

Regrettably, however, we are, more often than not, been electing ‘a semicircle’ of negligent officials whose only preoccupation is to sink the nation deeper and deeper into the mire through incompetence and unbridled corruption.

It is, indeed, an undeniable fact that we choose to exercise our voting rights by electing a president in anticipation that the said leader will form a formidable government to run the affairs of the country to the benefit of all and sundry.

Nevertheless, it would be absolutely wrong for anyone to suggest for a moment that every leader can prudently steer the nation in the right direction if given the opportunity.

Truth must be told, it will be incongruous to put Akufo-Addo and Mahama in the same basket. This is because, the former has prudently introduced important policies and programmes in less than four years in power, while the latter failed to introduce a single social intervention in eight years.

In addition, before the pernicious coronavirus, the Akufo-Addo’s government managed to move Ghana’s economic growth from a disappointing 3.4% under former President Mahama to around 8%.

And the previously double-digit inflation (15.8 in December 2016) was reduced drastically to around 7.5% within a short space of time.

In synopsizing, dreams, more often than not, come to pass, and I bet, given the Akufo-Addo’s government's excellent performance over the last four years, my dream may well turn out to be the reality.