In fact, I was extremely downhearted and could not believe my ears listening to some members of my family, unconscionably insisting that they may vote for Mahama despite the harsh socio-economic standards of living being experienced under President Mahama’s government.
It is an indisputable fact that we choose to exercise our voting rights in expectation that our lives would be transformed positively by the elected government. But the crucial question my unsuspecting family members should ponder over is: have their lives been transformed positively under President Mahama and his maladaptive NDC government?
Indeed, it is always prudent to vote according to the prevailing socio-economic standards of living, and not through the whims and caprices of some selfish and unprincipled politicians, who are bent on manipulating the unsuspecting Ghanaians.
In my view, the unbridled devoted attachment is not the way forward, but electorates like my family members, should rather look beyond the narrow political lines and assess the bigger picture.
That is by thinking about the way we can develop exponentially; which political party can take us forward as a nation and more so the right political party that would not embezzle our resources anyhow.
In fact, my family members argument is somehow fallacious. They insist that all politicians are the same when in power, hence they don’t see the need to change from one to another.
Apparently, my family members feeling of indignation with the current political dynamics is something shared by many Ghanaian electorates.
All the same, my family members disposition is specious, because politicians have different levels of temperament, competence, experience, knowledge, skills and abilities so they are never the same, so to speak.
In fact, there are enough unobjectionable evidence to counter my family members and their likes who insist that politicians are the same.
Take, for instance, President Kufuor, who helped to move Ghana from the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) status to a Lower Middle Income status when he took over from former President Rawlings in 2001.
It is well-documented that during the year 2001, “debt as a percentage of the GDP was not only unsustainably high and crippling but also deprived Ghanaians from money which could have been used for needed developmental and social projects”.
The fact, though, is, the benefits of the HIPC were “unprecedented during the Kufuor’s regime from (2001-2008). Microeconomic indicators begun to stabilize and Ghana’s debt stock was significantly reduced by about $4 billion within that period”.
“There were Rapid infrastructural developments as well as social and policy reforms”. “Ghana was then elevated from a HIPC economy to a middle income economy under the Kufuor administration” (Mutaka Alolo, 2012).
“By the end of 2008, Ghana's economy had been quadrupled to US$ 28 billion, a period of eight years under the NPP”. “The average GDP growth of the NDC from 1993-2000 was 3.8% while that of the NPP from 2001-2008 was5.2% with economic growth reaching 6.3% in 2007” (Daily Guide, 2016).
Disappointingly, however, in the last seven and half years, President Mahama’s government has undone all the good foundation laid by President Kufuor and his NPP government.
For example, according to Dr Bawumiah, in the last seven and half years alone under this NDC government, Ghana’s total debt has ballooned from GH¢9.5 billion to a projected GH¢110 billion by the end of September 2016.
This means that 90% (i.e. GHC99.5 billion) of Ghana’s total debt since independence has been accumulated under this NDC government from 2009-2015 i.e. the last seven and half years.
As a matter of fact, it would be most unfair to put for instance, Dr Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah and J. J. Rawlings in the same basket and compare their achievements.
For if nothing at all, Dr Nkrumah was a chivalrous industrialist who built hundreds of factories, but only for President Rawlings to off load all to his cronies through his somewhat infelicitous Economic Recovery and Divestiture Implementation Programmes.
In the same vein, it would be boundlessly unconscionable to put President Kufuor and President Mahama on the same pedestal in terms of the implementation of social interventions.
For if nothing at all, President Kufuor and his NPP government pragmatically introduced the free Maternal Care, the School Feeding Programme, the National Health Insurance Scheme, the Mass Transport System, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), the National Youth Employment Programme, now known as GYEDA, and many other social interventions.
My dearest reader, would you be sincere enough and name just a single social intervention that has been implemented by President Mahama and his NDC Party apparatchiks who claim to be social democrats?
Obviously, it is not entirely correct for anyone to assume that all politicians are the same, once they are in their comfort zones and therefore it is an exercise in futility to go out there and vote for a change.
The fact of the matter is that if you refused to go out there and vote massively for a positive change, someone else will elect ‘a semicircle’ of corrupt and incompetent representatives who will only continue to sink the nation deeper and deeper into the mire.
In fact, my family members should not make the catastrophic mistake by rejecting Nana Addo and his NPP Party’s expedient policies such as ‘one district one factory’; ‘one village one dam’; ‘one constituency one million dollars’; ‘free SHS’ etc.
Indeed, those policies will improve upon our socio-economic standards of living and thereby relieving some of us the burden of having to support our family members back home financially, despite all the exigencies.
Anyway, all that I can tell my family members back home, who are proving to be stubborn is: you are at liberty to vote for non-performing Mahama and forfeit my remittances in the years ahead.
K. Badu, UK.
