Former President, John Dramani Mahama
To be quite honest, I was not in the least surprised when I listened to the revoltingly ugly ‘boot for boot’ comment by Ex-President Mahama following the recent Ayawaso West Wuogon incident.
I must, however, confess that former President Mahama’s desperation to return to power is really getting out of hands.
Ex-President Mahama is apparently in the news again for wrong reasons following his unsavoury comment on the unfortunate incident which occurred during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election on Thursday 31st January 2019.
Believe it or not, he is reported to have poured his heart out: “We are not going to joke in 2020, and I’m sounding a warning to the NPP – we are going to match them boot for boot. “I want to sound a caution that NDC has a revolutionary root and when it comes to unleashing violence, no one can beat us to that.”
This is no equalisation, far from it, but for the sake of balanced annotation, it is worth recalling that it was former President Mahama who blatantly refused to withdraw the appointment of John Oti Bless, who revoltingly castigated the Supreme Court Judges to the amazement of Ghanaians.
The crucial question then is: was Ex-President Mahama in support of the sickening insults and threats on the eminent Supreme Court Judges?
And more so why did former President Mahama keep mute over the Montie three abhorrent insults and threats on the Supreme Court Judges?
Was Ex-President Mahama oblivious to the naked insults and needless threats by the three Montie boisterous brats on the eminent Supreme Court Judges, and hence remitting their sentences?
Considering the revoltingly ugly events which occurred under his tenure in office, I would like to agree with those who are suggesting that former President Mahama’s ongoing campaign is a mere propaganda tool destitute of honesty and integrity.
Dearest reader, was it not during Ex-President Mahama’s administration where peaceful demonstrators eyeballs were cruelly removed from their sockets and their crania mangled beyond recognition?
Apparently, there is a universally recognised principle which goes: “he who comes with equity must come with clean hands”.
Understandably, the likes of Mahama and his minions would never agree with some of us for constantly choosing to analyse the current affairs through the lenses of the past. But I am afraid we cannot make sense of the present happenings if we refused to take stock of the past events.
“History is a lesson in the past but can also be the greatest regret of the future. Yet the reason why there is history is because of the events that were created by man (Hughes 2010).”
Whatever the case, some of us will continue to squall, censure and highlight the risible tendencies of the so-called social democrats.
It would appear that former President Mahama harbours a risible proclivity. For he only hears the alleged misdeeds of his opponents, but not that of his comrades. How bizarre?
If that was not the case, former President Mahama would have dismissed his then assistant, who crudely assaulted a Ghana Broadcasting Corporation’s journalist and maliciously damaged his audio recorder to the disgust of discerning Ghanaians.
Former President Mahama, I am afraid, has been creating a niche of sarcasm for himself over the years.
Take, for example, in one of his countless press conferences during his time in office, Ex-President Mahama bizarrely tagged the opposition NPP’s press conference as ‘rabbit’.
As if that was not enough, former President Mahama outlandishly went ahead frolicking by giving needless descriptive nickname to the then acting chairman of the NPP, Freddie Blay.
Shockingly, Ex-President Mahama sarcastically referred to the gentleman as ‘OPANA’, (literally means ‘trouble maker’).
But unbeknownst to many Ghanaians, former President Mahama can be pugnacious. Thus I find it really difficult to understand why he has been given the appellations: ‘Humble, respectful, peacemaker etc. To be quite honest, I do not think President Mahama deserves those descriptive nicknames.
Well, the preceding assertion may seem frivolous to many of his apologists. However, President Mahama’s seemingly condescending comments on Alhaji Dr Mahmoud Bawumia during the 2016 electioneering campaign really exposed his hypocrisy.
I recall in one of his then ‘changing lives’ speeches, President Mahama sarcastically suggested that Bawumia had not been a president before and therefore cannot impugn incompetence on his government.
Strangely, however, former President Mahama went ahead and asserted that only our two former Presidents, Kufuor and Rawlings have the pedigree and therefore may criticise him.
Apparently, according to former President Mahama, the rest of Ghanaians did not have the right to criticise him and his government because we have not sat on the presidential seat before.
Obviously, such thought process was extremely dangerous and undemocratic and should not have come from the lips of a humble president.
I recall Ex-President Mahama went to Kumasi and labelled the entire people of Ashanti region as ungrateful lots. He referred to Ashantis as ungrateful lots who would never even be content with gold plated roads. How bizarre?
As a matter of fact, it was uncharacteristic on the part of a supposedly humble President to impugn that all Ashantis are unappreciative.
I recollect in one of the Parliamentary sittings, former President Mahama had an impertinent boldness to insult Ashantis indiscriminately. He openly said: “People of the Ashanti origin have problem with letters L&R”.
In other words, Ex-President Mahama was implying that Ashantis cannot pronounce words that have letters L&R. That was not funny by any stretch of the imagination.
That was indeed an irrevocable cheek from a supposedly submissive leader! Do Ghanaians call such an individual as humble and respectful?
Again, in the wake of the public discourse on the suitability of the proposed burial place of our departed president Mills, Ex-President Mahama condescendingly stated that Ghanaians who took part in the debate both on radio, television and even in their private homes and work places engaged in a “USELESS” discourse.
I am afraid, that was uncharacteristic of a leader who had been tagged as humble, respectful, God fearing etc.
With all due respect, Ex-President Mahama’s ceaseless sarcasm is out of this world. He is simply not submissive.
Former President Mahama, to be quite honest, has an innate predilection for abusing those who show divergent views to his.
I recall during a debate on the STX Housing deal, former President Mahama, then Vice President, abused our Members of parliament who opposed the deal.
He unkindly told them: “BALONEY”. In other words, Ex-President Mahama was implying that the Parliamentarians were engaging in “foolish discourse”. How bizarre? Humble indeed!
I also remember when the Attorney General’s office charged Kennedy Agyapong with Treason, Terrorism & genocide and former President Kufuor humbly appealed for calm, and further suggested that we should avoid ‘killing a fly with a Sledge Hammer. Ex-President Mahama replied hastily and lividly: “We will kill a fly with a Bulldozer”.
Honestly speaking, that cheeky remark can only come from the lips of a bellicose, but it should not have come from the lips of a supposedly submissive and peaceful President. Frankly stating, Ex-President Mahama can be very careless in his pronouncements at times.
Let us however remind ourselves that we (Ghanaians) have been taught to respect the dead. So I was extremely dumbfounded when after the death of Professor Mills, I heard former President Mahama impoliticly suggesting: “God in his own wisdom has taken the old man, Professor Mills away to pave the way for youthful Mahama to take over the mantle”. How pathetic?
And, subsequent to that infamous declaration, Ex-President Mahama went to the Northern Region and opined somewhat unfairly that it was about time ‘Northerners’ took over the mantle of Presidency, because they (Northerners) were fed up serving in the Vice Presidency post.
In fact, former President Mahama, more often than not, fails to anticipate the dire consequences of his unmeasured pronouncements.
I recall during the 2016 electioneering campaign, A number of prominent Ghanaians and civil society groups, including the Chairman of Peace Council, Professor Emmanuel Asante and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) beseeched Ex-President John Dramani Mahama to refrain from making comments deemed ethnocentric against the NPP and its running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
“President Mahama while campaigning at Lawra in the Upper West Region, said the NPP will not allow Dr. Bawumia to be their flagbearer because the party is largely not in support of northerners taking up such positions” (cityfmonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 21/11/2016).
Former President Mahama pontificated somewhat carelessly: “Sometimes I feel sad when I see some of our northern brothers running and also doing this. They will use you and dump you. Let anything happen today and let our brother Bawumia say he is standing for president in NPP. They will never give it to him I can assure you”.
In sum, Ex-President Mahama must not and cannot keep insulting Ghanaians intelligence.
