| Somewhere in Washington this week, I boarded a taxi home from a Shopping Mall. I decided to have a conversation with the taxi driver who coincidentally was a Ghanaian. I got to find out that he was an NDC sympathizer which made the conversation interesting.
However, I was surprised to hear from him that he was utterly disappointed with John Dramani Mahama.
I probed further to ask him why and it was at this point he made it clear to me that he does not see himself voting in favour of corruption and grand display self acquiring wealth of cronies of John Dramani Mahama during his time as President of Ghana.
Because of that he is informing his family back home in Ghana not to go out to vote at all if John Dramani Mahama is elected the flagbearer of the NDC even though he is an NDC supporter.
With that marinated, it reminds me of Charles Foster Kane, there are some people who can be good at anything other than the running of a nation. They can have the best of ideas when they are in opposition and may appear to have some of the most appealing campaign slogans prior to an election but winning is a different ball game altogether.
“May the soul of our late Prof. Evans Atta Mills rest in peace and glory be to his name”, this should be the only constant words that should be coming out of the mouth of John Dramani Mahama because it was through the demise of the late professor that most Ghanaians voted him into power in 2012.
In as much as we fail to admit, we Ghanaians are sentimental people and a stroke at our emotions will most likely have us swaying to the direction of whoever was doing the stroking.
Fortunately and unfortunately, JDM was given mandate and we all saw how the nation retrogressed. Almost all the sectors had recorded no growth when he handed over power after 2016.
Almost all sectors failed woefully when he handed over power in 2016 – agriculture, education, health, finance and anything you can think of.
Unity walk in its sense is good but if you cannot unite all these nation building factors (agriculture, education, health and finance) for the benefit of Mother Ghana, then you can only be united in shame with whoever joins you in the unity walk.
As for picking of forms, anyone can pick forms just as JDM has done. At the same time, one of the elements that separate patriotic citizens from mercenaries is conscience and if JDM still has the confidence to pick up forms with the intention of leading this beloved nation again after what he did in his first term, then he fits the description of a mercenary.
Forward ever and backwards never. As for his competition with the NPP, it will be like snatching candy from a child. It is a non-starter because my 19 year old cousin has a better chance of winning the 2020 polls than JDM leading the NDC.
As democratic as they portray themselves, the NDC should have been a bit dictatorial (not as if they do not have a history of dictatorship in Ghana) in barring JDM from picking the forms. The honourable Alban Bagbin was right in all his bluntness – how do you expect someone who led a party to opposition through incompetence to lead the party again?
Our focus as a nation should be on how to make Ghana a better place which His Excellency Nana Addo Danqua Akufo Addo through the NPP has incessantly demonstrated. We owe our future generation a better Ghana through competent leadership.
This is a feat we cannot joke with. It was with total seriousness that Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah climbed the podium to declare that Ghana, our beloved country is free forever. We dare not disrespect the efforts of our forefathers who toiled to bring us to where we are as a people.
We cannot once again be enslaved to incompetence. We cannot be slaves to corruption. We cannot be slaves to poor roads and we cannot be slaves to a poor economy.
It is the right of JDM to contest as future president of Ghana, but it is also the responsibility of all Ghanaians to protect the public purse and the credibility of our country by electing someone who has what it takes to lead.
For the NPP, it will be extremely fortunate for JDM to emerge as flag bearer for NDC because winning will be as easy as riding a bicycle downhill.
For JDM to ever lead Ghana again, it will be the biggest misfortune our dear nation can ever endure.
Edmund Kyei
First Vice Chairman Asokwa Constituency
A member of the Communication Team of the NPP |
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