Dr Mustapha Hamid, NPA Boss
Three months into general elections, John Dramani Mahama, very deficient in policy as well as development initiatives, is claiming to see and know everything that can ever be good for Ghana.
After speaking off-the-cuff and initially shooting down the government’s Free SHS programme, for instance, the NDC flagbearer has all of a sudden rediscovered himself and is promising Heaven.
Interestingly, a segment of the youthful population, especially Okada riders and small scale miners, appear to be falling in love with his deceptive and fanciful talk.
Track record
To recap, here was this President who inherited a growth rate of eight per cent and blew it to three, exposing Ghana as a reckless economy that needed an IMF intervention. And, for those of who care to know how he blew away our national inheritance, it was a mix of incompetence and crony corruption which a revered Supreme Court judge described as ‘create, loot and share.’
This was the President who shortchanged 240 districts – not men and women – over the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) agricultural initiative that delivered agricultural growth of negative, with resources meant for the project actually going into the pockets of John Mahama’s cronies. These are besides the deficits in critical sectors, including health, education and job creation.
NPP’s record
That the New Patriotic Party, under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has redeemed that stain and grown that economy back to the original eight per cent, and topped it up with several vibrant initiatives in only three years, should tell the electorate how reckless and incompetent Mahama was. It should also get the electorate to appreciate how strong and effective President Nana Akufo-Addo has been as a leader.
As is evident by the records, one president wasted our resources, while the other restored us to lost glory by giving the most impressive growth, globally, and went beyond that to create hope and improve lives and livelihoods – even under COVID-19.
Drivers, not fitters
As the Minister of Inner City and Zongo Development, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, pointed out, there really is no competition when one talks about coming to maintain what the NPP has redeemed and added on when the original leader is still around. It becomes more critical even imagining how a person who lacks capacity to create anything can effectively maintain what has been created by a living legend.
That is why we need to drum home the truth, especially to young men who tend to be sentimental about critical issues, without looking into the future with an informed mind.
We don’t need a Prophet at this time in the history of Ghana to tell us that the greatest mistake our youth can make is having back a president who we have already tried and who has proven he has nothing to contribute to Ghana except an ‘Okada and galamsey economy’. That is not only mediocrity of the highest order, but also an act of suicide on one’s life and a betrayal of a national cause.
‘Dead and buried’
John Mahama, our youth must be told, is ‘dead and buried’ as far as politics in Ghana is concerned. And the NDC should even be ashamed putting him out after such a disastrous record.
Allowing him to continue clowning on stage, sounding ever controversial, only exposes us as jokers instead of the enlightened sub-Saharan nation which led several nations from colonialism to independence and modest development.
Let it not be ever said that when Ghana had the opportunity to leap to the highest Heaven in terms of transformational development, we toyed with our heritage and destiny, and foisted a ‘Prodigal Son’ on ourselves.
Source: dailystatesman.com.gh/leader
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