‘CRY BABY’ MAHAMA HAS SURELY BITTEN MORE THAN HE CAN CHEW

The National Democratic Congress flagbearer and former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, has certainly bitten more than he can chew, in joining the madding crowd of disgruntled NDC parliamentarians, party apparatchiks and bawdy communicators.

In responding to a critical national issue, the former President chose to shelve truth and objectivity, and get plain simplistic and vulgar.

So peeved and bitter, and so desperate and bilious he is, in his unholy quest for power, he ignored regard for basic courtesies of his office, stature and exposure, engaging in name-calling at a level unbecoming of his status as statesman, politician and aspirant for the noble office of President of the Republic of Ghana, having been a vice-president and a president only a few years ago.

And, to think that he brought that stigma upon himself days after taking inspiration from the great Ashanti king, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, speaks volumes about the character of the ‘young’ politician who NDC Council of Elders late chieftain, Harry Sawyer, had cause to caution the late Professor Evans Atta Mills about.

At 61, and having been privileged to join the ranks of noble sons of Ghana during very trying times in our history, we thought former President Mahama would be guided by experience that comes from enjoying the hallowed environment associated with those offices.

Certainly, he is not one of the “Babies with Sharp Teeth” to be excused in such matters, as he gloated over, without compunction. He is a president in the same manner that a teacher will always be a teacher, even when he has retired.

The issues

The issues that John Mahama ignored are that the state, under the late Professor John Evans Atta Mills and then Vice-President John Dramani, initiated a deal intended at increasing Ghana’s monetary gains from our mineral wealth.

Former Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor eventually took the deal to Parliament, after an initial attempt to dribble the citizenry, in rolling out the initiative under Ghana Gold Company.

Mr Mahama could not deny by any stretch of human imagination that the deal was worth it, as Head of the Economic Management Team at the time, with the Ahwois in his corner as very competent and experienced politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats. The former Vice-President cannot deny that, all along, when his men were picking up arms, the truth had not been told the “Babies with Sharp Teeth” that the NDC truly initiated a similar project, but that the government failed to carry it through because they lacked the required competence to carry such a venture of that nature.

Again, Mr Mahama cannot deny that, in the unlikely event that he and the NDC wins the 2020 general elections, his aborted Ghana Gold Company would see a fresh lease of life.

Finally, Mr Mahama cannot deny that his actions are being fired more on the anvils of hate and envy than a desire to strengthen the processes for rolling out the initiative as a true statesman.

Ethnicity died long ago

Though Mr Mahama and the NDC still push that agenda, the simple truth is that ethnicity died long ago in Ghana as typified in the relations that existed in our cross-cultural way of living and working together, marriage even at the level of presidents, business partnerships as well as sports and public life.

For a President and someone who may have other ‘spouses’, siblings and kids from another ethnic group, Mr Mahama should bow himself in shame for going on that tangent to use an expression like “Akyem Sakawa Boys” to refer to his political opponents.