John Mahama
Despite his wobbly performance in government, which saw him drop economic growth steeply, inability to prosecute a sleek campaign in 2012, culminating in a controversial victory and Election Petition, as well as his humiliating 2016 defeat, the NDC decided to grant former President Mahama another privilege to become its 2020 flagbearer.
For those who query this decision on the part of the opposition party, suspicions may be rife that the NDC may have devious reasons for returning non-performing Mahama to run against a feared opponent.
But Otumfuo Osei Tutu II’s advice to Mahama to clarify to the electorate his reasons for running again, as against the insidious campaign style of the NDC in which issues are ignored, with threats to national security and persons, should inform any Ghanaian that we may be dealing with political gangsters up till the day of election in December.
We may recall that since the NDC was compelled by the 2016 Supreme Court ruling to reform the nation’s elections management processes, through the indictment of Electoral Commission Chair Charlotte Osei, to the appointment of Jean Mensa as the new Chair of the EC, Mahama and his NDC have minced no words in discrediting the EC and its Commissioner.
Ofosu Ampofo link
Again, if we have to probe the saga of the leaked Samuel Ofosu Ampofo audio tape and link it to the levels of disturbances we are witnessing across the country, we may conclude that there must be a motivation for people to want to try the patience of our democratic systems and the competence of our security agencies.
In our opinion, the excesses and clear cases of subversion, as manifested in the Western Togoland secession movement, may only fuel suspicions that these armed robberies as well as ‘political murders’ may have political gangster source.
That is aside of the posturing of Asiedu Nketia and his band of youthful vigilantes who daily communicate venom in matters that the courts and police or the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) can conveniently handle.
Mahama’s long hands
Zeroing in on Mahama, we can safely conclude that his incessant references to the results of the oncoming December 7 elections, as being already determined in the favour of the governing NPP, and for which reason he and his party have decided to reject it, only adds up to his complicity and instigation of what could be a looming instability in the country.
With Asiedu Nketia vehemently leading that chorus, when they should be telling Ghanaians why they think we should allow them to come back and reverse our economic and developmental fortunes, all we may conclude at this juncture is that John Mahama and the NDC, having lost and unsure of the future of the NDC, would want to spoil the party for the nation.
Otumfuo’s appeal
It is pertinent, at this point in our political calendar, that we draw attention to the appeal by Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, reminding all stakeholders in our political space not to do any evil thing to send Ghana to the precipice through greed and selfishness.
Ghana, he cautions, is larger than any of us; and we must never be tempted into allowing it to burn since that is all we have as a nation.
Losers in the oncoming elections, he adds, must do the decent thing of going to court, as the NPP did in 2012, and accept the verdict of the court, again as the NPP did, it they are not satisfied with the outcome.
That should be the only name of the game, not the tangent Mahama, Asiedu Nketia and Sammy Gyamfi and co are treading.
Ghana and Ghanaians have a larger interest of preserving our peace and stability, and we expect Mr Mahama and the NDC to respect that interest, as all other patriotic leaders and responsible political parties had done in the past.
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