Once upon a time, President Mahama described Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as a ‘political quantity surveyor’. The reason for his insulting behavior towards Nana Addo, apart from it being his character trait, was primarily hinged on his illogical belief that since Nana Addo was not a civil engineer, he is debarred from commenting on issues bordering on construction. Today, President Mahama has become a mason, laying foundations and telling us how many rooms he is going to construct. Everyone knows that President Mahama read history for his first degree and studied at the School of Communication Studies at the same University of Ghana. Technically should anyone combine the two courses, the President should be an Ananse story teller moving from a hamlet to a hamlet plying his trade.
President Mahama’s tour of the Western Region, just after their campaign launch at Cape-Coast and immediately after Nana Addo’s five day tour of the Western Region shows that the NDC is panicking particularly because the Chiefs and people of the region have fully embraced the message of Nana Addo and the NPP in the face of unprecedented failures of the Mahama administration. No one is disputing the fact that some trunk roads in the region have been done including those began by the Kufuor government and the funding sought by that government.
I was in Tarkwa when ex-President Kufuor, in his speech for the commencement of the Agona- Ahanta-Tarkwa road, made another appeal to the EU representative, Stefan, to fund the Aboso-Junction-Bogoso road as well. The reception was very positive. If readers will recall, somewhere in 2010, the contract for work to begin on that road was cancelled for some inexplicable reasons. Work was postponed for two years or more before it started. The Asankragua-Enchi road through Dadieso was awarded and began by the NPP administration. Work on it stopped for a while before it started again under the NDC.
The cocoa roads concept was the baby of Mr Isaac Osei a member of parliament, the Sefwi Bekwai-Asankragua road among others were awarded under Kufuor’s administration. Work stopped for a while before beginning again. Continuity in that regard, albeit late, is what has made those roads motorable. However, a huge chunk of roads in the region still remain a problem for the residents. For President Mahama to create the impression that there are no roads to be worried about is plain exhibition of dishonesty.
The Chiefs and people living in those communities and areas where the roads are terribly bad made appeals to Nana Addo to fix those roads for them when he is elected President of this country. Were the Chiefs also sleeping when they made the appeals or that they cannot distinguish between a bad road and a good road, is that what Mahama is telling us in the Western Region? He has presided over the destruction of the major and minor rivers in the region, namely Pra, Ankobrah and Tano because his cohorts are seriously engaged in uncontrolled illegal mining.
Cocoa farms as well as food crops, the very existence of the poor farmers in the region are being destroyed by the day with impunity yet the helpless farmers have no government to stop this criminal destruction as their very livelihood and existence goes down every day. Poverty has been their lot. These are the people passionately and genuinely appealing to Nana Addo, people who have made it a point to vote Nana Addo and the NPP to power come December 7, 2016. Their call for a Western North Region is based on the total neglect of that part of the region and country by successive governments, the P/NDC in particular which has cumulatively governed this country for 27 years. They shamelessly compare their achievements with the eight years of the NPP.
What did Mahama tell his party members and the world at large in Cape- Coast, during their campaign launch, nothing but excuses for his failures as a President of the Republic. Fruitless attempts to pass the buck, no wonder the people left him to rabble on with his falsehoods. He used the election petitions at the Supreme Court as reasons for his failures in tackling the problems of this country. This is blatant unadulterated lies and to some extent misunderstanding of the court processes. In the first place, was he ever at the court when the trial was going on, such that he was distracted from his daily duties? Did the Supreme Court place injunctions on him as the President pending the final determination of the case before the court? Was he stopped from appointing his Ministers of State, MMDCEs or Ambassadors to foreign missions?
Did the Ghana Revenue Authority cease collecting taxes for the government he leads, to spend at the time? He goes ahead to blame industrial actions by teachers, doctors, nurses and civil servants for his inability to deliver on his promise. The most pungent of his rationalization of his failures or his attempt to re-align his failures vis-a-vis the expectations of his own suffering party people, is the blame on the ‘debilitating power crisis’ the country went through from 2012 which still remains wholly unresolved.
Under whose watch did we go through these terrible power crises? Did he inherit it, and from which government? He goes on to blame the single spine salary structure, a policy initiated by the Kufuor administration but poorly implemented by the NDC government to achieve political gains. Before the 2012 general elections, the single spine salary implementation was the biggest achievement of the Mahama administration, how come such an ‘unprecedented achievement’ turns out to be a blot on the running of an economy? If they were properly implemented, and the economy well managed, what would have been the basis for the industrial actions he complained about?
Low commodity prices on the international market did not begin today. The whole world has been afflicted by price fluctuations in commodities since the Pope was an altar boy. When commodity prices rise, importers suffer, when the prices fall, exporters suffer, what is new? It requires brains not talkatives to manage a nation well within such global situations. Others did it because they were visionaries.
In any case, the foundations he told the people of the Western Region that were laid by previous Presidents, which of them did he inherit and what are the status of those foundations he inherited as of now? So President Rawlings laid a foundation in his first four year term, he was given another four years to complete. Kufuor laid a foundation in the first four years, he had another four years to continue, Atta Mills laid foundation in the first four years, Mahama continued. What did he inherit and what has he left behind in his four year term?
Did he abandon completely the foundation of Atta Mills and started his own or he continued? President Mahama inherited an almost single digit inflation foundation, a more than reasonable GDP growth, interest rates of appreciable levels, an economy which exuded confidence in both domestic and foreign investors. He has demolished them, put us back to HIPC, serious and dangerous unemployment situation among the youth, an educational outcomes that make the youth useless to themselves and the society, that is the foundation he wants to build on.
Hear Mahama awarding a Gold Medal to the NPP for insults. He should be bold to tell the world, how many of his youthful Ministers of state were appointed on the basis of any known personal achievements in life other than their ability to insult elders particularly Nana Akufo Addo, members of the clergy, Supreme Court Judges and any prominent citizen whose thoughts differ from the actions and inactions of the Mahama administration. Why was Oti Bless nominated as a Deputy Minister for Local Government? A man who could not even properly write his CV to the Parliamentary Vetting Committee? His achievement to qualify for that position was that he insulted members of Ghana’s Supreme Court.
Oh yes, the man whose only achievement in life before becoming a Deputy Minister was a Dining Hall Prefect in a three year SHS cycle, he is very vociferous and has acerbic tongue. Hmmm, my three tots.