President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
There is this streak of arrogance that seems to permeate the mindset of nearly every key player of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that makes these political charlatans think and believe themselves to be hermetically predestined to rule Ghana in perpetuity.
According to this curious and warped mindset, strikingly akin to the U.S. imperialist ideology of “Manifest Destiny,” the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) decisively defeated the NDC in last December’s poll primarily because then-Candidate Akufo-Addo ravenously preyed on the purported gullibility of the average Ghanaian voter (See “Akufo-Addo Is Overambitious” Classfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 3/3/17).
By their warped logic, NDC politicians like Mr. Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, the Member of Parliament for Akatsi-North, would have Ghanaians believe that they are the only set of politicians from any major political party who have been campaigning for their mandate on the truth of the practical realities of promises that can be fulfilled.
And so maybe somebody ought to remind Mr. Nortsu-Kotoe that it was former President John Dramani Mahama, and not Nana Akufo-Addo, who campaigned on the clearly “overambitious” promise of adding 200 more state-of-the-art buildings to the existing stock of the nation’s Senior High Schools. Well, by the close of the December 2016 general election, not even 10 physical plants had been added to the existing stock.
What I am clearly saying and implying here, as well, is that the adjective “overambitious” is a relative term that cannot be aptly and realistically used to equate the political performance and leadership style and quality of the National Democratic Congress to those of their counterparts of the New Patriotic Party. The calibers of the two sets of leaders are analogous to a comparison between day and night. It simply cannot hold. Indeed, as I have said time and again, the National Democratic Congress is the “Party of No” and “Impossibilities,” whereas the New Patriotic Party can be aptly and most accurately characterized as the “Party of Endless Possibilities.”
Already, having been in the seat of clean democratic power and governance for barely two months, President Akufo-Addo has, nevertheless, done far more to restore the hope, trust and confidence of the average Ghanaian citizen in his leadership and that of the ruling New Patriotic Party, at large, than could be said of his predecessor’s entire first year at the Flagstaff House.
Maybe these cynical NDC machine politicians ought to ask what happened to the so-called resuscitated Komenda Sugar Factory before they can begin to remarkably appreciate the sea-change caliber of difference between the leadership skills and acumen between President Akufo-Addo and former President Mahama.
The fact of the matter is that there is absolutely no comparison here. And if Nana Akufo-Addo appears to be “overambitious,” it is precisely because of the snail-paced leadership style and the abject lack of any progressive vision for the country’s development on the part of the Mahama government that brought Ghana’s socioeconomic and cultural advancement to a virtual standstill.
You see, the inescapable anxiety of the leadership of the National Democratic Congress inheres in the fact of President Akufo-Addo’s lightning speed ability to fulfill many more of his most significant promises within the split-second space of two months than former President Mahama was able to do within the relatively eternal space of 4 years.
For instance, Candidate Akufo-Addo promised to restore the callously withdrawn Teacher-Trainee and Nurse-Trainee Allowances once the deliberately and contemptuously victimized and aggrieved offered him their electoral mandate and the constitutional go-ahead to manage their affairs and those of the Ghanaian people at large.
Well, as of this writing and scarcely two months after being ceded the democratic reins of governance, guess what, the Teacher-Trainees’ and Nurse-Trainees’ allowances have already been restored. What is so “overambitious” about rectifying or reversing the wicked “belt-tightening” policies of Messrs.
Mahama and Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur? Then also, what makes Ghanaians “gullible” for offering their mandate to the progressive leadership of the most progressive party of Fourth-Republican Ghana?
*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs English Department, SUNY-Nassau Garden City, New York March 3, 2017 E-mail: [email protected]