By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
It is quite obvious and a great embarrassment to all intelligent and democracy-loving Ghanaians that President John “Paradigm-Shift” Dramani Mahama does not know what he is talking about, when he rather vacuously claims that the “governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) deserves a second term [in office] as a matter of natural justice” (See “John Mahama Can’t Hope to Win Elections on Basis of Natural Justice” MyJoyOnline.com 9/1/12).
It goes without saying that such criminally callow – or immature – declaration points to the intention of the transitional-president and his rag-tag vigilante minions of the ruling National Democratic Congress to rig Election 2012 in their favor, of course. It may also incontrovertibly explain the apparently adamant refusal of Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the NDC-appointed Electoral Commissioner, to back down on his rather capricious decision to creating 45 new constituencies, with barely three months before Election 2012. The preceding is also the more reason why the “All-Die-Be-Die” mantra of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) needs to be ratcheted up and solidly backed by credible preparedness to duke it out with the NDC posse of vigilante bullies, if the NPP is to have a fighting chance at the upcoming general election, and freedom-loving Ghanaians are to have their “natural justice” of the immutable right to being democratically governed restored.
It is also laughable, albeit predictably so, for President Mahama to be so obstinately and fatuously pushing his patently un-Ghanaian concept of an automatic two-term governance by any political party on the electorate and Ghanaian citizens at large. Needless to say, nowhere in the country’s Fourth-Republican Constitution is it stipulated that regardless of its caliber or quality of performance, any political party is mandated to remain in power for eight years. Maybe this is Bole-Bamboi logic; if so, then Mr. Mahama had better promptly retire to his native village and peacefully and quietly enjoy his pelf, or in failing to do so be prepared to face the full wrath of Ghanaians, should he make the stupid mistake of railroading the immutable aspiration of Ghanaian voters for “natural justice” in the ultimate outcome of Election 2012. And that logical outcome, of course, is to have the National Democratic Congress condignly returned to the margins of Ghanaian opposition politics where it permanently belongs.
Let nobody write to yours truly vacuously pleading for the presidency and the holder of the latter post to be respected. Needless to say, his insufferably insolent and impetuous decision not to respect the democratic aspirations of his countrymen and women clearly means that Mr. Mahama and his presidency will never be respected, as long as this Russian-educated thug remains at the helm of both that National Democratic Congress and Ghana’s proverbial ship-of-state.
Indeed, his wanton desperation to hang onto power, at all costs, makes it all the more imperative for Ghanaians to resoundingly vote out Mr. John “Paradigm-Shift” Dramani Mahama and permanently ensure that no other leader with his kind of vaulting ambition and gross lack of emotional maturity and cultural refinement is ever voted to sit on Mr. Kofi Antubam’s Chair. For even as Nana Akomea, the New Patriotic Party’s communications director aptly pointed out, recently, “Ghanaians do not choose their leaders according to “natural justice” (whatever this rather presumptuous terminology means), but squarely on the basis of their [governance] record.” I would even go further to add that about the only thing “natural” in the objective context of “justice,” is for Mr. Mahama to promptly and honorably resign his patently undeserved office, or be irreparably humiliated at the 2012 polls by civilized and democracy-loving Ghanaians.
At any rate, and by his own publicly expressed judgment, the recent demise of President John Evans Atta-Mills was a veritable act of natural justice, designer-tailored by Divine Providence in the form of an opportune “Paradigm-Shift.” You know exactly what the preceding implies, my dear reader.
*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of “Dr. J. B. Danquah: Architect of Modern Ghana” (iUniverse.com, 2005). E-mail: [email protected]. ###