The coming back of Mahama: Lessons from Ukraine and Libya
Former president, John Dramani Mahama
The Economist Magazine beautifully captured the leadership problem in a cover story for its March 1, 2014 edition: "WHAT IS GONE WRONG WITH DEMOCRACY?" It reads: "Certainly many things are going wrong with democracy; chief among these is the insatiable quest of politicians, especially opposition elements to capture power at all costs, most often to the detriment of the very country they claim to love and want to serve."
Read full articleAccording to the Economist, in most cases, when the opposition obtains power at all costs, the new regime stumbles, the economy flounders, and the country finds itself in a worse state than before. It went on to say that the picture painted here was what happened in most of the Arab Spring, and also in Ukraine's Orange Revolution more than a decade and a half ago. In 2004, Mr. Yanukovch was ousted from office by vast street protests, only to be re-elected to the presidency because the opposition who replaced him turned out to be hopeless. This is exactly the story of the NPP.
Meanwhile, in Libya, Col. Qaddafi achieved the following under his rule: Literacy rose from 10% to 90%; undernourishment was at 2%, a figure lower than that of the US, free education from primary to university, and free healthcare. Libya ranked No. 53 on the United Nations index of Human Development. He gave free land and farm inputs to anyone who wanted to go into agriculture. There was no homelessness since all citizens were given free homes and $500 (GHC3,750) deposited in the bank accounts of every Libyan every month under the oil- revenue sharing programme.
Even though some Libyans jubilated when Qaddafi was killed, reminiscing the good old days, they have regretted the action that led to the overthrow and killing of their great leader because Libya has now collapsed. In Libya, posterity is judging Qaddafi the same way posterity is judging President John Dramani Mahama in Ghana.
Ghanaians must learn some lessons from these Ukrainian and Libyan experiences and bring Mahama back as president of the Republic. And it behooves the NDC to take the first step by choosing him as their flag-bearer.
I have been saying this, and I want to reiterate that 2024 would be a critical moment for the National Democratic Congress. The party has two choices: endorse Mahama or risk staying in opposition for another four years or even more; the situation the NDC finds itself could be likened to a final penalty kick which requires that a team puts its best player forward.
As for those who benefited from the Administration of H.E. John Dramani Mahama, but have decided to sabotage his cause, I leave them with this quote from Paul Bamikole, “Ingratitude makes a man an animal or even worse because some animals have a way of saying thank you when you do them a favour. . .”
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