The onaapo high priests counting on “forgetful Ghanaians” in 2020

The constant obstructionist posturing, all the self-serving critiques clothed as policy alternatives, and some of the unguarded utterances from some segment of the Ghanaian community, especially from the “onaapo” brand of the NDC, clearly indicate Ghana’s largest opposition party today is banking on the hope that majority of Ghanaians would be too forgetful in 2020. From all indications, the Onaapo preachers are counting on the high hopes that by the general election time many Ghanaians will be too forgetful as to remember ex-President Mahama’s unashamed misrule and incompetent time in the political saddles that these gullible citizens will vote them back to power in year 2020.

This wild-goose-chase thinking has likely inspired former President John Mahama and some of his wishful thinkers to go from place to place in Ghana ostensibly trying to heal their fractured party after their bad electoral bruises, but behind the shinning veneer of “unity walk” collage lays the onaapo darling boy’s true intent.

Mr. John Mahama’s creeping intentions and game plans toward the NDC’s presidential candidacy against the backdrop of his “second coming” effort in 2020 general elections—in particular--can’t be missed by any wide-awaked Ghanaian. He seems to believe he has unfinished business with Ghanaians, so at all cost his party followers must give him another chance to run for the presidency to enable him continue his unimaginative policies again. If anyone doubts the foregoing continuity agenda of Mr. Mahama, just listen to the central lyrics of “Onaapo” the 2016 main campaign song that fawningly implored then president Mahama this way: “toaso, toaso” or to wit: “Mahama continue, continue” the blatant mismanagement of the country’s economy.

It is not visibly clear what else the ex-president is seeking to accomplish, having run the country aground for over 5 years in power. What is crystal clear, however, is that Mr. Mahama’s history of mismanagement is well-known to many discerning Ghanaians. It is why in December 2016 presidential election Ghanaians massively rejected Mr. John Mahama and his NDC-led administration. Certainly, JDM presided over high incidence of public corruption, galloping unemployment, crumbling educational system while embarking on facelift constructions as opposed to economic infrastructures, the legendary dumsor-dumsor canker, illegal mining or galamsey, including other activities that adversely impact the socioeconomic growth on macro as well as on micro levels.

With these abysmal track records under his belt, the onaapo chief high priest is sanctimoniously behaving like he has all the right ideas/solutions to the country’s perennial problems he substantially helped to create. As we write, ex-President Mahama and many of his party members are acting in opposition as the proverbial ostrich with its head bury deep in the dusty sand feigning as if nothing happened in the NDC’s dysfunctional administration under Mr. Mahama’s watch.

Not only is it comical in its sociopolitical terrain, but also it is dangerously unsettling watching or listening to the monologues of Mr. Mahama as the nation’s former president. Obviously, he is desperately seeking ways to come back to power but his trademark incompetence is manifesting through his thought process, pushing him to use one of the most lethal national security issues, such as illegal mining to cynically muddy the waters of the national discourse much the same way as the greedy galamseyers has sadly muddied the water bodies and destroyed the country’s pristine environments.

No doubt galamsey and other illegal activities are undermining the nation’s long-term survival, but because of power and greed some of the country’s leaders like former president Mahama doesn’t see any harm captured in illegal mining.

To make matters worse, Mr. Mahama has suggested elsewhere in the country that for all the teeming unemployed Ghanaians eager to destroy Ghana’s natural environment via galamsey/illegal mining, their recklessly self-absorbed interests take precedence over Ghana’s; so they need not worry. The signals from Mr. Mahama are that in case his NDC party wins back the control of the seat of government in 2020, the illegal miners should be rest assured that all the commonsense mining regulations put in place by the Akufo-Addo’s government will be dismantled for the plundering to continue.

Out of desperation and power-hungry predispositions, the ex-president backed by his cheerleaders at the NDC command post will say and do anything to mislead the Ghanaians with short-term memory that they can solve all Ghana’s socioeconomic problems within one to two years in power. Ghanaians need to be reminded that Mr. Mahama and NDC have been running Ghana for last 8 years till January 2017and their records are there for those who honestly want to know. Realistically, how can any sane person oversee an implosion of (say) complex pieces of architecture over the years and in the same vein complains bitterly that someone is not building the imploded structures within days? It is easier to destroy than to build, especially in a country that has endured about 8 years of socioeconomic implosion under the very people who currently see themselves as paragons of excellence in government.

From ex-president Mr. Mahama, including a considerable pack of NDC high priests, the political calculus is that millions of Ghanaians tend to be either forgetful, naive, may have amnesiac sensibilities, or all of the above. To that end, the winning strategy to adopt is to saturate the media domain with misleading pronouncements as if they are credible policy alternatives from the “government-in-waiting” camp or the main opposition party—NDC. Keep in mind it has been stated that whenever one wants people to accept lies as truth, just keep repeating the lies over and over and some people may start believing them.

Mr. Mahama-controlled NDC had all the time and resources under this universe to implement and turn the sinking fortunes of the nation around but could not do it. Since they couldn’t efficiently manage the country, it seems they are not willing to allow or cooperate with anyone else to build Ghana. It is in this context that one has to take notice of the Onaapo high priests’ unyielding obstructionist brinkmanship toward the relatively infant government of Nana Akufo-Addo.

If ex-president Mahama and his think-alike backers survive in their deceptive strategy, it may be because they have successfully manipulated and tapped into the seemingly amnesiac proneness of many Ghanaians. Especially bothersome is the fact that with a few exceptions of savvy and smart-thinking journalists such as Mr. Kwaku Baako and the like, many others lack the researched facts to enable them challenge some of the specious assumptions of the Onaapo bandwagons. Let the real reporters/journalists in the country stand up. It will be a serious disservice to Ghana for any reporter to sit by and allows any politician to use galamsey to score cheap political point. Galamsey threatens Ghana’s national security and sovereignty, period! Let our reporters ask ex-president Mahama if he believes that or not before he decides to contest in 2020. Ghana deserves selfless and critical thinking leaders in this century.