Why is Mahama so desperate to return to the presidency?

Some of us are indeed baffled to see former President Mahama moving heaven and earth to reclaim the presidency barely eighteen months after being voted out of power by discerning Ghanaians for his dreadful errors in judgement amid massive economic meltdown.

With all due respect, former President Mahama has had enough opportunity to show discerning Ghanaians his ability to steer the nation to the right direction but woefully failed to do so. So, what else does he want at the presidency?

Strangely, Ex-President Mahama is moving up and down the country and upbraiding President Akufo-Addo who is prudently fixing the unprecedented mess left behind by the erstwhile NDC administration.

Perhaps more than anything else, Ex-President Mahama is still holding on to the phantom belief that Ghanaians suffer from memory loss and therefore cannot recollect the revoltingly ugly events which took place under his watch.

If that was not the case, what would then drive a president who brought the country to its knees through catastrophic decision-making to relentlessly accuse his successor who is doing everything possible to undo the massive mess?

After all, wasn’t the same former President Mahama who once claimed that Ghanaians have short memory? Indeed, he referred to Ghanaian people as a bunch of amnesia sufferers (emphasise mine).

But contrary to former President Mahama’s claims, discerning Ghanaians have miraculously overcome their hitherto beguiling, albeit harmful memory loss, if the 2016 election is anything to go by.

Let us face it, not many Ghanaians were much pleased about the GH12 million import tax evasion by the sibling of former President Mahama, Ibrahim Mahama. Indeed, if not the Honourable Agyapong’s whistling blowing prowess Ghana would have been GH12 million worse off.

Apparently, following the NDC’s humiliating 2016 election defeat, the Honourable Kennedy Agyapong came out and told Ghanaians that former President Mahama’s brother, Ibrahim Mahama, had been evading import taxes over the past few years.

The Honourable Agyapong was however rebuked, scoffed at, and queried repeatedly about the veracity of the seeming sensational story. But alas, he was proved right by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

Consequently, the EOCO ordered Ibrahim Mahama to pay GH12 million as all his previous 44 cheques were dishonoured by the respective banks. How bizarre?

In fact, contending schools of thought maintain that NDC lost the 2016 election largely due to gargantuan corruption scandals (Bus branding, SADA, SUBA, GYEEDA, SSNIT, STS Housing deal, the Brazilian aircraft deal, Mahama’s Ford Expedition Vehicle, amongst others).

As a matter of fact, Ghana under the erstwhile Mahama administration went into economic asphyxiation which regrettably brought to pass harsh socio-economic standards of living.

It is, therefore, quite bizarre that the NDC loyalists who are currently enjoying uninterrupted electricity, reductions in electricity tariffs, low inflation, tax reductions, favourable economic growth, gargantuan savings on free SHS amongst others, are gleefully clamouring for the return of Ex-President Mahama and their beloved NDC.

“If you would look deeper, history is broad yet deep that binds the core existence of the world. Hence, history keeps the records of events that happened in the past.

“History is a lesson in the past but can also be the greatest regret of the future. Yet the reason why there is history is because of the events that were created by man (Hughes 2010).”

We could, therefore, argue that the diehard supporters of Mahama are living in a denial about former President Mahama’s popularity and competency.

Let us be honest, during his calamitous administration, the vast majority of Ghanaians struggled to make a living or eke out income. The dreadful errors in decision-making, the incompetence and the unbridled corruption culminated in untold economic hardships.

And, despite the apparent harsh socio-economic standards of living back then, President Mahama and his clamorous apologists kept trumpeting their vague rhetoric , political insobrieties and meaningless slogans: ‘Mahama Tuaso’; ‘We care for you’; ‘people matter, you matter’; ‘we are transforming lives’.

Given the circumstances back then, I do not want to believe that anyone could have convinced the disappointed Ghanaians to forgive the NDC administration over the dubious judgement debt payment of GH51.2 million to Woyome and other corrupt practices.

It is absolutely true that the vociferous NDC communicators could not solicit votes from Ghanaians who were extremely aggrieved about President Mahama’s freebies to all sort of people, including Madam Akua Donkor of Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) two four wheel drive cars and a luxury bungalow (estimated to cost a staggering $470,000) for no work done.

The fact of the matter is that no one would have listened to the NDC’s electioneering campaigners when no meaningful efforts were put in place to stop the numerous sleazes and corruption.

Trust me, it will be easier for ‘a camel to go through the eye of a needle’ than for Mahama to convince unhappy Ghanaians to forgive him, when his administration woefully shrunk Ghana’s GDP from $47 billion to $37 billion in five years.

How would the Mahama supporters expect discerning Ghanaians to give Mahama another chance at the presidency when his government terribly dragged an economic growth of around 14 per cent in 2011 to a nauseating 3.5 per cent as of December 2016?

The Mahama loyalists must accept the fact that discerning Ghanaians could not have forgotten the terrible errors in judgement which culminated in economic hardships amid the unbridled business crippling ‘dumsor’.

In ending, the Mahama faithful should take a deep introspection and accept the fact that the vast majority of aggrieved Ghanaians voted against the NDC in the 2016 election due to the incompetence, the unbridle corruption and the unresolved dumsor which brought about harsh economic conditions.