Story: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Convener for Fixing the Country Movement, Mr. Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah, has disclosed that former President John Mahama wants to make himself relevant in the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) with his recent Ghana at Crossroad lecture.
The former President Mahama who also doubles as the 2020 Presidential Candidate for the NDC’s Ghana at Crossroad lecture which was held at Kempinski Hotel in Accra on Monday 2nd May 2022 touched on a number of issues of public interest.
But members of the movement, led by its Convener, think otherwise. They say, Mr. Mahama’s callous attempts to try and take a positive credit out of the current global economic crisis, and post-pandemic political-economic vulnerabilities, is an attempt to present the former President himself as a credible alternative among some people who have so far expressed their desire to lead the NDC.
Addressing the media in Accra, today, May 4, 2022, Mr. Owusu Bempah maintained that former President Mahama is obviously looking for endorsement within the NDC as a result of the looming tsunami of a leadership struggle within the party.
According to him, Ghana under Mr. Mahama faced the multiple problems of a rising cost of living, collapsing businesses, an unsustainable national debt, a lack of inclusive economic growth to address unemployment, poor infrastructure, and rising fiscal and balance of payment deficits.
“The fundamental truth here is former President John Dramani Mahama is not an alternative to solving Ghana’s problems”, he stated.
Below is full Text of Statement by Fixing the Country Movement
Statement by Fixing the Country Movement at a Press Conference Held On Wednesday 04/05/2022 In Accra On John Mahama’s Ghana at Crossroad lecture.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, we are compelled to assemble you here once again to do justice to some pertinent issues with regard to former President John Mahama’s so-called Ghana at the crossroad lecture held at Kempinski Hotel on Monday 2 May 2022.
The Kempinski event which seeks to draw light on the supposed crossroad that the country currently stands actually exposed Mahama’s nakedness. Indeed, Mr. Mahama succeeded in dancing naked in front of the intelligent public by the swipe he took at the Akufo-Addo government on what he termed as the politicisation of independent state institutions and the dismissal of those who dared to ensure what is right.
Even the attacks on President Akufo-Addo’s economic policies were such a surreal mix of myth and fantasy.
Mr. Mahama practically gaslighted himself and sounds terribly in touch with his self-serving inner self. He just plonked another dead cat in front of the public to get outraged about.
Hear him;
“President Nana Akufo-Addo and his Head of the Economic Management Team, rather appallingly, remain nonchalant in the face of this serious crisis and have limited their response to the imposition of very harsh and regressive tax measures, one of which is the E-Levy, which has been roundly rejected by the people of Ghana.”
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, how utterly shameful for Mr. Mahama to try to compare his ‘failed’ administration to the Akufo-Addo one?
We are not really surprised by Mahama’s callous attempts to try and take a positive credit out of the current global economic crisis, and post-pandemic political-economic vulnerabilities, and attempt to present himself as a credible alternative. He’s obviously looking for endorsement within the NDC as a result of the looming tsunami of a leadership struggle within the NDC.
However, for John Mahama to hold a public lecture to boast about his governance prowess when we all know what he dished out for four years as the president says a lot about his split personality. The simple truth is, Mahama has just exposed himself to public ridicule.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we were all in this country and witnessed the presidency of John Mahama. We all saw the highs and lows of the “accidental” president and his lack of obvious know-how.
When Mahama was confronted with challenges in government, he infamously compared himself to a dead goat saying, “I have seen more demonstrations and strikes in my first two years. I don’t think it can get worse. It is said that when you kill a goat and you frighten it with a knife, it doesn’t fear the knife because it is dead already. I have a dead goat syndrome.”
In actual fact, the height of Mahama’s incompetence was displayed at the 2015 ECOWAS Summit where he complained about his missing speech.
“Where is my speech…I am missing certain pages in my speech…,” he said openly while delivering his remarks.
John Mahama – who many people say came into politics by accident happened to be the worst president ever in the history of Ghana.
When the then Vice President John Dramani Mahama became the president of Ghana by default on 24 July 2012, not many people considered him presidential material enough to lead Ghana’s quest for full middle-income status. Having attained the rank of lower middle income during the Kufuor era, Ghana – with a large and rising middle class, estimated at over 47% of the population at the time – was yearning to transit to full middle-income status. Due to the efforts of the Kufuor regime, the country had shown progress in reducing poverty and it outranked its peers on most measures of human development. But Mahama’s incompetence denied Ghana the much-needed respite for economic emancipation.
Even former President Jerry Rawlings, the man who founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party that Mahama now leads, the man who gave Mahama his first government job as deputy minister and later full minister, publicly expressed a lack of faith in Mahama’s ability to steer the ship of state.
So, is Ghana really at the crossroad?
Ghana under Mahama faced the multiple problems of a rising cost of living, collapsing businesses, an unsustainable national debt, a lack of inclusive economic growth to address unemployment, poor infrastructure, and rising fiscal and balance of payment deficits.
The fundamental truth here is former President John Dramani Mahama is not an alternative to solving Ghana’s problems.
The man doesn’t have a single solution to the country’s problems. Mahama is just desperate to rule the country again, hence his penchant of making false claims of having all the answers to the country’s problems.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, it is a trite knowledge that Mr. Mahama lost the 2016 election due to his mismanagement of the country’s economy which resulted in the worsening plight of the ordinary Ghanaian. It is also a known fact that Mr. Mahama has nothing to offer except to draw back the country’s progress if Ghanaians mistakenly give him power again.
Isn’t it intriguing that whereas Mr. Mahama is claiming to have solutions to the country’s unemployment situation, it was during his tenure that the country witnessed the formation of the unemployed graduates association?
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, John Mahama’s loutish behaviour and name-calling have actually given the true meaning of the adage that; “if you want to dismiss a fool, promote him.”
We are talking about a man who claimed to have the interest of the poor at heart, yet he never introduced any pro-poor policy or intervention during his administration.
Interestingly, Mahama and his opposition NDC had been fighting all social intervention policies introduced under the various NPP administrations, including the free SHS, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), and National Health Insurance Scheme.
The noise and the so-called alternative solutions that Mahama claims to have are a ruse just to scheme to get power in order to come back to continue his mismanagement of the country and the usual “lotocracy”
The problem with Mahama and his delusionist enablers who are on this path are that they are under the false impression that Ghanaians have a weak memory.
President Akufo-Addo over the last five years has expanded the Ghanaian economy and is doing more to build a better society.
Take, for instance, the Akufo-Addo’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic, the positive appraisal by the World Health Organisation (WHO) against Mahama’s Management of the Cholera outbreak in 2014. Can Ghanaians be informed of the measures instituted by John Mahama during the ‘Dumsor’ crisis, and the Cholera outbreak that kills over 200 Ghanaians?
Again, what exactly did Mahama’s so-called Covid-19 advisory team do to help during the crisis?
Under Mahama, Ghana experienced the worst enemy crisis in the history of Ghana. Indeed, the ‘Dumsor’ crisis actually crippled Ghana’s economy for four years, and there was not a single mitigating measure offered to businesses and individuals.
So you see, Ghana is not at a crossroads.
The president will continue to respect the dignity of the people. He will continue to push for substantial changes to the world financial architecture so we can also help our people out of distress. He will continue to champion programmes that support the delivery of crucial infrastructure, and create jobs and incomes.
The president will continue to offer clear visionary leadership, not Mahama’s version of incompetent leadership, that not only diagnosis problems, but seeks to resolve them. He will continue to offer hope and belief in the Ghanaian and Ghana as a whole.
As Ghanaians, we must not allow our future to be decided by a load of bigoted inbreds who have failed to update their politics from the 17th century, and who think without them, this country can’t survive.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, just like Shakespeare observed in King Lear, the ‘unrepentant thief’ is the one who sees political power as a substitute for welfare.
Let Mr. Mahama take heed of this Shakespearean advice and comport himself in the public space.
In any case, should Ghana finds itself at a crossroad, we are not sure Ghanaians will ever need directionless Mahama to show the way. Let’s not forget his leadership was the worst since independence.
We know better.
Long live Ghana!!
(Signed)
Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah
Political Strategist, Convener- Fixing The Country Movement)
