Opinions of Thursday, 9 November 2023

Columnist: Kwaku Badu

Does the economic ‘Messiah’ Mahama still owe God a duty to redeem the ‘suffering Ghanaians?’

John Dramani Mahama John Dramani Mahama

With all due respect with no attached condescension whatsoever, it is quite nebulous and somewhat fallacious for Ex-President Mahama to assert that it was God who made NDC lose to NPP in the 2016 general elections for Ghanaians to differentiate between ‘water and alcohol’.

If you may recall, prior to the NDC’s 2020 flagbearership race, Ex-President Mahama claimed somewhat spuriously that he was vying for the slot because he owes God a duty to redeem the suffering Ghanaians from economic enslavement (emphasis mine).

Upon winning the 2020 flagbearership contest, the former president kept ‘blaming’ God for his humiliating 2016 election defeat.

The overarching question every discerning Ghanaian should be asking then is: did the redeemer Mahama manage to redeem the poor and disadvantaged Ghanaians from extreme economic bondage in the eight years of the NDC government?

My dear reader, despite our divergent political and religious views, the notion of Jehovah God’s divine providence or control in a system that depends solely on universal adult suffrage (the will of the people) creates tough questions, so to speak.

In recent times, some of us have been listening and reading, albeit with extreme incredulity to the operatives of the opposition NDC's somewhat sophistic argument that the NPP government has messed up the economy and therefore with God’s divine intervention, will most likely return to the Jubilee House in 2020.

It is extremely nauseating for the NDC operatives to keep hiding behind the biblical narratives and put words in God’s mouth.

Sad, but true, the invocation of God’s name in every facet of life in Ghana has been the norm.

In Ghana today, all sorts of people have made it a habit of hiding behind religion and shamefully proselytising and hoodwinking unsuspecting truth seekers.

Yes, the pretentious geezers have succeeded in proselytizing and fleecing unsuspecting truth seekers, who only want adulterated, more "palatable" forms of Truth, watered down and compromised for convenience.

In the same vein, the political geezers would often seek refuge in the Holy Book and try to manipulate a section of the voting public into accepting that it is God who predestines former President Mahama to lead the nation.

Of course, the political manipulators will always succeed in brainwashing some gullible truth seekers who doubled up as eligible voters in accepting such red herring.

In fact, if we were to accept the inveterate apologists somewhat erroneous biblical narratives that it is God who ordains every leader, then, we may infer for example, that the late Saddam Hussein of Iraq was enstooled by God. And what was his fate following his perceived shenanigans? Wasn’t he brought down to his knees by God? He was indeed humiliated.

The overarching question again then is: did the Omnipresent God also ordain leaders like Milosevic of Serbia, Charles Taylor of Liberia, Daddy Iddi Amin of Uganda, Mengistu of Ethiopia, Neto of Angola, Najibullah of Afghanistan, who brought nothing but socio-economic anguish to their citizens as it happened in President Mahama’s administration?

In fact, if those leaders were ordained by God to lead their respective nations, then they failed woefully and were dethroned by God accordingly.

Strangely though, former President Mahama is refusing to acknowledge the fact that his calamitous errors in judgment amid rampant corruption, untold economic hardships, and business crippling dumsor largely contributed to his 2016 humiliating election defeat, but not God who made him lose.

How can Mahama blame God for his rejection by discerning Ghanaians, when his sibling Ibrahim Mahama allegedly refused to pay import taxes to the tune of over GH12 million?

Why must Mahama blame God for his historic defeat when he egregiously gave away 58% of Ghana’s bauxite to his sibling to the utter disgust of discerning Ghanaians?

How could former President Mahama fecklessly give apologists like 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, and then turn around and blame God for his historic election defeat?

Why must former President Mahama blame God for his humiliating defeat when he wilfully dragged an economic growth of 14% in 2011 to a miserable 3.4% in the absence of the pernicious coronavirus and Russia/Ukraine impasse?

God could not have caused Mahama’s defeat when he abysmally raised Ghana’s total debt from GH9.5 billion in 2009 to a staggering GH122.4 billion by December 2016 in the absence of insidious coronavirus and Russia/Ukraine intractable conflict.

Mahama cannot blame God for his defeat when he dreadfully reduced the GDP from GHC47 billion in 2011 to GH40 billion by December 2016.

How can Mahama blame God when the agricultural sector grew consistently in the negative?

God could not have masterminded Mahama’s defeat when the industry sector grew
appallingly.

How can Mahama blame God for his defeat when he egregiously ‘consumed all the meat on the bone?’

The fact of the matter is that ex-President Mahama thinks Ghanaians still suffer from chronic memory loss and can keep taking everyone else for granted.