By K. Badu

I have been listening in absolute dysphoria to President Mahama and his supporters inane argument that the NDC government has put up a number of infrastructural projects, hence they must be given another mandate.

I beg your pardon, President Mahama, for I do not intend to be condescending here. Nevertheless, if your mandate was all about putting up infrastructural projects, then I should opine that my untrained mother would be able to perform exceedingly better than what you’ve achieved with all the resources at your disposal.

Before your apple-polishers start their unfair attacks on me, let me asseverate that the erection of infrastructural projects has relevance in the nation building, albeit it’s the easiest part of governance.

As a matter of fact, every guzzler could easily undertake that bit of a president’s role. It’s as easy as ‘ABC’, so to speak.

It is also worth emphasising that even private citizens are able to spend hugely on capital expenditure and spring up numerous infrastructural projects. And how much more a whole nation that boasts of abundant resources?

The paradox of it all, though, is President Mahama is putting up the so-called infrastructural projects with the electorates taxes and the massive loans which have culminated in economic collapse, yet he wants Ghanaians to carry him aloft in palanquin.

Trust me, any ‘Tom and Dick’ could put up infrastructural projects all over the place with the copious resources President Mahama is being wasted.

It is also worth mentioning that President Mahama has previously attested to the mediocritisation on the part of governments who beat their chests over infrastructural projects.

It must be noted that President Mahama opined somewhere in 2008 that every government undertakes infrastructural projects and therefore it would be exercise in mediocrity for any government to hide behind such projects in the face of economic downslide.

So, isn’t it ironic that President Mahama and his apologists will turn round after four years’ time and suggest that governance is all about putting up infrastructural projects? How bizarre?

Apparently, after failing to improve upon the fairly good economy left by former President Kufuor and the late President Mills, President Mahama and his apologists have no option but to hide behind their often non-existent infrastructural projects.

In fact, no electorate owns President Mahama and his NDC Party any appreciation, for after all, the so-called infrastructural projects that have been erected by Mahama and his NDC government were made possible through the electorates taxes and the gargantuan loans they will have to pay at a later date.

Granted, President Mahama, you’ve undertaken infrastructural projects, are you also happy with the existential ‘dumsor’ that has crippled businesses?

What about the soaring inflation, the currency depreciation and above all the high costs of living?

President Mahama, your incompetence, oh sorry (you hate that word), so let me use more euphemistic language-your negligence, has collapsed the economy, and do you honestly believe that you deserve another term in office? What for?

By the way, President Mahama, I am cognisant of the fact that you had had communication skills training in Moscow. However, the Queen’s English word incompetence does not denote an offence in any stretch of the imagination.

For if Ghana’s economic growth stood at a little over 14 per cent when you took over from the late President Mills and you have fantastically succeeded in growing the economy at a snail pace to a squeamish 4 per cent, what appropriate language would be best to describe your abhorrent performance? Is it fine with you if we rather say you are negligent or lousy?

In fact, it is neither an insult to claim that an individual has no competence to hold a position nor slanderous to opine that a person is Devoid of the qualities requisite for effective conduct of a position.

President Mahama, you being an erudite historian, will probably bear with me that, the then military ruler, General Kutu Acheampong, did fantastically well in terms of infrastructural projects, yet he managed to sink the economy into the mire (as you have done) to the disgust of people like your party founder Jerry John Rawlings.

Yes, J. J. Rawlings made General Kutu Acheampong paid for focusing primarily on numerous infrastructural projects and supposedly collapsing the economy by annihilating him through firing squad in 1979.

So, President Mahama, you were absolutely right for suggesting that it would be an exercise in mediocrity for any president to use infrastructural projects as his/her unparalleled achievement.

Besides, the founder of your party doesn’t believe in infrastructural projects, hence exterminating someone who performed incredibly well in the area of social infrastructure and amenities.

I am afraid, based on your own previous analysis on infrastructural projects; you don’t deserve another term in office, President Mahama.