In 1979, out of the blue, a destructive lightning and thunderstorm struck Ghana; and she was never the same again. A man barely out of his adolescence petulance imposed himself on the nation when she was on course to become a democracy again. Though, they say lightning does not strike the same place twice, it did. The destructive force of the 1981 coup d’état, which shouldn’t have happened, was that of a mega tonne nuclear bomb. It dealt the country the coup de grace, and turned mother Ghana into a wasteland. As a result of the flawed nature of our epistemology we accepted an idealistic adventurer, still suffering from teenage hormonal rush, and allowed him to hold the fate of the nation in an iron vice.

Those two nation changing events took us decades back in time. And we kept marking time throughout the eighties and nineties. For those with short horizon, who lack the capacity to conceptualise the opportunities of the road not taken, think that he is the best thing that ever happened to Ghana. Of course, I was among those who came to that conviction on the back of teenage immature neurons, and I should be honest to admit that. However, the brutalities of 79, which will even shame an alley cat, coupled with the atrocities and lawlessness of the early eighties, succeeded in cowering Ghanaians who stuck their tails in between their legs for 19 odd years.

So when my grey matter began to process information independently, without any external influence or peer pressure, I came to the conclusion that what happened to us in the 80s and 90s was self inflicted. It was a serious indictment of the human mind, perhaps, a direct assault on the integrity of Ghanaians who have held on to this personality cult like a moth drawn to a flame that is sure to destroy it. 1992 constitution drew us back from the abyss; however, the transmogrification of PNDC to the lethal organism called NDC kept our rendezvous with self immolation on schedule. His hold on Ghanaians was total and complete. Not only did he hold our progress in a time capsule, he held our conscience in retrogression. Quite a few years ago one of such sorry souls said he will drink DDT if Rawlings orders him to do so.

On 7th December 2000, those Ghanaian who freed themselves from pure sadism brought us close to a ravishing light after banging our heads in a long dark tunnel. From the ashes of 19 years of absolute zombie like existence, perhaps out of ignorance, President Kufour began to work himself out of a mountain of debris. Though, it was not a perfect administration, but such is democracy, it was a million miles far better than the 19 years of pervasive misery. The smooth transfer of power, the only credit I can offer that thug, shot our democracy into the stratosphere. Kufour rode on the back of the goodwill and the investment started pouring in.

By 2004, the tough choices made during preceding four years were paying off. Kufour was kept without a runoff, which was really a vote of confidence. As the economy boomed, the obvious litmus test for any democratic administration, they had the extra luck of striking oil in commercial quantities in 2007. There was no logical reason why NPP should have not been retained in power. The problem was Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo. To catalogue the reasons here will clutter this piece. The simple and short reason is that Ghanaians do not like him on spec.

What weighs heavily on my mind is why an excellent economic record, as a trump card, could not retain NPP in power. Why will Ghanaians kick against a party, with such a clear wonderful administration, comparatively, and go for a party that murdered, brutalised, maimed, destroyed their businesses, literally raped them with their pants on and kept them poor for 19 years? Why would Ghanaians reject NPP and go for such a deadly party. This is a sad fact, but most Ghanaians vote without any serious rationalisation. Quite a lot do vote not based on critical analysis of individual personalities, but on party lines. So Akufo Addo should have won based on the goodwill and feel good factor offered by President Kufour hands down. However, he failed. ‘We was robbed’ mantra was offered as a smoke screen.

Come 2012, NDC had been saddled with scandals one after the other. The greatest of them all was the Woyomegate. The opposition even had a free advertisement in the form of ringtone that was shared on social media. Our political words and phrases swelled in numbers, gargantuan, loot and share, Isophoton, Waterville and many more. All these together with incompetence should have sunk NDC beneath the waves.

Though, I hate Santa Claus politics, most of the voters that matter in our democratic dispensation love free lunch. Even with the juiciest of all promises – free education, which I believe they might have polled the Ghanaian voters before splashing it around, Nana Addo lost to an incumbent with so much skeleton in his closet.

So you have to ask yourself, why did Nana lost to Mahama, especially in an election year that was plagued by power rationing, soaring domestic and international debt? And the answer is Ghanaians simply don’t like him as their president. Ghanaians hate his guts so much that they are prepared to help the hangman put the noose around their neck and die an excruciating death rather than have him as their president.

The past year and a half have been hellish for most Ghanaians, because of the deplorable state of the economy. Most of them can’t wait to see the back of the culprits. However, there is a talk of IMF loan, which is long overdue. On the other hand, if the IMF loan goes through it will be self-destruction postponed. It will stabilise the economy from now to 2016. And it is possible that we might see some green shoots. From then on the chorus of NDC will change. They will heap all the blame on NPP, starting from the election court case, dwarfs stealing dollar from bank vaults and all the ridiculous alibi they have been offering all this while. Sadly, since substantial number of Ghanaian voters has the memory of a gypsy moth they will buy it despite the needless pain NDC have inflicted on them. Their obsessive dislike for Nana will come to the fore again if NPP delegates make the mistake of electing him as their flagbearer. This time around they will have a potent arsenal in their artillery – his age and possibly his health.

So I want to throw a gauntlet to the NPP delegates. I want the whole lot to look into the eyes of Ghanaians and say: go ahead and commit suicide. To hell with you lot; we are having Nana come rain or shine. That may well be for individual personal gratification. On the other hand, the future of Ghana is at stake. Please spare us this tragedy by dropping Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo. You will be doing Ghana a great service. Please don’t hand 2016 on a silver platter to the clueless NDC one more time. I don’t want to hear ‘we was robbed’ again. Perhaps, this time around it might not be pleasant.

Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr London baidoo_philip@yahoo.co.uk