Opinions of Saturday, 1 June 2024

Columnist: Kwaku Badu

Please, Your Excellency, President Mahama, keep God out of it!

John Dramani Mahama, flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress John Dramani Mahama, flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress

I respectfully disagree with Ex-President Mahama for asserting somewhat erroneously that it was God who made NDC lose to the NPP in the 2016 general elections in order for Ghanaians to differentiate between ‘water and alcohol’.

Let us be honest, it is quite unfortunate for anybody to assume somewhat fallacious that Mahama is vying for the presidency because he owes God a duty to redeem the ‘suffering’ Ghanaians (emphasis mine).

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

My dear reader, despite our divergent political and religious views, the isolated thinker’s notion of Jehovah God’s divine providence or control in a system which depends solely on universal adult suffrage (the will of the people) is somewhat nebulous, I must stress.

In recent times, some of us have been listening and reading, albeit with utter incredulity to the loyalists of the opposition NDC’s incoherent and somewhat impetuous argument that the NPP administration has messed the economy, and therefore God has predestined Mahama to return to the Jubilee House in 2024 to redeem Ghanaians.

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

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

In Ghana today, all sort of people have made it a habit of hiding behind the 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 in accepting that God has ordained former President Mahama to lead the nation in 2025.

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.

Well, if we were to accept the inveterate apologists somewhat preposterous biblical narratives that it is God who predestines 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, former President Mahama is refusing to acknowledge the fact that his calamitous errors in judgement 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 in 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 of GH47 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.