Opinions of Tuesday, 10 November 2015

Columnist: Akwah, Nana

Politics - Not About Staying In Power

Our President does not get it and has erroneously sworn to continue with his "Better Ghana" or the NDC new catchphrase "changing lives" policies with the hope of staying in power.

The truth is Mr. President, it is not about maintaining political power, because ultimate power does not reside with you; it resides with the people.

The people can take away that power in the same fashion that they entrusted it to you. Therefore, your focus ought not to be on becoming totally dependent upon the NDC supporters, who most citizens believe are in control.

Instead, your focus should be on the authority vested in you by the constitution and finding the right way to use it fairly and responsibly to improve the lives of all Ghanaians, especially the poor and the working class who are at the bottom of the economic ladder.

You can't determine whether the country will be plunge into turmoil because you do not have the power to know the happenings of tomorrow. As that prerogative and decisions of tomorrow does not emanate from your whims and caprice. Higher authority takes those decisions-God not Mahama!

The authority entrusted in you on January 7, 2013, is not about you; it is about the people who are saying that it is time to review your leadership and act independently of your NDC. What is so disgusting is that you have made little or no effort to distance yourself from your self-assuming posturing which has a very poor record on good governance.

The people expect you to do your utmost, to act in the best interest of the poor and the working class which your party claims to represent. Many expect you and your government to embark on a series of legislation and a sound economic program that will bring prosperity to Ghana and thus improve the lives of all Ghanaians. The people expect you to fulfill your election promise to end corruption, lower the crime rate, reduce Fuel prices and increase wages/salaries.

At least, the people expect you to provide good and transparent governance and to govern in the interest of all Ghanaians. But after almost three years in office, you seem to have lost your way, as none of the aforementioned issues has been achieved.

It is not the norm for a president to be at fore-front churning out aspersions, innuendos and accuse others, especially the opposition and the printed media of unfairness, because they find aspects of his leadership style to be flawed.

Good leaders are never preoccupied with how good they think they are, but rather with how much better they can become.

So if President Mahama is serious about holding on to power, it could redound to his benefit to start connecting with the people, reduce Fuel prices and stamp out corruption, and develop an economic program that will provide employment for the youth, and effectively manage the resources of the state so that not only the privileged few, but all will benefit, irrespective of their ethnicity or party affiliation.

This is the transformational role expected from a head of state to bring meaningful change to the lives of the citizens of a country.

It is high time John Mahama moved away from the petty politics on the voter register and engage all the stakeholders to help the country identify viable process for redeeming the lost image of the voter register, and stop his whining about the opposition as been "patapaa".

Just as Mahama/NDC think and believe the is being "patapaa" so the ruling government. The is that, we are quick to fingers at others and able to think through our stand. The good books says "do unto others what you expect others do unto" or "the measure you measure others expect the same measure is applicable to you".

In fact, Mahama/NDC has given us a taste of his arrogant and inept leadership when he visited
Kumasi and made a categorical statement impugning on the people.

To a great distance, the NDC has accomplished what they had set out to do, that is to deceive the people. In 1992, they had promised to end corruption, power outages and the shortage of potable water, but out of 22 years, corruption remains rampant and endemic anytime they are in government, there are more blackouts now, and employment has become a scarce commodity in the land of many resources.

The NDC has also blamed the NPP for the lack of good governance and transparency in government. Today our country has the most secretive government in all of the West Africa.

Not only is the government involved in secret deals with the Atuabo Harbor Project, the Turkey Power Project and the expansion of the Kumasi Airport, they also cannot account for billions of taxpayers’ money that are missing from NSS, SADA, GYEEDA, and the paid out dubious debts.

It is plain as daylight that the people are being duped by the regime and the opposition is missing in action most of the times, as the NDC/Mahama cabal runs around like a chicken without a head.

The problem many have with the opposition is that they need to be in touch with the citizens in order to know the pulse of the nation. The continuous internal wrangling in their must be dealt swiftly and summary.

They must sit up, expose and rebuke the evil and corrupt practices of the NDC regime and encourage the people to speak out against extravagances of this regime.