The late President Mills was a man with impeccable integrity, an excellent human being, and a true patriot, who meant well for his country. Nevertheless, the late Mills was regrettably let down by the very people he reposed his absolute trust.

This is no exaggeration, far from it, but it is true that despite his brief spell at the presidency, the late Mills performed exceedingly better than his predecessor, Rawlings, and his successor Mahama.

Take, for example, in his short spell at the presidency, the late Mills left an auspicious economic growth of 14% and Mahama perfunctorily dragged it to a meagre 3.4%, the late Mills raised agricultural growth to 7.5%, and Mahama reversed it to 3.0%, the late Mills single digit inflation was squeamishly raised to 15.4%, GDP of GH47Billion shrunk to GH40billion by Mahama in the absence of the ecumenically diffused coronavirus or Ukraine/Russia protracted conflict.

In spite of the late Mills good intentions for Ghana, the naysayers within his own Party(NDC) needlessly kept nagging, grouching, and grumbling about his style of leadership until his mysterious death in July 2012.

I have never been, and will never be an NDC apple-polisher, but I will forever highlight the late President Mills unparalleled adherence to moral principles.

Of course, the late President Mills had his infelicities. Yet he was morally ahead of the other insensitive NDC apparatchiks.

Take, for instance, it is on record that prior to the dubious Wayome’s judgement debt payment of GH51.2 million, the late Mills warned the ‘create, loot and share’ cabals not to effect payment.

Yet the cabals incredibly disobeyed the good old Mills orders and doled out the staggering amount to Wayome, who had no contract with the government of Ghana.

If we stroll down memory lane, former President J. J. Rawlings’s ruled Ghana for approximately 228 months (military, 132 months and democratic, 96 months). Suffice it to stress that he only managed to destabilise Ghana’s macroeconomic indicators.

Rawlings’s administration adopted the calamitous Economic Recovery Programme (ERP),,introduced under the auspices of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The vast majority of tangible national assets, including the state owned enterprises were allegedly sold to friends and families for pittance.

The unfavourable Economic Recovery Programme culminated in a catalogue of hardships. And, on top of the harsh programmes and policies which threatened the economic fundamentals, the population had to brace itself for food shortages, a situation which was comparable to the concurrent Ethiopian famine that resulted in millions of deaths.

The implementation of the Programme of Action to Mitigate the Social Costs of Adjustment (PAMSCAD) did not improve the unfortunate situation as untold hardships permeated many households.

Starvation, so to speak, visited the vast majority of Ghanaians, and as a result developed hideous collar bones which the humorous Ghanaians renamed as “Rawlings Chain”. That was indeed the pernicious extent of the hunger.

Ghana was declared as Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC). And as a consequence, the newly elected President Kufuor had a tough decision to make, by either embracing or rejecting the HIPC status.

However, following a carefully considered reflection, the thoughtful Ex-President Kufuor chose to ingest an insipid pill with a view to getting over the pernicious malaise. He pragmatically embraced the HIPC status in 2001.

President Kufuor worked studiously for eight solid years, laid a favourable economic foundation and retired honourably.

He passed on the baton to the late President Mills on 7th January 2009, following his2008 election victory.

It must be mentioned that the late President Mills was extremely fortunate to have inherited a very good economic foundation laid by the effervescent President Kufuor and his equally hard working team.

Take, for instance, three years after former President Kufuor’s NPP government discovered oil in commercial quantities, the late President Mills had the joyous task of turning on the valve at an offshore platform in December 2010 to pump the first commercial oil.

Consequently, Ghana joined the petroleum exporting countries. And believe it or not, Ghana started to export crude oil and thus boosted the economic growth.

The economy grew from around 8.4 per cent to around 14 per cent by 2011 and Ghana thus reached the Lower Middle Income status.

“Ghana has come a long way and is the world's fastest growing economy today-2010.

“Ghana's economy is growing at a blistering 20.15 per cent, says Economy Watch.

“Blessed with rich reserves of natural resources, Ghana has suddenly turned around and is now speeding along the growth path.

“Ghana is oil-rich, has large gold and diamond deposits, and has a booming tourism industry” (Economy Watch 2010).

Regrettably, however, the late President Mills capitulated, got carried away and somehow allowed the create loot and share cabals in his administration to have their way.

The incompliant cabals began to dip their ‘thievery’ hands into the national coffers.

The racketeers even managed to allocate judgement debt amount in the national budget (purported to be around GH800 million), with the sole objective to create, loot and share. Do you remember Woyome’s GH51.2 million dubious judgement debt payment?

Apparently, things started to fall apart. It went from bad to worse following President Mills sudden and mysterious death. The conspiratorial plotters then had a field day leading to the 2012 general elections.

Ex-President Mahama and his NDC apparatchiks went berserk in their desperation to cling on to power. Thus they broke all conventions. Many government departments spent over and above their allocated budgets.

The general belief back then was that they bought votes with the tax payers’ money. They nonetheless clung on to power following the controversial election on 7th December 2012. Suffice it to state that their victory came with a huge costs to the nation.

The previously single digit inflation and budget deficit doubled astronomically. The GH9.5 billion debt which former President Kufuor and his NPP administration left in 2009 rocketed astronomically to GH122.4 billion in the absence of the universally affected pernicious corona virus and the protracted Ukraine/Russia conflict.

Ghana went into the throes of economic collapse due to mismanagement and wanton sleazes and corruption under the leadership of Ex-President Mahama.

Take, for example, Ghana’s economic growth slowed for the fourth consecutive year to an estimated 3.4% in 2015 from 4% in 2014 as energy rationing (dumsor), high inflation, and ongoing fiscal consolidation weighed on economic activity (World Bank, 2016).

Ex-President Mahama and NDC gave a cornucopia of Manifesto promises, among other things, making dumsor a thing of the past, putting money in Ghanaians pocket, creating more jobs for the jobless, stabilising the economy, protecting Ghanaians from the menaces of galamsey, bringing an end to dubious judgement debt payments, fighting the rampant sleaze and corruption, working with ‘lean’ government, getting rid of the filth in Accra within 100 days, introducing free SHS, implementing one-time NHIS premium.

The good people of Ghana bought into the NDC’s Manifesto promises and gave them the needed electoral mandate in the 2012 general elections. Unfortunately, however, the Mahama administration failed to honour the promises.

Regrettably, whenever the good people of Ghana expressed their grievances over the never ending harsh economic conditions, Ex-President Mahama and his vociferous communicators would go berserk: aren’t we transforming lives by building roads, hospitals, schools, toilets, water facilities, and other social infrastructural projects?

K. Badu, UK.

k.badu2011@gmail.com