It is almost six years since the NDC came to power. They promised, among other things, a decrease in petrol prices, better electricity system, improvement in sanitation, roads and infrastructure and a promise to continue and even improve the national health insurance and the school feeding programme which they encapsulated in what became known as better Ghana Agenda. However, the general hardship, the public outcry and dissatisfaction leading to spontaneous demonstrations by workers, students, university and polytechnic lecturers, nurses and doctors, indicate clearly that time is running out for President Mahama.

President Mahama has assumed that after four years of misrule and empty promises, he will still have four extra years to correct his mistakes and begin to fulfil all the promises he made?during his?four years of disappointment, waste, hardship and poverty. Time may not be on his side. Meanwhile, strikes and demonstrations continue unabated. Coalition of Concerned Teachers have joined other groups in a demonstration to demand improved and better condition of service and immediate payment of their unpaid salaries for more than one year. The coalition asked its fifty thousand members to withdraw their services and embark on a strike action. They were very disappointed in the failure of President Mahama to keep his promise to step in to resolve their grievances they reported earlier in the year. Prince Awuni Ali, the communications director of the coalition, maintains the view that president Mahama and his NDC government do not care for their interests. He probably does not realize that the hardships and pain he is inflicting on teachers and workers?as a whole will affect his chances of being re-elected as a president. Time is indeed running out for Mahama.

Mahama has committed so many political mistakes and continues doing them without a dint of remorse. Our president went to the USA where he had the opportunity to address the United Nations. Every Ghanaian expected him to put Ghana's case of cholera outbreak, which has affected thousands of people, to the United Nations and to solicit for emergency help. However, typical of Mahama, he pretended Ghana had no such problem, and rather made Ebola the focus of his address and prided himself for preventing Ebola from entering Ghana. To add salt to the wounds of Ghanaians, he accepted a proposal to use Ghana as an Ebola centre that will serve as a help unit for the Ebola infested countries. What a risk Mahama is putting Ghana into? He always puts Ghana in tight and difficult situations. Without regrets he is about to commit another dangerous blunder. Morocco has refused to host the 2016 African Cup of Nation (AFCON) football competition. The onus of responsibility has been given to Ghana or South Africa to host the competition. South Africa has rejected the offer. If by the time this article is published Mahama has agreed to host it that will hasten his end as a president and will never be able to continue as a president in 2016.

Time, indeed, is running out for Mahama as far as basic and senior high schools are concerned. Mahama's period of misrule has seen the worsening of basic and senior high schools in Ghana.? For the first time in Ghana's history, the senior high schools recorded the lowest percentage pass of 26%. This, in effect, means very few students will gain admission to universities and other tertiary institutions. Those whose parents can afford will have to re-sit and the majority of parents who cannot afford put their children in danger of becoming wayward and in extreme cases, armed robbers or doing menial jobs that will not help their future. Many public schools do computer courses without touching a keyboard. Computers and laptops donated to the Ministry of education by Microsoft to be distributed to schools were diverted and sold. If you need a proof, visit some public schools in Ghana and check if any laptops or desk top computers are in place. President Mahama has made promises upon promises to build additional senior high schools and teacher training colleges. The promise is almost becoming one of his usual empty promises. With barely two years to end his term in office and it seems time is running out for him to fulfil all the promises he made during his term of office.

Prof. John Evans Atta Mill was clearly used and when they realized he had become excess luggage and an obstacle to their retaining power, they looked for other ways to get rid of him. But the most pathetic aspect of his death was that the life of the late President was never allowed to reach its natural span. Yes, by omission or commission, they “murdered” John Evans Atta Mills. Accusing fingers have been point directly at President Mahama due to his behaviour during the death of Prof. Mills. It is hard to believe how a president at the point of death was carried in a private car to an ante-natal clinic at the 37 Military Hospital, where only women in labour are admitted. As if this was not enough, it is believed that Mahama who was then acting as the president, never asked for an autopsy on the dead president. He alone knew why. Breaking the rules of tradition, a “Thank You” tour was embarked upon not by the family of the deceased but by President John Dramani Mahama, sole beneficiary of Mills’ death. Nobody embarks on such a ‘tour’ without being accompanied by family members and the spouse of the deceased.

Again, if we were to go by the Akan tradition, there should have been a “Forty Days” ceremony of Mills’ death. But for some reasons best known to the President and his cronies, the ceremony was left out. But why was he determined to do everything to obliterate everything about his ‘master’ from human memory? But why and where did the former President go wrong?

Many Ghanaians have come to such conclusion because President John Dramani Mahama, the sole beneficiary of his former boss’ death did not deem it expedient to accord his master the respect he deserved. President Mahama and his cronies felt Prof. Mills was so sick and weak to win victory for them and therefore he had to get rid of him so that victory for NDC would be a reality. It is evident that President Mills’ untimely death was orchestrated and as people begin to point accusing fingers at Mahama, time is running out for him.

President John Dramani Mahama is painfully aware that the time allotted for his rule is fast running out and no concrete development or infrastructure have been completed during his two years in office. In a hurry to implement some of the promises he made long ago, a sod has been cut to convert the Tamale airport into an international airport. He did not end there. He went to Kumasi to open the shoe factory which is now producing boots for soldiers. He has also revived the Asutsuare Sugar Factory. With time running out for Mahama, will he be able to bring into effect all the promises he has made to Ghanaians in the midst of constant power failures? I personally do not think so. I don’t know what you also think.

It will take a long time for Ghanaians to obliterate from their minds, the most traumatic and untimely death of Prof. Mills. Shakespeare puts it this way, “the evil that men do, lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones so let it be with Caesar.” And I will add so let it be with Prof. Mills.

Written by Stephen Atta Owusu 

Author: Dark Faces at Crossroads

Email: stephen.owusu@email.com