We cannot deny or hide the fact that the brassbound NDC loyalists have been going through a process analogous to Dr Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s stages of grief ever since they lost the 2016 and 2020 general elections.

Indeed, we have unfortunately been witnessing unbridled reactive emotional responses from the diehard supporters of NDC ever since they lost the 2016 and 2020 elections to the NPP.

It is worth noting that Dr Elizabeth Kubler-Ross developed the grief model in the 1960s with the view to explaining the grieving process.

Suffice it to say, the grief model has since been widely utilised as a method of helping people to understand their reactions to significant change or upheaval.

Take, for instance, Dr Kubler-Ross grief model posits that a terminally ill patient would normally progress through five stages of grief when informed of their illness.

She further proposed that the model could be applied to any dramatic life-changing situation such as the NDC’s 2016 humiliating election defeat and the subsequent upheaval.

The five basic stages of Dr Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s grief are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

According to Dr Kubler-Ross, during the denial stage, individuals who are grieving over their loss are often unable or unwilling to accept that the loss has actually taken place.

In other words, the grieving individuals would feel as if they are experiencing a bad nightmare and would often hold an elusive conviction that the loss is unreal.

Dr Kubler-Ross thus explicates that when individuals who are grieving over their loss have gone through denial stage and have thus accepted that the loss has occurred may enter into the anger phase.

For instance, they would become extremely angry at the loss and would often throw tantrums to evince their pains.

In the bargaining phase, according to Dr Kubler-Ross, individuals in the grieving mood, such as the NDC supporters, would relentlessly beg their "leaders’" to do something about the defeat, saying things along the lines like, "We’ll not vote if you failed to bring “the former president” (or Mahama ) back ."

Interestingly, however, Dr Kubler-Ross asserts that once it becomes crystal-clear that anger and bargaining are not going to alter the loss, individuals grieving, like NDC faithful, may then enter into a depression stage where they come face-to-face with the reality of the loss and their own unpardonable infelicities that contributed to the loss.

During the depression stage, however, the grieving supporters may weep bitterly behind the scenes, and may experience sleep or eating habit changes, or withdraw from other relationships and activities while they process the loss they have suffered.

Some followers may also blame themselves for having caused or in some way contributed to their defeat, whether or not it is justified.

Lastly, according to Dr Kubler-Ross, individuals would enter into a stage of acceptance when they have overcome their initial grief emotions and, are able to accept that the loss has occurred after all, and cannot be undone, so once again they are able to plan for their future and re-engage in daily life or politics.

My dear reader, let’s be honest, we cannot stand accused of harbouring innate and risible proclivity for asserting somewhat passionately that there are not many patriotic Ghanaians who will shrill and thrill over the return of Ex-President Mahama, with the exception of the diehard supporters who probably laid hands on humongous chunks of the national cake, ostensibly, distributed unfairly by the former president.

It is quite obvious that the Mahama praise singers have been living in a denial and never experienced the harsh socio-economic standards of living their ‘redeemer’ wilfully brought upon the nation in the absence of the globally diffused corona virus and Ukraine/Russia protracted conflict. So what do you expect? They will inexorably clamour for the return of the spoon that overfed them.

If you may remember, during the NDC’s 2020 flagbearership contest, the other potential presidential aspirants emitted vehemently and inexorably that former President Mahama was the main reason why NDC lost the 2016 election.

Unsurprisingly, a multitude of concerned supporters within the NDC were in solidarity with the other aspiring flagbearers.

The aggrieved supporters uncompromisingly ventilated their illimitable indignations over the comeback of former President Mahama.

Bizarrely, while the sceptics were insisting that Mahama was not up to the task during his tenure in office and must therefore be replaced with a much more capable flagbearer, the Mahama loyalists were moving heaven and earth to have him back as the party’s next presidential candidate.

Some of us struggled to get our heads around as to how and why anyone with reflective thinking prowess could aim accusing fingers at the critics for insisting that Mahama kept his eyes off the prize and therefore didn’t warrant another chance at the presidency.

Much as former President Mahama commands some respect among the NDC foot soldiers and a section of ordinary Ghanaians, the sceptics could not be far from right for being doubtful over Mahama’s future electoral chances.

Given the circumstances, it came as no surprise to some of us at all when a group of organisers within the opposition NDC urged the National Executives of the party to allow Honourable Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin to go unopposed in the party’s 2020 flagbearership contest (See: Alban Bagbin must go unopposed – NDC organisers; ghananewsagency.org/ghanaweb.com, 12/03/2018).

“So many people in the party feel Hon. Bagbin is the best person to lead us into 2020 and the reasons are pretty clear: he is the exact contrast to former President John Mahama in the matter of marketability and yet retains the Northern extraction that will satisfy the need to have a Northerner complete an eight-year mandate.”

Back then, the spokesperson for the group insisted forcefully that since corruption was going to be a key campaign theme in 2020, and the fact that former President Mahama administration had issues with corruption, Ghanaian voters would be forced to reject him if he was to be elected as the flagbearer.

In fact, it was not only the aggrieved NDC organisers who expressed grave concerns about the corruption in the erstwhile Mahama administration.

The NDC founder and the former president of Ghana, J. J. Rawlings of blessed memory audaciously came out and disclosed that the corruption in the Mahama administration was so pervasive to the extent that a former NDC minister licentiously bought two luxurious mansions worth at a staggering $3 million from an estate agent in Accra shortly after the Mahama’s government exited power (see: ‘NDC minister grabs two mansions’; dailyguidenetwork.com, 12/06/2018).

The founder of the NDC, the late President Rawlings, further disclosed that Akufo-Addo, unfortunately, inherited national corruption at its worst from the erstwhile National Democratic Congress administration, led by former President John Dramani Mahama(see: Akufo-Addo inherited ‘corruption at its worst’-Rawlings; ghanaweb.com, 2/11/2017).

Besides, prior to the NDC’s 2020 flagbearership contest, the Honourable Bagbin, the then MP for Nadoli Kaleo and a contestant of the NDC’s presidential race, attributed the humiliating defeat of Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2016 general elections to bad governance (See: ‘Mahama's boys bought V8, built mansions in 4 years – Bagbin; myjoyonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 19/08/2018).

Mr Bagbin was reported to have quizzed somewhat dejectedly: “Don’t tell me that the boys that suddenly came closer to the president within four years can build mansions and buy land cruisers and you say there are no resources, where are they getting the money, their salaries?”

To be quite honest, some of us are struggling to get our heads around how and why any real patriot would seek the return of someone who disastrously collapsed the country’s economy to the detriment of the poor and the disadvantaged Ghanaians in the absence of ecumenically diffused economic crisis.

So the Mahama loyalists would want us to believe that every single Ghanaian was oblivious to the happenings in the country prior to the 2016 general elections?

The fact of the matter is that the diehard NDC supporters were living in a denial about the harsh economic conditions prior to the 2016 general elections.

Back then, the vast majority of Ghanaians struggled to make a living or eke out an income.

The dreadful errors in decision-making, the incompetence and the unbridled corruption culminated in untold economic hardships.

Take, for example, the late Mills left an auspicious economic growth of 14%, and Mahama dragged it to a disappointing 3.4%, the late Mills raised agricultural growth to 7.5%, and Mahama incredibly reversed it to 3.0%, the late Mills unprecedented single digit inflation was perfunctorily raised to 15.4%, a favourable GDP of GH47Billion shrunk to GH40billion by Mahama in the absence of the ecumenically diffused coronavirus or Ukraine/Russia intractable conflict.

One cannot help but to agree with those who insist that former President Mahama lacks effective leadership skills.

The sceptics would argue that it was due to former President Mahama’s poor leadership qualities that a GH9.5 billion debt in 2009 rocketed to an incredible GH122.4 billion in the absence of the universally affected corona virus and Ukraine/Russia protracted war.

Besides, the critics have been maintaining that former President Mahama’s dreadful errors in decision-making accounted for Ghana’s economic downslide between 2012 and 2016 in the absence of any major global crisis.

Ex-President Mahama’s decision-making came under sharp scrutiny when he abysmally dragged an economic growth of around 14% in 2011 to a nauseating 3.4% as of December 2016 in the absence of the globally diffused corona virus and the intractable Ukraine/Russia conflict.