I don’t know if this linguistic blunder came from the anonymous Modernghana.com Staff Writer or it was wholly the doing of Mr. Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, the former Mahama Sports Minister, who presently serves as the Director of Elections of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), but the proper expression is to be in a “Campaign Mode,” as ought to have been used in the news caption of “Elvis Afriyie Ankrah Says NPP Still in Campaign Mood [sic], Always Comparing” NPP News/Modernghana.com 3/30/19). Maybe the man who, together with his then Deputy, Mr. Joseph Yamin, royally bungled Ghana’s participation in the 2014 Brazil World Cup, in the liquid-cash flight/flying scam, needs to be educated about the fact that in any two-party democracy around the globe, which is most functional democracies, by the way, winning periodic elections revolves around the comparative performance track-record of the two major political parties.

So if the leaders of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) seem to be bitterly complaining around the clock about the snail-paced material development of the country, it is primarily because the Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress left behind such an unprecedentedly Stygian mess that it is taking unusually long for President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to undo the mess bequeathed him by former President John Dramani Mahama, before even thinking of smoothly transitioning into the unfettered and salutary implementation of the full-development agenda of the progress-oriented New Patriotic Party. Even so, the present Akufo-Addo Administration has successfully implemented far more significant development projects than any other government since December 31, 1981. I mean, wouldn’t Mr. Afriyie Ankrah bitterly complain if he took over the governance of the country, only to discover to his disconsolate horror that nearly every major infrastructural amenity, from healthcare and education, agricultural production and productivity, and sanitation to transportation and power supply had virtually collapsed or was in abject disrepair?

I guess not, in the case of the NDC’s Elections Director, because the preceding is precisely the story of the massive administrative failure left behind by the man who was so outrageously greedy that he even wanted to be gifted with the official residence of the Vice-President of the Democratic Republic of Ghana. Indeed, I have said time and time again in the recent past that if his predecessors were even half as avaricious as Mr. Mahama, there would be absolutely nothing left behind that was state-owned or owned by the hardworking and longsuffering and staunchly patriotic Ghanaian taxpayer. We must also significantly note that Mr. Mahama is the first and, perhaps, the only former Ghanaian president/leader who continues to be on the public dole or welfare while he vigorously and nonconsecutively guns for the Presidency for the second time around. That is how clinically dire or serious the level of the kleptocratic greed of the NDC apparatchiks is. And these professional and congenital political scam-artists, unconscionable parasites and greedy bastards would have Ghanaian voters return them to the Jubilee-Flagstaff House, come January 2021.

But guess what, Dear Reader? There was absolutely no significant development under eight years of Presidents John Evans Atta-Mills, late, and John Dramani Mahama. So it is not clear precisely what he means, when Mr. Afriyie Ankrah, rather vacuously, asserts that the Akufo-Addo-led government of the NPP has woefully failed to advance the development of Ghana. Even a casual glance at the national geopolitical landscape would readily attest to the fact that the Mills-Mahama regime produced more illiterate and unemployable Ghanaian youths than at any time in the country’s history. We also need to remind the Ghanaian public that it was during the tenure of the NDC that an organization called “The Ghanaian Unemployed Graduates’ Association (GUGA) was formed. So, what massive economic development programs under the Mills-Mahama regimes could Mr. Afriyie Ankrah be talking about?

The fact of the matter is that, although they would not publicly admit of the same, people like the National Democratic Congress’ so-called Director of Elections are scared stiff of the 2020 general elections, which clearly and palpably seems to be staring them in the face like the mask of death. You see, the proverbial handwriting on the wall has been blazing and burning the eyes and visual paths of the NDC leaders ever since the first day when then President-Elect Akufo-Addo assumed the democratic reins of governance. Which, of course, is also precisely why Mr. Afriyie Ankrah would rather not have the leaders of the ruling New Patriotic Party constantly reminding Ghanaians of how healthily far they have come from four-and-half years of Mahama-supervised regressive regime of Dumsor and the wanton destruction of our pristine waterbodies and forestry resources via the wanton environmentally destructive activity known as Galamsey, or small-scale illegal mining. Like it or not, come December 2020, the Mahama Cabal is sure to bite the dust.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York