Why Mahama may never become NDC’s 2020 flagbearer

Former President John Mahama has been tipped by some NDC members to lead the party into 2020 polls

There is no denying or hiding the fact that a section of the NDC Party loyalists hold Ex-President Mahama in high esteem regardless.

It is also absolutely true that we can locate some disengaged brassbound NDC Party followers who do not wish the Ex-President Mahama well.

Take, for example, the courageous George Boateng would have threatened Ex-President Mahama’s 2016 NDC’s flagbearership’s position if the party had not controversially blocked his presidential ambitions.

But despite the disqualification of George Boateng, the disgruntled NDC delegates went ahead and voted against Ex-President Mahama, who bizarrely failed to convince nearly 6% of the delegates. Indeed, the unhappy 6% of the delegates voted for “MR Zero”. How bizarre?

Apparently, the aggrieved NDC Party supporters action did not end at the presidential race, but they rather took their protest to the 2016 general elections.

More troublingly, the unenthused NDC supporters uncharacteristically withdrew their support for Mahama, which resulted in the humiliating defeat in the 2016 general elections.

Given the circumstances, I would like to believe that it is going to be extremely difficult for the disengaged NDC Party supporters to forgive Ex-President Mahama over his catastrophic errors in judgement.

So it was somewhat out of order when the ten Regional NDC Chairmen recently convened at the Cantonments office of Ex-president Mahama and gleefully, albeit carelessly issued a statement which sought to beseech him (Mahama) to consider joining the flagbearership race for the 2020 election (See: NDC Regional Chairmen beg Mahama to lead the party in 2020 election; 3news.com/ghanaweb.com, 09/11/2017).

“[We have] called on HE John Dramani Mahama to consider the request of teeming supporters of the NDC and Ghanaians to lead the party to the 2020 General Elections”, the statement said.

To be quite honest, I do not want to accept that there are teeming Ghanaians who will jump up and down over the return of Ex-President Mahama, with the exception of a few NDC Party apparatchiks who probably laid hands on big chunks of the national cake.

Obviously, the praise singing bandwagon never experienced the harsh socio-economic standards of living their Messiah Mahama wilfully brought upon the nation. So, what do you expect? They will definitely clamour for the return of their Father Christmas.

In fact, I am struggling to get my head 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 impoverished Ghanaians.

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

Clearly, one cannot help, but to agree with those who insist that former President Mahama lacks the needed effective leadership skills to lead a nation like Ghana.

The sceptics rightly 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 just eight years.

Besides, the critics rightly maintain that former President Mahama’s irrevocable errors in decision-making accounted for Ghana’s economic downslide. For example, Ghana’s GDP shrunk from $47 billion to $37 billion in just five years.

Somehow, Ex-President Mahama’s decision-making came under sharp scrutiny when he abysmally dragged an economic growth of around 14 percent in 2011 to a nauseating 3.6 percent as of December 2016.

Moreover, the critics have been arguing forcefully that former President Mahama and his government’s woeful errors in judgement and alleged corrupt practices resulted in excessive public spending, less efficient tax system, needless high public deficit and destabilization of national budgets, heightened capital flight and the creation of perverse incentives that stimulate income-seeking rather than productive activities.

On the whole, the critics rightly contend that former President Mahama’s government remains the worst ever in the history of Ghana politics. 

However, the loyalists of former President Mahama, such as the ten Regional Chairmen, are ridiculously holding a faint hope that they could bring Ex-President Mahama back and recapture power from the NPP in 2020.

Well, I am not in a position to offer any advice to NDC delegates on their choice of a suitable flagbearer. But all that I could disclose is that judging from the harsh economic conditions Ghanaians experienced during Mahama’s maladaptive administration, it will take a miracle for discerning Ghanaians to easily forgive and vote Ex-President Mahama in 2020.

K. Badu, UK