A word to the president Mr President, Ghanaians will not remember you for how long you ruled, but the impact you made in the lives of the hungry and homeless masses who queued to vote for you. And you don’t need eight years to make an impact. Mr Jinapor, who was once spokesperson to the President John Mahama, watched the Supreme Court ruling with the President in the Flagstaff House. And immediately after the ruling, he started posting pictures he took with the President on his facebook page. The deputy minister’s photographs with the visibly elated President on Facebook are not my mutton. My beef is the caption that accompanied the photographs: “JM [John Mahama] declared legitimate President. Battle for 2016 begins today.” Battle for 2016? Is that why Ghanaians queued to vote for you? That after being declared winner, your next agenda is the next election? What about the unemployment? What about the power crisis? What about the corruption, which is threatening the stability of the nation? My father used to tell us that the years would not standstill because of his poverty. But the years will not stop moving because of your presidency. 2016 will soon be here. And if you have the nod again, 2020 will soon come and you will be saying goodbye to Ghanaians? Do you want to be remembered only as the longest serving president in the Fourth Republic? (Remember you enjoyed a few months on the throne before your actual election.) Though Ghanaian politics is dirty and the road to the top is murkier than the swimming pond for pigs in my village, I am sometimes tempted to believe that Providence has a say in who rules us. This is not only because it defies coincidence to have four successive “Johns” as Presidents but also because of your own journey to the Presidency. Mr John Mahama, your opponents do not agree with you anytime you say your election is divine. But that seems to be true and I liken your elevation to Esther in the Bible. She was the most unlikely candidate to succeed Vashti as queen because she was a slave. It would have been difficult for you to become the flag bearer of your party because of where you come from. Face it! Since 1992, your colleagues in politics have often played second fiddle. If there’s favour or lack in politics, then you are next only to Goodluck Jonathan of Nigerian. Why do I say this? Prof. J.E.A Mills, who led the NDC in elections since 2000, selected Mr Martin Amidu as his running mate but lost. In 2004, he picked Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, as running mate. When he lost, he again decided to change a running mate for the 2008 election. The lots fell on you despite stiff opposition from your own party, including the founder and his wife, who wanted one Auntie Betty to partner Prof. Mills. You went with Prof Mills once, and you won. But your tenure as vice president did not end before your elevation to the highest throne of our republic. Again, you campaigned for barely five months (including your “thank you tour” in funeral cloth) and won over Nana Addo, who had been campaigning since 2007. If indeed, you believe your elevation is by the grace of the Old Man above, then you must also believe that it is not for nothing that He elevated you. When the Jews faced annihilation and Queen Esther gave reasons why she could not intervene for her people, her uncle, Mordecai sent her a strong word: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s palace, you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” You come from a part of the country, where if you give someone GH¢10 ($5), you are likely to find a delegation in your house the next morning to thank you. There are many such people all over the country because politicians after Dr Kwame Nkrumah have thought more about the next election than the electorate. There is reason why you were chosen over the son of a former president. Think about what Mordecai told Queen Esther.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 10:28:31 +0000
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