Open Letter to President Mahama and President-elect Akufo-Addo

I see seven important things that denied Mr John Mahama his loved second term that I sense he feels would have consummated his job as president of Ghana. He is deeply disappointed, and that could be seen in his moments of conceding defeat. Mr Mahama came to the presidency of Ghana on the back of the tenacious effort of the honest and hardworking late President, Prof John Evans Atta-Mills (May he rest in the good bosom of the Lord God).

Under the eagle eyes of the late president, Mahama could not have his way. Though the 1992 Constitution of Ghana put the vice president at the head of national economic management, Mahama did not really have the skill and shrewdness to supervise the national economy efficiently. He certainly benefited in name – acknowledgement – from the good performance of the economy in the Mills’ administration largely due to investments earlier made in the oil and gas industry and currency stabilisation by the Kufuor government; and more importantly the strong arm supervision of the economy by the late professor. I dare say that under Atta-Mills, Mahama could not have his way!

Come the death of Atta-Mills, Mahama took over as president and apparently tried hard to keep within the principles his late boss ran the country. But the economy began nose-diving from the spectacular 14% GDP growth chalked before Atta-Mills passed away. Nevertheless, largely by sympathy vote, Mahama won comfortably the 2012 presidential election, smiling broadly back into the presidency ostensibly on his on merit.

So how did Mahama gain so much disaffection as to lose his second term opportunity?

First, it was not long when fumes of corruption could be seen from the chimney of the presidency. His youthful ministers began flaunting wealth and good living to the amazement and disenchantment of Ghanaians. But Mahama was adamant and seemingly uncaring. His indulgence in the adulterous words such as “Yide bee keke” unwittingly provided propaganda ammunition to his political opponents who astutely twisted the words to “Ye bedi keke” which essentially meant ‘We will misapply and embezzle at will.’ Stories of overpricing of projects at national and district assembly levels filled and poisoned the political air. The SADA project and more, stirred disquiet in the citizens, but Mahama didn’t seem to care. He brought his brother’s business too close to the presidency. The release of state excavation equipment to his brother for dredging the Odor River seemed innocuous, but cast a great slur on his judgement and sense of equity. His car gift from the Burkinabe contractor nailed him as a dubious national leader.

Second, Mahama looks affable, but perhaps he misconstrued what people commented respecting that description. He seemed to have let too loose too many serious things. His demeanour did not convey a president in control of his ministers. The rumour was that he was weak with his appointees because he had too many cobwebs in his house.

Third, President Mahama made a serious mistake of overtly leaning too heavily on his regional origin – so-called natives of northern Ghana – for the management of certain specific projects. Instead of depending on expertise, Mahama simply dwelt on northerners for “northern projects” execution. Perhaps the intention was godly, presuming that the appointees would be more diligent since they would be serving their own people directly. But that was a grievous mistake! It does not work that way! Mahama was perhaps too young to have observed the key factor that collapsed both URADEP and VORADEP (i.e. Upper Region Agricultural Development Programme and Volta Region Agricultural Development Programme). In both programmes General Kutu Acheampong, with good intention, choked the managements with indigenous people from the two regions so they could be more helpful to their own people. But they rather collapsed the programmes because culturally it was more difficult to discipline and demand high performance from their own people. Ewes and northerners are excellent workers and managers, but as applies to any other tribes and regions, it is improper to pack same cultural group of people at a place and give them state resources to manage efficiently. So with the failure, Mahama only won disgruntlement from his people – the northerners – as it seemed to majority of them that their own had not really done much to improve their well-being. The technocrats are usually neither so visibly seen nor blamed.

Fourth, toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign, Mahama appealed to northerners to see him as their own and return him to political power so he could continue to help them. This overt appeal was really crazy! Mahama should have known that he would infuriate and antagonise other tribes and regions with his appeal. This is especially as the whole northern Ghana (the three regions) put together would still be a minority in terms of population and electoral significance. So by his appeal, Mahama unwittingly galvanised other tribes and regions against him.

Fifth, Mahama was simply let down by his appointees. Incumbency, albeit by corruption, gave his party a disproportionate financial sinew to run a winning campaign. As is the case in Ghana, in opposition, political parties are lean in funds; but once in power they suddenly become so capacitated financially – able to pluck heaven down – usually rendering them so arrogant. So much money was apparently given to party officials and leading appointees to promote the image of Mahama and the party. Sadly for the president, many of these beneficiaries did very little serious campaign with the money. In my district of Jomoro, I saw and heard some of such leaders often organising parties for boys and girls with loud music as if their homes were the rally grounds. Reportedly, even members of other parties sometimes also joined such parties in the guise as National Democratic Congress (NDC) members. As in many parts of Ghana, some community development projects were rushed in the last two months of the campaign which rather infuriated the people, because they concluded that such projects were vote-buying and insulting of their intelligence.

Sixth, perhaps out of overconfidence, Mahama became a little less careful about his choice of words about his principal opponent, Nana Akufo-Addo. For example, in reaction to the accusation of his government as corrupt and incompetent – a fair language in national politics – Mahama often referred to Akufo-Addo as “Opana.” This did not go down well with many Ghanaians as they judged the president as disrespectful, because by age, Akufo-Addo could possibly be his father. Many concluded that the acidic tongue manifested on radio and TV by his youthful appointees stemmed from the emulation of his own mannerisms.

Last, but not the least, Mamaha’s vice president and running mate brought virtually nothing useful to the campaign. His “…… room to room, bed to bed and pillow to pillow explanation” tactic for NDC party grassroots sounded quite lousy and even childish to many people. His failure as an economist to effectively counter the barrage of sustained run-down of government economic management policies; and accusation of incompetence and corruption, gave credence to Dr Bawumia’s claims.

What can Nana Akufo-Addo learn from Mahama’s mistakes? Four years are not particularly so far away. Akufo-Addo’s honey moon will be short. A word to the wise is enough!

President Kufuor made several mistakes which Akufo-Addo must avoid. First Akufo-Addo must honour his promise to get district, municipal and metro chief executives universally elected. Articles 242 and 243 of the 1992 Constitution are not entrenched and can easily be dealt with by parliament to fulfil his promise. Kufuor promised and failed to do that and Ghanaians have not forgiven him for that. Akufo-Addo’s one-village-one-dam promise for northern Ghana must be executed as soon as possible. It is highly doable, and it is not very expensive. I have explained the why elsewhere. It is a critical socioeconomic development project. It will promote livestock and artisan fishery in that very dry area. I suggest that parts of Brong-Ahafo and northern Volta Region be included in the programme. The one-district-one-factory is also quite doable in many places. What is needed is a serious comprehensive district resource profiling aimed at the factory agenda.

But most importantly, Akufo-Addo must avoid the Acheampong and Mahama mistakes. He must not necessarily staff regional projects with indigenes. He needs to lean on expertise, competence and diligence. A monitoring torchlight should be thrown at all appointees to enable continuous weeding out of the laggards. God bless Ghana!

Ketiboa Blay is a socioeconomic development management specialist with outstanding expertise in baseline research; community needs assessment, community development planning; and projects, programmes and policy technical review and evaluation. He has considerable expertise also in conflict management. As a non-denominational Christian evangelist, Mr Blay is also a peace-builder.