We can not avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it and move forward with renewed purpose and hope. The victim in a qualified situation of distress, pain, anguish or indeed deprivation, being rational can make a conscious and conscientious decision to walk away from the established cause of misery. These preceding paragraph from Viktor E. Franklin’s “MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING” sets forth both the tone and context of the foregoing discourse.
On December 7th, 2024, the people of Ghana will go to the poll to make a decision to either continue on this path of misery brought on them in the last eight years by this government or vote for change. The stakes could not be more high in this pivotal election.
Eight years ago, the NPP with Nana Akufo Ado as the presidential candidate asked Ghanians to vote for him and give him a chance to fix the problems which John Mahama failed to do. They accused Mahama’s advisers of poor governance, corruption, lack of infrastructural development, DUMSOR – a metaphor for electricity failures, excessive poverty and its concomitant hunger across the land. Ghanians wanted a new leader who could salvage the situation and extricate them from the shackles of poverty. Many commentators reminded Ghanians of Mahama’s inexperience following the death of Prof. Atta Mills.
They forgot the many achievements of John Mahama within one term in office. Though the new University of Ghana Medical Center (UGMC) was started by President Mills with John Mahama as Vice President, JM completed and commissioned it. John Mahama initiated many new progressive health policies. He built a 617 bed University Teaching Hospital and another one with 400 beds in Tamale. Three institutional hospitals- 500-bed military hospital projects in Kumasi, 104-bed police hospitals in Accra and 130-bed Maritime hospital in Tema. Also four regional hospitals namely: 420-bed in Ridge hospital expansion projects in Accra, 250-bed Asanti regional hospital at Sewua in kumasi, 295-bed Bolgatanga Regional hospital and 160-bed Upper West Regional hospital.
Furthermore, seven districts hospitals each with a capacity of 120 beds at Dodowa, Fomena, Kumawu , Abetifi etc.
From 2012 to 2017 while John Mahama was in office, he achieved so much and undertook tremendous infrastructural developments, especially in Ghana road network, in the energy sector and power plants. This is just to highlight a few. Mahama saw education as a strategic investment in human capital development and increased the budget for education. JM is a man with compassion, loved all Ghanians irrespective of region, religion and creed. JM was an inclusive leader. President Olusegun Obasanjo has described president Mahama when he was invited to the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) as a special guest of honour being a president for a modern African society. JM is not given to ostentatious lifestyles, big and expensive houses in foreign countries. Comparatively speaking, the NPP by way of comparison has become a party with unprecedented level of financial impropriety ever seen in Ghana.
To be sure, this election is not about President Nana Akufo Ado, he is leaving office. It’s about his vice president Bauwumia. If one searches or googles for the worst political liar in Ghana, the answer will be Bauwumia. This is the person the people of Ghana are asked to choose between him and president Mahama, a man of integrity, punctuated with veracity, gentility, says what he means and means what he says. A man other African leaders and world leaders have come to respect and accord high admiration and affinity because of his class and style.
Like the recent election in America, Ghanians must support leaders who value heterosexuality and reject any person interested in LGBTQ, a huge distortion of African family values, culture and morality. Kamala Harris, came to Ghana only to influence the government to tow that way of life. The bill hurriedly passed through parliament but for the strong opposition of members of NDC and the people’s rejection, it would have been signed into law by President Ado. Bauwumia is prepared to sign it into law the first day in office if elected president.
Today, Ghana is at a crossroads. She has a divided country for the first time. The institutions are not immune. Ghana can do better than this. What happens in Ghana has the potential capacity to affect the entire continental subregion. Nigerians are relocating to Ghana and sending their children for university education. Ghana can not afford another bad government.
So this 2024 election is not about NPP, NDC, Independent Party candidates or any other political party. To the world, this election must be about individuals and their records. That’s why Ghanaians in diaspora came together to form a Political Action Committee called Ghana United for Good Governance. A Ghanaian medical doctor said it best when he quipped: “I don’t dislike President Nana Ado as a man, but its disheartening to see how he has allowed his president’s men to destroy his legacy and a chance to change his image. Nana Ado, he continued has let Ghana people down. He cannot therefore ask us to vote for Bauwumia, which will be tantamount to an extension of his failed administration. We are victims. But I still respect him as our father and president. The best legacy he can leave for Ghana is to allow a true and fair election. History will judge him kindly if he does that.
I was involved in an academic research on the popular success idea behind leadership culture of Ghana pioneer leaders, with special focus on Ghana first Prime Minister and President. This study was provoked after what Prof. Dan Richie (President cum Pro-chancellor) Univetsity of Denver- DU, Denver Colonade USA- my alma mater) described as one of the most impressive State visits to the White House by an African leader. Prof. Richie was referring to the state visit of President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana to America from July 23rd -26th, 1957. President Nkrumah visited President Dwight Eisenhower in what many research scholars and historians have described as one of the best State visits by any African head of state, except Nelson Mandella many years after.
In brevity, the basic findings of our study was that, what brought about success popularity, charismatic culture and near mythical profile of old Ghana leaders was their deliberate focus on formation of character, ethics and development of set principles/ values like integrity, fidelity, courage, compassion, responsibility, Justice , service , humility , altruism and veracity.
These enduring values were the hallmarks of their success. This explains why they enjoyed popular general acceptance and loyalty by their people and high recognition and accolades in terms of how they were regarded by others outside their region. Black Americans for example, who lived in Ghana in the 40s, 50s, 60s till today will attest to this. Even after the infamous slave trade, black Americans relished how their relationship gave birth to where black Americans were granted dual citizenship.
Following many societal forces and the atrophying of our cherished core values these days, there is a paradigm shift from that character ethics to what I will call the anomy of personality ethics by present day Ghana leaders, who now focus on narrow parochial self serving pursuits of style, image, posturing, ostentatious indulgence characterized by pronounced interest in excessive self aggrandizement at the expense of the common man. The noticeable agitation by the down trodden in Ghana against their current leaders today which has eroded public confidence in the new progressive of highly educated younger generation is simply because there is emphasis on appearing to be, rather than to truly be by these present day Ghana leaders. Imagine how President Nkrumah and Atta Mills, will feel if they were alive today. John Kuffor led Ghana not on party line but as a patriotic father. That’s what Ghana needs now.
Nana Akufo Ado’s legacy appears to stand on the verge of being tainted if Bauwumia becomes his successor in a labyrinth of amnesia leaving posterity in the doldrums of misery. This brings me to John Mahama and why Ghanians must consider him the best alternative to replace Nana Akufo. JM is not a puritan by any means. He is not a messiah. He is not holier than thou. He has made his share of mistakes. Let’s get these points out of the way. But I am a strong believer in redemption. I believe in giving people a second chance. America has just done that with Donald J. Trump.
Ghana United for Good Governance sees JM as a man who has gone through series of political and spiritual tutelages, anchored on core fundamental values and principles. He started his political apprenticeship with late Atta Mills as vice president and later president after his demise. In those encounters, Mahama learned a lot and also made mistakes. He is human and perfection is beyond human attainment. Mistakes help to build character and accumulate experience. What Ghana and Ghanaians need now is a leader who has the broad mindedness to be all inclusive and treat us all as one. A leader like JM who will help destroy the prevailing erroneous impression that Ghana politicians do not care about the people. I refuse to embrace this narrative. If JM succeeds in uniting all Ghanaians as I believe he would, history will vindicate those like me who believe in the goodness of all mankind.
The first test of a Presidential candidate is usually the choice of a running mate. No reasonable person in Ghana today who is privy to Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang records and antecedent will argue against her selection. Prof. Jane Opoku- AgyeMang is a woman with integrity, character, conservative principles, has astute knowledge of the economy and what it will take to move the nation forward. A good mother, a devoted wife who keeps reading, believes in the acquisition of new ideas and information/ knowledge from any higher institution she can get it. JM running mate understands the imperatives of market forces, capitalist principles in the contemporary concept of globalization and the new world order.
Mahama knows how to grow business and create wealth and jobs. These are not stories. Even With the mistakes he has made in the first coming, he has a chance to redeem himself and in the process resuscitate our comatose economy. Time and reflections have taught JM that great men are not remembered because of the wealth they made on earth but how their lives impacted others and humanity. He can not afford to squander this last chance. He is 66 years. How he wants to be remembered lies in this opportunity to become president again and in so doing use the office to correct , amend and write his name on the sands of time. Mahama must bring Ghana at par with other comity of Nations.
Ghana foreign policy must be redefined to be dictated by core national economic interest. This paradigm shift is necessary to meet the challenges of unfolding new global alignments. A shift that recognizes yes we are a regional influencer but a policy of Ghana first must not be to the exclusion of regional economic integration. Ghana needs a JM who sees the inevitability of a strategic investment in human capital development in new areas of study like Artificial intelligence, robotic science and entrepreneurship. We are in a knowledge-based global economy. JM must create an intellectual task force who will travel around the world recruiting conscious future leaders of Ghana. Bring them together and form a strategic alignment of like minds. Let them think, create/ develop and bring forth ideas to solve Ghana’s problem. The Chinese are doing it. This is no rocket science. In making a strong case why JM should be Ghana next president, I see the presence of three indices that define a modern true leader . These indices are what Aaron Miller call the 3Cs: Compassion, Character and Capacity. It is the presence of these 3Cs that brought the success story of those two great leaders (Nkrumah and Mills) who mentored Mahama. JM has imbibed these 3Cs and this explains why he enjoys the popular general acceptance, recognition and support every where he goes. It’s this unique humility and acceptance of responsibility for his mistakes that led to that highly celebrated reconciliation between him and Ghanaians eight years after he left office.
The nation is divided. There is so much fear. People are hungry. They take from the needy and give to the greedy. Yet they claim they are fighting corruption. It’s an oxymoron to be fighting corruption and have the nation and people enmeshed in this oasis of poverty. As Winston Churchill said “When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits … not animals. And he said, there is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which whether we like it or not, spells duty”
John Mahama and Ghanaians are in a rendezvous with Destiny. The assembly of these forces are not by accident. Even the gods support this cause. Electing this alternative called John Mahama must be seen as a Ghana PROJECT. It’s not about NPP, NDC or Independent Candidate, it’s not about Asanty, Trice, Eweh, Nothern region, West Coast, Hausa, this is about standing up for a true CHANGE that is good. Posterity will not forgive us if we don’t see this and do this collectively as a Ghana PROJECT.
Agbai Eke Agbai, PhD.
Executive VP, Center for Policy & Foreign Engagement and a BOT member OOPL writes from USA.
