Dear Sir
To everything, there is a time and season for it, so says the Good Bible. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to sow and a time to reap.
In our body politics, a time to win and a time to lose.
Ghana, our beloved country has been ruled by a crop of men who go by name "JOHN" in the past 24yrs. The trend seems never to end until Dec 7 2016 brought in a new leader who defied that tradition. We often joked with it, that if you are not named "John" then forget ever been president of Ghana.
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John Dramani Mahama, you are the fourth John in succession to be president of Ghana. You took over from your late boss John Mills but as fate would have it, couldn't hold on to power for another term. Many had read lots of meanings into your defeat to three time flag bearer Nana Akufo-Addo of the NPP.
Sir, you came into the limelight of being a potential president when you successfully partnered President Mills to victory in the 2008 elections. As Vice president, you were only a step away from being president. You were the "lover boy" of Ghanaian politics. Both young and old liked and revered you. You were the Vice President going into another election to which many had predicted you would have lost. But again, as fate would have it, your boss died just 6mths to the election.
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You immediately became the President and candidate on your own right going into an election. You were more or less the "orphan" child whose woes and sorrows every Ghanaian couldn't avoid empathizing with. You became the new "kid" loved by everyone. I for one wanted Pres Mills to lose the election but with the Prof's unfortunate demise, my love for you grew. I will defend you with the least resource I had. I will readily punch holes into the supposed "free SHS" policy by your rival Akufo-Addo. I will defend you by saying, accessibility as Mahama is saying is far better than free SHS. Mahama says he will build 200 new SHS and that was better. My love for you was too much and you ended up winning the 2012 election.
Post 2012, what happened? You immediately became the exact opposite of what we all loved you for. And that is what has caused you the 2016 election you thought you would win with ease.
I couldn't see myself campaigning for you to win the 2016 election because my conscience wouldn't allow me to do it.
Your administration in retrospect
- Sir, in my candid opinion you were an indecisive president. Your decisions were always questionable. You say one thing today, and say another tomorrow.
- You were a man who couldn't keep his word. You made so many promises with the dumsor issue that you even promised never to promise again.
- You appointed a lot of square pegs in round roles. People who knew next to nothing about the portfolios they occupied.
- You tried to rely more on hungry youth as your appointees. People who only came on board to selfishly chop money and engage in propaganda.
- You were too soft and almost behaved like Father Christmas with your appointees. It made me ask, is the president afraid of his appointees??
- Most of your appointees were arrogant, disrespectful, full of themselves and very greedy.
- You heard, you saw, you read about their attitudes and utterances but you played deaf with us.
- It even got to a time, your ‘good self’ became very disrespectful to us with your utterances and I asked, is this JM, the great communicator? If you tell me not to criticize you because I have come nowhere near being president then why should you come to me and tell me to vote for you?
- The nurse’s allowance. This is one area I was sooo sad with how you handled it. You were bold to tell students that "I won’t pay and if that will cost me the election, so be it" wow! Do you realise these are Ghanaians too? They have families who go through hell to pay their bills. Then came Aseidu Nketia with more fire. "He barked, we don’t need your votes"…
- Then with barely two months to election you HYPOCRITICALLY decide to pay them meagre figures on table top. For what? Did you realise how insulting that was to our sisters and brothers in the Nursing Colleges?
- The general unemployment situation in the country is alarming. But you have in some appointees the nerve to tell the youth they are "LAZY" and you saw nothing wrong with that.
- NHIS is dying but you keep telling us it’s very robust. Yet the real thing on the ground is, NHIs doesn't even cover Vitamin C.
- I was soo sad, because you are a fine gentleman. Having advocated for you in 2012, I was looking forward to a great governance from you. A Ghanaian just like me born in the present independent Ghana and not the Gold Coast.
- Corruption was and will forever be an indelible print on your government. The signs were everywhere and everyone saw it but you. I won’t call you Corrupt, I honestly can’t call you that.
But, Mr. President, you supervised over the most corrupt administration in the fourth republic.
- SADA
- GYEEDA
-Bus Rebranding (needless)
- Power badges contract
- Contract prices as compared to others elsewhere
- Needless Sole sourcing contracts
- Guinea fowl rearing
- AMERI
- ISOFOTON
- STX Korea
- SUBAH
- Brazil fiasco
- AMAJORO COCOA SCANDAL
- EMBRYA DEAL
- FORD EXPEDITION
- Masloc etc. etc. etc.
You did nothing and your excuse of "I am not a dictator to just arrest people" was very unfortunate to say the least. You based all your success story on your remarkable infrastructure achievement. But Mr. President, by your own words, that was very MEDIOCRE.
You surrounded yourself with a bunch of greedy babies with sharp teeth (BWST) who kept lying to you. They told you what you Wanted to hear and not what you Needed to hear.
They kept singing your praise and even when they were criticized, they will respond with ballistic missiles.
Sir, your people let you down but blame them not. Blame yourself because you had all the time and power to put them to check but you chose to ignore and even when you decided to act, you did so with kid gloves.
It hurt me to see you lose this election. An election I thought you would have won had you paid attention at other areas too. I am Sad, very sad. I chose a youthful man in 2012, a man whom I thought would defy all the odds and get things done. A man who won’t tolerate "nonsense" but will see to it that the right thing gets done. A man, I thought I could associate with because I am a young person too. But you failed me and other many young Ghanaians.
Sir, yes you did your best but the truth is, your best wasn’t good enough. I have heard rumors you are considering running again in 2020. I will be very glad if you don’t. For when you decide to run, you will meet fierce contest from within the NDC for the flag bearer slot. Ballistic attacks will be thrown at you from all angles and you won’t survive it. The damage it will do to your reputation will be massive. I will be glad if you don’t.
I wish you well as you retire into private citizenship and a statesman.
You did what you could and Ghana thanks you for your service...
Yours truly
Sad Advocate
#theYoungestOldman
Written By Nana Nyan Tetteh
