Firm Leadership Will Guarantee President Mahama's Legacy

Author's note: This was written on 14/3/2013. It is being posted today because I was unable to do so on the day.




It is in the national interest  that  a serving President  constantly reaches out to  the opposition parties, in a nation as polarised as the Ghana of today is.


However, there is a world of difference between proactive and tolerant  leadership that recognises the important role played in a democracy   by   opposition parties,  in preventing the abuse of power and exposing corruption;  and the appeasement that  forever bending over backwards to please  implacable foes represents - foes that in 21st century Africa, incredibly  feel scandalised that a northerner should be ruling Ghana.


The time has come for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of President Mahama to face  the unpleasant truth   that although a majority of those in leadership positions in  the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and amongst its membership are decent individuals who are broad-minded and modern enough in their outlook to accept that in 21st century Africa no tribe in the continent is superior or inferior to another,  there is a powerful  minority of ruthless and tribalistic hypocrites in the NPP,  who in private say it is an abomination for a northerner to rule Ghana. He can never please that blinkered lot.


According to some of their critics, it is at the doorstep of this backward minority of tribal-supremacist individuals   determined to end President Mahama's tenure,  come what may, that ought to be laid the series of coordinated negative events (some clearly sabotage),  designed to convince ordinary Ghanaians that Ghana is in crisis,  and  retrogressing "because it is ruled by incompetent leaders".


And they it is  whose endless negativity put off the discerning and independent-minded Ghanaians whose swing-votes now determine which candidate wins presidential elections in Ghana.


Not for  those independent-minded Ghanaians the gullibility of the "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-

wrong" myrmidon-types  -  whose blinkered support for Ghana's two biggest political parties is slowly destroying Ghanaian democracy.


Alas, today, the NPP's extremists  are making the same mistake they made before and during the campaign for the December 2012 elections,  in their quest to remove President Mahama from power.


For them the election campaign for the presidency has not ended, and their blunderbuss-negativity still continues unabated and in relentless fashion - in the print-media as well as   on the airwaves of FM radio stations and television stations across the country.


And again it  is putting off many fair-minded and  discerning Ghanaians - just as it did in the December 2012 election campaign.


(The question is: Why do the vast majority of decent and fair-minded NPP members not speak out against the tunnel-visioned extremists now dominating their party? But I digress.)


President Mahama's administration must ignore the negativity of the  narrow-minded and tribalistic minority now controlling the NPP,  and focus instead on the hard work of making sure Ghanaians get treated water supplied to their homes on a regular basis and have  uninterrupted electricity 24/7,  as soon as practicable - whiles at the same time making sure their regime  will be able to deliver most of the NDC's  manifesto promises before  the December 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.


Above all, to neutralise the tribalistic hypocrites harrying him,  President Mahama must ignore his advisers and listen to those  who call on him to publicly publish his assets and those of his wife. It is still not too late to make a real difference for him politically, were he to do so.


He will find that if it is done in tandem with a sustained  crackdown on corrupt public officials, it will change the dynamics of the sabotage-a-week politricks now being used to destroy his regime even before it has began its work.


He knows perfectly well that he did not steal the presidential election and that the outrageous falsehoods slandering the honest and principled Dr. K. Afari-Djan will be exposed for what they are and thrown out by the Supreme Court.


That is why he must  focus on doing what will enable him leave a  legacy he can be proud of when he leaves office: giving Ghana firm leadership. He must never forget that it is him history will judge,  not his advisors.  A word to the wise...


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