Opinions of Thursday, 21 April 2022
Columnist: Felix Akwetey
EIU prediction on 2024 elections: John Mahama is the sure bet for NDC - Akwetey
Photo to illustrate the story
Every electorate in this country is always ready to ensure value for their votes after a President is elected to control the affairs of a country.
A survey conducted by a group known as “BRING MAHAMA BACK MOVEMENT” through an online poll really indicated that his Excellency the former president John Dramani
Read full article. is the sure hope for Ghanaians.
Ghanaians have over the period of the Akuffo Addo’s regime, complained bitterly over the high cost of living, the reckless borrowing which has yielded no result, and the numerous corruption scandals engulfing this government. In this survey, close to 80% of the Ghanaian voting population are clear in their mind that Mahama is the alternative to this government due to the following comparison.
According to the voters of the poll, the above-mentioned commodities shot up, in five years, by two, three, or four times their prices in 2016 at which time president Mahama was described as incompetent. There has always been a price increase of commodities over time but not at the rate being experienced under this Akufo Addo government.
Considering the debt stock and the exchange rate currently, it is nothing good to talk about as compared to December 2016. According to fact check Ghana, president Mahama’s worst corruption perception index remains Nana Addo’s best index.
From the diagram above, it is worth noting, president Mahama did well throughout his regime as compared to the current regime. His worst performance in 2016 recorded 43 out of 100 within four years. Unfortunately, his successor performed abysmally after he took over. His best performance in five years (2017 – 2021) is Mahama’s worst performance in 2016.
Talking about infrastructure development, the majority of Ghanaians have alluded to the fact that John Dramani Mahama is the King of Development after the founder of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. He’s been able to touch the various sectors of the economy in terms of infrastructure.
He built numerous District hospitals, Health Centres, CHPS compounds, doctors' and nurses’ bungalows not forgetting the University of Ghana Medical Center and Bank of Ghana Hospital in the health sector.
In the education sector, he built a number of universities, senior high schools, and dormitories including E – Blocks together with headmaster and teacher’s bungalows. Can this, therefore, be said of any other person “IF NOT JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA, THEN WHO ELSE?” In spite of all these, The NPP won the 2016 election due to the high hope the NPP gave Ghanaians that they could do better. Unfortunately, it turns the other way round.
There has been a forecast by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) which was released on 13th April 2022 but published on 19th April 2022 on the various media platforms suggesting that “the NDC will win the 2024 election but the party needs to revitalize its leadership to increase its prospect.” This seeks to mean that the NDC will win the 2024 election but certainly not with Mahama as the flagbearer.
I take strong exception to this assertion and disagree vehemently with EIU. It is believed this is a mere Prediction, not founded on any data or survey. EIU over the years predicted a win for Akuffo Addo of Ghana in 2008, Hillary Clinton of USA in 2016, and Atiku Abubakar of Nigeria in 2019 but they all proved futile.
They equally succeeded in some predictions though. The probability that their forecast is entirely true could be challenged due to inconsistency.
According to the report, the EIU forecast was on the basis of the fact that there is public dissatisfaction with bad governance in areas such as infrastructural development, job creation, and corruption in the Nana Addo/Bawumia governance.
We believe that John Dramani Mahama is the best candidate due to his track records as listed above compared to the current government. This is the reason why John Dramani Mahama performed wonderfully in the 2020 election where he was able to increase his vote from 44+% in 2016 to 47+% in 2020.
He also worked hard to increase the parliamentary seats of the NDC from 106 to over 137 seats in parliament, some of which are in contention. Elections are won based on hard work; strategy map up and unity building.
It is, therefore, clear in our mind that John Dramani Mahama will, massively, win the 2024 election on the ticket of the NDC when given the opportunity to lead again.
