Second and last chance for President Mahama and the NDC

By Kofi Thompson

Now that the Supreme Court has finally delivered its verdict on the December 2012 presidential election petition, the job of building our country must become the focus of all Ghanaians.

The dismissal of the presidential election petition represents a second chance for all the parties involved, as well as our homeland Ghana and all its people.

For now, since he and his party are the ones currently in power, the spotlight must necessarily be on the President, and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

One hopes that President Mahama and the NDC will see the Supreme Court's verdict as a second chance and an opportunity to be successful.

Let them use it to swiftly root out the corrupt elements in their midst. If they fail to do so, they can forget about winning the December 2016 presidential election.

There is no question that the vast majority of Ghanaians now agree that corruption is killing our nation - denying Ghana of the much needed resources to fund the expansion and modernisation of our infrastructure.

That is why it cannot be business as usual - in an overtaxed nation whose people have made sacrifice after sacrifice: and still see no end to their suffering in sight either.

President Mahama must personally lead the fight against corruption. As a first step, let him ignore all his advisers, and publicly publish his assets, as well as those of his wife.

It will be a symbolic gesture of great significance and value, which will signal the beginning of a new era - and enable him occupy the moral high ground in Ghanaian politics: a must if he is to succeed in neutralising his political opponents and build up a worthwhile legacy.

Above all, publicly publishing his assets will enable him deny the most ruthless of his opponents, the oxygen to keep alive their never-ending propaganda - specifically designed to frustrate him, and create disaffection against him and his administration, in the minds of ordinary Ghanaians.

The NDC must never forget that after the December 2012 presidential elections, those super-ruthless political opponents of theirs, actively sought, and succeeded, in making Ghana appear rudderless and floundering.

They must not give those nation-wreckers yet another opportunity to destabalise their administration - now that the legitimacy of the Mahama presidency has been confirmed by the Supreme Court.

What some are describing as "divine intervention" today, is actually a second and last chance, for President Mahama and the NDC. One hopes they will have the political nous and gumption to seize it.

A word to the wise...