Speak for yourself, little Dramani

His own cousin, Ms. OtikoAfisaDjaba, the current Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, said it best when she noted, during her very contentious parliamentary confirmation hearings, among other things, that Mr. John Dramani Mahama was damn too wicked and narcissistic to have any care for anybody besides himself and, perhaps, the members of his own immediate family.

Which is why I laughed myself off my chair, literally speaking, when I read the news report in which the former President was quoted to be saying that President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo must be having “sleepless nights,” just as the former Atta-Mills’ second-bananas did while he was Chief Resident of the Flagstaff House (See “Akufo-Addo Needs Prayers to Get Through ‘Sleepless Nights’ – Mahama” Classfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 11/12/17).

Indeed, I have absolutely no doubt that Nana Akufo-Addo may be experiencing some sleepless nights or challenges now and then. But, of course, those “sleepless nights” have far little to do with the mere fact of the Presidency being an uphill task, then the fact that Mr. Mahama left his successor the most bankrupt economy in the country’s postcolonial era.

I also find it rather comical that the former Rawlings Communications Minister would compare his leadership skills to those of the far more astute, mature and experienced former Justice and Foreign Minister under the remarkably progressive and prosperous tenure of President John Agyekum-Kufuor.

In barely 10 months, maybe somebody needs to tell the former National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for Gonja-West, President Akufo-Addo has achieved far more for the country than the former Atta-Mills’ spare-tire achieved in four-and-half years. Eight years, in fact, when one takes into account the three-and-half years that Mr. Mahama served as Vice-President to Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills. Mr. Mahama is reported to have made his “sleepless nights” comment at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Madina Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Trinity Parish, in Accra, on Sunday, November 12.

I mean, a man who can preside comfortably over the effective destruction of the Kufuor-implemented National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) which, by the way, he had initially pooh-poohed as a practical impossibility and a veritable pipe-dream, can, of course, also be expected to court sleepless nights, even while he and his immediate family members gleefully sought medical treatment abroad. Mr. Mahama was also reported to have said that Ghanaians ought to always respect their leaders, even the least likeable among these leaders. Now, I have a hard time dealing with this self-serving admonishment, since Mr. Mahama was not very well known to have any much respect for his political opponents.

In the waning years of his tenure, for instance, Mr. Mahama was widely reported to have told the then-Candidate Akufo-Addo that he and the latter’s running-mate, Dr. MahamuduBawumia, the current Vice-President, had absolutely no right, whatsoever, to criticize his job performance because neither of these two gentlemen had ever decked the mantle of the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency, respectively. Maybe somebody more levelheaded and sensible had better remind the “Ganger Boy” that respect is commanded, not extorted. It is also a two-way street, not a one-way cul-de-sac. And come to think of it, this is pathological political reprobate is the man that some ten National Democratic Congress’ regional chairmen would have rule Ghana for the second time around!

It goes to show you, dear reader, how abysmally low these NDC executive rat-pack thinks of the rest of us. Yes, I have a relative who is presently the President of Ghana. But my respect for Nana Akufo-Addo is squarely predicated on his political integrity, leadership acumen and skills and the respect that he, in turn, has for Ghanaians at large. Regular readers of my columns are well aware of the fact that I have not hesitated to call the former NPP-MP from Akyem-Abuakwa-South to the proverbial carpet, whenever I felt that he deserved the same. Why should it be any different for Little Dramani?

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