MY TAKE ON WHY THE NDC LOST (ON CORRUPTION AND ARROGANCE OF POWER)

MY TAKE ON WHY THE NDC LOST (ON CORRUPTION AND ARROGANCE OF POWER)

Iddi Muhayu-Deen writes….

Unarguably, there exists, a million and one reasons why Ghanaians overwhelmingly REJECTED the NDC at the polls. It is worthy of note that, the party did not only lose the 2016 elections, but suffered its worst electoral defeat in history. No sitting President or governing party in Ghana, in Africa or anywhere in this World has ever suffered such humiliating embarrassment and complete annihilation except President John Mahama and the NDC. Like many others, I also wish to share with you, my take on why the party lost the elections. In this part, I am focusing on corruption and arrogance of power. 

If you ever doubted the truism in the popular saying that reads, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, then you only have to make a cursory study of the John Mahama led NDC government and I tell you, you would surely have more than enough reasons to clear all your doubts. Almost every single appointee of this government eats and drinks arrogance, which has become a virtue for them. Humility and respect for the ordinary Ghanaian was the last thing you could find in their DNAs. They treated the poor taxpayer with so much disdain and made him to feel inferior in his own country. 

Meanwhile, they enjoyed all the luxury and opulence in the World with our taxes. We fed them; we accommodated them; we remunerated them and gave them all that they desired, with the expectation that, they would in turn, use our money judiciously to better our lot. But what did we see? They did not only fail to deliver the public good or expectation, but also showed so much insensitivity to our plight. They neglected us and only used our hard-earned money to enrich themselves and their immediate families and friends. 

They institutionalized corruption and made it look normal for officialdom to be corrupt. There hadn’t been a single week where we didn’t hear of one corruption scandal or another. From the SADAs, to the GYEEDAs, to the SUBAs, to the Watervilles, to the Woyomes, to the Isofotons, to the STX Koreas, to the military aircrafts, to the CPs, to the NSSs, to the Zoomlions, to the Brazil World Cup Scandals, to the Fortizs, to the Ameris, to the Bus Brandings, to the MahamaFords and several others. The list is just endless…  

These guys were so corrupt to the extent that they budgeted for judgement debt, whose twin brother is CORRUPTION. No wonder the Supreme Court once described them as deliberate ‘creators, looters and sharers’ of our money through corruption brigades. Even when the court ordered them to go and collect some of this stolen money, they called the bluff of the court and deliberately refused to do that. What is even more annoying is that, after stealing our money through this daylight robbery, they still had the gut to tell us to shut up and not criticize them. 

President Mahama himself said only former Presidents were qualified to criticize him and his NDC government. In fact, if you wanted to know where your great grandmother was buried, all you needed to do was to criticize the Mahama government, and their BABIES WITH SHARP TEETH would help you. When the famous Hajia Samira Bawumia innocuously requested of them to account for the taxes you and I pay, hell broke loose on the innocent woman as she was virtually skinned alive. As for her husband, His Excellency the Vice President Elect, they told us to ignore him because, inter alia, he didn’t know anything and that, even his PhD was fake. 

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These babies with sharp teeth also purported to have a gift of clairvoyance and could tell us what would happen tomorrow. They could tell us who can be president and who CAN NEVER be president. They made us to believe that it was a crime to be a short man. They made us to believe that it was a crime to be an Akan. They made us to believe that it was a crime for a northerner to call for CHANGE. They made us to believe that it was a crime for students and citizens in general to fight for their right. They made us believe that it was a crime to speak against the ills of our society, particularly the rots in government. 

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They accused every professional association, civil society organization and the media including my favorites, the multimedia group and the BBC of engaging in a REGIME CHANGE agenda for being critical of their government. President Mahama himself spoke about a certain media cabal that was sabotaging his government. As far as they are concerned, the only credible radio stations in this country are the notorious montie fm and radio gold, which they own anyway.  

With this unenviable track record, which is pregnant with corruption, incompetence, foolhardiness, hopelessness, insensitivity and the culture of insult and condescension, these same people expected the average Ghanaian to vote for them? The gods must surely be damn crazy. They should even thank their stars that they got up to 44.4% of the total vote cast. 

To conclude, it is obvious that these were some of the key issues that led to the downfall of the NDC government. I therefore hope and pray that the incoming NPP government especially appointees of His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo learn the relevant lessons if they wish to remain in power. If they are able to do that, then I’m sure the NDC would remain in opposition for the next 30 years or so.  

I am very confident that, Nana Addo, being as always, an avowed disciplinarian and leading crusader of Rule of Law, would not hesitate to crack the punitive whip on any of his appointees who conducts him/herself in a manner that brings the good name of his administration into disrepute. Let believers say AMEN. To be continued….

Thank you.