Former President John Mahama will make a lot of headlines in the coming months; for the wrong reasons though.
He has kick-started his campaign and would talk about everything which in his estimation, inures to his electoral interest or put alternatively, reverse the negative impression his compatriots have about him and for which reason they voted against him. Not all such interventions would project him as worthy of a second time president. Most of such interventions rather prompt questions about the former President’s cognitive state.
His obsession for another go at the presidency is informed by the pain he is suffering for his unenviable record of being the first politician in Ghana to lose elections after a first term. How sad! An obsession which turns into desperation is bound to cause many pitfalls; some of them irreversible as in the case of the subject under review.
There is no reason to celebrate a headline originating from telling a lie to save a face more so when the mendacious stuff is poorly arranged and presented. The former President’s communication skills or even expertise eluded him last weekend as he sought to change the negative effects of his party national chairman’s sunk image and by extension, the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) of which he is the leader.
We have observed the disastrous manner in which he managed the anti-clergy image his party chairman presented to Ghanaians and must state that we are disappointed and constrained to point out that a former President who treads this tangent is unfit to be considered for another term in office. Why did he think that Ghanaians would not see his helplessness as he sought to present two tongues within the spate of a few days?
Spitting fire in one vein and pontificating in another in the confines of a church cannot wash. Ghanaians easily read between the lines and know the meaning of ‘for the first time I am endorsing the insult of religious bodies especially the Chairman of the Peace Council.’ How could we Ghanaians not understand this? What image does this give to the NDC?
The NDC Chairman drew inspiration from the ‘boot-for-boot’ remark of the former President which he did not hide in his discourse with his party communicators. The former President is by the foregone development presenting us with two tongues: a feature which makes him untrustworthy.
The former President could have simply apologized instead of the rather convoluting handling of the subject.
A party which is steeped in so-called revolutionary pedigree as the former President touted the unenviable image of the P(NDC) against the backdrop of Ofosu Ampofo’s ‘when it comes to such games they do not come near us’ and his reference to violence and covert operations, dwarf the lies the former President spewed in the Perez Church. In that church, he presented a different picture of an NDC which is associated with all the negatives of the AFRC and the PNDC juntas. What does the former President take us for? We think and read between the lines and know when an adult is lying through his teeth and when he is being sincere.
