Former President John Dramani Mahama relaunched his political career with a big bang, announcing he will kick out the monstrous article 71 in the country’s constitution that gulps down a chunk of national coffers. His candidature to the ballot rings a bell, not only in the possibility of becoming the second Head of State to have a second shot at the highest office of the land after Jerry John Rawlings but the introduction of a watertight social democratic system.
In rekindling the debate about the welfare of the masses, John Dramani Mahama appears to posit his political tradition in the fray of ideologues where authentic values are likely to stick out of the sometimes blurry lines, the other alternative being a pure capitalist orientation.
Mahama is in the political ring in anticipation of tough battles. His first task is to secure his party’s mandate, and his teeming supporters consider as just a breeze the challenge by the experienced former Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffour. The other candidates in the internal primaries include former Kumasi city mayor, Kojo Bonsu, and a London-based party executive, Ernest Kobea.
They were not set in the range of friendly fire by pro-Mahama supporters, especially by Comrade John Gyapong Kudjo, the party’s Oti regional chairman who dismissed their challenge and called their entry into the race premature.
His next hurdle is a big one as he must lock horns with the ruling party’s candidate in the forthcoming general elections. On this plane, the party’s pundits observe that Mahama will thrash any of the NPP’s candidates including Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and the former Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanten whose political interests are most vocalized and visible. The Mahama camp says, his previous stewardship and that of the current government provide a basis for choosing between the alternatives.
The Mahama-reloaded campaign had eagle eyes on breaking the 8 mantras of the ruling party. The NDC said with the bad shape of the economy and hardships rained on the masses, such electoral projections can only exist as a figment of imagination, for the writing is boldly written on the walls that the fretting people of Ghana won’t retain the NPP in power.
Ghana and Nigeria are West Africa’s big brothers but also rivals. Within the regional context the ruling party in Ghana, the NPP takes some fillip in the presidential victory of Bola Tinubu who as a fresh face on the ticket of the incumbent APC secured the third straight win for Nigeria’s current establishment. The NDC rejects the notion that Ghana 2024 could be the photocopy of Nigeria’s.
Another important arena of this political contest is the area of policy alternatives. Mahama fired a salvo on Article 71 of the constitution the basis for whooping payments in Ex-Gratia to high-office holders across the three main organs of government. He said he will lead a lean government to restore Ghana to the path of economic stability and buoyancy. One of his main considerations will be the promotion of public welfare which is guided by the bottom-up approach to decision-making.
Strengthening families will be the centerpiece of his new administration if voted to power, the former president assured, to a charged University of Health and Allied Sciences auditorium at Sokode, Ho, in the Volta region.
The flagbearer contest of the NDC takes place on 13 May 2023.
