#MahamaLogic

I was more than shocked to have read that the President of the land, H.E John Dramani Mahama said the running mate of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is not fit to criticize his government because the latter has never held any position close to the presidency.

For once, I thought my eyes were deceiving me so I took off my spectacles, cleaned it, put it back and read again. Well, I saw nothing different from what I had read earlier.

“Did you hear Bawumia say incompetent Mahama? You’ve never held any responsibility anywhere near the presidency before; you don’t know what it is like to be President.

"I’ll take that word from Kufuor or from Rawlings because they’ve been there before. All of you guys [NPP critics] have never ever come near the presidency. [Do] you know what it takes to be a President? And you stand and say incompetent Mahama administration,” Mahama fumed at a rally in Trade Fair in Accra Monday.

Oh, yes! Exactly what I read. Later, I had the opportunity to listen to the tape and it sounded as though the President was speaking passionately. After pondering over it, I asked myself if really one needs to be in a certain position before one can express his opinion.

Perhaps, by virtue of the fact that politicians are insensitive to the plight of the populace, no politician has the moral right to criticize him. Perhaps, the wobɛnyini abɛto mantra was what the president was singing. If Dr Bawumia had been in his shoes before, he wouldn’t criticise ‘anyhow’.

But in what capacity do communicators of the National Democratic Congress score the president as having performed creditably well? If someone cannot criticise because he has never held any responsibility anywhere near the presidency before, how can one in the same vein praise the President?

If that is the statement coming from the President, can it be said that one cannot tell a driver he is speeding because obviously, the fellow is not a driver? Well, that surely means a Catholic Priest cannot counsel a couple or preach at their wedding because he’s never married before. Similarly, a coach must have excelled as a player before. What then would have happened to Jose Mourinho?

Where are the sports journalists who have been criticising the Black Stars? Have you ever trained with the team before?

A little research showed that in 2008, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, then running mate of Professor John Evans Atta Mills, asked Ghanaians to change an incompetent NPP government for a better one. So in what capacity was he judging the government as incompetent?

If an inexperienced Bawumia cannot label the President as incompetent, who can?

“Anyway[s], my competence is not for them to judge, it’s for the people of Ghana to judge, and I know that come 7th November 2016, the people of Ghana will judge my competence and they’ll give me a second term in office and NDC will win another victory by the grace of Almighty God," the President was quoted to have said.

But I ask with all due respect, “Is Dr Bawumia Congolese?” It might have escaped the president that the electorate who cast his vote based on the rational choice model considers competence, feasible policies among others before giving his mandate to a political party. Need the electorate of which Dr Bawumia is one also hold any responsibility close to the presidency?

Perhaps, I am not an expert in communication to dissect what the President said. But one thing I know is, Dr Bawumia has always given reasons why the president is incompetent and I was expecting that even if he would react to it, he would cite reasons why he is competent instead of taking this approach.

I wonder if President Mahama expects an opposition party to say he is doing exceptionally well. That is politics.

Sadly, the President made a pronouncement that it is only logical Ghanaians give him a second term.

“I took over from where president mills left off. And I served for the rest of his term for five months and I went to the Ghanaian people and I said; here I am, do I deserve to be your president; and they said yes, and they gave me four years. So I have served my first term and it’s only logical that Ghanaians will add the second term so we can continue the agenda of transformation.”

He never said he deserved a second term because of his good works. Simply put, if you did this to Ama, do same to Akosua. That's logical; however, election in this context is never Rule of Law where people are treated same. The concept of Rule of Law is even questionable in our days.

With that said, you cannot blame the President because our mode of voting has arguably been on partisan and ethnic lines rather than which party has feasible policies. But who am I to criticize people's mode of voting?

I am convinced the President had harbored this for long and could not hold on to it again. As the saying goes, “nsuo taa aponkyereni a, ɔgye wɔɔ”.

And oh, lest I forget, make no attempt to criticize this write-up because you obviously haven’t written anything like this before.