Thursday,
November 15, 2012
Comments from so-called NDC
functionaries urging President Mahama to boycott next Tuesday’s debate under
the auspices of the Institute of Economic Affairs are annoying, to say the
least.
Leading the pack of those
elements howling for a boycott is Alhaji Bature of the Alhaj newspaper, who
thinks that public utterances by Mensa Otabil (General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church)
have impugned the integrity of the President for which reason he must react
strongly by boycotting the debate. Alhaji Bature thinks such an action is the best
way to contemn Otabil, who is the Chairman of the IEA Committee, organizers of
the Presidential debates.
He is of the opinion that Otabil’s
verbal attacks on the President in reacting to the tape circulating about his
(Otabil’s) rejection of free education betrayed his political bias and the
President shouldn’t appear at that forum to rub shoulders with him. The boycott
might be a way of registering the President’s protest or paying back Otabil.
Concentrated nonsense, that is. Nothing
can be more childish and politically suicidal and unwise than a suggestion for
a boycott of this IEA-sponsored debate. How do some people think?
Are the December Presidential elections
between President Mahama (the NDC) and Mensa Otabil? Even then, if they were,
won’t a boycott give an undue advantage to the party that uses the occasion to
sell itself to the electorate?
There is no ground for a boycott
of the debate. President Mahama must participate in it, and if he is worth
retaining in office, prove it to Ghanaians through his delivery. The onus is on
him and he has a heavier charge to acquit himself responsibly and remarkably to
win support than those at the touchline finding fault here and there. If he has
nothing to fear, he shouldn’t hide. Nor should he seek refuge in escapism.
Common sense dictates that Otabil
be seen for what he is and written off without any more attention being paid to
his wishy-washy damage control efforts. Once he couldn’t deny ever making those
pronouncements and chose instead to hurl insults at the President and those
using his pronouncements for politicking, it must be clear to all that he is
not at peace with himself. Were he to be so, he would know how to control his
emotions and not allow his heart instead of his head to influence his rhetorical
manouevres.
Once Otabil has chosen to descend
into the gutter by hiding behind insults and diversionary measures, he should
be left to his fate to suffer silently. If he can’t do so, especially as his
own conscience pricks him hard, he will yell again for us all to know how the
mighty have fallen. After all, we know that nothing is ever more wretched than
a guilty conscience.
Leaving Otabil to his fate means
moving on with the kind of politicking that will win goodwill for President
Mahama and his cause. It means going beyond what has been done so far or doing
right what has been wrongly done. And many things have been done the wrong way!
Those left undone at this stage in the electioneering campaigns should be
tackled to “sell” President Mahama in a more concertedly persuasive manner.
We can tell from the rumpus
surrounding this Otabil tape that the message has already sunk and Ghanaians
who either support Akufo-Addo’s promise or see it as a ruse to gain political
advantage have already made up their minds. Nothing will change anybody’s mind
unless the inevitable happens. Akufo-Addo won’t take back the promise he has
made, which the NPP considers at its flagship campaign message.
Those who have already welcomed
it will not change their minds just because Otabil is saying that his
pronouncements should not be used by the NDC for its campaigns; nor will those
already skeptical of Akufo-Addo turn round to support him overnight even
without anything new emerging to prove that his promise can be fulfilled. Or
that he has a better administrative acumen than the incumbent. He doesn’t.
I know that his promise is
nothing but a hollow political gimmick that is short on its being made and will
be long on its fulfillment. I have long since treated it with contempt and will
continue to condemn it for as long as I am not persuaded by stronger arguments
woven around substance. So far, it’s all a matter of ugly noise, insults, and threats
in reaction to my stance.
Certainly, those who seek to
build the future don’t sit back to prate over the past. That’s why President
Mahama must look beyond this Otabil irritant to position himself better for
public acceptance. Participating in the IEA debate will give him the
opportunity to present his own arguments and counter the negative impressions
being created by his opponents. He needs to forcefully neutralize all that
negative propaganda, using the IEA forum to present and defend his government’s
policies and to justify why he should be given the mandate. No hard words will
ever break anybody’s bones.
Considering the orchestrated
negative propaganda that his opponents have mounted against him, it is better
for him to use every opportunity to expose his true self and assure Ghanaians
that he is a better quality material than all those at the periphery making
noise to attract needless attention. I urge him not to budge to any form of
intimidation from those purporting to be campaigning for him and threatening
not to do so any more if he participates in Tuesday’s debate.
For all he may care to know, what
will make or mar his electoral fortunes won’t necessarily depend on this fracas
with Mensa Otabil. It has its roots in many problems, some of which have been caused
by those claiming to be his campaigners.
Unfortunately for President
Mahama, such problems have already harmed his interests and clawing back
goodwill needs more action than what is being done. I have in mind problems
created by those in government or in its communication team who have taken more
delight in insulting at will than in doing mature politics to garner support
for the Presidency.
The causes of some of these
problems can also be traced to the Mills era, particularly the disenchantment
against the government’s inability to fulfill its 2008 electioneering campaign
promises and the continued worsening of living standards as a result of low
productivity and insufficient revenues, the petroleum dividends notwithstanding.
The haughtiness of some NDC
officials and public perception of corruption in government circles are others.
We are even not talking about the in-fighting in the NDC and the emergence of
the NDP as a manifestation of the weakening of the NDC’s support base. Make no
mistake; the anger seething in those who have broken away cannot he easily
defused; and the harm they will do to the NDC’s cause may be noticed only at
election time.
It is in this vein that President
Mahama must be cautious in his electioneering campaign efforts. Without seeking
to dampen his spirits, let me say that there are dark clouds hanging all over
the political horizon as a result of the persistent
misinformation/disinformation campaigns by the NDC’s opponents who are
spreading malicious lies and downright insults against President Mahama and his
own followers’ miscalculations.
Winning the elections needs
level-headedness in the political campaigns, not the flim-flammery that has
come to notice. The situation will not improve if those whose unguarded utterances
and ill-mannered conduct are not disciplined. I have in mind some whom—for want
of any better word to qualify them—I will write off as buffoons in the NDC.
Take Allotey Jacobs of Cape
Coast, for instance. Here is someone whose utterances have continued to vex
many because they are either uncouth or politically unwise. His recent
pronouncements on what is happening at the NDC front in Elmina clearly
demonstrates his buffoonery. One expects that a character like him will not be
given the kind of responsibility that he has had all this while.
There are many more of his type
all over the place who are good only in the amount of anger that they provoke
against the government. How can the President win any public goodwill with such
characters playing the frontline role in his electioneering campaigns?
One is even not talking about
Afriyie Ankrah, the co-ordinator of President Mahama’s campaign, who was so
immature and politically unwise as to compare the recent Melcom tragedy to the
fate of the NPP at the December polls. He has withdrawn that comment and
apologized but the harm he has done through that impolitic comment can’t be
repaired easily. Indeed, President Mahama has a lot to do within the short
period left.
In sum, then, boycotting the IEA
debate will dim his light and portray him as politically immature and
incontinent. No voter will go for such a person to be the country’s President.
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