 |
| President Mahama |
Here are 17 things some Ghanaians always blame President Mahama for.
1. The death of President Mills
A great number of Ghanaians believe there has been some form of mystery and suspicions surrounding the late president’s death. This has to do with various accounts of events as narrated by President John Mahama , the late president’s brothers (Cadman Mills) , his sister and other top officials of the NDC administration ; to which President Mahama was asked to make an appearance at the Hague by the International Criminal Court to answer questions related to the death of the late president John Evans Atta Mills.
However, this unresolved mystery continues to remain a stain and a stigma on Mahama’s administration.
2. Corruption
Allegedly the president’s failure in prosecuting ministers and officials in his administration who were involved in famous corruption scandals citing SADA, GYEEDA, Waterville, STX housing deal, Smarttys amidst the $88m Embraer Jet Scandal, $600m worth of contract with shady Queiroz Galvao and the secret, illegal lodging of $250m in UBA all sweep corruption to the very doorstep of the president.
3. Dumsor
Dumsor pronounced “doom-sore” (off and on) is a popular Ghanaian term used to describe persistent , irregular and unpredictable electric power outages. Electric power outages have been known to exist prior to Mahama assuming office as president of the republic. However, it has become a household name and further got nicknamed as “Dumsor” because of its unprecedented perpetual existence in Mahama’s administration. Some folks even use it as a greeting saying “me ma mo Dumsor oooo” with the response “yaaa Mahama”.
4. Fuel price increment/shortage/transport fares
When a commercial minibus (trotro) driver or a taxi driver visits any fuel pump station and he’s met with a new price increment ; which goes along to affect price increment in transport fares, the first remarks that come to mind is the name “Mahama aban” (meaning Mahama’s government). Well, why not, although the president doesn’t determine or fix fuel prices , any adjustments in fuel price is directly linked to his name because it is politicians who promise Ghanaians affordable fuel prices during campaigns in their quest for Political Power.
Likewise when there are fuel shortages “Ghanafuo” (which means Ghanaians in the Akan dialect) look to the presidency because shortages are blamed on nepotism and mismanagement of the fuel sector. In recent times Fishermen threatened to hit the streets over the shortage of premix fuel if the government fails to meet their grievances. Communications director of the NPP, Mr Kweku Kwarteng attributes the problem to inefficient personnel appointed in the fuel sector by the government so definitely, Mahama continues to take the blame here also.
5. High utility tariffs
Generally, when Ghanaians consider their bill from electricity consumption to be relatively high than necessary, the name ECG and Government comes to mind. The Mahama government had blamed the outrageous tariffs on faulty meters and billing system, supposedly occasioned by anomalous software but according to the ECG, government’s removal of subsidy on electricity and introduction of value added tax on commercial users are to be blamed for the hikes. These are all policies being implemented by the Mahama government as part of the conditionalities imposed by the International Monetary Fund.
There had been different increments in utility tariffs across the country including electricity and water since December last year. This culminated in the demonstration by Organised labour nationwide, with workers protesting against the government for the skyrocketed utility tariffs.
6. Unemployment
The Vice Presidential Candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) says the unemployment rate in the country is inching higher because of poor governance. Brigitte Dzogbenuku says “Unlike today where hundreds of our youth are loitering the streets hawking or sitting helplessly and hopelessly under trees jobless” , opportunities existed in the past and the yawning gap today is attributable to the commitment deficit in the country ; the lack of commitment on the part of the government. Mr Dennis Ofosuapea, Spokesperson, Unemployed Graduates Association of Ghana (UGAG), chided government for its inability to provide jobs for graduates in the country. He blamed the government for accepting the graduate unemployment canker as something “normal and universal”. A nationwide tour of the executives of UGAG revealed that 67,000 unemployed graduates had given up searching for jobs.
7. Labour strikes
Almost every sector of employment in this country has embarked on a strike action to show their grievances against the government. From student bodies to commercial drivers to the elite Doctors.
Within a matter of one hundred days of this administration, members of GNAT, NAGRAT, TEWU, UTAG, GMA and GHAP have laid down their tools. The reasons for labour unrest are not farfetched because it is quite strange to see a person with similar academic qualification who enters into politics and receives a fat salary and in less than two years he or she is better off than the same person who is with the public sector and cannot afford to either own a house, live by three square meals a day let alone take proper care for himself and his family. It is no wonder teachers and most professionals are running away to join politics which is now more lucrative than gold mining. Though every pay structure is deemed to face challenges, workers want to see how urgent, astute their problems would be tackled and as such Ghanaians, in their bid to get the president whom they blame for their poor conditions of services, to attend to their plight, declare a strike actions.
8. Retrogression in health services
One key area of interest to most Ghanaians as far as Health Care is concerned is the National Health Insurance Scheme -NHIS. The introduction of the NHIS came as a great relief to the urban poor and the rural dweller, being a sequel to a heartless health care delivery system in which even accident victims in a coma were required to pay deposits before they were attended to.
However, inefficient management has resulted in the NHIS inability to pay health providers in the country. This bizarre handling of the health insurance scheme has culminated in the suspension of services to NHIS clients due to the huge debt owed service providers, making it impossible for them to provide the needed service to the people, with many of them threatening to pull out of the scheme and resort to the cash-and-carry system. “Yaaa Mahama”.
9. Crime
When Ghanaians stare at the Police service for their inability to curb the crime, the Police service also looks at the government for better conditions of service amidst an inadequate state of the art security equipment and ammunition. In some cases, armed robbers even possess better ammunition than the police and police personnel are lost in armed combat.
10. Accra floods
Experts blame engineers. Frustrated residents blame the government that has done too little to fix the longstanding conditions that led to city-wide flooding after heavy rains, for not preventing floods and for not delivering emergency aid. Ghanaians are blamed for their ‘attitude’ of dumping waste into gutters.
According to Professor Asante, the perennial flooding of Accra and its environs is as a result of bad leadership and most Ghanaian agree with him. I agree with him. Our leaders have failed to enforce the necessary by-laws covering such issue and the utmost leader is Mahama.
11. High school fees
A typical Ghanaian parent unable to pay his /her children’s school fees would tell you it’s because of economic hardship they are facing due to bad governance led by President Mahama and his ministers.
12. Low agricultural yields
Every rural farmer knows and attributes low yields to bad governance. Some of these factors which bad governance brings about include
several others but especially:
*.Insufficient credit supports to the farmer. ( for equipment)
*.High lending rates by Commercial Banks for the agricultural sector.
*.Problems with the marketing of agricultural produce. (bad roads)
*.The dependence on rain for crop production. (no irrigation)
*.The dependence on donor sources for funding of agricultural projects.
*.Improper use/Lack of fertilisers by farmers. (Whose duty is it to give farmer proper training on the use of fertilisers)
*.Problems of Good Storage and Processing Facilities:Storage facilities like silo, rhombus, cribs, barns, rafters are inadequate, thus leading to perishability of crops like tomato, pepper, etc. (Who is to build good storage and processing facilities?) Yaaa Mahama
13. Poor WASSCE results
The recent WASSCE results showed that the students who sat for this year’s exams failed in the core subjects of Maths, English, Science and Social Studies.About 32 percent of the students obtained the pass grade of A to C6 in the core subjects and 19.82% of students obtained D7-E8 which most tertiary institutions consider as a fail score. About38.10% of students had F9.This Nana Akufo-Addo (flagbearer of the NPP) said has made him sad. “There is hardly any good news under the Mahama administration but for more than half of candidates who wrote the just ended SSCE to fail in the exams is bad enough for the country,” he said. And some Ghanaian agree with him.
The National President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) opined that education thrives on a good economy.He said most students may be bearing the brunt of parents’ inability to provide some services as a result of an ailing economy, the relatively poor result of the 2016 West Africa Senior Schools Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) is a result of a poor economy – the National President of NAGRAT.
14. Poor performance at international sporting events
Most often than not sportsmen have returned home from competitions with insignificant wins or not at all.
Management of Ghana Football Association, its hirelings and Black Stars players have given first-hand accounts of mismanagement of resources in the run-up to and during the World Cup in Brazil. We have not heard the last of the successively organised mismanagement by the GFA as well as the troubling Maputo Report which contained similar humongous corrupt acts.
Ghana sent 16 athletes to the 2016 Rio Olympics, but with the exception of the 4*100 team which is yet to compete, the rest have failed to progress from every event they have participated.The athletes have either finished last or among the bottom three in every single event participated.
Azumah Nelson has indicated that the nation has neglected other sporting disciplines and he wasn’t surprised the athletes couldn’t make any impact at the Rio Olympics.“I am not surprised. Everybody will tell u football. If you have four children and you feed one and leave the others hungry, they will grow slim,” he told Adom FM. You don’t help in the development of the athletes and you expect them to win gold at the Olympics. It doesn’t happen like that. Other countries put in place programmes to develop the athletes.” So the question is who is supposed to feed the malnourished “Sports Children”? Over to you Mr President.
15. Decline in business sales
Any trader at Makola , Kejetia , Kotokoraba , Agbobloshie , nationwide ; who isn’t recording sales as before says ” because of Mahama’s government there is no money in people’s pocket to buy goods “
16. Increased house rent
If you are a tenant and your LandLord or LandLady increases your rent, the excuse they usually give you is that the price of cement has increased, the cost of iron rods /roofing sheets has increased or the cost of fuel or transportation prices has increased due to economic hardships brought about by the ruling government. As hilarious as it is, it happens. All thanks to Mahama’s administration.
17. Marital problems
Yes last but not the least some Ghanafuo (Ghanaians) attribute their marital problems to bad governance ran by Mahama’s administration. Some men complain of lack of enjoyment in bed because they were probably thinking of the squeeze in their pockets while in bed; how they would give “chop money” the following morning coupled with basic numerous household expenses that have become difficult to cater for unlike before. Some angry wives would pick quarrels with their husbands over this. The end results is usually a case at WAJU or a divorce or a separation. Some women have also admitted cheating on their husbands to get money to cater for what the husbands could not afford to provide.
President John Mahama himself has acknowledged that Ghanaians pour their marital frustrations on him as part of the blossoming freedom of speech in the country.
“…Perception can be heightened because it is being discussed long in the media. And When you have a country like Ghana where everybody is free to discuss corruption, if you wake up and you are angry with your husband or wife you take it out on the President, abuse him on the radio, when you have that kind of society, there are all kinds of issues that come up,” he stated.
