John Mahama
In 1887 opinion letter
expressed by one of the famous British political historians or moralists widely
known as Lord Acton, civilized societies were advised or warned that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute
power corrupts absolutely.”
Since
the expression of this opinion over 130 something years ago, social scientists,
especially in the political realm, have not only come to underscore the
truthfulness of this hypothesis through empirical studies, but also almost all
modern communities understand the implications of unchecked human power.
Indeed,
human power, in all its various dimensions, if not put in check or limit its
scope, tends to have corrosive effects in which its duration can linger for
generations. It is probably why in our present-day political systems when one
hears the concept of checks and balances or government term limits, in essence
we are affirming the fact that unlimited “power tends to corrupt” and that it
has strong potential to drive some people insane to say and do damaging things
to their fellow humans.
So,
where are we going with this in relation to former President John Dramani
Mahama’s behaviour and public comments? First, it’s apparent the current NDC flag
bearer is power-drunk and unappeasably hungry for more and more political
power, having experienced variety of powerful positions before as assembly
member, minister of state, vice-president, and ultimately as president of the
republic of our dear country.
Premised
on each level of his former positions, Mr. Mahama has clearly come to
understand the extent to which power can be used – both in positive and in
negative terms – to do a great deal of things for oneself, family, friends,
supporters, including non-supporters alike. On the latter point, let’s keep in
mind that some people in power use their position to jail, torture, and even
employ state-sanctioned killings of their political opponents.
It
is widely known in Ghana today that Mr. Mahama as then president allegedly used
his immense power to enable one of his siblings lucratively secure bauxite
concession deal at Nyinahin in the Ashanti Region. With no presidential power under
his belt now, presumably Mr. Mahama can’t guarantee the successful conclusion
or seal the mining deal for the said family member. Most likely, it is one of these
obvious reasons eating up the former president and hence driving him insane to
engage in some unguarded public remarks inconsistent with the prestigious
status of a former head of state.
Because of his wolfish appetite for power and how intoxicated he seems to have become under the influence of political power, ex-President Mahama visibly talks and behaves quite “abnormally” if one observes him dispassionately. To be fair, though, one needs to “sympathize” with the Bole show-boy and comes to grips with the reality that throughout his almost adult life, political power invariably has defined the public persona or identity of Mr. Mahama.
Ghanaians
mostly know JDM via his political exploits. Without politics, Mr. Mahama
doesn’t have a well-defined professional career upon which to make all the
money he appears to have now. For example, take a quick look at the professions
of the following former 4th Republic Ghanaian presidents: JJ
Rawlings was an air force pilot; JA Kufuor a lawyer; late Atta-Mills was a
university professor, and Nana Akufo-Addo, the current president, is also a
lawyer by trade. What exactly is ex-president Mahama’s trained profession that
defines who he is aside from politics? In fact, many of us don’t know much
regarding JDM’s true profession except some public narratives out there that he
is a “communicator.”
Thus
taking all this into account, one shouldn’t be amazed the NDC’s 2020 presidential
contestant is talking and acting as if winning the presidency is inseparably
linked to his personal survival, and that he has to become president again at
all costs because his 2016 electoral defeat was an aberrant event. From this
political posturing, therefore, Mr. Mahama doesn’t see anything wrong by
hastily gathering foreign diplomats in Ghana or abroad while incoherently telling
them how socio-economically rotten or politically chaotic this nation is under
the current government.
Definitely,
it will take an act of insanity and helplessly confused mindset for a person
aspiring to become the president of his country to seek to undermine or doubt
the fairness of the electoral system he played a crucial role in its restructuring,
at least in terms of hand-picking the topmost official of the commission that
conducted the very elections he is talking about.
Nostalgic
for and consumed so much by power, it appears the former president can’t put
his thought together well, so he recently complains to the whole world that “During the last Presidential Election in
Ghana, the Electoral Commission directed its staff to stop using the electronic
result transmission system to communicate results to the tallying centre
because the system had been compromised. The results had to, therefore, be
tallied manually, leading to attendant tensions in the delay of the announcement
of the final results.”
Mr.
Mahama does not stop there but he goes on to garble that “As I speak, I am not
aware that the Electoral Commission has carried out any investigation into what
compromised their IT system. And even if they have, we the stakeholders, the
political parties, have not been briefed on what caused the corruption of the
system. In the interest of transparency, it is important for Ghanaians to understand
what happened before we go into another election”. (mynewsgh.com)
Is
Mr. Mahama simply losing it? For this is the guy or then incumbent president
whose “gold standard” (former) Electoral
Commissioner, Ms. Charlotte Osei, was fully in charge of the Ghanaian general
elections in 2016 when the so-called electoral transmission system got
compromised. If that were the case, why didn’t he ask and find out from his
beloved EC at the time but went ahead and conceded defeat without raising
“electoral transparency” issues back then till about three years after?
It
really is true that the most effective way to understand a person’s true character
is to give him or her power for a while and then take it away from him or her
and see how he or she behaves. By now l guess all smart Ghanaians know the striking
difference between then President Mahama with almost all the levers of state
power at his disposal, and the former President Mahama desperately trying to become
president one more time. Indeed, caustic effect of power can make some people
lose their minds, and even encourage lawlessness on subconscious level.
Bernard Asubonteng is US-based writer
By Bernard Asubonteng
The post Is Political Power Driving Mr. John Mahama Insane? appeared first on DailyGuide Network.
