State of the Nation Address Preview

President John Dramani Mahama will deliver the State of the Nation Address before Parliament tomorrow Tuesday.

Many Ghanaians, including Members of Parliament (MPs) and individuals on the street, have, since last week, been expressing different expectations from the address.

Meanwhile, sources at the Presidency have told the Daily Graphic that the address will focus on the economy, the energy situation and challenges facing the provision of water.

They said the President would also spell out measures being adopted by the government to resolve the bottlenecks in the educational, health and agricultural sectors.

Akufo-Addo To Lead NPP In 2016

A survey of New Patriotic Party’s newly elected polling and constituency elections shows that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is certain to clinch the NPP’s 2016 presidential ticket.

With the ticket virtually in his pocket, Nana is sure to face John Dramani Mahama, the President and the National Democratic Congress’ most likely candidate for 2016, for the third time in a national presidential contest.

Interviews with NPP new executives in six regions – Western, Central, Ashanti, Greater Accra, Volta and Brong Ahafo – show that Nana Addo is the overwhelming favourite of those who will constitute the NPP presidential electorate college this year.

In the Greater Accra Region, over 80% of newly elected polling and constituency executives interviewed said they will vote for Nana Addo if the NPP presidential primaries were held today.

2013: A Year Of Corruption Scandals And Economic Hardship

As the year ends, people reflect on the happenings of the preceding 365 days and make resolutions for the coming year. New Year’s Eve also happens to be the day that people review and remember what happened in the country during the year. 2013 has been very eventful and would therefore be worth recounting.

The year begun with discussions regarding the presidential election petition filed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to challenge the legitimacy of the declaration of John Dramani Mahama as President of the Republic. This was the very first time such a petition had been lodged with the Supreme Court. Lawyers and students of the law were excited about the petition whilst the judges, empanelled to determine the petition, were clueless about how to go about it. The rules passed to guide them were abandoned in certain instances. For example, the strict adherence to time and insistence on electronic filing were completely ignored in the name of “justice”. They made their “own” rules as the case progressed.

For the first time, and after many calls for Ghana to be in tune with the rest of the world by allowing television cameras in the court room for such an important case, the presidential election petition was broadcast live on national television. Ghanaians in every corner watched closely and keenly as the evidence was presented, and as it became clear that the elections were conducted so badly and poorly that there was no way any of the two leading candidates could have been declared winner or loser.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Electoral Commission and the Mahama Administration was retained to steer the affairs of the nation until 2016. Recently, some members of the Mahama Administration have blamed the economic hardship in 2013 on the presidential election petition, which lasted for 8 months. One thing is clear from their position. They admit that there was economic hardship in 2013. With all the various corruption scandals that came to light during the year, and certain policy decisions taken by the Mahama Administration, it is difficult to see how any reasonable person can come to the conclusion that the Mahama Administration failed to deliver its promises in 2013 and rather made life so difficult because of the petition.

This is why I think the blame game from the Mahama Administration is completely illogical and without any basis.

Polls: Reviewing Mahama’s First Year

As the year draws to a close we have decided to run a few polls to find out how Ghanaians view the first year of President Mahama and his administration. There are three questions in these polls and we encourage you to vote on each poll. After voting, we encourage you to share the polls with others so that they can also vote. Polls close at midday on 31 December 2013.

1. What kind of government is the Mahama Administration? Vote here…

2. Which of the following campaign promises has the Mahama Administration delivered in its first year? Vote here…

3. How satisfied are you with the Mahama administration? Vote here…

We thank you for participating.

Stop Demanding Praises And Work – Dr Amoako Baah

President John Mahama’s call on Ghanaians to eschew cynicism and acknowledge the economic gains made under his administration are misplaced, a Political Lecturer has said.

Dr. Richard Amoako Baah says the President must do the job for which Ghanaians employed him and stop demanding praises.

He was speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Monday, in response to President Mahama’s appeal to Ghanaians last weekend to refrain from being cynical and appreciate the strides being made by the country under his tutelage.

“If any country will make progress, it is based on the faith and the belief of the citizens of that nation that their nation can be great, that their nation can be strong, that their nation can be prosperous. That is the difference in the rate of growth of nations,” the President stated.

He made reference to the energy crisis that hit the country earlier this year and said, “in Ghana, we have a very short memory; the energy crisis is solved, we don’t remember the darkness we were in and so we’ve put that behind us and we are looking at what the other challenges are.”

But Dr. Amoako Baah, who is Head of the Political Science Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), said Ghanaians are entitled to uninterrupted supply of power and that the president did Ghanaians no favour by ensuring they have that.

“Electricity should be taken for granted…it is the first thing that the nation must ensure works because everything is based on it, everything is dependent on it; and so when you fix it don’t expect praises from anyone; besides it is not his money that he used to fix it,” he stated.

The University lecturer said “We employed him in that position to do that job and so if he is doing his job, he should not expect praises from us.”

Dr. Amoako Baah said even though the President may have meant the comments as a joke, he ought to have known that the nation was not in the mood for jokes.

“It is almost as if he (the President) is not in touch with what is happening…people are suffering, the economy is going down, inflation is going up…where is the bright spot that people are supposed to look at, celebrate or to praise the president for”?

In his view, the President has lost goodwill and must not be making comments that can be picked on by his opponents.

Former Head of Policy Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr Tony Aidoo, also speaking on the show, said President Mahama was not the first leader to make such comments.

He said Mr. John Kufuor as president made similar comments when Ghanaians complained about harsh economic conditions in the country in 2003.

Dr. Aidoo said even though Ghanaians had a right to constant power supply, “we live in a third world (country) and in a third world [country] we are so handicapped materially in terms of economic growth.”

He insisted that some of the criticisms leveled against the president for his comments were indeed cynical.

Ghanaians Have A Very Short Memory – Mahama

President John Mahama says “Ghanaians have very short memory,” which makes them easily forget about the achievements made by his administration.

The President, in jest, told a congregation in Accra at the inauguration of the Revival Restoration Centre of the Assemblies of God Church at Roman Ridge, Accra, on Saturday that Ghanaians easily forget how far, how much progress has been made in the country vis-à-vis their present circumstances.

Using the energy crisis that hit the country this year to buttress his point, Mahama said: “The energy crisis is solved. We don’t remember the darkness we were in and so we’ve put that behind us and we’re looking at what the other challenges are”.

According to him, while the crisis persisted, Ghanaians were constantly on his case and ridiculed him by creatively replacing the traditional way of greeting with a coined phrase (“y3 ma mu dumsor ooo”) that elicited a response (“yaa Mahama”) that directly blamed him for the crisis.

The Akan phrase, “y3 ma mu dumsor ooo” can loosely be translated as “have an erratic-power-supply-filled day” and the response “yaa Mahama” loosely means “by courtesy of Mahama”.

President Mahama said it is important for Ghanaians to appreciate how far the country has come as far as addressing development issues is concerned.

He said despite the difficulties of his first year in office, he was nonetheless grateful to Ghanaians for standing by him.

“…I want to use this opportunity to thank all Ghanaians for the cooperation we’ve had in a very challenging year. We’ve had strikes, we’ve had problems with the economy; the deficit, and above all, we’ve had an election petition for almost eight months of the year; the economy slowed because everybody was focused on what was happening in the Supreme Court, but God in his faithfulness has seen us through all these”.