Marian Ansah writes : Why Mahama lost the election

After a keenly contested general election, the Electoral Commission (EC) Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, on Friday declared Nana Akufo-Addo as President-elect, making him the fifth president of Ghana’s fourth republic. The NPP Flagbearer secured the Presidency at the third time of asking beating the incumbent, President John Mahama with 53.85 percent of valid votes cast. Nana ...

After a keenly contested general election, the Electoral Commission (EC) Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, on Friday declared Nana Akufo-Addo as President-elect, making him the fifth president of Ghana’s fourth republic. The NPP Flagbearer secured the Presidency at the third time of asking beating the incumbent, President John Mahama with 53.85 percent of valid votes cast. Nana Addo’s victory has been met with wild celebration from NPP supporters but disappointed NDC members are still reeling from the unbelievable loss.Many have since attributed the NDC’s defeat to various reasons but I’d like to highlight just three out of the many factors.

Corruption

The main factor that marred the Mahama led administration was the glaring uncontrolled cancerous corruption. The 3.6 million bus branding scandal , the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) scandal, the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) saga were all clear cases of corruption. The sheer failure to prosecute corrupt state officials and retrieve monies unlawfully lost to the state through these corrupt deals all contributed to the party’s defeat. Ghanaians expected the President Mahama to take a  bold step to prosecute corrupt officials implicated in these scandals but he woefully failed in guarding the public purse.All we heard about the recent bus branding scandal was an order to retrieve the money, there was no prosecution.

Infrastructure amidst economic challenges

President Mahama initiated a number of infrastructural projects in various regions including the Kotokoraba market, the Kwame Nkrumah Circle interchange, the Eastern Corridor road project, Rattray Park, Kasoa Interchange among others. But first of all, why were these projects coming up a year or two to the election? And while government was spending so much time making these interventions, did it bother to provide employment, tackle the cedi depreciation, inflation and other challenges?Was infrastructure more necessary than tackling these economic challenges?

Ignoring the Volta threat

The NDC clearly downplayed threats by residents in the Volta Region to vote against the party.The President really took them for granted and they also showed him the power of the thumb on election day. Ahead of the elections, some residents and chiefs in the region had threatened to vote against the Mahama led administration for failing to fix the deplorable roads. The threats came days after residents in the region had embarked on a demonstration to express their grievance against government .It is interesting to note that in 2012, Mahama generally had 734,641 representing 85.47 while Nana Addo had 111,149 representing 12.93% in Volta Region. In 2016 however, the voter turn out was quite poor to even attract the huge numbers Mahama needed to push him to victory.

Ghanaians chose the NPP with the expectation of fulfilling promises made on the campaign trail.I am convinced these promises were not made in a desperate attempt to win the hearts of the electorates. The NPP should live up to expectation.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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