Nana Akufo-Addo has hinted about November surprises as the Election Day beckons. It represents the outlandish and mendacious tales spewed out at this time of the electoral calendar by politicians fighting hard to hold on to power as it shows symptoms of stress and power slipping away from their grip.
The phobia for losing power is enormous at this time. It can change the thought pattern of the wielder and the accompanying translation of this into words, is as surprising as it is beyond imagination by the cornered politician.
The November surprises are here with us already with President John Mahama at the forefront spawning most of them and expectedly making the disturbing headlines.
The President’s thoughts make the headlines because of their bizarreness and the colour of desperation they spot. Our November surprises differ from the US’s: in that country they come largely in the form of revelations as in the Hillary Clinton telltale tidbits of intelligence importance. In our part of the world, however, they are untruths without basis and wholly intended to deal a politically mortal blow to the opponent’s project.
Our November surprises commenced in the twilight of last month, when the President said a lot of mind-boggling things about his main political opponent in the approaching electoral duel.
They are considered mind-boggling not because of their veracity but the fact that the President could engage in such propaganda pranks; the approach being crude and incommensurate with the status of the high office he holds.
Mendacious outbursts, as being attributed to the President, erode the respectability of the President and should not be encouraged.
It sounds, for instance, inconceivable that the President would tell his audience in a part of the country in his campaign for votes that Nana Akufo Addo would destool chiefs who speak up against him when he becomes President.
We can stick our heads out that the President knows in his heart of hearts that what he spewed out is a fabrication spawned out of desperation.
How can Nana Akufo Addo, and for that matter, any President destool chiefs when such an outrageous action is not only mendacious but cannot be backed by law under any circumstances?
The only President who destooled a chief was the late Kwame Nkrumah.
If there is one politician committed to the upholding of the rule of law, that person is Nana Akufo Addo. This we state with an unshakeable conviction knowing the role the man has played in the shaping of our laws and their reforms over the years.
Inciting our traditional authorities in this manner sounds insulting to the intelligence of our noble chiefs who, as custodians of our heritage, can only laugh at the political pranks. We would have rather the President dangles his scorecard than employ cheap ploys. Destooling chiefs? Bunkum what for?
Our President is opposed to the terms of our constitution which demands that elections be held every four years so the people would decide whether to change the government or otherwise.
With the President subtly condemning this when he said changing governments stall development, he could not have showed his preference for holding on to power any better.
Framers of constitutions, especially ours, know better than the President the importance of changing governments when the time is due hence the maintenance of that democratic standard in politically civilized dispensations.
The President has incurred an unenviable impression about himself by this open aversion for democratic changes of governments.
That could be accounting for his ‘do-or-die’ template to power. Unfortunately, power belongs to the people; the quantum of lies spewed notwithstanding.
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