H.E JOHN MAHAMA NEEDED THE 3 SEATS LOST IN SAVANNAH REGION TO BE PRESIDENT IN 2020.

 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

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When H.E John Mahama lost in 2016, most of us were pained, disappointed and saw it as unfair…little did we know that his lost was a blessing in disguise. Although, some of us still maintained that the 2020 election was stolen by the NPP, the current happenings in Ghana show how blessed John Mahama was for that stolen verdict. They would have hanged the hollow economy on his head and crucify him for no wrong done. Even with this, I Still think that H.E John Mahama needed to win the election, maybe things would have been better. 

The Parliamentary results of 2020 is a clear testament that John Mahama and the NDC indeed, won the elections. For a party to move from 106 seats in 2016 to over 140 in 2020 is not a child’s play. 

The above revealed that the cheating wasn’t done with only padding and manipulating nominal presidential figures in the strong room, but largely done with the Parliamentary seats. The mistake of having to announce that the NDC had won 140 seats without waiting for same to be declared and concluded gave the NPP the opportunity to reset the system, used their parallel forces to maim innocent Ghanaians in the process of snatching seats like Techima South, Ayawaso Central, Essikado-Ketan and others to make up the current numbers they have in Parliament. 

Given the dynamics in Savannah region and the North at large, the NPP would not dare pull a gun in a constituency like Daboya-Mankarigu in an attempt to snatch the seat like they did in Techima South. So, if the NDC had won the Daboya-Mankarigu seat, no matter how small the margin will be, it was going to be sealed and nothing could have been done by the NPP. Same applies to Damongo and Salaga North. Except in a case where the NDC itself was ready to give the seats to the NPP like we indeed did. Be minded that in 2020, the issues in the strong room was no more about aggregate figures but number of seats. Any wonder, Jean Mensah waited until the issue of number of seats won by Nana Addo to get him a Parliamentary majority was settled before she hurried out with her different shades of contradictory results? 

If the 2020 elections did not teach all the NDC stakeholders in Savannah region including H.E John Mahama a lesson, it taught us that, the Parliamentary seats are as important as the Presidential outcome. To all NDC members in Savannah region: former appointees, regional executives, constituency and branch executives, financiers, council of elders, committee members, ordinary foot soldiers, if you want to show real-undiluted-love for H.E John Mahama and the NDC, let that love reflect in your quests and actions aimed at winning your seat for the NDC. You can offload all your investments to the party up there, if it doesn’t reflect in you winning your seat,  you may be able to recoup your investments after winning power, but you would have lost your political hold, weight and relevance in the Savannah region and your constituency in particular. Note: Everybody’s weight in politics largely lies in his/her branch, constituency and region. 

Is it not disheartening and shameful that in 2020, while regions like the Upper East and the Upper West Regions were able to put their houses together to redeem their image by improving on the number of seats, actors in Savannah Region were seriously fighting to lose more seats to the NPP? 

Check this out! In 2016 in the Upper East Region, H.E John Mahama and the NDC had 60.3% with 12 seats, while Nana Addo and the NPP had 3 seats with 35%. Fast forward in 2020, with hard work and unity, the NDC stakeholders in the Upper East Region, snatched 2 seats back to make it 14 seats as against 1 seat for the NPP. Also, in Upper West, the NDC dwindled  from 10 seats to zero for the NPP in 2012 to 6 seats against 5 for the NPP in 2016. They managed to put their house together and redeemed their image by increasing their seats from 6 to 8 with the NPP declining from 5 to 3. A whopping 67.42% for John Mahama while Nana Addo went home with just 29.89%. 

Painfully, at this same time these two upper regions were fighting hard to increase John Mahama’s chances in 2020, his own backyard key stakeholders were engaged in opened fighting and jostling each other for non-existent space. While doing so, some of them for whatever reason, created loops for the NPP to maximize their gains. This resulted in H.E John Mahama losing 3 seats in Savannah to the NPP out of 7 seats; lost in his mother’s home constituency, Damongo and lost the aggregate votes in the Daboya-Mankarigu Constituency after losing the seat. The painful part is that, it was under John Mahama that the Daboya-Mankarigu Constituency was created; he gave Daboya a public senior high school (ie the E-block); he started a road project linking Daboya to Busunu; he built both the Tachali and the Mognori bridges to link the North Gonja District to the West Gonja District. We sat on all these achievements and still went and lost not only that seat, but the aggregate Presidential votes. Isn’t that shameful? 

History will always remember President Rawlings for leaving three major legacies for Ghana and the NDC:

1.He stopped the sporadic coup d’etats in Ghana after the 1979 uprising.

2. He ushered Ghana into the most stable 4th Republic 

3. He left a United Volta Region as a stronghold for the NDC forever. 

Ask yourself, what legacy do you as a stakeholder in Savannah Region want John Mahama to leave beyond the infrastructure developments? 

I remember vividly in 2016 when Joy FM got some misinformation that the NDC had lost Sawla-Tuna-Kalba constituency, they started the twisting and historical analysis of the constituency. They tried to tell the story of how it was one constituency with the current Bole-Bamboi and how related Sawla-Tuna-Kalba was with Bole-Bamboi. They did so to spite at John Mahama and make him look worthless in his own backyard. After the 2020 elections, Nana Addo came to Damongo and at the instance of the Yagbonwura, he thanked all Gonjas for giving him 3 seats and particularly the Damongo seat, the traditional capital of the Gonja Kingdom. What this means is that, no matter how small we are, the strength of John Mahama in his own Savannah Region should matter to all those who claim to love John Mahama. 

Do your mathematics and see if the NDC and John Mahama can ever win the Manhyia seat, where the Manhyia palace resides or Abuakwa South or North seats where Akyem Abuakwa is. Do you think Okyeman will step on the grave of Nana Adeline Yeboakua Ofori Atta, Akufo-Addo’s Mother, and disgrace her like we did to Mame Nniba in Busunu? Think about it, this isn’t tribal politics but common sense. 

Well, they say in politics nothing happen by chance, whatever happened was designed to happen. Isn’t it curious that today, while Okyehene is insulting all Ghanaians for criticizing President Akufo-Addo, some of our chiefs choose to either become Electoral Commissioners and declaring the NPP winners, some becoming pollsters and predicting unbelievable results for the NPP against their son, John Mahama, while others have opened their palaces and adopting children from other kingdoms while throwing their own and the bath away? Do you blame the chiefs and opinion leaders in Gonjaland for this? Absolutely no, because, the NDC political class and key stakeholders refused to give leadership, direction and sense of purpose and to use that to whip all others in line. Although, by default, we and our chiefs are expected to support our own, but politics has been diluted to exhude and assume a different character, so that one has to stage-craft everything. 

Look at the NPP in Savannah today. Although, they are not any better, but when there is a problem in the region, Garba Kpangriwura Adam Zakaria, the member of council of state, a respected chief and a well collected politician, will step in as first aid to call for calm. And I don’t think there is anybody in the NPP in the region who doesn’t respect and will not listen to him. Is there anything like that in the NDC in Savannah region. We seem not to have leadership, and even if we do, we don’t seem to respect them and the party structures seem not to be responsive to their intervention. The ongoing free fall in Salaga South, which is silent though, but it serves as a threat to the seat. So, when the NPP Abu Jinapor says that Savannah Region will be the battle ground for the NDC and NPP in 2024, and that they will win majority seats, I don’t see that as either bragging or scare-crowing, they mean business and they know how to execute same. 

The time for the NDC in the region to wake up is now. No need for complacency, no need for empty boxing, no need for struggling for relevance even before we win 2024, all what we need is unity and the commitment to deliver Savannah for John Mahama in 2024. Let John Mahama leave a living legacy of an NDC stronghold in Savannah Region. Anything less than this, is like a story of a warrior who returns from war without his gun. 

I come in peace.