As Mahama as you… and me!

If you indeed want to test the joy of a man, give him ‘dumsor’. If you want to test the tolerance limit of that same man, give him power as Ghana’s president!

If you can’t take ‘nonsense’, you dare not dream of being a president ever, especially in GH. Trust me, should most of us have had a stint in the seat of the President for only a day, we would end up behind bars by the end of that same day for flogging our critics.  

 President John  Mahama is one name on the lips of most Ghanaians; sometimes for the good reasons and oftentimes for the bad ones. If he sits, one divide would say he should have stood. If he stands, another divide would reprimand him for not sitting. And… when he laughs, the other would say he should have frowned. Everyday wahala dey!

His unfulfilled promises keep coming as much as the public’s ridicule does. His Excellency, our promise-dent (sorry President), like a modern day prophet, has promised us heaven in Ghana (and still does), forgetting promises don’t put a cedi in our pockets. Had it been for promises alone, GH would have been a world superpower; milk would flow through our taps!

Still talking about unfulfilled promises… errrm… is the brand Mahama not just another you and me? Mahama promises Ghanaians and barely fulfils them. We promise our own selves… and forget we even did. Same people, different locations and names. 

Ghanaians are fed up with our President’s promises but our self-worth is even more fed up with the incessant promises we feed it.  

Right at the onset of the year we made a tall list of things-to-do, otherwise called New Year resolutions. I know I just reminded you of such promises because you have long forgotten you even uttered them.  

Another new year is on the brink of emerging and like a ritual… you would make another endless list of such resolutions despite the backlog of old, unfulfilled ones.

You’ve promised yourself a change in habit in times past. You promised to start your own business last January. You promised to be a responsible parent by spending more time with your family this month… and the list goes on and on. However, all of these haven’t changed any much. Promises they still remain. 

You excite yourself with such promises and laugh. A Mahama does same too. You keep postponing your dreams and promises to yourself. 

Promise-induced excitement is not enough. Life is not another entertainment platform. It is serious business. It is not a place of fairy tales and promises. Promises are always empty until fulfilled. If you think someone is a ‘promise-dent’, then you shouldn’t be making such empty promises to yourself, too, else you become a ‘promise-citizen,’ too.   

Stop promising. Start practicing.  Make efforts to get your promises materialised. Start living the change you want to see!

If you can’t run, trot. If you can’t trot, walk. At all cost move in this life. Each day should be an improvement on the previous. 

And did I hear someone say the President’s priorities were misplaced too? Haha. Ours are too. We intentionally litter our environment and come back complaining, “We’ve cholera because we are engulfed in filth”. 

You spend a chunk of your earnings on trending gadgets when you haven’t even invested half such an amount in any business venture of yours. No priorities! 

And… you live all your life setting no goals let alone make any efforts to achieve them; blaming it all on ‘dumsor’ or the government. In spite of the hurdles, dream and achieve. That separates achievers from dreamers.

Our destiny is in our own hands; we decide who and what influence it; whether ‘dumsor’ or not. No excuses. No ‘buts’. Gird your loins. Dream and go for it. 

The world has no place for promise-filled lives. Instead, it gives opportunities to those who are willing to make use of them.

There are only three things we all need to do to get our dreams achieved; first is hard work, second is hard work and third of course is hard work! Promises can’t take its place!

We would only be deceiving ourselves if we keep on promising ourselves to make a change and yet think we are not a Mahama of a different kind. You’ve promised yourself. Keep it. Promise… but live to your promises. 

Everything a Mahama is, we both are too. If we can’t satisfy promises to ourselves, how else do we expect to do same to others? We can’t love others more than we do ourselves. As Mahama as you and me. Ponder! 

• The writer is the  C.E.O, Scribe Communications