Belated happy one month anniversary, Mr President!

It struck me over the weekend that President Mahama‘s government had just passed its one-month anniversary in office.Anniversaries are special, and for this reason, we celebrate landmark ones such as silver, golden, diamond and even platinum anniversaries. 

Other less-known ones include paper (1st), tin(10th), crystal (15th) and china (20th) anniversaries. There is no name for a one-month anniversary, but I insist on marking the same. After all, ‘all anniversaries be anniversaries!’

My point in observing this milestone was not to pull out a score sheet and rate the new government over its first month in office but rather to find an excuse to pop champagne and have a quiet one-man party.

I think every new government needs some time to settle down, even if many of the players (including the top gun himself) are not new to the top echelons of governance.

While the transition period of one month is enough to calm down the giddiness of election victory, I believe a hazy cloud hangs over every new government once it takes office and tries to find its feet.

Dishing out sycophantic praise or unbridled criticism during this baby steps phase may therefore be rather unfair and even border on being disingenuous.

Presidential experience

President Mahama is one of only three leaders of our country who at a point came into the role with previous similar experience.

When Dr Kwame Nkrumah became Prime Minister in 1957, he did so with the benefit of having been the Leader of Government Business (effectively the Prime Minister) since 1951 when the CPP won that year’s general election and therefore came with tons of experience. 

When President Rawlings took the presidency in January 1993 after shedding his military fatigues, he had under his belt 11 long years’ experience as a military head of state. It was a rather seamless transition from JJ to JJ - same vehicle, same crew, same driver.

President Mahama’s crossover into the presidency last month came after a long hiatus languishing in opposition following his loss of the presidency in the 2016 elections.  He had tasted political power at its highest level, lost it and then regained it – the only president in our country’s history to have staged such a magnificent comeback.

I suppose that this feat makes him glow whenever he reflects on it. 

New broom, merry-go-round politics

The President appeared itchy to get to business after his inauguration and the banquet later that day.

Of course, his MPs (the supermajority, as they lauded themselves), were super excited and basked in the warmth of public adulation and an expectation of the dawn of a new era to usher Ghana into the land of promise, hope and opportunity. It was not a very glowing phase for the new minority, the NPP, which the NDC delighted in taunting as the micro-minority.

For many in the NPP, the grieving process was still in high gear. 

What a month-long ride we have had! It has been a flurry of vigorous activity, like a new broom vigorously sweeping a compound house courtyard at the crack of dawn, accompanied by humming of gospel music by Esi Maame as she goes about her sweeping duties, with a chewing stick dangling from the corner of her mouth, grateful to the Lord for yet another day.

The announcement of ministerial and other appointments, the setting up of task forces and committees to do this or that, an unparliamentary melee with microphones and tables flying asunder, presidential ‘thank you’ travels to fellow African leaders who graced the inauguration, complete with murmurings about the President travelling on his brother’s aircraft, ORAL’s hefty but juicy report detailing alleged looters, galamsey shootings in Obuasi, discontinuance of various prosecutions inherited from the NPP government, Council of State election fights and the dramatic declaration by the Special Prosecutor of former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta as a fugitive from justice, among many others have all come together most fascinatingly during President Mahama’s first month in office.

On social media platforms, the arguments continue to rage.

Those who mounted stout defences under the previous government appear to be on the warpath against the government on almost the same issues, while those who mounted fierce attacks complaining about one issue or the other now find themselves vigorously defending the new government on literally the same issues.

Merry-go-round politics is in full gear in the beloved republic. 

Honeymoon?

Traditionally, new governments tend to get a honeymoon period where the electorate allows them to settle in

 In a sense, however, I do not think President Mahama has enjoyed much of a honeymoon, even though there is still some considerable goodwill for his government.

Maybe Ghanaians are in a hurry to see the resetting agenda promised by the President in opposition come to fruition.

Maybe his previous experience both as Vice President and President means expectations are high as he does not need to learn the ropes anew.

After all, a couple who married, divorced and remarried are not expected to go away on a long, exotic honeymoon to get to warm up to each other – they are expected to just get on with it, like old firewood coming back alive quickly after cooling off. 

Belated happy first-month anniversary greetings, Mr President, as I lift my champagne glass.

The road ahead is long and hard, but how dare I remind you thus when you have been president before, you are President now and I have never run for any public office in my life – even as an assemblyman?

To borrow from the rather colourful NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman, ‘Whom am I?’

Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng, 
E-mail: rodboat@yahoo.com