Will John Mahama win in 2016?

Even to the politically blind, the path is no longer a convolution, and to the deaf, the musical tones and lyrics are no longer hard to hear. If you are deft in the sign-language of politics you will agree with me that by now, every indication imaginable points to the fact that John Dramani Mahama is running for a second-term in office as the president of the most beautiful nation in the world.

Although he has not affirmed it officially, JDM is running not as the old John Mahama with a potluck that anybody can just shove around like a hopeless and hapless houseboy, he is running fast and furious with wits, wisdom, and whooping monetary wherewithal as the sitting president of the gateway to Africa.

The daily jarring din, and the hourly hoopla and brouhaha from quarters in and outside of Ghana adjudge that on the watch of JDM as president, the hand of the clock of progress has not ticked forward, but tilted backwards. The promises of regular supply of electricity have not been fulfilled, the nation’s economy is on a life-support, our monies are missing in stashes and batches, and corrupt fellas in this administration are shielded from comeuppance as they continue to enjoy the molly coddles of a presidency that has become an activist in cronyism and clannishness. These are the claims of the president’s many opponents.

Many have asked and queried why the president won’t just pro bono publico renege from running. But this man is adamant on a surprise sprint without the late Atta Mills who bottle-fed him politically to fame and power. His mouthpieces who are now hourly growing in number as the Declaration Day (D- Day) draws closer, are feeding us with what is going on in the palace of “King John”, a man many may be grossly underestimating as a politician. What are the feelers this president is picking up on his political GPS emboldening him to run? I will discuss just one in this piece and I will make it simple.

JDM is a master orator, but he will not sweep you off your feet like the Obamas of this world, but is this man not being grossly underestimated by those who seek to take the plum job from him? Is this president not being grossly underestimated by those who think he is slow and jaundiced cerebrally? Is he not being perceived as “small” by those who believe he owes them because they made him?

In communication, I have learnt that persons any wise man must fear and not ignore are the quiet ones who are not mesmerizingly loquacious, and JDM falls in that category. This man may send shockwaves across the circuits of the terrain, and he is beginning to do so as he pursues carving out his own identity and being his own man. The president I learnt is carving out a base, a structure and a network for himself that may be as strong as any other we see in modern- day Ghanaian politics.

I think the silence of this president over his run is not a stage-show of quandary, but a definite and definitive political calculation to be his own man. It’s about two years to the election, and in politics twenty-four hours is eternity so twelve months is mega-eternity. All we know now is that the man is carving out an identity for himself, a brewing brand his livid godfathers & opponents cannot fathom, and a structure that can help any political will see the light of day.

Will JDM win? Votes will be cast in the 2016 presidential election largely based on emotion not performance or track-record of candidates. Whoever wins the emotion game will win the presidency.


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