The litmus test for any great leader is not how long, but how effective and productive his life was and how beneficial he is to the people he led and what mattered to him the most?
If we judge Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo by those indices of leadership, as a lawyer, I will submit that the old man has done pretty good and could have done more, but as a politician he is a disaster.
I will start today’s piece with an appeal, first to the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to please temper mercy with justice and reduce the GH¢85,000, filing fees for Nana Addo that of prospective candidates for the flagbearership position are suppose to pay.
Should Nana Addo scale this hurdle, my next appeal is directed to the Electoral Commission (EC), to also give Nana Addo a discount, when he appears before them to present his papers to contest for President in 2016.
My appeal is predicated on the fact that Nana Addo, since 1996, has been paying filing fees to both the party and the EC, to be President and has paid more than any Presidential candidate, in our recent history.
Nana Addo, might by now have squandered all the money that his father left behind for him, as well as what he was able to save when he was practicing as a lawyer. Democracy, is what we all voted in a referendum in 1992, to have after years of military dictatorship, but what we failed to do is to count the cost of democracy.
How and where, do we expect somebody who has for 18 years been in active politics and has used money to influence his way all these years to get money to still express interest to run again for the third time.
Running a campaign is very expensive in every part of the world and more expensive in Ghana, because most of our people still do not understand the concept of democracy, yet the old man, is willing and still able to raise money to fund his campaigns. What is obvious is that, in an
unlikely event that he wins to become President in 2016, he will have to recoup all that he had lost, since he first declared to run for President, others who have not lost faith in him, and still look into the crystal bowl and keep funding him, will also be looking forward to recouping all that they have invested.
We can all bury our heads in the sand and pretend, we do not foresee what will happen, should God forbid that Nana Addo, wins the 2016 elections. The only solution we all have is that together, we could appeal to the leadership of the NPP and the EC, to give Nana Addo a discount as he begins another journey of nothingness.
His quest to lead this country, will remain a dream, which we are all allow to, but we can assuage his pain and loss, if we can do all agree that the man needs some financial respite.
Yesterday, he was at the party headquarters to pick nomination form to become a presidential candidature of the NPP.
He was full of smiles, but beneath the smile is a frustrated man, who is hanging onto the last straw. Age is his biggest enemy, followed by the fact that he is broke. I do not envy him at all; I do not wish to be in his shoes, as I have always wondered how he is able to sleep in the mist of mounting failure.
The pressures of having to face your creditors, who keep mounting pressure on you to pay them or reassure them that this time around things will be different is telling on Nana Addo. A closer look at the man recently reveals a man who is wasting away. He also looks lost and is oblivious of his surroundings.
He is going through all in the name of power, I am still wondering whether he knows what Ghanaians want, from all that I have observed Nana Addo is on an ego trip to become President at all cost.
Who in his right senses, will want to battle a youthful President, like John Dramani Mahama, who resonate very well with the good people of this country at 72, it is only Nana Addo, who will take such a jump.
Nana Addo and his supporters are banking their hope in the fact that things are hard, the economy is reeling under serious pressure, but that is not enough reason for Ghanaians to entrust their destiny in the hand of someone, who will be an invalid, by the time he takes the Presidential oath of office.
For their information, things will get better; the government has initiated programmes that look certain to bear fruits very soon, at least by close of the year.
All these years, we have engaged in cosmetic solutions to our problems, so although we see progress at one point, the underlying fundamentals which are usually wrong, always comes back to haunt us, and that is what we have. It could have been worse if Nana Addo was the president.
We will get there but not with Nana Addo, which is why I propose that from the NPP, they reward and reduce his pain, by giving him a discount to pay less than other competitors, some of who are only wasting their time and our ears.
The NPP as a party, need to let their members understand that governance is a serious business, it is not a try and error, for every Tom, Dick and Harry who has attained the Constitutional required age, and has the money to splash, think that he can also be President.
Counting the names of those who have either picked the form or declared their intentions to contest for the flagbearership of the party is annoying and nauseating.
Nana Addo deserve our sympathy and the least we can do for him is to make his passage out of active politics less painful.