Indications are clear that the ruling National Democratic Congress is wobbling pitifully in its desperate attempt to hold on to power at the December polls.  The good, but suffering, Ghanaians have indicated clearly that they are only waiting, rather impatiently, for December 7 to say ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’ President Mills and his “greedy bastards.”

After its much-trumpeted ‘unprecedented’ achievements with respect to the management of the national economy was dealt a serious blow by the Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Mahamudu Bawumia, with his famous “State of the Economy” lecture, the NDC is desperately seeking other ways to convince the electorate about why President Mills deserves a second term.

And rather pitifully, the likes of Vice President John Dramani Mahama and Local Government Minister Samuel Ofoso Ampofo now want the electorate to only consider extending the mandate of the non-performing president by another term just because former presidents Rawlings and Kufuor had the privilege of serving the nation for two terms each. What a cheap appeal!

And here too, the NDC strategists know very well that Ghanaians are now looking at the performance of the President in deciding whether or not he deserves a renewal of mandate for a second term. After all, the people of France have taught them a useful lesson, that the world does not have time for incompetent leaders. President Nicholas Sarkozy failed to secure a second-term mandate from his people because they did not see him doing what was right.

This is exactly what Ghanaians have planned to do to President Mills on December 7, but functionaries of the NDC government think they can adopt the strategy they adopted in the 2008 elections – promising to do this and that – to once again hoodwink the electorate to vote for them.

Vice President John Mahama, whose visibility has overshadowed the president, has been promising the people of Northern region that the NDC government is going to start the project of upgrading the Tamale Airport into international status.

He says the project will be completed in the next four years. What he is simply telling the people is that give us another four years so that we can complete that project.

He has been making the promise in the hope of deceiving the electorate once again for their votes, as they did with the plethora of promises they made during the 2008 electioneering campaign.

One wonders if they think the good people of Ghana are not aware of the uncountable promises they made in 2008 which they have failed to fulfil. 

President Mills and his NDC promised to build Airport in Cape Coast; build the Kotokoraba market, also in Cape Coast; build a factory in each district; extend the school feeding programme to all basic school; introduce one-term payment for the National Health Insurance Scheme; put GHC600m into the SADA account; construct the eastern and western corridor roads; and not to introduce any new tax, among others.

Even though these and many other promises have not been fulfilled, President Mills and his functionaries think they can make more promises to deceive the electorate to renew their mandate.

And surely, they are going to make more of such promises as they seek desperately to woo the electorate for renewal of mandate.

But we at the New Statesman are convinced that as discerning as the people have become, they will not give in to such empty promises.

They certainly cannot mortgage their destinies for another four years, only to be badly let down again, by a president who has clearly demonstrated that he does not have the capacity to provide the kind of leadership required to tackle the fundamental challenges confronting them.

Like Vice President John Mahama is doing, let President Mills and his ‘greedy bastards’ continue to give empty promises in the hope of moving the electorate to retain them in power. We can assure them that the people have already seen through their deceit, and therefore cannot be deceived again by their empty promises.