The New Patriotic Party-led campaign for regime
change has become very popular among majority of Ghanaians in the country and
beyond.The acceptance of the ‘call for change’ is evident in a growing
anti-government attitude publicly shown simultaneously across the length and
breadth of the country in the heat of the electioneering campaign for
votes.
There are frequent reports of the electorate hooting at government
officials and members of President John Mahama’s campaign team with his long
convoy of luxurious vehicles.
Over the weekend, students of the
University of Ghana reportedly started chanting, “We want change,” “We want
change,” when a National Democratic Congress (NDC) campaign team stormed the
university campus with a truck loaded with bags of sachet water to distribute
for free.
While some of the students accepted the free bags of water,
many others were heard booing at the distributors while shouting the ‘change’
mantra until eventually the truck was said to have moved
away.
Apparently, the water – embossed with the pictures of President
Mahama and the NDC parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso West Wuogon, Delali
Brempong, who had earlier described the students who couldn’t get their names on
the voter register during the limited registration exercise as underage and
therefore are not eligible to vote – was sent by the party to woo the students.
But it turned out to be fiasco, to the embarrassment of the
candidate.
Same weekend, the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, was said to
have visited the Accra College of Education (ATRACO) with NDC campaign team but
their campaign message was obstructed by chants of “We want change,” “We want
change,” by the students.
The incident went viral on social media and
some of the students were seen and heard chanting for change while the Chief of
Staff and his team were preaching the message of another (third) term mandate
for the NDC in office.
Hardly a day passes without the social media going
agog with a new video of a section of Ghanaian voters publicly jeering at the
president’s campaign team, with some rejecting the incumbent National Democratic
Congress campaign freebies which range from John Mahama-branded detergents,
sachet water, mats, wax prints, coffins, basins, head gears and other
items.
Last Thursday, there were reports that President Mahama was
greeted with loud chants of ‘change’ by a crowd when he visited the Manhyia
Palace for the one-week celebration of the demise of the queen mother of
Asante, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II.
Recently, hundreds of traders
and residents of Darkuman Kokompe in Accra did the same thing when they publicly
waved the change sign when the president visited the area to
campaign.
The president was given an unexpected welcome by a large number
of artisans and spare parts dealers who met him on arrival, with some of them
hooting at him and screaming “change, change, change.”
There are similar
reports from several parts of the country and this is happening at a time former
President Jerry John Rawlings (NDC founder) has said the “bad image” of the
Mahama-led administration could prevent the party from winning the December 7
polls.
Citifmonline last week quoted Rawlings to have said: “It’s most
unfortunate, but the image of both the government and the party [National
Democratic Congress – NDC]…is as bad as what it was in the John Evans Atta
Mills’ period before he died, and that’s not healthy at all.”
The report
advised President Mahama to nurture people with vision to restore hope to the
party and Ghanaians.
“These personalities will have to be bold and ready
to think outside of the box. We have to have people who can raise the image of
the party; hopefully extend it onto the Executive as well. Because quite
frankly… if the NDC does not, she will be fighting on the same terms as the New
Patriotic Party.”
“How many times hasn’t he [President Mahama] assured
the public of dealing with corruption, and yet we are not seeing enough that
will help to clear the image of the government,” former President Rawlings was
quoted as saying. |
