Why John Mahama won Ghana's 2012 Elections - #GhanaDecides
It's clear many people voted for John Mahama the person vrs Nana Akufo-Addo rather than the NDC versus the NPP. Nana Akufo Addo is not liked very much in Ghana for his "arrogance and elitism". Ask around.
I'll allow my namesake to share a quick Nana story ((8th paragraph) on the arrogance bit. He might have gone around the country 3 times but I bet Ghanaians could see through him as they met him. The NPP with its property-owning democracy and Republican-ish ness makes it appeal more to the rich and elitist folks in Ghana. The poorer folks, not so much? And we all know who makes the majority.
Many might not agree but the NDC really is a people's party. Hey, it's in their manifesto. We will remember the NPP for being loud about Free SHS but when you hear the NDC bigwigs speak, they put people first. They focused on attainable goals and delivered mostly on them. Maybe people finally figured out the NPP was trying to win an election with the Free SHS message and rejected that as well. By the way.....
Now that the NDC has won, let's bookmark their manifesto. We should hold them to what they said. #GhanaDecides #Ghana docs.google.com/file/d/0B4fn1F…Many people think about the NDC and think of JJ Rawlings and his 'military tactics'. Some of you might know JJ has not seen eye to eye with Atta Mills and the NDC since they came into power again in 2008. In fact, he campaigned for his wife Nana Konadu for the flagbearership and she lost to Mills with only 3% of the vote. The NDC has reinvented itself. Atta Mills finalized that.
— Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) December 9, 2012
The NDC focused on doing more around the country. If you don't go around the country and sit in Accra or come to Ghana on holiday and sit around Accra, you wouldn't know. Next time, travel around Ghana more. It's quite clear that the NPP won in the urban areas. If you believe then they should be the true winner, . The real Ghana happens in the rural areas and those are the places that can really drive our economic development when they are up to speed with what we need to enjoy the Ghana we crave. I will suggest you pay more attention to these places if you care deeply about Ghana.
It hasn't been mentioned a lot during this weekend but the sympathy vote probably helped John Mahama.
And yes, being a Northerner also helped. I mean, what do you expect? It had become nice to elect a Northerner as a running mate to support a Southerner for the presidency. (Yes, people in the North call people in the South Southerners, after all, we started it :-D). 'Floating' Northerners would have surely voted for the NDC.
As much as I will like to think he won because he read his speeches from iPads, I don't thin that made a huge difference. But hey, Johnny Digital Mahama should continue to push technology, I love how the NDC government is working with RLG too.
More vim to John Mahama. When he was chosen as Mills' veep in 2008, I liked that. Because out of all the NPP and NDC presidential candidates since 2008, I liked him the most. Congrats to JDM. This is the message I have for John Mahama.
John Mahama @jdmahama. Your job is to unite Ghanaians & rally us to help develop #Ghana. Motivate us to do community service. #GhanaDecidesWe saw how Ghanaians lined up the night before to go and vote. We keep on celebrating our democracy. We see our democrazy selves demonstrate in the streets against politicians and policies. You know the demonstration of democrazy democracy I want to see? That we will hit the streets and demonstrate against indiscipline, corruption, bad mindset and the backward-thinking attitudes of Ghanaians. You know the beauty of this, you can actually make a difference here by influencing and impressing upon others.
— Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) December 9, 2012
Let me give him a few pointers on being a great leader for Ghana and not just a president. John Mahama should get the average Ghanaian to do more for him or herself and the community. Encourage us to work harder. Encourage us to take time off to help a child (and adult) learn to read and count, educate on health and cleanliness, teach people to be more efficient with time and resource, etc. He should motivate us to work for Ghana. Institute a volunteer day (preferably the Founder's Day). That's what I want from my president. Oh yeah, and leave a legacy. Like solving our electricity problems, once and for all.
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