Government Official One has asked for a 100-day holiday for himself and all members of his administration, in the unlikely event that Ghanaians make a mistake and thumb-print for the umbrella on Saturday, December 7, 2024.
During the umbrella holiday period, the nation would have to stand still. There would be no forward or backward movement. Every soul with Ghanaian blood would have to fend for him or herself until Jubilee House re-opens. When that is done and the incoming former President and his men and women are visible, we would all queue under orders at Government House for our portions of Nkonko Nketenkete
That is when the actual governance begins. It kick-starts with workers, farmers and fisher-folks enjoying the day at night clubs that would open during the day, throughout the four-year mandate of the men and women seeking protection under the umbrella, and who have dedicated their lives towards the promotion of the administration of the ‘scandal soaked ex-president’, who is making a come-back.
The return is going to be of a Trump-like proportion in size. The projections leading to the event is gigantic. How the nation will fare under the new twists and turns is anybody’s guess. But one thing is sure. It is an experiment that is the very first, all over the globe.
Night clubs during the day will require the re-enactment of the Hippies era that projected the port city of Liverpool into a global entertainment centre and forced the city of Manchester to respond with The Oasis.
Both the Hippies and The Oasis have been in decline while the football teams they propped up – Liverpool and Manchester United – continue their hunt for trophies. Quite recently, there was an announcement from Great Britain, where the activities of these groups aided the export of their culture, that the Oasis are being revived for huge concerts.
What is not certain, however, is how night clubs operating in the day would impact on the national economy. Imagine a senior bank staff reporting for work after clubbing all the day, and under heavy influence of alcohol, will impact on figures and words at say, the Bank of Ghana.
One is mindful of how not to injure the sensibilities of those, who despite all the shame Government Official One brought to this nation, in the episode involving negotiating with his own blood brother on behalf of Airbus to buy three aircraft for this nation, for which the giant aircraft company paid three million Euros behind the counter, continue to idolise him.
And Government Official One is a noble Ghanaian! A former Assembly man, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, a Historian and Communication expert, rose from inspecting gutters and calling non neighbours to keep a clean environment, to representing the people of Bole/Bamboi in Parliament.
A strong advocate of umbrella politics, he caught the eyes of former Head of State, Jerry John Rawlings, who elevated him to become Deputy Minister of Communications and Minister in the same portfolio.
When my fellow Ekumfi man, Prof. John Evans Fiifi Atta-Mills was looking for a partner in the battle for the Government House, after two unsuccessful attempts, he settled on the Bole/Bamboi landlord.
On January 7, 2009 then Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood swore in Mr. Mahama as Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana.Life has a way of rewarding every man for his efforts. When the death bell tolled for the call to Prof. Mills to join his ancestors on a rather cold afternoon in July 2012, Mr. Mahama was the only choice to lead this country.
He led this country in an acting capacity, until he was confirmed at the polls in December 2012. It was during that period that documents from the United Kingdom Crown Court and from prosecuting documents from France and the United States, indicting Airbus for paying bribes to officials of third world countries, also indicted Mr. Mahama as Government Official One, behind the scandal in the case of Ghana.
The dilemma is that while the Office of the Special Prosecutor in Ghana is in no doubt about the identity of the man who propped up the bribe-inducing activity, it says the name it dropped never took bribe.
That is for another day. What is of interest is that Government Official One, in moving around the length and breadth of the country, seeking our votes to return to Government House, is making promises that defy logic.
He is telling me and you that under his watch, we would all be allowed to go to night clubs during the day, before reporting to work. What this means is that men and women would report to work under the influence of alcohol.
For all I know, night clubs are not where Muslim Clergies and Christian Pastors prepare their congregation for upright living. I have a fair idea about what happens at night clubs. In the 1970s, before Jerry Rawlings destroyed night life with prolonged curfews and forced our musicians and actors to run away from this country in search of a living, some of us were patrons.
At my age and disposition, the new concept of disco before work would be a hindrance. But when the dark glasses permanently covers the eyes, the temptation is on the high side for the ignorant to assume that there is a correlation between the pronouncement and the James Bond posture on the campaign trail.
I hear some leading personnel in the umbrella party are up in arms with the source of the proposal.
Mr. Yaw Boateng Gyan is asking Mr. John Mahama to explain the opening of Discoteques for 24 hours. “I am a member of the NDC. But Mahama cannot conjure policies that would be difficult to explain, he fumed the other day.”
Far from promoting the cause of the NDC on the campaign trail, the 24-hour economy is becoming an albatross around the neck of the come-back kid. Like a punch drunk boxer, Mr. John Dramani Mahama is aiming wild blows at the imaginary enemy.
He is on notice to straighten himself while throwing these punches or his weight might send him and his whole party down, before we all assemble at the polls on Saturday, December 7, 2024.
I shall return!
Ebo Quansah in Accra
