An Open Letter To Ex-President John Mahama.

Dear Ex-President Mahama,

Citi FM aired and has published same on its Citinewsroom website a news item attributed to you in which you said the decision to establish a commission charged with the responsibility of delving into the violence pertaining to Ayawaso West Wuogon by-elections is needless.

You surmise that it is a tragic waste of resources and time to set up the Justice Emile Short Commission of Inquiry since outcomes from such exercises become white elephants at the end of the day.

You are hollering out to Ghanaians that with particular reference to the incidents which rocked the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election which saw Lydia Seyram Alhassan emerge as the winner, the 'criminals' were seen and should be apprehended.

You indicated that Hon. Bryan Acheampong has publicly admitted to having deployed the men who caused the mayhem and should be dealt with according to the laws of the land.

Mr. Mahama, in essence, you are averse to setting up commissions and committees to look into happenings in the country.

You never miss an opportunity to barge in on issues which verge on absurdity. Your desperation to lead Ghanaians once again has blindfolded you to touch on topics which you handled as plaques when they met you in office.

You said that Ghanaians have short memories and are inclined to forget what they are told or what is done for them. I would not fall in with you over this matter since I believe Ghanaians have good retentive memories. Judging from your disposition, you lack the mental capacity to recall events of the past.

Let us take a nostalgic trip down the lane to refresh our memories of your own actions in relation to the setting up of commissions and committees of inquiries.

If you do not fancy commissions and committees of inquiries, why then did you establish the Justice Apau Commission to review judgment debts?

If you are opposed to the setting up of fact finding committees, what motivated you to set up the Justice Djamefeh Commission to look into our disastrous participation in the Brazil World Cup?

Please, the Ghana at 50 Commission, what necessitated it? Are we to believe that you had no plausible reason for setting up that commission?

When Ghanaians rejected you at the polls with that unprecedented margin in 2016, you commissioned the Kwesi Botchwey Committee to embark on a nationwide tour to gather facts about the factors which conspired to humiliate you. Are you saying that it was a useless enterprise? Why did you then ask Professor Botchwey to risk his life over that exercise?

Sir, Commissions of Inquiries are not themselves problems. The problem was you! You failed to implement the recommendations set out in the various reports from those commissions and committees.

You commissioned committees and virtually failed to implement the recommendations contained in their reports. The only one you attempted to do something about was that of the Djamefeh Commission in which, instead of the retributory measures outlined in it, you chose to do your own thing.

You exonerated Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah and Kojo Adu-Asare and much to our dismay, exalted them from grass to grace. You appointed Afriyie-Ankrah as a minister of state while Adu-Asare was made a presidential staffer instead of punishing them, and you turn around to conclude that commissions of inquiries are useless?

You painted rosily auspicious period when you were at the helm of affairs, creating the erroneous impression that what happened at Ayawaso was absent during your presidency.

Let me remind you of some of them. Let My Vote Count organized a demonstration in which the demonstrators were whipped, with many of them sustaining injuries. One of the demonstrators lost an eye due to the brutalities the security personnel meted out to him, and you did nothing about it. The videos are available yet no one was arrested, let alone punished for the crime.

What moral justification do you have to downplay the relevance of the Justice Emile Short Commission when you failed to act on the various reports from the commissions you set up under your presidency?

Do not compare yourself to President Akufo-Addo. He promises and delivers. He will implement the recommendations arising out of the commission's work.

I am told that former Minister for National Security, Mr. Kofi Totobi Quakyi was with you when you made these remarks. Sir, did you not read his open letter to President Akufo-Addo-Addo? In that letter which was widely circulated by your party members and became a reference point for your party's communicators, Totobi Quakyi recommended that a commission of inquiry should be set up to look at these matters in order to end this cancerous activities of vigilantes.

You and your party folks are confused. In one instance, you call for an inquiry by a commission, in another instance, you are discounting the importance of such a body.

Mr. Mahama, your stance on this commission contrasts sharply with what Totobi Quakyi preached.

You are desperately trying to dispel your recently made commentaries and the impression created that you are ready to shed blood if that would win you the presidency. The revolutionary tag is deeply ingrained in your system and you just want to distance yourself from it. I believe, that is why you held the meeting with the diplomats.

Sir, before I end this letter, Bryan Acheampong never said that he ordered people to go and cause mayhem. Your call for his arrest is out of place.

As for the commission, it will continue with its work and you and your confused lots can choose to sit outside.

P.K. Sarpong, Whispers from the Corridors of the Thinking Place.