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Democracy is defined as the rule of the people, by the people and for the people. This therefore means that whoever occupies the presidency, which we consider as the most powerful office in the country, should, first, be given the mandate by the people.

In much the same vein, the supreme powers of state rest in the bosom of the masses, and certainly not at the behest of any individual, no matter how powerful he is.

And with Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s great sense of maturity in Ghana’s contemporary political strata, it is no wonder he has chosen to always do things the right way. As he traverses the length and breadth of the country to sell his message of hope to disillusioned Ghanaians, he has never lost sight of the fact that, indeed, the real power of the land is firmly tacked in the hands of the masses.

For this reason, he humbly pleads with Ghanaians, at every campaign gathering, to offer him the opportunity to serve. Unquestionably, Nana Akufo-Addo would not have bothered very much about wanting to occupy the presidency because, by nature, he is neither materialistic nor selfish; and in private, he could have enjoyed life to the very fullest.

Nana Akufo-Addo has been pleading with the people to give him the mandate because he is humble and accords them the due respect.

But President John Dramani Maama and his NDC propagandists intentionally decided to put a spin on Nana Akufo-Addo’s characteristic humility, by claiming that he was so desperate for power and therefore was going about begging for votes.

But it was not before long that Julius Debrah, the Chief of Staff of the failed Mahama-led NDC government, was heard and seen in the Volta Region literally crawling on broken bottles and begging for votes in an area members of the NDC love to describe as their ‘World Bank’.

Indeed, if a person is so cornered and pressured to the point where he would go on his knees to plead for something he had always laid claim to, then it is pretty evident that this long-held treasure must be slipping out of hand.

Again, in the Wednesday, November 9, 2016 edition of tv3 news@10pm, an item was carried in which President John Mahama was seen on a campaign platform relentlessly begging Ghanaians to give him and the NDC another mandate to complete projects they had started.

Under normal circumstance, this certainly would not have been news, but, in the light of senseless propaganda scorn President Mahama and his functionaries poured on this rather civilized approach by Nana Akufo-Addo, it becomes very strange to see them making such a dramatic somersault.

Indeed, we at the Daily Statesman are of the belief that the most powerful office in a democracy is not the office of the president but, rather, the office of those who have the power to choose who occupies the presidency. It is therefore imperative to be mindful of the people’s power, and do away with arrogance of power.

The attitudes of President Mahama and his functionaries clearly show that they have no respect for the people’s power. If they did, they would not seek to pour scorn on Nana Akufo-Addo because he had been begging the people to give him their mandate to govern the nation, only to turn round now to also do the same thing for which they had been deriding the main opposition leader.

In fact, President Mahama and the NDC’s lack of respect for the masses is better appreciated in their governance style of impoverishing them for eight years, only to turn round now to seek to buy their electorate support with the very resources they should have used to better their socio-economic circumstances. What is more disrespectful of the people’s power than this?