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Dear Mr. President,

I write on behalf of fair – minded, lucid and patriotic Ghanaians who overwhelmingly voted for you in the just ended elections to register our protest certain current happenings within the political class of Ghana. Before I proceed, I wish to commend you for accepting to take the mantle to steer us through the difficulties our country faces. Your conciliatory messages of hope speak volumes about your maturity and stature in Ghanaian politics.

We have heard that President Mahama, the one Ghanaians rejected some few weeks ago, has made a very precocious request to you to allow him to own the official residence of the Vice President of Ghana. We hope it is one of the usual rubble – rousing tickling associated with the old administration. We can however categorically opine that it is a bait the old administration has thrown to you to challenge the change we yearn for.

We deem it an unconscionable request for one to dream about or a political heresy let alone put pen to paper to make a formal request. We need not remind you, Mr. President, but the reports the leader of the transition team presented to you today will reveal that President Mahama has accumulated a lot of debt for us to pay. We are in an era of austerity. But before you read that, we wish to remind you that under the leadership of President Mahama, he made us to understand that we have chewed the meat to the bare bone with nothing left to share. He affirmed his willingness to put his re – election bid on the line to make sure that Ghanaians suffer the indignity of hard economic measures by the IMF. In a nutshell, we didn’t have enough to feed the masses let alone condone the ostentatious lifestyle of a President Ghanaians have massively rejected.

Mr. President, we voted for you to change things for us. We did not vote for continuity. We voted for a departure from avarice, unbridled corruption and greed from the political class. We know that you have a moral compass that transcends beyond greed and using political office to enrich oneself. That is what we believe you represent and that is what we yearn and pray for you to sustain.

Unfortunately for you, President Mahama wish to test your resolve to be disciplined in ensuring that Ghanaians feel the change we voted for. But we know that this request runs counter to the true values you represent hence you will not heed to it. If you do, you will go on record as the one who graciously rewarded a departing President with a property you have sworn to hold in trust for posterity in an era of austerity. You cannot preach virtue and practice vice and we believe strongly that you will do the right thing. As you rightly said, we must be citizens and not subjects and make sure that the resources we occupy today are held in trust for posterity. If we allow any official, including your good self and President Mahama, to knit – pick any property of his choice to own we will not have enough to bequeath to generations unborn.

We have also heard that our representatives in parliament have cleverly identified a lacuna in the law that allows them to pay themselves huge end of service benefits irrespective of whether they were retained or lost their seats. This of course is unconscionable and a subtle way to fleece our public purse. A careful reading of the law, which you have a better understanding, will show you that parliamentarians are due retiring benefits or awards and not END OF TERM benefits. Therefore, any parliamentarian who retained his seat must not be allowed to benefit from this retiring benefits. It’s all part of protecting the public purse as you rightly assured us in your inaugural speech.

Mr. President, with all due respect, if there should be any real change, it must start from the political class. Lead by example and show us the way. Teach us that you are sensitive to the plight of Ghanaians and understand our feelings. You are now riding on a halo of goodwill from Ghanaians but this can evaporate with a hint of error of judgement such as the one you are predisposed to providing for President Mahama. Don’t yield to this, Mr. President, and come back and tell us that we have chewed the meat to the bare bone. Ghanaians will neither forgive nor forget. By courtesy of President Mahama we have enough debts on our hands to pay. Don’t add up to this debt so as to be seen as incompetent later.

We wish to thank you once again and remind you that we will, in exercising our rights as responsible citizens who wish to protect the public purse, use all legitimate means to resist any attempt to plunder state properties to satisfy the whims and caprices of the political class. It is a sacred vow we wish to exercise as responsible citizens of the land and we will make sure that your call to stimulate patriotism in Ghanaians will not be in vain.

We are counting very much on your understanding and believe strongly that you will not disappoint us.

Yours in the service of God and country.

Citizen FKD