Ogbamey: Indeed Prez Mahama Is Right; Ghanaians Do Have Short Memories Of Good & Bad Times

Journalist and Human Rights activist, Alfred Ogbamey has given credence to President John Dramani Mahama's statement that "Ghanaians have very short memory", which makes them easily forget the achievements of his administration. Alfred Ogbamey, also the editor of the Gye Nyame Concord, supported the President's notion but on the flipside, expressed that Ghanaians’ supposed "short memory" does not only affect the positive interventions made by government to salvage the economy but also its negatives. According to him, Ghanaians seem to forget even the negative things of the current administration and so, tend to let go of the past. Speaking to Peacefmonline.com, he said it is a statement of fact that “Ghanaians have short memory not in terms of the positives. We even have short memories in terms of sometimes remembering the negatives. So that is why, sometimes, you have politicians taking Ghanaians somehow, sometimes, for granted because of our tendency to easily move on and forget things.” President Mahama, addressing a congregation at the inauguration of the Revival Restoration Centre of the Assemblies in Accra, on Saturday stated that "Ghanaians have very short memory” which makes them forget the progress made by his government in the country vis-à-vis the current economic situation. Citing the energy crisis that became the bane of the nation to buttress his point, President Mahama emphasized that "the energy crisis is solved. We don’t remember the darkness we were in and so we’ve put that behind us and we’re looking at what the other challenges are" and to him, Ghanaians, in the midst of the energy challenges, persistently ridiculed him and his government. Ghanaians derided him by replacing the traditional greeting words with a coined phrase “y3 ma mu dumsor ooo” to wit "have an intermittent-power-supply-filled day” that elicited a response “yaa Mahama” that directly blamed him for the crisis. He therefore anticipated a positive reaction from the citizenry, following the numerous interventions made by his government which to him have stabilized the economy, by also rephrasing their greetings which was translated as "have an erratic-power-supply-filled day” and the response “yaa Mahama” to ‘ y3 ma mo Kania oo (lights)’, with a response ‘Yaa Mahama’, which loosely means “Have an erratic-free-power-supply by courtesy of Mahama”. Alfred Ogbamey, in his earnest view, also believed the ability of the Ghanaian citizenry to "remember things, being it bad or good, is sometimes short-lived. It looks like we easily move on…It does not need President Mahama to let me know that that statement is true. And it’s not true because it affects the statement that Ghanaians are forgetful about the positives of his administration… “Ghanaians, in general, have short memory and that short memory is not just about the positives, sometimes it’s also about the negatives. Because there are other negatives of this administration that Ghanaians in due course will forget.” He, however, wondered if such character of the citizens stems from their "forgetfulness" of the activities of government or rather their considerate attitude towards government. “Is it forgetfulness so that we forget easily the positives of our leaders? We forget easily the negatives of our leaders? Or is it our ability to analyze things, mindful of those things but go beyond them?”

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana