John Dramani Mahama
A Political Science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Daniel Owusu-Ansah, has stated that ex-President John Dramani Mahama faces an uphill task in convincing Ghanaians to vote for him in 2024.
According to him, despite Mr. Mahama being a formidable candidate, he has to address some of the issues that contributed to his defeat in 2016.
The political scientist believes that many of the concerns that sent out Mr. Mahama from the Jubilee House are still fresh in Ghanaians’ minds.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah told Accra-based Asaase Radio that the former president might need to put in more effort to tip the scales in his favour after being chosen to once again represent the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for next year’s elections.
The NDC overwhelmingly re-elected former President Mahama as their nominee for the 2024 general election on Saturday.
He polled 297,603, representing 98.9 per cent of the total valid votes cast to defeat his only contender, Kojo Bonsu, who managed to secure 3,181, representing 1.1 per cent.
Mr. Mahama will not challenge current President Nana Akufo-Addo, who has beaten him twice, in the 2024 elections but rather a new candidate to be chosen by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
After succeeding his deceased predecessor, former President John Atta Mills, in 2012 and winning the election later in the year, he was defeated in the 2016 election and again in 2020 by President Akufo-Addo for running the economy down amidst the problem of frequent power outages in the country.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah noted that the results of the NDC primaries demonstrate that Mr. Mahama is still a political power in Ghana.
“I think that he is still a strong candidate, but to be very honest with you, he would have to clean up some of the issues that really accounted for his failure in 2016,” he stressed, adding, “He would have to do a lot more.”
He continued, “I think that his biggest problem will be to get the support of Ghanaians, after losing the 2016 elections. The issues are still fresh on our minds, and you will just need to start the campaign proper and you realise that these things will pop up again.”
He indicated that Mahama’s biggest issue would be that social media is always around and that people could always refer to what he said, accomplished, and couldn’t accomplish during his first term in office.
By Ernest Kofi Adu