It was all excitement at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra on Thursday evening when Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia arrived from the United Kingdom after a brief medical review in London.
The vice president, in the company of his wife Samira Bawumia, arrived on a British Airways flight into the waiting hands of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, his wife Rebecca and almost all ministers of state and top government appointees.
Dr   Bawumia’s arrival was without the usual fanfare associated with such trips of such important personalities, as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government tried to keep the arrival under wraps.
Before the arrival, political opponents of the NPP had photoshopped a news release from the Presidency creating the impression that the ruling party was busing supporters to welcome the vice president at the Kotoka International Airport.
The government announced on January 20, 2018 that Dr Bawumia had left Ghana to the UK on medical leave on advice of his doctors.
The moment the vice president was taken ill, elements in the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) quickly oiled their propaganda machine and started spreading wicked lies that the respected economist, banking and finance guru has either been ‘poisoned’ or ‘knocked’ down by mild stroke.
The NDC elements seized the opportunity and even went to the extent of putting out a cooked coroner’s report which they claimed was a confidential document, declaring the one-time deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and respected economist dead.
Also, those claiming to have spiritual powers, particularly pastors, also entered the fray with ‘prophecies’, creating the impression that the vice president was in serious danger.
The wicked and spurious allegations backfired after a few days when an audio-visual recording went viral, especially on social media, showing the vice president in a hearty mood.
The video showed Dr Bawumia in the company of his wife, Samira, walking on the streets of London, United Kingdom, in a hearty conversation and exchanging pleasantries with passers-by.
Following the activities of bad politicians in the light of Dr Bawumia’s trip abroad, the negative role of social media has come under the scrutiny of the public once again. Responsible personalities from both sides of the political divide have pointed out that even though freedom of expression and media must be enhanced, what has happened in the past fortnight leaves much to be desired.
Even when it was reported that the vice president was living in a rented accommodation in London, the mischief makers reported that his condition had become critical and so was transferred to another health facility as though the Guys Hospital they said he was hospitalised in could not manage the ailment they lied he was afflicted with.
Not even the pictorial evidence in opposition to what they had put out textually as being the true reflection of the vice president’s state stopped them immediately. They questioned the authenticity of the pictures and subjected themselves to public opprobrium when their project eventually dropped from the precipice.
In the course of the medical leave, scores of Ghanaian dignitaries, particularly top politicians, thronged the London flat where he was recuperating, and Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the UN Special Representative and Head of the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA), was not left out.
Dr Bawumia, who has almost become a thorn in the flesh of the NDC because of his exposure on the poor management of the national economy by the erstwhile Mahama administration, is expected to return to work very soon, according to Flagstaff House sources.
By William Yaw Owusu