“Leaders don’t find faults. They find remedies”
Henry Ford- Former President of the US
On several occasions, I have made it known to my cherish readers that I am not prone to panegyrics. When I see evil or good camped anywhere, I call them by their names. Over the years since my first encounter with Dr. Bawumia, I have taken time to study the gentleman in all what he does and says.
The first time I met Dr. Bawumia was at the private residence of the late Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, at Cantonments in Accra. When the late Alhaji Aliu introduced the gentleman to me, I was captivated by his infectious and charming smiles. That was before he was chosen as the Running Mate of Candidate Nana Akufo Addo.
Farouk Aliu Mahama, MP for Yendi was then a ‘dashing’ young man sitting outside but listening to our conversation. Little did he also know that he will one day wear the shoes of his great father.
I later came to realize that Dr. Bawumia has the confidence that comes with conviction. The strength that comes with character and the grace that comes with humility.
He respects our chiefs so much, kneeling down like a slave to greet them and paying them homage like the way subjects of the Ya Naa do to their great king.
He really portrays the humility of zongo boys to their elders. And he has the humor that comes with wisdom. His giggles are so infectious that one cannot help but smile anytime he intersperses his speeches with teasing giggles, his trademark.
He matches optimistic temperament with bold decisions and actions. He is never known to slight or embarrass others, not even his political opponents. He has strong shock absorbers to withstand insults. And that is the mark of a man.
What I have observed about Dr. Bawumia over the years that I have come to know him is that he can easily cut through the unnecessary and destructive criticism of his political opponents and get to the core of things.
He has proved to Ghanaians that in difficult situations, one can jump over the hurdle with determination, combined with opportunity and intelligence.
When he started his digitization agenda, many of his political opponents who are not privy to his intention thought he was joking. Others said he thought Ghana is like America where digitization of their economy works to perfection and that he would surely fail.
Today, whether digitization failed or not is up to his critics to tell. What people must understand is that the future belongs to those who innovate and think outside the box.
The world is running like Hussein Bolt and we must run with it or stay behind and suffer. The future also belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
In the beginning, Dr. Bawumia made sure the battered economy the Nana Akufo-led administration inherited was put on a good and strong pedestal.
He had told Ghanaians that the dumsor that the country went through for four years under John Dramani Mahama was as a result of financial constraint. Truly, when the NPP government took over power things started going on well and dumsor became history.
The debt that Ghana government owed to the Nigeria Gas which used to supply Ghana gas to power our thermal plants was paid. Everything was going on well until Covid 19 came storming the shores of Ghana. Like other countries all over the world, economies started crumbling down.
Despite the hardships, the Economic Management Team, headed by the Mamprusi economic whiz-kid made sure all the programmes initiated by the government kept moving on and salaries of civil and public servants did not stop despite the hardship.
The free SHS continued unabated to the surprise of the NDC apparatchiks and doubting Thomases who doubted where the government was going to get money to continue with the project.
Anytime I hear NDC communicators, including their tin god, John Dramani Mahama disputing the fact that the Russia/Ukraine war is the result of the economic meltdown the whole world, including Ghana is facing, I laugh.
In fact, I begin to wonder whether these people read, listen or watch what is going on across the world. It is a deliberate attempt to put dust into the eyes of Ghanaians for the sake of grabbing political power. The most annoying aspect of the misinformation strategy of the NDC is the ugly noise being made by their rented press houses where they have planted half-baked journalists with little knowledge in serious issues of the economy to mislead Ghanaians.
When the Cedi started its nosedive and the prices of fuel products hit the sky, many Ghanaians, especially the opposition NDC members who are desperately seeking for political power took the fine Vice President to the cleaners.
The man kept his silence, believing that silence is golden and quietly went to the drawing board with his team. The sages say necessity is the mother of invention and so after serious brainstorming, the Vice President and his team came out with the idea of Gold for Oil strategy.
Oil producing countries who wanted to engage in batter trade bought into the idea and agreed to exchange their oil for our gold. Tongues started wagging but the man kept his cool. Today the noises about the Cedi and the Dollar as well as the skyrocketing prices of fuel products have subsided. The Gold for Oil strategy is working to perfection and the ship of state is gradually sailing on calm waters one more time despite the huge challenges facing the country.
You see, even in our daily endeavors as individuals we sometimes face crises but how the crisis are handled matters a lot. We are now experiencing deafening silence of the opposition NDC on these issues. The magic wand of Dr. Bawumia has sealed their loud mouths with Super Glue.
One person the NDC fears most in the NPP arsenal of fine brains is no other person but Dr. Bawumia. Anytime he sneezes, they contract catarrh. They fear his intelligence and ability to prove his mettle when it comes to issues of economics. That is why they say one cannot prove his merit on quiet waters. There is the old saying that if you don’t have problems, then you don’t have a job. My late old man used to tell me that the bend in the road is not the end of the road, unless you refuse to take the turn. Dr. Bawumia has proved my father right. He takes the turn anytime the road bends.
The man is incorruptible and much as they try, they cannot find anything against him. Unlike ”Asomasi” whose cupboard is full of skeletons like the $ 5 Million-Dollar Presidential ‘Alupre’ scandal which refuses to go and has become an albatross hanging on his neck, they cannot find any skeleton in the cupboard of Dr. Bawumia.
Until he was made the Running Mate and went on to become the Vice President of Ghana, few people, including yours sincerely, knew nothing about the exploits of Dr. Bawumia.
He was as elusive as a needle in the Atlantic Ocean. Candidate Akufo-Addo picked him from a crowd of fine brains in the NPP because he might have been following his exploits at the Bank of Ghana where he was a Duty Governor. I don’t think President Akufo-Addo will ever regret making him his running mate.
The NDC has dug his past and has found nothing incriminating against the man. They chose the path of insults but the man treated that too with ordinary contempt. Hear him whenever they try to challenge his presentations: “These people don’t read”. And you know what? Not reading makes you stupid and sometimes violent. That is why “when it comes to unleashing violence, no one can beat those of us who have our routes in the revolution” (With due apology to Mr. Do or Die, the swaggering Bole/Bamboi bully. Excuse me while I refill my Fountain pen for next week.
Eric Bawah