Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and John Dramani Mahama
Ex-President Mahama was elected the NDC flagbearer a year before Dr. Bawumia’s election, but he has surprisingly failed to outline his vision to Ghanaians.
Ex-President Mahama proposes the introduction of a 24-hour economy which he believes will generate employment and increase productivity.
How this concept will generate employment, increase productivity, and how Ghanaians can participate or take advantage of it to improve their livelihoods is yet to be explained.
Instead of coming out with his vision, he and his NDC have turned their attacks on Dr. Bawumia’s vision with insults.
Criticisms on Bawumia’s vision, such as “Where was he all this while?” and “The driver’s mate cannot be allowed to lead” are so infantile, but few comments on them will suffice.
For the criticism of “Where was he all this while?” I will simply say he was in school learning. Dr. Bawumia’s membership of EMT was a learning process, and his proposed remedial measures in his vision for Ghana are his answers and the lessons learnt at school.
He was around but as an advisor, maybe he was biding his time till the opportune moment, and that’s exactly what has happened.
Those who are saying “the driver’s mate cannot be allowed to lead,” are simply out of touch with reality. In Ghana, majority of our drivers learnt their trade as drivers’ mates and later stepped in to become drivers.
Ex-President Mahama himself was a driver’s mate to late President Mills until he became a president because of the untimely death of President Mills. To say that “the drivers’ mate cannot be allowed to lead” is misleading and it depends on the context in which the word ‘mate’ is used.
Dr. Bawumia insists that unless the economy is turned from informal to formal sector, the country will not maximise the full benefits of many economic policies.
The informal sector contains all the evils in our society which militate against economic progress and unless solutions are found to eliminate or reduce the effects, moving forward will be extremely difficult.
The solution lies in digitalisation to reduce human involvement in the administrative processes. The need to pursue the policy of digitalisation to its logical conclusion is a must.
In my previous articles, I advocated for the creation of a non-partisan platform to select the next president because he is the only person who matters in all elections.
The Constitution grants him all the powers of state and if Ghanaians make a wrong choice, everyone in the country suffers for the next four years. It is therefore important that Ghanaians elect the best candidate amongst the presidential aspirants irrespective of his political affiliation.
Some Ghanaians may not be too happy with Nana Addo, but the fact is that the coming election is not about Nana Addo but Dr. Bawumia, ex-President Mahama and others.
My advice to my fellow Ghanaians is that we should not “throw the baby out with the bath water” because of anger, for anger is a momentary madness that clouds one’s sense of judgement.
The next issue is corruption and it’s a subject that many Ghanaians pretend to hate but consciously or unconsciously indulge in.
In areas where digitalisation has been introduced to minimise corruption, some unscrupulous persons and in this case, I am specifically referring to Customs officials at Tema Port, are currently indulging in some malpractices undermining the digital process.
In our situation, we cannot minimise these corrupt practices unless Ghanaians change their attitudes. Minimising corruption also largely depends on the choice of the President (leaders) because he needs to set the pace for the citizens to follow.
We need a president who will crack the whip to set the example for ministers and other high ranking government officials to follow. Ghanaians are gullible but cowards as well and without sending strong signals through the high-ranking officials of government, the attempt to minimise corruption will fail.
To talk about corruption of the two major contestants, Dr. Bawumia stands tall, and I am yet to hear of any corrupt case that has been listed against him. The alleged corrupt cases against ex-President Mahama are so many that recollecting and listing them become boring.
In conclusion, none of the political parties can claim superiority over the other in the management of the economy as proved by past administrations.
Our salvation economically lies with the e-economy and the election of a president who can carry it to a logical conclusion. The need to create a non-partisan platform to choose the best amongst the presidential aspirants irrespective of political party affiliation is very necessary.
The presidency is neither a correction centre nor recreational centre for honeymoon. We must move forward as a nation and never turn back to resurrect ‘dead goats’.
To contain corruption, an incorruptible president who can crack the whip is needed.
The obvious choice is Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia!
Yes, it is possible.
By Brig-Gen (Rtd) J. Odei