First, we were told that he had been nominated as a running mate because he possessed the economic prowess and magic wand to turn Ghana’s economy dramatically around. Many believed this tale because he had earlier turned out a great deal of propaganda about the economy in lectures organized for him to confuse Ghanaians in the run-up to the 2016 elections.
Then when NPP won the 2016 elections and he automatically became the head of the Economic Management Team (EMT), he, in his typical satirical manner, introduced, boasted, and touted the competence of the members of his EMT as the people who shall bring heaven to earth in Ghana. We recall vividly, how in a speech to mark their first 100 days in office, he made the infamous statement of having arrested and locked up the dollar, and handed the key to the IGP, all to glorify themselves as the best thing that has happened to Ghana.
When in 2018 and 2019 the economic indicators of the nation seemed somehow stable, and showed some improvement, as a result of what many experts attributed to the investments and work that had been done by Former President John Mahama’s administration prior to the 2016 elections, he was all over the place again with heightened propaganda, praising himself and his EMT.
Then in the periods immediately after that when their real competence in economic management began to manifest, and their greed for personal wealth drove them to contract unimagined levels of foreign loans, which had started to affect the economy very badly, and exacerbated by the global calamity of COVID, he craftily withdrew from speaking about the economy, and instead tried to cultivate an interest in another area — “digitilization.”
Now he is the standard bearer of the ruling party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP). But we know that he is also the Vice President of the nation, and number two in the heirarchy of officials in charge of governance of the nation. When he assumed his new position as the flag bearer of the ruling party, he sought to dissociate himself from all the failures of the government, but continues to ask for credit for all the perceived achievements of the government. In a strenuous effort to run away from the bad deeds, performance, and record of his own government, he ignobly employed the driver and mate analogy to explain that he had very little or nothing to do with how the nation was, or is, being run abyss by the NPP administration of which he is the Vice President. But even on this, he only wanted Ghanaians to absolve him from the failures of the government but credit him with the achievements of the same government.
During the broadcast of his first policy statement to the nation after becoming a flag bearer, he struggled, but stopped short of castigating his own government for the intense hardships the government has brought upon the people of Ghana through the many nuisance taxes and policies introduced by the government. In one case for instance, he stated that he shall repeal the e-levy tax if he becomes the President of the nation. Never before, have we seen a Vice President running for an election on the ticket of a ruling party, seized every opportunity to distance himself from the performance of the government he was an integral part of.
The latest of Alhaji Bawumia’s departure from the attitude of his government was earlier today (Thursday, April 11th) when he declared his stance on LGBTQ, but failed to speak about the pertinent associated issues that are in the national discourse. He stayed very clear from the issues and circumstances surrounding the Bill that has been passed by Parliament, and awaiting the assent of the President to become the law of the land, which shall go a long way to stop the promotion and spread of LGBTQ practices in Ghana.
At this time of the day, and in the LGBTQ national debate, it is not just enough for anyone, especially, not less a person than one who is running for the presidency of the country to merely declare that he or she is against the practice. It is important for the person to state his or her opinion on the tricks Nana Akufo Addo and Dr. Bawumia’s administration is engaged in to dodge assenting to the bill until the end of the life of the current Parliament.
In my humble opinion, if Alhaji Bawumia is really opposed to the e-levy tax but the government he is part of, is still pursuing the policy, and if he is against LGBTQ and will support the bill passed by Parliament, but the President, whom he is assisting as Vice President is refusing to assent to the bill, then if Dr. Bawumia is really honest, and not merely ‘fooling’ Ghanaians just in order for our votes, and if he wants us to take him seriously, then he must resign from the government now, as a matter of principle. He cannot be a Vice President and be campaigning like an opposition leader. He must get serious.
By: Eric DELANYO Alifo, Esq.
