All is set for the New Patriotic Party’s first special electoral collage election, kicking off the contest to determine who becomes the party’s candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
The election comes a full 15 months before voters go to the polls in December 2024. The NPP is holding its Super Delegates Conference on Saturday, August 26, 2023, to whittle the number of aspirants to five before the November 4 showdown, where another national conference will be held to elect a flagbearer.
This comes after the party’s vetting committee cleared ten aspirants for the flagbearer race, which will feature some of the biggest names in modern politics.
One of the notable figures aspiring to lead the NPP to break the eight-year political party jinx is Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
Opinion polls have projected Ghana’s Vice President to win the upcoming NPP flagbearer race. Despite this, he faces a fierce race against other flagbearer hopefuls. As a result, he must overcome the first obstacle of being selected among the top five.
Among NPP supporters, the polls in the Greater Accra, Central and Western regions shows Dr Bawumia in the lead with 45% share of the votes compared to Kyeremanten with 39%. Kennedy Agyapong comes third with 14% and rest 2%.
“I have a compelling vision for Ghana’s future. It is possible for Ghana to be like the advanced nations if we put our minds and energies to it. With the technologies available, the new ones that are emerging, and a renewed mindset, we can leapfrog impossibilities and make the unimaginable possible. It is possible to break the eight, in order to continue with the transformational policies we have started. It is possible!” Dr. Bawumia asserted after filing nomination forms to contest the race.
Before the 2008 general elections in Ghana, many people had never heard of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. But he is now firmly in the spotlight as the debate rages over his performance, with mixed reactions from voters.
Leadership qualities
He was the running mate of the NPP’s presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, in 2008, which the party lost. Again, he was selected to partner Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2012 general elections, which saw the party challenge the results at the Supreme Court after the Electoral Commission declared John Mahama the winner. His track record as a running mate for the party four consecutive times and Vice President for two terms put him ahead in the flagbearership contest. Throughout his journey, he has faced many challenges that have shaped him into the leader he is today.
Dr. Bawumia has come a long way to get to the forefront of political action, a path that has taken him from academia. Before his entry into politics, Dr. Bawumia worked as a lecturer in monetary economics and international finance at the Emile Woolf College of Accountancy in London, England, from 1988 to 1990. He also served as an economist at the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C.
Between 1996 and 2000, Dr. Bawumia served as an Assistant Professor of Economics in the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, USA, where he also received the Young Researcher Award in 1998. He was listed in “Who is Who Among America’s Teachers’ in 1999. He has also published two books on monetary policy and economic development.
Bawumia returned to Ghana in 2000 to work as an economist at the Bank of Ghana. He rose from Senior Economist to Head of Department and subsequently to Special Assistant to the Governor of the Bank. President John Kufuor appointed Bawumia as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana in June 2006.
Credibility and competence
Out of the ten NPP aspirants, Dr. Bawumia has been much talked about, especially as a focal point of rival attacks among some NPP flagbearer aspirants and opposition parties. While some are convinced that he has demonstrated his expertise in the economy and should lead the NPP, others describe him as incompetent to manage the Ghanaian economy. Critics also argue that the rival party attacks on Dr. Bawumia are merely a reaction to Bawumia’s own very assertive and visible role in the NPP.
Policies
Dr Bawumia has mentioned a number of policies he would bring on board, including Ghana card for children at their birth and Ghana card that would be used to trace any lost passports, among others. He was the brain behind policies such as the digitalisation of Ghana’s ports, passport offices, and DVLA, mobile money interoperability, digital payments, the One Ambulance per Constituency programme, the Agenda 111 policy to provide hospitals, the digital address system, and the use of drones in the healthcare sector.
According to him, when given the chance to be president, he has a compelling vision for Ghana.
