Ghanaians Vice-President Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is economical with the truth

The Nazi Joseph Goebbels was attributed to the law of propaganda. He firmly believed that if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. Psychologists call this the "illusion of truth". Lying has become one of the characteristics of the Ghanaian vice-president who is currently seeking nominating to lead his party, the New Patriotic Party, in 2024 presidential election.

Ever since Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was selected as President Nana Akufo-Addo's vice-presidential candidate in 2008, he has lied and given false information about the National Democratic Congress. The Vice-President continues to lie to Ghanaians to this day.

You will all recall that in 2014, the then vice-presidential candidate said, “If the fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you”. But when his government had performed abysmally worst when the exchange rate of Cedis to foreign currencies went over double digits and inflation was skyrocketing to 57%, Vice President Dr. Bawumia told a town hall meeting in April 2019 that the fact that the Cedi was depreciating did not mean that the fundamentals were weak. He said, "It was so then and it is so now…. it is 100 per cent true... to conclude that fundamentals are weak when there is depreciation defies all logic. There could be other external factors causing the exchange rate to fall." Were there no other factors when the Cedi depreciated in 2014/2015? This man is truly a Walewale Adam Smith as Honourable Isaac Adongo called him.

At a lecture at the Central University University on March 25, 2015, he lied that the African Development Bank (AfDB) had suspended Ghana the month before and we were still suspended at the time of his lecture. The AfDB denied his claim the same evening.

On 18 August 2015, at a press conference at the Alisa Hotel, he claimed to have evidence of 760,000 foreigners from Togo, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso on the electoral roll. This turned out to be a lie. Today his government controls EC, which rigged the 2020 elections for them.

In November 2015, he lied that the then government under John Mahama had incurred US$37 billion in debt in 7 years. When his lies were exposed, he claimed to have talked about the value of the borrowed money when Ghana's debt had not yet been calculated.

On 6 May 2016, he lied that the NDC government had diverted US$250 million from the Eurobond issued in 2015 into a private bank. This turned out to be an absurdity. When they came to govern, his government issued over $9 billion in Eurobonds using the Databank owned by their Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.

Still as Vice-President, Dr Bawumia stated on 18 August 2020 that: “For example, under the previous government, after 8 years in office, not a single major road was completed in many regions, including the Upper East and Upper West regions!” This is an obvious lie that one would not have expected from the so-called economist. The NDC completed and commissioned the 147 kilometre Fulfulso-Sawla road in the Northern Region in 2015. NDC completed the 9.3 kilometre Nsawam bypass road in 2012. NDC completed the 25-kilometre Akatsi-Dodze-Akanu road in 2012. NDC completed township roads in Bolgatanga Township in 2016. NDC completed the Tarkwa-Bogoso-Anyanfuri road. NDC completed the 60-kilometre Asante-Bekwai—Assin Praso road in February 2014. NDC completed the 5.7-kilometre Achimota-Ofankor three-lane motorway with three interchanges and secondary roads in September 2012. NDC completed Awoshie-Pokuase Road, Sofoline in Kumasi, Tetteh Quarshie-Adenta Road, Kwame Nkrumah Interchannge, Kasoa Overhead Bridge, Airport Hills/Burma Camp Road, 37-El-Wak-Trade Fair Road and Initiated Pokuase Interchange. From these examples, you can see that Ghana's Vice-President ignores the truth and lies at every opportunity he gets.

Last Friday, June 16, 2023, after he filed his nomination as the NPP's presidential candidate, Dr Bawumia was at it again. This time, to win the sympathy votes of his party's delegates, he reviewed his humble life and the struggle he had gone through before becoming vice-president. He said, “From Sakasaka Primary School to Tamale Secondary School to Oxford University to the Bank of Ghana as Deputy Governor and then to Vice President of the Republic of Ghana. It has been an amazing journey and I thank God for how far He has taken me.” Honourable A. B. Fuseini in one of his advice said “If Dr. Bawumia meets you and greets you good morning, you should look at the position of the sun before you respond”

Ghana is still a medium income economy where only less than 20% of the youth population have a smooth youthful day. Since our independence in 1957, the said 20% are those whose parents are or were politicians, or those who had the chance to live abroad or succeed in business. Dr Mahamudu Bawumia had a silver platter because of his late father. And it is a deception and a lie to tell his followers that he had to struggle before he achieved his present status.

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia's father was the late Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia. The late Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia held various positions until Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown. He held several high-ranking ministerial positions in Nkrumah’s government, culminating in his appointment as Minister of State and Regional Commissioner for the Northern Region in 1962. After the coup d'etat his father went moved to England in1970 to study law. On his return, he practised law in Tamale for the next eight years. The late Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia returned to politics in 1978, serving on Acheampong’s Constitutional Commission and helping to find the People’s National Party under the leadership of the late Dr Hilla Limann.

When Dr Limann became President, he appointed Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia as Chairman of the Cocoa Marketing Board where Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia enjoyed CMB scholarship in addition to scholarships all northerners enjoyed at secondary schools. When the late President J.J. Rawlings (PNDC) carried out the coup d’état in 1981, Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia participated in several diplomatic missions to Saudi Arabia before returning to Tamale in 1986 to devote himself to agriculture. He returned to politics in 1989, serving as Ghana Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1989–92) and Chairman of the Council of State (1992–2000). In 2000, Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia left the national political stage for the last time when he was elected Kpeli Naa, Paramount Chief of the Kperiga Division of Mamprugu.

A critical look at Dr Mahamudu Bawumia academic background tells you that he could not achieve good A-levels grades in school at 6th-form. These are the reasons why his father brought him to London where he enrolled at the Emile Woolf College of Accountancy in London. The college of accountancy is a private school where rich people send their children who did not do well at GCE A-Level to. His father was able to send him to the University of Buckingham, another private university where rich parents sent their children. Dr Mahamudu Bawumia started his PhD at the time when his father was Chairman of the Council of State. Dr Mahamudu Bawumia did not have a permanent teaching job until President J.A. Kufuor met him and brought him to the Bank of Ghana. Ghana had equally qualified staff, but President J.A. Kufuor later appointed him Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana.

It is an insult to the majority of the poor when Dr Mahamudu Bawumia tries to align his youth with them. I think he is lying to get sympathy votes from NPP delegates. His whole life since he entered politics has been full of lies and falsehoods. He is a liar and will continue to lie that he was not British, while indeed he is hiding his British nationality. We all know that politicians have power and are supposed to represent us. Ideally, their decisions should be based on facts and evidence in pursuit of the common good. If politicians develop a laissez-faire relationship with the truth, it means they are abusing their position, not accountable, and failing as role models. If a leader can lie and get away with it, what morals are there for the future generation? Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is a pathological lair and does not deserve to rule Ghana.

Long Live Ghana.
Lewis Kwame Addo
Amsterdam
[email protected]