Bawumia to lead the NPP? Democracy in Crisis – NDC-USA

The emergence of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as the victor of the first leg of the New Patriotic Party’s presidential primary is a monumental assault on the soul of democracy, which is accountability. Ghana prides itself as the quintessence of democracy in African; hence, one would have expected that at the NPP Super Delegates Congress, members would be overcome by the spirit of accountability and a vote of ostracism brought against the head of the Economic Management Team, who has overseen Ghana’s current economic misery that has left many dejected.

In Athenian democracy, a political leader or statesman did not attain his position through election, but by his ability to command the assembly (which was a congregation of all citizens) and set the policy agenda of the state using his oratory gift as the ‘bully pulpit’. However, if he became unpopular for spearheading a policy failure, a vote of ostracism was brought against him, and he would be formally exiled from Athens for 10 years. Accountability was key!

Dr. Bawumia rose to the top of the political hierarchy, as would have happened in Ancient Athens, on his claim to economic wizardry, most especially, the ability to cast out the age-old demon, the exchange rate, that has haunted the country since independence (on the contrary, he has overseen its worst performance since independence). When Mahamudu showed up with a terminal degree in economics from ‘Beautiful British Columbia’ with a touch of experience as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana and, under no duress, wittingly put his head under the guillotine in the public square and swore endlessly to possessing the economic magic wand, there was no reason for Ghanaians to doubt him. Prefixed with the name of his place of birth, Walewale, Mahamudu became titled with the name of the venerable father of economics, Adam Smith.

However, not by fate, six years after been handed the audience to perform his magic, there is no ambiguity that the 59-year old’s talisman has failed him. The dejected state of Ghana’s economy is well known, but for the sake of those who may be reading this in 2025 and beyond, lets name a few of its disorders: Currency ranked the worst in the world since October 2022; debt to GDP ratio over 100%; default on sovereign debt, both internal and external; and cup in hand at the IMF for a beggarly pittance of debt relief.

This remarkable failure has caused the Vice President to attempt a pivot away from the economy and the exchange rate to other policy (non)issues. Brazenly again, he has taken to the public square to rhetorically package the global intensification of the shift to smart technology as a policy issue of his making, naming it digitalization. He has also audaciously attempted to reincarnate the primitive economic practice of barter, presenting it as a novel idea in the name gold-for-oil. Interestingly however, when the most provocative policy issue since independence, the electronic levy, was playing out in every space of our body politic, Mahamudu was not only conspicuously missing from the public’s view, but also, did not utter a single word on the matter.

Bawumia fits Socrates’s description of poetry (in Plato’s Republic) as imitations of reality, loaded with color and embroidery, but beneath the glamour are “like faces which were never really beautiful, but only blooming; and now the bloom of youth has passed away from them”. In essence, Bawumia “looks like an old basket that has lost all shape”, to borrow from Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s, ‘I Will Marry When I Want’. The same author profoundly states, “a fool’s walking stick supports the clever” – Dr. Bawumia emptied his credibility for Nana Akuffo Addo to become president.

The NPP delegates buried their heads in the proverbial sand and gave Dr. Bawumia the lead in the party’s flagbearership race; but lest Ghanaians forget, Ghana is a paragon of democracy in Africa and Dr. Bawumia’s head is still stuck under the guillotine in the public square– “if the fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you”. When election 2024 comes, let every Ghanaian be overcome by the spirit of accountability and do what the Athenians would have done; choose John Pericles Dramani Mahama.

NDC USA Chapter Communications Bureau
Communication Officer
Hajia Rukaya Abubakari
Chairman of communication and Research Committee and writer

Dr. Mark Agana- writer
All Communications and Research Committee Members

NDC USA Chapter