Mahama is an outstanding leader

For sometime now the question, “who is the most experienced politician in the history of Ghana?” keeps invading my thoughts. As I was pondering over this, I stumbled over some information which makes President John Dramani Mahama unarguably the title holder. Checkout this:

He was an MP for three terms, Deputy Communications Minister from 1997 to 1998. He became the substantive Minister for Communications from 1998 to 2001. H.E. John Dramani Mahama served as the chairman of the National Communication Authority, and played a key role in stabilising the Ghana telecom sector after deregulation in 1997.

He also served as a member of the Pan African Parliament where he was chairman of the West Africa Caucus. He was the Minority Parliamentary Spokesman for communications from 2001 to 2004, and NDC National Director of Communications in 2002.

In 2005, Mr. Mahama was the Minority Parliamentary Spokesman for Foreign Affairs, and became Vice President of the Republic of Ghana on 7th January, 2009. He became a caretaker president in 2012 when President Atta Mills died. The young man from Bole was sworn in as President on 7th January, 2013 after winning a one-touch presidential election in December, 2012.

On the international front, he was elected chair of ECOWAS for two terms, and was also elected chairman of AU Trade Committee. There are more: he was co-chairperson of the group of sixteen SDGs advocates set up by the UN.

He was head of the Commonwealth Observer Mission to Kenya, head of ECOWAS Election Observer team to Liberia and member of the Commonwealth Observer Mission to Sierra Leone, just to mention a few. Importantly, he has lost an election as a sitting president; an experience that cannot be underestimated.

Such wealth of experience is very much needed to make Ghana the pride of Africa, and that is why I am happy the former president has joined the race to lead Ghana in 2024.

There is the need for the people of Ghana to study the times and seasons to be able to make informed choices on December 7.

1 Chronicles 12:32 tells us that the men of Issachar had understanding of the signs of the times to know what Israel out to do; and this should be the guiding principle of the electorate in this year's elections.

Anthony Obeng Afrane