Dr Bawumia’s Brand In Crisis!

The Rise Of Dr Bawumia As The Economic Messiah.

For far too long the Ghanaian Voter has been taken for granted and the situation makes many discerning youth livid! Prior to the 2016 electioneering year and during political campaigns, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was touted as an economic Messiah. His wife described him as an economic Wizkid. He positioned himself as the nation’s saviour and an astute economist through a series of town hall meetings and delivering public lectures in public universities highlighting how he played on the sidelines, denied the opportunity to shine and overturn Ghana’s economic fortunes because his party was in opposition and had little to nothing to do about the situation. His messages resonated well with Ghanaian voters as they gave him and the Nana Addo Government a nod to stir the wheels of the nation towards progress with a resounding victory of over one million votes in 2016. Many political scientists concluded that he solely won the presidential race for the NPP with his economic messages professing solutions to Ghana's woes. To whom much is given, much is expected. The Ghanaian voters expected results so he was asked to show working and walk the talk. He was beckoned upon to put theory into practice. In opposition, he made many assertions including saying Ghana was a blessed nation and did not need to borrow to sustain its expenditure or growth, including his famous quotes of all times “If your fundamentals are weak, your exchange rate will expose you”. And by you/r, he meant the NDC under the stewardship of John Dramani Mahama, the Ex-President. He introduced his economic management team and hailed them as, “what a solid team” to spearhead and overturn Ghana's fortunes.

Economic Challenges and Discrepancies in Governance.

The theory did not support practice and for an extended period under their reign, the Ghanaian voters were plunged into unprecedented inflation rates as unemployment increased, tax burden increased, fuel prices hiked, and debt to GDP skyrocketed unprecedently coupled with failure to achieve single-digit inflation, the woes of Ghana’s economic stability heightened sparking flames of frustration among perceptive youths manifested in many demonstrations by trade and labour unions including the famous #fixthecountry demonstration which had a huge turn-up and gained international recognition around the world influenced by the digital media. Leading up to the 2016 elections and throughout the political campaigns, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was portrayed as a prodigy as such, expectations and hopes were. Presented himself as a national rescuer and a skilled economist further fueled this desire. During his time in opposition, Dr Bawumia made bold statements and claims, asserting that Ghana, as a blessed nation, didn't require borrowing to sustain its expenditure and growth however in government, they’ve borrowed unprecedentedly and near declaring the country hippic. This left many with hopes deflated, disappointed and disgruntled.

Inconsistencies and Crisis in Dr. Bawumia's Brand Image.

The antecedence of time revealed a lot many without frail memories would attest as, questions have been raised regarding the clarity and consistency of his economic policies, leading to a potential crisis in Dr Bawumia's brand image because he first presented himself as an Economist, as Vice President in an electioneering year, he’s now championing the cause of digitalization. Almost every day, one of his quotes resurfaces and he is given a chilling and sobering reminder of many of his famous quotes used in opposition and often quoted to symbolize failure, the same measurement and litmus, he measured the outgone Government, is being used to measure him and his government with the same benchmarks, that notwithstanding, he appears to have failed with many broken promises hence the blame shifting, and the inconsistency of associating with every milestone purported to be achieved by his government yet attempting to distant himself far away from their failures as possible. But what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. Barely a few months into the Presidential election race, Dr Bawumia has come out to again position himself as a Messiah of Digitalization without telling the Ghanaian populace why he was no longer an Economist. Yet another inconsistency. He speaks less of the economy now and focuses on digitalization without any known background or track record in this field, his lack of consistency marks dishonesty and throws his brand image into crisis and disrepute.

Strategies for Crisis Management in Political Branding.

The management of this failing brand could benefit from effective Strategic Public Relations, which plays a pivotal and critical role encompassing gauging public opinion, shaping perception, engaging stakeholders, and creating awareness; honesty is integral to this process. He is a brand in crisis because he has a bad performance history with the economy plagued by many downturns and hardships, failure to ‘arrest the cedi’ as claimed in opposition and took us to IMF even though he promised we would never borrow as a country. With such a bad performance history, in crisis management, a brand in crisis has a high responsibility toward the public and stakeholders. Consequently, strategies such as “Attack and Intimation by himself and his Communications team”, Denying the existence of economic hardship the people face, Scapegoating the blame of failure and deploying the “Driver Mate analogy”, Bolstering or Victimization due to COVID-19 wouldn’t work in this situation due to his bad or poor performance history, such low responsibility approaches wouldn’t be tenable.

What would, however, work or help his Brand Image are strategies such as “Full Apology, Repentance or Acceptance” and perhaps, admitting he got it wrong the first time and when given the nod, would do things differently insisting on a message that portrays honesty, a sense of remorse and lessons learned. The same strategy the Former President is using which is resonating well with the masses. It is important to note however, that in political branding, a crisis can manifest in various ways, such as a decline in approval ratings, increased public skepticism, loss of confidence in leadership, or a surge in public discontent or protests by many strikes by labour and trade unions and demonstrations as earlier on intimated. Factors contributing to a political brand crisis include policy failures, ethical lapses, corruption scandals, inconsistent messaging, broken promises, and economic downturns amongst others. Unfortunately, this Bawumia, Nana Addo Administration has exhibited and demonstrated all the above.

Rafiq O Thompson
Strategic Public Relations
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