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The Dilemma of Consciousness and Awakened Minds: Who To Vote for Ghana General Elections 2024

Feature Article The Dilemma of Consciousness and Awakened Minds: Who To Vote for Ghana General Elections 2024
WED, 04 DEC 2024 1

Ghanaians will be going to the polls on the 7th of December, 2024, to elect a president for the Republic and members of parliament for the 9th parliament. This is the 11th time Ghanaians will be going to the polls including run-offs to elect a president after transitioning into a democratic system in 1992.

These elections have yet again plunged conscious minds into a state of dilemma. Presenting them with a dicey and complex situation in which decisions ought to be made from political, philosophical, moral, logical, and rational perspectives. Presented with a former president who supervised the affairs of the country for 6 years 6 months and was voted out by an overwhelming majority which was unprecedented in the history of Ghanaian politics and a current vice president who is assisting the current president in his administrative duties. While those with more in-depth knowledge of our socio-political tradition and culture are aware the vice president is just a ceremonial president and has little control over the decisions being made in the country those with little knowledge of it say otherwise but I agree with the former.

In politics, the best way to make an informed decision between 2 or more candidates while narrowing the risk of being wrong or choosing a bad candidate is by carefully evaluating certain elements and fundamentals. Some of them are; the candidate's private records before politics, their records as politicians, how they used authority and power they had as politicians, local and internal challenges they faced, and how they handled and managed those challenges as well as global challenges.

Those are important elements to consider objectively before choosing a preferred candidate to oversee the affairs of the country. In this upcoming election, there are 13 presidential aspirants and among them, we have 2 dominant and major contestants, they are former President John Dramani Mahama and current Vice President Dr Mahamadu Mumini Bawumia. I will be limiting the submission to these two as they are the main contenders. Evaluating the competence of contestants in this election with those elements, John Dramani Mahama as a former president is the only candidate among those vying in this presidential bid to whom all elements apply. He performed well in his private corporate life, performed well in politics at the local level, and much better when he represented his constituency and party at the national level in 1996 as the member of parliament for Bole Bamboi. During his time as a vice president, it was alleged that he was engaged in some corrupt practices. Some of them were the AMAJARO UK cocoa incident and the awarding of cotton contracts to the same company after a few months. Again, the dubious Brazilian aircraft deal was also one of the corrupt acts in which he was alleged to have been involved, to the extent Atta Mills of blessed memory had to set up a committee to investigate the matter which was confirmed by Martin Amidu. It is said that reports by the committee wasn't ready before Atta Mills responded to nature's call, so the case died with Prof Mills. There were several corrupt scandals in which John Dramani Mahama was alleged to have been involved as a vice president in the erstwhile Mills administration. Those allegations weren’t proven, but some factors and persons who spoke to it make discerning people and Ghanaians not doubt all the content or information in the alleged issues although it wasn't factual but it can't easily be shoved under the carpet.

Fast forward as a president, his administration was not immune from corrupt allegations, noticeable among them was the Bus branding, Ford Expedition, Sada Scandal, Judicial corruption Scandal, Brazil 2014 fiasco, AirBus scandal. In the above alleged corruption scandals, he had direct involvement and some happened under his supervision as the president. His tenure as the president was not exposed to much external difficulties unlike his previous predecessors but there was economic turmoil. According to Ghana fact check publication, dated 26th October, 2020 which assessed Mahamas' economic growth, from 2013 to 2016, there was an exponential decline in its growth from %7 in 2013 to %2.89 in 2014 and maximum growth of %3.44 in 2016. These developments led to high inflation and other economic crises during those periods which contributed to him losing the 2016 elections when he was seeking re-election in fulfillment of his constitutional mandate.

Therefore, discerning Ghanaians cannot unequivocally say he is incorruptible, or untainted with corruption and negligent in the running of the country's economy and other affairs. As those were the reasons why Ghanaians decisively voted against him with a little to a million votes in 2016. As they assessed his performance by considering the condition of the country while there were no global crises, and this and other factors led to his defeat. Most Ghanaians and civil organizations were of the view that, former President John Dramani Mahama failed as a president evaluating the records available.

Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia on the other hand had an excellent corporate record, during his days in the UK as well as when he was deputy governor for the Bank of Ghana in 2006-2008. He had little or no experienced in active politics until he was nominated by now President Akuffo Addo in 2008 to be his running mate. Much cannot be said about his political life as he has no information about that background. Bawumia can only be assessed and evaluated as a vice president---just like John Dramani Mahama who was accused of some corrupt practices, Bawumia as a vice president is not exempted. PDS scandal and the allegations that the Vice president's office tried to steal a businessman 10,000 bags of rice from the harbor to be used for Ramadan gift distribution which was unsuccessful because the Office of the Special Prosecutor was petitioned to probe into the matter. Mr. James Keck Osei in the Vice president's office is being investigated as it was said he forged the documentation to claim those items. Another is his association with this government which many have said he can’t recuse himself from the woes of the government as far as he is part of the government. In principle, yes, but someone with in-depth knowledge of the democratic political culture and tradition knows the vice president's job is more than an advisory body to the president. And his job is to contribute ideas that the president can either accept or decline. He the president has the sole authority to make decisions or call the shots.

Aside from these one can't mention any scandalous act and attribute his name to it. Even though the aforementioned scandals are alleged, their content can't be overlooked by conscious and discerning Ghanaians. While we have those negative remarks to his name as the vice president, there are more good policies that have been attributed to him. The digitalization agenda, 1 constituency 1 ambulance, Gold for oil policy, and agenda 111 projects, are monumental projects, and several others that have been said to be his brainchild.

This is how far the two major contenders in this election can be assessed objectively. Both had excellent corporate lives before active politics, both were fingered in corrupt scandals as vice president, and Bawumia performed well as a vice president as MyJoyOnline.com in one of their publications on 8th October, 2019 addressed him as "the quintessential vice president whom his critics admire". Many who disagree with this try to say that, it's because he has been the vice president for 8 years, and John Mahama was a vice president for just 2 years but from the time of myjoyonline.com publication, Bawumia had just been a vice president for 3 years. He being the most effective and visible vice president was experienced from the early days when they were sworn into office. It's a fact that other media houses published news items on and for that matter cannot be disputed.

VIEW ON FORMER PRESIDENT JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA RE-ELECTION

My experience in building family relations, marriage, friendships, businesses, and acquaintances. I have realized and learned that people hardly change and what most do is what interests them or what they desire as 98 percent of humans are controlled by their ego (desire). And I sometimes, tell those who come to me for advice on if they can change someone by telling them it's a game with the same consequential effect as someone putting an egg on their head and asking an unprofessional archer to hit the egg with the arrow within a quite distance. Even with a professional archer, the risk is high. I simply ask them, they should look at how difficult it is to change themselves talk-less of changing someone. From a logical and rational perspective, it would be wrong to trust former John Dramani Mahama to run the affairs of the country as he performed poorly and badly when he was the president for 6years and 6 months with no global crisis or challenges. Therefore, it's illogical to think he will perform better when he hasn't shown that in any leadership position after he was defeated as president. We cannot just bring him back with the same records we voted him out for if we are indeed concerned and patriotic citizens who care about the development and progress of our country. It is unethical to even consider him as someone to manage the affairs of the country when his records do not prove him worthy of that. And it will be against the principle upon which we voted him out of office unless we want to say it was a mistake we made when the records available prove there was mismanagement of the economy which resulted in us experiencing excruciating hardship at that time. In communication, it is said that to ascertain the credibility of a message, the credibility of the communicator has to be put into consideration and looking at his previous performance which he failed through his actions and just not only being able to fulfill or make his statements come true, he has already failed the credibility test. And for this reason, cannot be trusted to handle the affairs of the country. Not against NDC as a party, but do not trust the credibility of the person who is presented in the frontline to steer the affairs of the party and also the country.

VIEW ON DR. MAHAMADU BAWUMIA ELECTION TO BE THE PRESIDENT

As I already stated in the previous paragraphs, much cannot be said about Dr Mahamadu Bawumia's political life. Because he has spent most of his working life in the private corporate world than in the political world. In all honesty and fairness, he has never been given the full authority to steer the affairs of the nation. I earlier on stated that, those with in-depth knowledge of our political culture and tradition are aware of the limited power and control the constitution has enshrined to a Vice President. Although the Vice President can not recuse himself from the failure of this government as he is part of it, he cannot be wholly blamed for the woes the country has found itself in. His crime or sin is to be part of a government that has failed the country but we cannot blame him for the sins of his superior. Just like it won’t be logical to judge a child by the sins or crimes of their father. If we are also to blame him for some of the failures of this government then we must equally applaud him for some of the policies he has directly supervised and acknowledge its effectiveness. Now the questions many are asking are; can Dr Mahamadu Bawumia be trusted to steer the affairs of the country looking at the records stated in this submission? Will he be able to re-direct the country into a land of prosperity when he is made the substantive leader of the country? Can he prepare the country for the fourth industrial revolution? These questions are for conscious and awakened minds who are reading this with objective perspectives and lenses, and those who are concerned citizens.

In conclusion, Ghanaians’ are indeed faced with a complex situation in this election, to choose between a former president and a current vice president. While former president John Dramani Mahama who is seeking re-election after 2 failed attempts has been a president before and was voted out because of his inability to steer the nation into a land of prosperity but rather mismanaged the economy in his time as president, they are also scared to vote for Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia who is a part of this current government whom leadership Ghanaians are not pleased in. Conscious and awakened minds are thus on cross road on who to give their votes to, should they give Bawumia a chance and experience his leadership or throw the country back into the hands of former John Dramani Mahama who performed poorly during his time as a president and leader in government business? The records are there for unbiased and objective minds to look through and make the right choice.

Bangahim Mohammad Sheriff
Political researcher/Analyst/Strategist
Digital Marketer/Social Media Strategist
Concerned Ghanaian Citizen.

Bangahim Mohammed Sherif
Bangahim Mohammed Sherif, © 2024

A student of communication, political science and journalism. Holding a Higher National Diploma in Communication and Media studies as well as Bachelors of Technology in Public Relations from Tamale Technical University. I am a political researcher, journalist, digital marketer and social media stratColumn: Bangahim Mohammed Sherif

Disclaimer: "The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect ModernGhana official position. ModernGhana will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here." Follow our WhatsApp channel for meaningful stories picked for your day.

Comments

Abdul Wassir | 12/5/2024 10:21:13 AM

Doo dede you do all.. keep the good works brother

Author's Reply
thanks

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