Bawumia’s incompetent tag cost me 2016 polls - Mahama admits

It is now emerging that former President John Dramani Mahama was indeed pained by the incompetent tag slapped on him by the then Vice Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and wife Samira.

In the run-up to the 2016 polls, the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana held series of public lectures on the state of the Ghanaian economy and in most cases painted a gloomy picture of issues blaming the poor state to the incompetence of the government at the time.

He repeated the incompetent tag on several campaign platforms as well as rallies which was said to have hit the President and when he could no longer contain the head gave a subtle reply at the time during his tour of the Volta Region.

According to him, Dr Bawumia was yet to taste the position of even a Vice President of the country and therefore did not qualify to describe him as incompetent.

“Did you hear Bawumia say incompetent Mahama? You’ve never held any responsibility anywhere near the presidency before; you don’t know what it is like to be President. “I’ll take that word from Kufour or from Rawlings because they’ve been there before. All of you guys [NPP critics] have never ever come near the presidency. [Do] you know what it takes to be a President? And you stand and say incompetent Mahama administration,” Mahama fumed at the time.

Second Lady, Hajia Samira Bawumia who did not also relent in describing the then President as incompetent took it to a different level during the NPP’s rally at the Trade Fair in Accra.

“We are saying to the NDC that we see you alright…you want us to see you, we see you but we see incompetence, we see you but we see corruption, we see you but we see bad management, we see you but we see bad governance, we see you but we want to change, we see you but we want Ghana to move forward…” she observed.

Speaking about the incompetence tag for the first time since he left power more than a year ago, former President John Dramani Mahama admitted it affected his reelection bid as members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) believed he was indeed incompetent.

“They kept shouting incompetence, incompetence, incompetence until our own people started believing that we are incompetent,” he said sparking spontaneous laughter among participants at the forum he held in London.

“Our own NDC guys think I am incompetent. These guys must be some super people. Now, look at the super. That is super incompetence,” he said, adding the NDC became complacent at some point in the 2016 elections. He also attributed the defeat to internal squabbles within the grassroots of the party.

Consoling himself with what happened, he said:” “…God had a hand in what happened in 2016. If we had won the election there is nothing we will do that Ghanaians will appreciate. They will think there was a better alternative to us”.