On the matter of giving Dr. Bawumia a chance to implement his own vision for Ghana – Kofi Bentil was perfectly right

Kofi Bentil, Esq., a celebrated CSO activist and Vice President of Imani Africa, in a recent post, made a strong case for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to be given a chance (for the first time) to govern this country as President BASED ON HIS OWN VISION. The NDC, a so-called democratic party that claimed to believe in free expression unleashed its ‘attack dogs’ led by Sammy Gyamfi and Felix Ofosu Kwakye to attack the person of Kofi Bentil for speaking his mind.

Characteristic of the NDC, about 80% of their attempted response to Kofi Bentil was directly on his personality, attacking him left, right and centre without any basis. They even described him as a “stomach politician”. If I were to be charitable to them, only 20% of their attempted response to Kofi Bentil can be said to be based on substance, however weak. As a progressive-minded person, I shall completely ignore their unwarranted attacks and rather interrogate the 20% seeming substantive matters they raised.

First, they say, Kofi Bentil was wrong when he said Dr. Bawumia is not the President; he has never been the President, and that, the Vice President position he [Dr.Bawumia] occupies is only advisory. The Vice President only stands in when the President is away, and has no power to make any serious decisions. But Kofi Bentil is 100% factual on this. Even by the very provisions of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the Vice President, apart from serving as Chairman of the Police Council, has absolutely no role to play other than acting for the President (with limited powers) when the President is away.

Article 58 of the Constitution states that the “executive authority of Ghana shall vest in the President [not the Vice] and shall be exercised in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution”, whereas Article 295 define Government “to mean any authority by which the executive authority of Ghana is duly exercised”. In other words, per the Constitution, the Government of Ghana is personified in the President. So, the President [singular noun] is the Government of Ghana. All critical decisions in government begin and end only with the President (Not the Presidency, which could be stretched to include the Vice President).

The Constitution has given the President so much powers that the only thing he cannot do, is to walk on the sea or change water into wine, like Jesus did. That is why people are calling for a complete overhaul of the 1992 constitution to reduce the powers of the ‘imperial President’. As it stands now, a President may choose to give his Personal Assistants or even Concubines more powers than the Vice President and the Constitution supports him to do that. The difference between a President and Vice is clearer than the difference between light and darkness. No wonder John Mahama once told us that only people who have been Presidents qualify to criticise him.

Both Felix and Sammy Gyamfi quoted President Akufo-Addo as saying that Dr. Bawumia has demonstrated stellar leadership with the Economic Management Team (EMT) in tackling our economic challenges. To them, it meant that Dr. Bawumia was the man in charge of the economy and had been given more than enough room to operate. Quite outrageous!  How can an EMT, (an ordinary advisory sub-committee of Cabinet) that has no final-say, no constitutional power, no legal authority, be said to be the fulcrum of the economy? In fact, we have had Presidents in this country who never had an EMT.

Clearly, this exposes the poverty of thinking of all those who say, Dr. Bawumia as EMT chairman should be blamed for all our economic woes. They certainly do not understand what they are talking about. We were all in this country when Vice President Bawumia advised against some of the economic policies of the Akufo-Addo government including the imposition of certain taxes like the e-levy among others but none was heeded to. As Vice President or EMT chairman, that’s all he could do. He had no legal constitutional power to go beyond giving advice.

But, it is true that whereas Dr. Bawumia was not given the desired opportunity to manage the nation’s economy based on his own convictions and vision, he was given enough opportunity to operate in certain sectors of our national life. Dr. Bawumia was given the opportunity to design and implement certain government projects or deliverables in his own style and at his own pace to make life easy for Ghanaians. And in all these opportunities, Dr. Bawumia did not disappoint. He excelled beyond distinction.

There is no single government programme or deliverable championed by Dr. Bawumia which has not been successful. From Drone Delivery System, to Mobile Money Interoperability, to Digital Address System, to Paperless Port System, to Ghana Card, and to all the numerous digitalization initiatives which have made Ghana the most digitized and formalized economy in Africa. That is why Kofi Bentil described Dr. Bawumia as the most visible, active and successful Vice President in Ghana’s history.

The million dollar question to ask is, can we say same about John Dramani Mahama, when he was a Vice President? Is there any single legacy project that Vice President John Mahama can be remembered for? This is in spite of the fact that Vice President John Mahama told us that President Mills gave him so much room to operate, and that, he was the luckiest Vice President in Ghana’s history. Yet, he [John Mahama] cannot be remembered for anything. Even with that, Ghanaians gave him a chance to be President.

Kofi Bentil is telling us that if Vice President John Mahama (who could not be remembered for anything as Vice President) was given a chance to be President, it is only fair and natural that Vice President Bawumia who could be remembered for many things is also given a chance to be President, to govern this country based on his own vision. This is natural justice. Why must Ghanaians go back for John Mahama, who, when given the chance as President, failed and was rejected not once, but twice? Even if we are to make a mistake, we should make it going forward, not backward.

Assalamu alaik

Iddi Muhayu-Deen, Esq. #ForGodAndCountry muhayudeen2007@yahoo.com