Why John Mahama is not fit to be president again

Recently, there has been a long debate and deliberations on the so-called "Driver's mate, and Spare-Driver" innuendos made by the two leading Presidential Candidates.

Some have argued that the Vice President's position in Ghana's Constitution is like a toothless bulldog; others have described it as 'a strange position'; whilst others also believe it is a position not worth a 'bucket of warm spit.'

A faction of the people also thinks that when the Vice President becomes an automatic chairman of the Economic Management Team, it is only right that all economic challenges in the government must be blamed on him. Another faction disagrees with this thought and contends that the Vice President's position is a mere advisory position, thus, his advice can be taken or ignored by the President (his boss) who has the ultimate responsibility for making decisions for the direction of the government.

However, in my opinion, irrespective of the fact that a Vice President does not have the ultimate powers to decide the path or direction of the government, there is one most important and valuable lesson that any smart Vice President should automatically learn, which is, the 'opportunity' his position offers him to identify the unfiltered mistakes and challenges encountered by his boss’ administration, just by being close to power as Vice President of the government. That leverage is a desirable invaluable experience that one would love to possess to become a great President one day.

Therefore in my view, any Vice President who gets the opportunity to succeed his boss as President should have no excuse but to perform far better than his boss. Simply because, that Vice President, if nothing at all, would have had the chance to observe whatever went wrong during the President's tenure of office.

That experience gained as Vice President should guide any smart one to put together the right technical team of experts to help him correct all the identified mistakes and challenges in his boss' administration.

This is the predominant reason why I think it would be one of the biggest mistakes for Ghanaians to elect John Dramani Mahama as President of Ghana again after he was allowed to succeed his boss and to right the wrongs. John Mahama rather made things worse. He failed abysmally as President of Ghana due to his sheer incompetence.

In the history of Ghana, it is only the NDC party that has had the opportunity to produce two candidates who were once Vice Presidents and later elected to become Presidents, thus, Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills and John Dramani Mahama. However, both of them failed as substantive Presidents, mainly because they did not learn from the past mistakes and challenges of their bosses.

John Mahama has never had any vision of his own supposedly different from his predecessor. Mills and Mahama trod the same path as their bosses and failed appallingly. Today, former John Mahama could only be remembered with Dumsor and corruption.

The NPP on the other hand has not had that opportunity yet for its Vice President to succeed his boss as President.

Let us encourage this paradigm shift in Ghana politics. Let's allow Bawumia to demonstrate his mettle as President so that Ghanaians can compare the difference. That is the essence of Democratic leadership.

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has not been a President of Ghana before. He has demonstrated having his own vision to lead the country if given the opportunity. He has identified the challenges we face as a country stemming from the global economic meltdown, and he's proposing a new path to make Ghana better. His expressed vision cuts across and appears to resonate with a lot of well-meaning Ghanaians. We must, therefore, give him, "the Driver's mate" who knows the road, the chance to show us his mettle.

As Hon. Kennedy Agyapong puts it "-- but Dr. Bawumia himself is naturally good. If he was like Mahama, he would have been ineffective. Dr. Bawumia himself seemed to revel in his good fortune."

To me, this is the bottom line, in comparing the two leading personalities - Dr. Bawumia and John Mahama.

Indeed, Dr. Bawumia is good, he is smart, he has his own vision, and has competently lifted the image of the Vice President position to another level. He can be a great President. We saw the traits of the expected great President in him on 7th February 2024 when he mounted the platform and told Ghanaians about his vision.

Even as a Vice President, Ghanaians can attest and point to several policies and interventions spearheaded by him, such as the digitisation agenda, successful implementation of the Ghana Card, introduction of Mobile Money Interoperability, digitisation of Ghana Passport and Driving licence application, Regular and Predictable Electric Power Supply, introduction of Paperless Port System in Ghana, just to mention a few.

On the other side of the coin, not a single national intervention policy can be attributed to the former President, John Mahama, except the embarrassing Dumsor situation and corruption that bedevilled Ghana under his tenure.

Dr. Bawumia is seeking to chart a new path for Ghana and deserves the chance to be heard fairly. We love him! The majority of Ghanaians see him as the best alternative compared to John Mahama.