99 Days to 'Resetting Ghana' or 'Breaking the 8': The bare facts

GhanaWeb Feature by Etsey Atisu

As of Thursday, August 29, 2024, the countdown to the Saturday, December 7, 2024, general elections in Ghana were exactly 100 days. With a day short of that count now, 99 days looks like an ok number to begin a proper final lap journey to the crucial elections.

This election is crucial for many reasons. In the first place, it will mark the exit of ‘The President Ghana Never Got,’ also known as Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Secondly, it will be the first time a former president, who is seeking to return to the highest office of the land to complete his constitutionally mandated second-four-year-term, will go head-to-head with the incumbent vice president of the country, who is also seeking to upgrade his CV from being a ‘driver’s mate’ to actually being the master behind the steering wheel.

And then there is the point about how John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) – the opposition; and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the incumbent party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP); are both from the same corner of the country; the north.

This is besides the fact that their contest makes it the first time the leading political figures in Ghana’s elections are from the two most dominant religions: Christianity and Islam. Here, it adds a lot of flavour to the country because of how religious the population are, regardless of how the minority faiths feel about this fact.

Some call it ‘the contest of all contests’ for many reasons, but whose day of festivities will it be? Will the spotlight fall squarely in the compound of the politicians looking to ‘Reset Ghana and Build the Ghana We Want,’ or, will it favour the political party focused at extending its rule, although under a different leadership, and cement its place as the only party, thus far, to ‘Break the 8’ in Ghana’s political history?

These are the facts; the bare facts.

The Mahama Jinx:

Between the NPP and the NDC, they have ruled Ghana, collectively, for all of the years of the current republic – 32 years. And in that period, each of the two leading political parties have enjoyed the 8-year spells of political dominance.

In fact, in the entire history of the fourth republic of Ghana, the only administration (government led by a politician) that fell out of the trend, was that of John Dramani Mahama when he monumentally lost the 2016 elections to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The fact too is that, that score needs to be settled and that is why the former president wants badly back in the game, and understandably so too, because he believes there is unfinished business he needs to take care of.

Remember that Mahama is the same person who presented the ‘Better Ghana’ agenda to the good people of Ghana, and which he has now advanced as ‘Resetting Ghana and Building the Ghana We Want.’

Described as ‘incompetent’ and perhaps, undeserving of the presidency, or as one politician recently described him, ‘The President Ghana Never Wanted,’ this figure, who is a perfect example of someone who has occupied all the political offices on the stairway to the presidency, feels all the ‘bad press’ against him have backfired as the fundamentals of the economy have exposed the people who led those negative or propagandist campaigns against him.

And not even the other fact that he has already failed two times against the New Patriotic Party in his attempt to become president again has slowed him down a bit. Maybe like Nana Akufo-Addo, Mahama may just be lucky this third time.

Something must pay off at least, he believes, but the question remains: is he convincing enough to the same majority electorates who massively voted him out the first time in December 2016?

And by the way, he has fielded a woman in this race as his running mate, with the hopes that he will make her Ghana’s first-ever female vice president, known as Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang. Could this strategy count in his favour eventually?

The Bawumia Spell:

Let’s turn the magnifying glass the other way on the NPP and talk about Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and his 16-year walk with his boss, Nana Akufo-Addo, and whether or not he could just make history as the first Muslim president of Ghana.

In the first place, the administration he has been a part of for the last nearly eight (8) years, has been fraught with several challenges, experiencing the worst forms of economy turmoil ever. And on this one especially, it has brought into question the ‘Economic Wizkid’ alias that Bawumia was brushed with, but the government he is part of has justified this continuously by stating that, on the contrary, they have rather done excellently.

And it is so because having been hit hard by two of the world’s most recent economic bombshells: the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War, they have still managed to keep the economy running, and the lights on, literally.

In fact, for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and his NPP government, it has not mattered too that these two major things have caused their administration major hurdles, or even that in the period of their leadership, Ghana’s national debt has hit GH¢742 billion.

Besides, as they have continued to trumpet, the country has benefitted from groundbreaking and novel policies they have initiated, including the Free SHS policy, the One District One Dam, Planting for Food and Jobs, among others.

And the NPP assures Ghanaians that it will do even more if it is once again given the mandate to lead. This will include taking back some of the taxes they brought onto the country themselves, such as the E-Levy, the COVID-19 Levy, and the Betting Tax.

It will surely be a battle of ideas, or simply a show of clout in December, or, will it be, as usual, laced with some spirituality? How that comes into all of this is because of how much prophesies by men who say they have been called by God add to the whole discourse.

For instance, for each of the two candidates: Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and John Dramani Mahama, there have been popular men of God who have predicted wins for them.

In favour of Bawumia, Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng, Prophet Azuka, Prophet Paul Kusi Appiah (Warrior-Prophet), and Apostle Agyenim Boateng have all spoken in favour of him, stating that he is the one ordained by God to win the 2024 polls.

And then the same God believed to be served by these men, and who is touted as not being an author of controversies, has also told these other men: Prophet Elijah Conteh, Prophet Ebenezer Adarkwa Yiadom (Opambour), Prophet Nigel Gaisie, Prophet Emmanuel Badu Kobi, and one unnamed Zambian pastor, that Mahama is the ‘king’ ordained for 2024.

The politics in Ghana gets ever interesting but it is serious business for the main contenders, with several other names popping up every now and then as potential third forces in the country, particularly as the likes of Kwame Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the People’s National Congress (PNC) have become features in the political windstorm of Ghana.

And while the full documents of the manifestoes of the two political parties are there for all to study, the underlying drive to create jobs is something each party seems to be taking very seriously. But that is what they have written in their manifestoes, although for purposes of summary, or what many Ghanaians believe those documents are focused on, the NDC wants to implement a ’24-hour economy’ while the NPP, led by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, are intensely pushing an agenda for digitalisation.

It is 99 days to the polls. What are your thoughts?