Editor of the Custodian Newspaper, Awudu Mahama has observed that the Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is heavily criticized by a large number of Ghanaians, particularly the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) because he is the reason behind the party’s defeat.
According to him, the critics thrown at the country’s vice president is undeserving and extreme as he argues that the criticisms are not based on his roles and achievements as the vice, but rather because of his political association.
In an interview on the Happy Morning Show with Samuel Eshun, he noted that the NDC party have struggled to maintain running mates, who have over the years been from the North, hence, are aggrieved with the longevity of Bawumia with the NPP.
“I can understand why the NDC and those aligned with the opposition will be constantly attacking Vice President Bawumia even though he’s not the President. Because by and large, they believe being the running mate of President Akufo-Addo since 2008 has caused some defeats or more harm to them,” he said.
“This is the man President Akufo-Addo has had confidence in him, maintaining him three consecutive elections as running mate until they won and he’s done so much harm to the NDC caused their defeat and you’ll understand why they hate him that much. When you look at the NDC and their running mates over the period, they’ve been changed. In 2000 NDC brought Martin Amidu and was changed because they felt he wasn’t good enough for the next election and brought Muhammad Mumuni in 2004. He was also changed because they felt he was also not good enough. In 2008 they brought John Mahama that’s the third person form the north and fortunately they won,” he added.
Mr. Mahama further maintained that despite the corrupt allegations labelled at the Vice President, the defence from non-partisan groups in Ghana go on to prove Bawumia’s credibility.
“As for allegations of corruption and all that even after the Anas exposé you had people form NGOs, civil society organizations vouching for the credibility of the Vice President so Ghanaians are aware of what is going on and I’m not really bothered about this internal elections,” he shared.
“When you listen to people speak about him you’d think that he has failed literally because he’s the President but let’s take the constitution and see the role of the Vice President on the economy. When people say the economy management team it’s a team that’s why they’re not saying it’s a leader but you find that conventionally they have made him Chairman doesn’t mean he has control over the management of the economy per say. He has a big part to play but to say he has fail because he’s the chairman of the economic management team is not it,” he noted.
By: Jude Tackie
