Life’s trajectory is not a straight path. Circumstances and decisions sometimes conspire to create a detour on that journey.
You can make the case that in 2008, the decision of Nana Akufo-Addo to select Dr Mahamudu Bawumia changed the then Deputy Central Bank Governor’s path. From the technocratic laces of Central Banking and Economics to the hurly burly of politics.
Through two defeats, major questions marks and doubts, Nana Akufo-Addo kept faith with him for two general elections. On their third attempt the pair became President and Vice President of Ghana. President Akufo-Addo justified his decision to choose Dr. Bawumia recently saying ”I needed his brains to help me to govern the country effectively and he’s an honest person, he speaks honestly to you. He’s not one of those people who have to guess what they’re trying to say. He’ll say what he has to say very directly and I like that. I prefer to deal with people who are also very direct in what they say.”
It’s not as if Bawumia is new to politics. He watched His father, the Lawyer and Politician of Northern extraction, Mumuni Bawumia serve in government and lead the Council of State under President Rawlings. He also served as then Minister for the Northen Territories under President Nkrumah, replacing E. A Mahama, father of former president John Mahama. So he grew up stewed in politics and like many children of the political elite, got the benefit of top tier education in the west.
From Tamale Secondary School, he studied for Banking diploma before proceeding to the University of Buckingham, Lincoln College in Oxford and Simon Fraser University in Canada where he built his academic backbone in economics.
The world of academia offered him prospects as a lecturer before a stint at the International Monetary Fund and later, a return home to work at the Bank of Ghana. He says the Bank of Ghana opened his eyes to the immense potential of Ghana as a country, but also the risk of politics and he was not interested in politics.
Of his first direct encounter with Akufo-Addo he says” We discussed the economy, he wanted to know how it was going on and all of that and then in the middle somewhere he said well you know why I want to talk to you today, I said no. He said well, I want you to be my running mate, I said you must be joking, You know I’m not a politician and I really have no interest in politics.”
But before those high stakes job, he claims to have gone through what many ordinary folks go through. “I have been a by day worker on farms during holidays in secondary school, I have been a warehouse boy even after finishing university, I have been a mini cab driver, I was only able to pay fees for one term during my studies at Oxford University.”
He has led the Economic Management Team for the past 7 years under President Akufo-Addo, earning praise and rebuke alike for the digitalization drive and for an economy that is currently on the surgery table of the IMF.
He was a thorn in the flesh in the NDC during opposition with his lectures on the economy and maintains that he is the only candidate who can beat President Mahama in the next election But critics say he has done very little to back the theories with action as vice president. These days he barely talks economics, promising instead to deliver a Ghana with fair opportunities for everyone.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia says, “I have a compelling vision for Ghana’s future, it is possible for Ghana to be like the advanced nations if we put our minds to it and put our energy behind. It is possible with the technologies available, the new ones that are emerging and a renewed mindset, we can leapfrog in possibilities and make the unimaginable possible.”
He may convince the NPP that he is the right man to replace Nana Akufo-Addo, but given the difficulties of the last seven years, Political Scientist, Dr Kwame Asah-Asante says Bawumia will struggle to delink his personality from the failures of the Akufo-Addo Administration.
“You recall the 177 questions that he gave to Amissah Arthur, you recall that when the exchange rate, something wrong with you, ahh whatever happens to you will happen to you in terms of your economic wherewithal and the rest of them. These economic questions that really brought, remember that brought Dr. Bawumia to fame, he became the toast of many at that time, the economic prowess and all that. These videos are going to be played back to him,” Dr Asah-Asante pointed out.
As a big believer in data, the numbers seem to be on the side of Dr Bawumia, but according Musa Dankwa of Global Info Analytics, not in a manner that will suggest overwhelming endorsement by the NPP faithful. ”Bawumia is leading in Eastern region, close to 50% at the moment and then he’s doing quite well in the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions and extremely well in the Northern regions. Oti Region, is tied in Oti and in Volta is leading but not with huge margins.”
For his detractors, he is the product of an elite consensus in the NPP but he says he represents the most potent threat to the Mahama Comeback agenda.
The conclusion from experts and political observers is that, the over 200,000 delegates will provide endorsement of this on Saturday.