The spokesperson of Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Dr Gideon Boako has told Bolgatnaga Central lawmaker Isaac Adongo that Dr Bawumis is prepared to debate former President John Dramani Mahama.
Dr Boako says Mr Adongo can go ahead and debate his colleague Members of Parliament, not Dr Bawumia.
His comments come after Isaac Adongo dared Dr Bawumia for a debate on the economy, indicating that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer hopeful has contributed nothing in his six years in office.
Adongo had said the Vice President had moved from talking about the economy to singing the song of digitalisation, whose building blocks were laid by the NDC government.
“We built the biggest capacity data center to ensure that the Ghana.gov project which was to computerise government service had a place for data safety and for data storage,” he told journalists on Wednesday, June 21 at Parliament.
“Without these infrastructure, you can only dream about digitalisation, Dr Bawumia,” he directed his statement to the Vice President, who is on a campaign tour in the Greater Accra Region.
The Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, subsequently, challenged the Vice President to an open debate on the economy.
“Now economy has whipped you, you’ve moved to Yahoo and say you are doing digitalisation. He should tell us his track record in building infrastructure for digitalisation.”
The NDC lawmaker said the days when Dr Bawumia’s track record was not known, and he was given the benefit of the doubt, are long gone.
“He has a record and anytime he is ready wake me up from sleep. He can choose his own venue, he can choose his own moderator. In fact, he can come with his own books for reference but just wake me up from sleep and say Bawumia says he wants to debate his vision and his knowledge about the economy and digitalisation and I will meet him.
“We will respond to him for every unguarded and lying statement he will make. If NPP decides to choose him as their flagbearer, that’s their problem but he must be factual. He must not take the people of Ghana for granted.”
But responding to him, Dr Gideon Boako told journalists in Accra on Wednesday, June 21 that “The Minority should debate the Majority, Vice President Bawumia is going to contest John Mahama, he is interested in debating John Mahama and not Adongo.
“Adongo should go and debate his colleagues in Parliament, Vice President Bawumia is not going to debate Adongo and the Minority. He is going to contest John Mahama, we want to see Mahama come face to face with Vice President Bawumia, let each one of them come and talk about their records in government and debate their performances on the economy, that debate I can assure you we are ready for.”
Spokesperson of the Vice President, Dr. Gideon Boako says the Vice President is open to a debate with the flagbearer of the NDC John Mahama instead of the minority.
He was responding to the challenge thrown to the Vice President for a debate by the MP for Bolgatanga Central.… pic.twitter.com/ra3tea1Ro6
— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) June 22, 2023