10 Fast Facts
P: Putin became acting president after his predecessor resigned.
M: Mahama became president after his predecessor passed on.
P: When Putin reaches the end of his fourth term in 2024, he will have been in power in the Russian Federation for nearly a quarter of a century.
M: But Mahama is currently in opposition in the about a quarter of a century old Fourth Republican Ghana.
P: Putin recently laughed off suggestions that he could return to the Kremlin in 2030, when he will be eligible to stand again.
M: Mahama also recently made his political future clear ahead of 2020, when he will have another chance to return to the Jubilee House.
P: Opposition figures, accused Putin of caring only about the economic interests of his friends and family members. “Putin said Russians will live better, but he didn’t say which ones,” read a popular online joke.
M: Figures in the ruling NPP government accused then President John Mahama of looting and sharing state assets with his family and friends under his ‘Better Ghana Agenda’. “We are not in a Better Ghana but a Better Mahama, family and friends Ghana”; One said.
P: Putin was accused of meddling in the US elections.
M: Mahama was accused of interfering in the presidential elections in Sierra Leone.
P: A big complaint about Putin was the failure to refund to Russians who lost savings during market reforms.
M: Mahama and his wife were suspected to be key in a microfinance scandal in which thousands of customers lost investments, and owners of the company failed to refund them.
P: Under Putin’s leadership, Russia has scored poorly in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index and experienced democratic backsliding according to both the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index and Freedom House’s Freedom in the World index.
M: Under Mahama, in 2015, Ghana improved slightly on 2014 with a rank of 56 out of 168 countries and a score of 47 in the Corruption Perception Index ranking, but in 2016 dropped four percentage points, scoring 43 out of a clean score of 100.
P: A BBC journalist claimed he was being ‘spied’ on by the Russian state as he tried to investigate the relationship between Putin and the Russian opposition.
M: But an investigative journalist ‘spied’ on government and exposed corrupt officers in the judiciary.
P: Russia hosts 2018 World Cup.
M: Ghana hosts 2018 World Press Freedom Day.
P: Putin divorced his wife Lyudmila Putina.
M: But Mahama is still married to Lordina Mahama.
Spencer Kwabena Boateng Mensah|3News|Central Region