Professor Kobby Mensah, a Marketing and Political Communication lecturer at the University of Ghana, has stated that Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia can never ascend to the high office of President in Ghana.
He emphasized that Dr. Bawumia was initially entrusted with the vice presidency based on his commendable track record during his early days as a banker at the Bank of Ghana, however, Professor Mensah argues that Dr. Bawumia's credibility has been tarnished due to his failure to live up to expectations.
According to him, all the promises made by Dr. Bawumia have failed to materialize, rendering him untrustworthy and unfit to lead the country as president.
Speaking in an interview with Adom FM’s Morning Show on June 19, 2023, Professor Mensah expressed that if Ghanaians were asked about the credibility of Dr. Bawumia's track record in determining his competency as a banker today, the response would overwhelmingly be negative.
“2008 we agreed because everybody was convinced about his track records at the Bank of Ghana, so based on that track record we trusted him that he will be able to do the job, but up till now, if you were to ask Ghanaians about the credibility of that track record in determining his competence as a banker today, I don’t think the answer will be yes, it is a very big no to most Ghanaians, that is why I am saying that this man( Bawumia) can never be the president of this country, because the promises he made during his tenure did not materialize,” he said.
He further went on to address Dr. Bawumia's recent focus on digitalization and questioned the basis for evaluating his performance in that domain, pointing out that there is a lack of evidence regarding Dr. Bawumia's past achievements in digitalization, he further emphasized that the Vice President's expertise lies in economics rather than information technology and as a result, there is no level of trust that can be placed in Dr. Bawumia's ability to deliver on his digitalization agenda.
“…now he has left the economy and telling us that he is doing digitalization but how do we assess him because we haven’t seen his track record of him having anything about digitalization, you’re not an IT person, you are not an IT specialist, the specialization that you said that you are an economist, we are not seeing anything, how do we then trust you?”
Meanwhile, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia filed his nomination on Friday, June 16, 2023, to contest in the upcoming flagbearer race of the ruling New Patriotic Party.
The Vice President, whose nomination was picked on his behalf in May, delivered an address at the NPP's national headquarters on Friday.
During the official announcement of his presidential bid for the first time, Dr. Bawumia emphasized his determination to lead the development of Ghana by leveraging digitalization when elected president.
On the other hand, A total of 10 NPP presidential candidate aspirants had picked up nomination forms as of Thursday, June 1, 2023, and had paid a non-refundable nomination fee of GH¢50,000.
The 10 include; Vice- President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, a former Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Joe Ghartey, a businessman and energy expert Kwadwo Poku, a former Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko, a former NPP General Secretary, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, a former MP for Mampong, Francis Addai-Nimoh, a former Minister of State, Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku and a former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto.
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