Akufo Addo Taking Bawumias Shine IPA

The battle for power and Ghana’s presidency is barely four (4) months away, and the campaign of the various candidates has taken full flight. The Vice President of the Republic and presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, is therefore on a nationwide tour termed “Bold Solutions for our Future,” where he is selling his vision to the Ghanaian electorate.

One would have thought and expected that, Dr. Bawumia would have been at the centre stage and the focus of all and everything in both the government and the Party that can help him improve on his approval ratings. However, the President, HE Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who has less than 6 months to leave office, is seen all over the country, commissioning projects, cutting sods for new projects, inspecting projects, and dominating the headlines when he is not the candidate for the December 2024 Elections.

Even as the Chairman of the Police Council, the Vice President could not get the chance to commission the 320 new housing units for the Police Service at Tesano, Accra, which was recently commissioned by the President himself. These are activities and events that he could have just delegated the Vice President to handle.

If the NPP and the Bawumia Campaign Team do not find this development unfortunate, disturbing and worrying, then they would have to have a second look at their tactic for the Elections.

Indeed, Dr. Bawumia is doing well and making a strong impact with his interactions with the wide range of stakeholders, including traditional leaders, the clergy, the youth, traders, drivers, farmers, and students, business people, traders, market women, among others, but as he has entered the active phase of his campaign, being the man at the centre of the commissioning, sod-cutting and inspection of projects, would have gone a long way to buoy up his campaign, and help him consolidate the strong backing from his party’s grassroots and the growing enthusiasm and confidence resonating throughout the country.

The NPP cannot afford to have such two dominant faces in the media and the public space at the crucial stage of its campaign. The popularity of their Presidential Candidate would certainly be diluted and thus wouldn’t augur well for the party’s December 7th project. The President must be urged to sacrifice, and make compromises for the Presidential Candidate, if the Party is really poised to win the 2024 General Elections.

A research report by the Institute of Political Affairs (IPA)Institute Political Affairs (IPA)