Dr. Bawumia, The Man They Love to Hate

The vice president, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, must indeed be a thorn in the flesh of some members and leaders of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), whose behavior in Parliament yesterday once again demonstrated that, the mere sight of the country’s next president really scares them to the marrow.

The attitude of the Minority Members of Parliament during the presentation of the 2019 Budget Statement, towards the second gentleman, clearly goes to give some credence to rumours in the mill that he is a thorn in the flesh of the NDC.

Even though Dr. Bawumia was not the one who presented the budget to the Legislature, the minority MPs, apparently caring little about the contents of the statement the Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, was presenting to them, rather vented their ‘frustrations’ on him(Veep) through the use of unprintable words.

To them, the Veep, who is the head of the Economic Management Team, is instrumental in the economic transformation of the country, and must be humiliated in the eyes of the good people of Ghana.

History would recall that Dr. Bawumia got under the skin of the NDC from the very day he decided to stand as prime witness in the 2012 Election Petition at the Supreme Court. He became their mortal enemy later on in 2016 election campaign, following his brilliant dissection of the woeful economy under former President Mahama.

Today, under NPP administration, the seeming abhorrence of Dr. Bawumia became most evident after he returned from China with a $15 billion Marshal Plan package for some twenty categories of investments spanning the mining, industrial and railway sectors.

The opposition party, in an apparent fright, did not only rubbish the deal by questioning the appropriateness of the facility, but also wrote to the IMF and World Bank to complain about our financial dealings with China.

Seeing him as a mortal threat, no day had passed in the last six months without venomous invectives being poured on his person and his family by NDC communicators.

Even when the issues being discussed on radio or television had nothing to do with Bawumia, NDC panelists would seize the opportunity to attack the Vice President.

From John Dramani Mahama, through Koku Anyidoho, to Joshua Hamidu Akamba, the writing seems clear on the wall that people in the NDC cannot simply contain him.

In the view of THE PUBLISHER, yesterday’s behavior in Parliament was one more demonstration that the NDC leadership would spare no opportunity to turn its gun on Dr. Bawumia, the man whose economic wizardry, they fear, could overhaul the stagnant economy they left behind, elevate Ghana’s international image to its highest plane ever, and keep them (NDC) perpetually in opposition.

The paper thinks the attacks are unproductive and constitute a waste of precious political bullets on a person many Ghanaians say is destined to be the next president of Ghana.

Instead of attacking his person and family, the paper is of the opinion that the NDC would do itself a whole lot of good if its leaders can respond to Bawumia’s call on the party to come out with a single social intervention policy it introduced, during former president Mahama’s tenure.