By Abdul Razak Bawa
I don’t know if I am the only person who did not laugh at the joke the vice-president, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, made in a speech at the Accra Business School on Thursday, July 14.
I was not shocked that I didn’t even giggle, because Dr Bawumia is not in the business of surprising anyone.
Don’t get me wrong, I admit Dr Bawumia’s talent for comedy, but his jokes are too expensive sometimes they pass for someone, who is not serious about anything. Comedians, even though they make us laugh to help relieve of us of stress, are serious people. They only chose a profession that brings laughter to their audience.
It is now an open secret that, the vice president, who doubles as the chairman of the Economic Management Team is a monumental failure. The economy is a testament to that fact.
The highly venerated office of the second gentleman of the land is being treated with disdain. He has successfully sunk the office to an unimaginable depth of despair, no doubt the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, is saying the office should be scrapped, and I agree with him.
Dr Bawumia, who was once upon a time, a man many loved to listen to, started his standup comedy, when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was in opposition, but back then he was seen as our economic messiah.
He was described then as an economic guru, because of his ability and capacity to diagnose the country’s problems. He offered solutions and critique the administration of John Dramani Mahama, but as they say, everyone can criticize or better put, it is easy to criticize, when you are not the one doing it.
Ex-president John Mahama, who was in the driving seat at the time, admonished both Bawumia and his boss, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to take it easy, because they have never been anywhere close to the presidency.
They thought he was sounding sarcastic and they kept calling him incompetent, events since 2017, has shown that, he did better in four years than, Bawumia and his boss, will ever do in eight years.
Six years in their administration and Ghanaians have now come to understand the true meaning of the word incompetent.
It is always easy for one to admit when they fail. Even the best laid plans fail, sometimes. This business of Dr Bawumia and his boss always laying blame on former president Mahama, for their incompetence, has become a broken record and inconvenience to Ghanaians.
Someone needs to tell Dr Bawumia, to stop the blame game and swing into action, as time is running out. Ghanaians are not stupid, they voted overwhelmingly for Bawumia and his boss in 2016, partly because they thought things were not going right. They showed the New Patriotic Party a glimpse of what to expect in 2024, when for the first time in the Fourth Republic, we have a hung parliament. So don’t take the people for granted, because when things are bad, they know and will act accordingly.
If I was Dr Bwumia, that would be my concern not Mahama.
Many people believed that Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr Bawumia will find a lasting solution to Ghana’s woes. But, as it is, Ghanaians, who are not parochial in analyzing issues could easily conclude that the present administration is not showing any positive sign in tackling the nation’s challenges.
It is six years and counting since Akufo-Addo and Dr Bawumia, were sworn in as president and vice-president, having won both the 2016 and 2020 elections to lead the country, and things seem to be worse than they were during the administration of John Dramani Mahama.
From the onset of their administration, they blamed Mahama for the poor economic state of the country.
Six years later, they continue to hold Mahama responsible for the mess the country is in. Time waits for no one. If it takes Bawumia and his boss six years to complain, how long will it take them to begin to address the numerous challenges facing the country?
Is their body language and utterances not telling Ghanaians that ‘A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame someone else?”
As a political animal by nature, I pondered on the possibility of the New Patriotic Party transforming Ghana with laudable programmes.
Rather, I am reminded of the painful reality that we are facing under the present administration regime. Autarchy and autarky permeate Akufo-Addo/ Bawumia government. It is worrisome that since the inception of NPP, Ghana, has been struggling to survive as a nation.
Dr Bawumia, had the unique opportunity to make amends, tell Ghanaians the reality and apologize for the mess, we find ourselves in, but instead he went on his own frolic and has become the butt of joke on social media.
Our vice-president has failed to recognize what time it is. You could get away with propaganda in opposition, but when you are in government, propaganda does not work.
All his propaganda from his days in opposition till today, has failed to stand the test of time.
The vice-president made one far reaching statement when he said; he prefers Ghana Card to 1000 interchanges, the tacit admission in that statement is that, ex-president John Dramani Mahama, built a lot of interchanges. That was not a joke, it was a statement of fact, because the evidence of president Mahama’s work is there for all to see.
The frustrations of the Ghanaian public are being amplified almost hourly by obfuscations from no less a person than the second gentleman of the land, who thinks the suffering of Ghanaians is a joke.
Dr Bawumia, has declared himself the figurehead of jokes, his assertion of preferring Ghana card than 1000 interchanges at the Accra Business School, stoked more news headline and social media buzz than the purpose of the programme.
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