Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia has fallen massively from an exaggerated platform of perceived competence to the low level he actually belongs. The man is simply not fit for purpose.
In fact, the man exposes what is a clear difference between thoughtful competence, grounded in a mastery of analytical prowess and baseless loudness, that is designed only for quick returns.
In his own words, he was merely doing ‘dirty work’ (political hatchet job) with the sole aim of winning power.
John Mahama, a former President of Ghana, has always maintained that one must keep whatever propaganda s/he engages in, close to the reality. Cliché, I guess, but it unravels before our very eyes how Bawumia’s unconventional approach of criticizing everything and anything with a ‘know it all’ approach and condescending cynicism or even insult; it also bursts quickly and with disastrous consequences.
Bawumia’s displays should have been suspicious for any inquiring mind, especially as he sought to classify a whole bunch of professionals with an opposing view point as incompetent.
For the avoidance of doubt, some of these professionals are far more qualified and experienced than him and were plying the trade of managing the nuances of political economics before he even cut his teeth. The late Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur and co come to mind.
But can you really blame Bawumia? His mindset is grounded in his spectacular rise driven mainly by political connections. His own surprise at how he rose must have framed his view that:
1. Everything is about politics even if it involves a ‘dirty job’, deception and destroying relationships to achieve a narrow end; and
2. Ghana must really lack professionals and qualified persons for him to have risen so quickly without any significant proven competence or verifiable professional successes.
Benefiting from his father’s political connections, and arguably the NDC’s benevolence, Bawumia attended schools unhinged and all the way to a PhD level. I am sure he did not have to deal with the complexity of a funding crisis for his education, the stress of declined scholarship applications, nor even the consideration of pausing his education to work for a while to raise money for the next stage of his academic career.
Then almost immediately after, he is catapulted to the Bank of Ghana, with the help of President John Agyekum Kufuor, to a Deputy Governor portfolio through a mastery of political machinations.
Clearly, he did not avail himself to practical learning under the leadership of the Governor of the Central Bank as has been unraveling before us ever since he became Chairman of the Economic Management Team from 2017 as Vice President.
It is no wonder, beyond the empty rhetoric and convoluted language, he lacks a practical understanding of the nuances of political economy, which undeservedly served him well because most accountability agents refused to ask him the critical questions.
As a lesson, in managing an economy, consensus is the key and any person who chooses to alienate an entire political group merely to achieve a narrow end, is never fit for purpose. Indeed, running a nation is really a serious business. Dr. Bawumia lacks the credibility, ideas, the wherewithal, the gravitas, and competence to build a consensual broad-based strategy.
His approach to politics is severely divisive, pitching tribes against tribes, religion against religion, and alienating a whole group of professionals (who dared to disagree with him) through name calling, insults, and ridicule.
Dr. Bawumia’s inability to understand the complex interplay of variables of political economy (as clearly displayed by his overly simplistic view of things) to move Ghana beyond any crisis is a major intellectual deficiency he must learn to overcome.
I dare say then that in our current economic abyss, that is undoubtedly self-engineered and that may linger for a while, Bawumia is not fit for purpose.
He has proven together with his boss, President Nana Akufo-Addo and Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta that they are simply and truly a batch of clueless and incompetent trio Ghana has ever experienced in our governance.
By: Stanislav Xoese Dogbe
Journalist & Politician
