The second president of the 4th Republic, John Agyekum Kufuor, has publicly endorsed the candidature of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to become the next President of Ghana.
The Gentle Giant made the endorsement on Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at the Next Chapter Speech delivered by the leader of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Bawumia, in Accra.
In a brief remark to set the tone for the Vice President’s address, John Agyekum Kufuor recalled his first encounter with Dr. Bawumia and his impression of the man who is leading NPP today.
“I have always seen him as a man of destiny. When I first saw him in 2002, he was a Research Assistant to the governor of the Bank of Ghana. He delivered a paper at an international conference in London. There was something about his presentation. I was the president of Ghana by then. Till then, I hadn’t even spoken to him before.
“I congratulated him and I don’t know what came into me. Prophetically, I told him to carry on the light and that he would go far…In 2008, Akufo-Addo picked this man again to be his running mate,” Kufuor recounted.
It will be recalled that it was during the tenure of President Kufuor that Dr. Bawumia became Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana in 2006.
According to former President Kufuor, Dr. Bawumia was on a mission determined by destiny and urged Ghanaians to support him.
“…This man is on a mission. A mission determined by destiny. Let’s all support him to continue. Quality leadership is very scarce,” he stated.
VISION
The former president observed that Ghana was at carrefour and needed a visionary leader, which he said was Dr. Bawmia, the presidential candidate of the NPP for the 2024 general elections.
“Ghana has come to a crossroads. It’s not the regular politics we want. We want leadership with vision, even in the complex world I spoke about.
“We should be talking about the nation and not so much about the party. We must get competent people to work with him to bring us out of the challenges we are in now,” he added.
NO DOUBT
Meanwhile, the President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has said Bawumia as President of Ghana intends to carry everyone along.
According to him, leadership required that the people be carried along in all decisions and accept responsibility when things went wrong sometimes.
I have no doubt Dr. Bawumia intends to carry us along with all his ideas or assets if he wins the presidency,” he wrote on Facebook after the event on Wednesday.
However, the leader of the think tank was just unsure about the Vice President owning up “to the wrongs, which is why I’m asking that he accept the liabilities that will come along. I wish him well.”
Franklin Cudjoe stated that Bawumia’s resolve to build an inclusive society was a significant game-changer.
The Vice President noted that he would build an inclusive society based on a value system that rewards hard work and incorruptible behaviour.
Others would be to enhance business flourishing with simple taxes such as the flat tax and deepen public-private sector partnerships to construct and manage critical infrastructure.
He also mentioned that he would ensure the government’s efficiency by fighting corruption through a tighter procurement process and running a lean government with not more than 50 ministers and deputy ministers.
Franklin Cudjoe, however, had a reservation with the Vice President spending what he said was an hour on the achievements of the current government.
Rather, he expected the Vice President to also acknowledge some of “the grave shortcomings,” as he said he was charting a different path.