GOD KNOWS I like Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia (#DMB). A couple of weeks after he was sworn into office as Ghana’s Vice-President I called him and his wife “Muslim Ambassadors Extraordinaire” in an article that sought to help the Christian majority in Ghana particularly to appreciate that there isn’t only one kind of Muslim (see https://yawperbi.com/muslim-ambassadors-extraordinaire/). In the interest of disclosure, this was a lovely couple that were guests at my wedding over a decade prior and has gotten see again as a doctor at the 37 Military Hospital when they presented with a sick child a couple of years later. Adorable couple.
However, as a student of #leadership DMB’s initial moves as the #NPP’s presidential candidate this year sounded alarm bells for me. First, #leadership is #responsibility. Not willing or able to take responsibility for the economic doldrums his government—in which he is the head of the Economic Management Team—was bewildering. He blamed everyone including Corona, Russia and Ukraine but himself, and his government. That was bad.
What’s worse than this first shirking of responsibility, he belittled his high office—the second most powerful man in the country—by saying he was ‘only’ the “driver’s mate” (or bus conductor). Ah! Such an insult to leadership in general and the vice presidency in particular. Even those of us with no legitimate power of the people have made significant impact in our own small ways from our own small corners. How could a big man be so irresponsible?!
It has come to my notice that later Dr. Bawumia’s campaign tried to veer off the irresponsible and reprehensible ‘driver’s mate’ messaging but for people like me, it was too little too late.
And then the worst came: his choice of a right-hand man (literally on his right in this picture). That was a bad choice of an intemperate man, too highly inflammable for the second highest possible position of power in the land of our birth. And not long after being (mis)picked Dr. Matthew Opoku-Prempeh would prove my point about his ill-fit. In fact, on the very day he was outdoored he began his chain reaction of faux pas, daring to attack the founding president of our dear Republic. A national furore followed. So beyond the first red flag of not exhibiting basic responsibility as a leader, now he had added insult to injury by casting doubt about the quality of his decision-making by this choice of Veep.
When I was called to see Dr. Bawumia a couple of months ago, I flat out refused to honour the invitation. I like him (and his wife) but principles are principles; we must all have a True North and not just flow by the whims and caprices of others or directed by pocket economics.
Now that he has lost the election and has four years to reflect, regroup and rebound (if he still wants to and his party so endorses), I might be able to chip in my two cents as I did in the pre-2016 election and pre-2008 for his party.
I hope DMB will take full #responsibility this time—after what seems to be a trouncing of the incumbent, a ‘green tsunami’ of the opposition #NDC—and then we can leverage his other strong leadership attributes like being visionary and innovative. And to me, he comes across also as a humble servant-leader too.
These are by no means the only reasons DMB and the NPP lost—I have a laundry list of 29 items—but for me the faulty foundation of not taking #responsibility in the first place was his Waterloo.
