The historical facts contradict the reconstruction of the image of Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia as being the first incumbent presidential candidate in the history of the Fourth Republic to have conceded defeat to an opposition presidential candidate before the formal declaration of the presidential results by the Electoral Commission (EC).

Professor John Evans Atta Mills, then Vice President and incumbent presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at the 2000 presidential runoff election on 28 December 2000 conceded defeat to the opposition New Patriotic Party’s presidential candidate, Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor the next day, 29 December 2000, before the formal declaration of the results of the election on Saturday, 30 December 2000 by Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan the Chairman of the then Electoral Commission.

The graciousness of Professor Mills’ gesture was acknowledged first by Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor after Prof. Mills had telephoned him to concede defeat and to congratulate him as the winner of the presidential election on 29 December 2000, and by the Electoral Commission in formally declaring the results of the runoff elections the next day.

Twenty-four years down the line, the hazards and vicissitudes of life have made memories deem for disingenuous politicians like Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia who had a vested interest in the outcome of the 2000 presidential election by virtue of the membership of his parents in the NDC to pretend not to remember Prof. Mills’ unparalleled gesture of statesmanship on 29 December 2000. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia had himself just returned to the country after his father the Chairman of the Council of State had gotten him employed at the Bank of Ghana and cannot claim to have forgotten the historical event so soon at his current age.

The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps who ironically is from Lebanon, the European Union Ambassador, a Ghanaian-American Archbishop resident in the USA, and others who might be ignorant of the electoral history of Ghana under the 1992 Constitution may be forgiven for crediting Dr. Mahamaudu Bawumia with being the first candidate to concede defeat to and to congratulate his opponent.

But Dr. Bawumia who had a vested interest in the 2000 elections by virtue of his late father’s position within the NDC as the Chairman of the Council of State could not, therefore, have forgotten that Professor Mills conceded defeat to and congratulated Mr. Kufuor soon after the results of the runoff election indicated that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had won the elections in order to diffuse tensions and allow for a smooth transition of power to the NPP.

I had heard some self-appointed men of God peddling the same disinformation, misinformation and fake news of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia being the first incumbent presidential candidate to concede defeat to his opponent before the EC could declare the results of elections under the 1992 Constitution as a sign of democratic credentials of statesmanship, commitment to democracy and good governance.

I had decided to ignore those assertions as coming from persons seeking cheap popularity, ingratiating themselves to the lame duck government, and seeking to project Dr. Bawumia for a second bite at the cherry at the 2028 presidential elections.

But to hear Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia himself asserting that he conceded defeat early to quell assertions that the election was being rigged, which could have led to violence was to turn the facts and truth on their heads that needed to be responded to immediately.

The inerasable truth is that Dr. Bawumia is not the first incumbent Vice President and presidential candidate to concede defeat to his opponent under the 1992 Constitution to reduce electoral tensions in an atmosphere charged with suspicion of the ruling government intending to rig presidential elections. Dr. Bawumia was, therefore, exhibiting the highest degree of lack of integrity and honour when he asserted that:

“Even though the Electoral Commission had not yet pronounced, in fact, some of my people in my team were saying you can't go out to concede, we don't know if all this data is right, let's wait. And all of that. I said, look, we know this data is right from our own system, you know, so if you wait, you build up more tension and violence could come because people would think we are trying to rig the election.

Because that is the message that is coming, that we are trying to rig the election. But nobody has ever conceded an election without the EC coming out to pronounce.

And I said there's a first time for everything. For the interest of the peace and stability of our country, I will come out, I'll be the first person to concede even before the EC comes out."(Emphasis supplied).

I have had occasion to call Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia an opportunist, a pretender, a clone, and a poodle of lame duck President Nana Akufo-Addo because he has through association mimicked the latter’s rhetorical style, deliberately spreading disinformation and/or misinformation and outright untruths as eternal truths.

I have no respect for anybody with a claim to learning and scholarship who thinks that the higher educational capabilities his parents have endowed him with are intended to be used to cheat the intelligence of the electorate who have been less endowed. Coming from somebody from the former Northern Territories (NT) where most of us are first generation educated persons from illiterate parents who sent us to school to come out to assist our less fortunate teaming illiterate siblings is unacceptable to me.

Anybody who followed the electoral history of 7 December 2024 presidential election after the polls closed will know that the National Communications Officer of the NDC had, before Dr. Bawumia came out to concede defeat to former President John Dramani Mahama, called a press conference at which he had informed the media of the electoral trends as they had unfolded from the constituencies and regions of Ghana.

Doubting Thomas’ can listen to what Mr. Sammy Gyamfi said at the press conference on 8 December 2024 long before Dr. Bawumia conceded on YouTube: #Election2024: It was a landslide victory - Sammy Gyamfi. When Dr. Bawumia who admittedly had the same data Sammy Gyamfi had was delaying in conceding defeat, the NDC National Communication Officer urged Dr. Bawumia to do the needful to avoid tension as captured on Tik Tok: 2024 Elections: Sammy Gyamfi Urges Dr. Bawumia to Concede | TikTok. Where is the spontaneity about Dr. Bawumia’s statesmanship?

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor, the presidential candidate of the NPP, and I, the running mate to Vice President John Evans Atta Mills at the 2000 presidential elections runoff, are the only surviving direct participating candidates in the final act of the 2000 presidential runoff elections to speak out authoritatively against the lies being peddled that Bawumia is the first incumbent candidate under the 1992 Constitution to concede defeat to his opponent before the formal declaration of the results by the EC. Mr. Kufuor is a sore looser with Dr. Bawumia at the 2024 presidential elections and has no interest in challenging the false narrative of Dr. Bawumia and his clique of likeminded disinformation and fake news salesmen are peddling to the electorate.

I have, therefore, a responsibility and a duty to set the records straight by credible and cogent evidence of the 2000 runoff presidential elections held on Thursday, 28 December 2000 in which Prof Mills and I lost to Mr. Kufuor of the NPP who was very vindictive in victory and during the eight years of his governance.

On Friday 29 December 2000, the Vice-President Professor John Evans Atta Mills who was the NDC incumbent presidential candidate for the 2000 presidential election conceded defeat to the NPP presidential candidate Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor in the runoff election that was held on Thursday, 28 December 2000. He was reported by the Associated Press as having issued “a statement Friday saying it was clear that John Agyekum Kuffuor (sic) had won Thursday's vote to succeed President Jerry Rawlings, .....” The news report stated further that:

“Mills congratulated Kuffuor (sic)” and quoted Mills as saying that: “As an outgoing government, we pledge to make his transition into office as smooth as possible."

The reaction of the NPP presidential candidate-elect and others was reported as follows:

‘Kuffuor (sic), a British-trained lawyer and longtime politician, thanked Mills for his ``graciousness'' and pledged to cooperate with his National Democratic Congress. And U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), a Ghana native, commended the country's leaders and voters for "the transparent and peaceful manner in which the elections were conducted. With these elections, Ghana has demonstrated that democracy and its institutions continue to take root in Africa,'' he said in a statement read by deputy U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva.’

The Associated Press reporting on the news which was carried by Ghana Web on 30 December 2000 underscored the historical importance of Professor Mills’ act of conceding defeat at the polls as follows: “Ghana's vice president has conceded defeat to an opposition leader in the country's presidential election, signaling (sic) an orderly transition after a vote notable as much for the way it was held as for its result.”

Ghana News Agency reported Professor Mills as follows: "I would like on behalf of the (ruling) National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its millions of supporters, to congratulate Mr Kufuor most warmly for his electoral victory. .. We wish him and the New patriotic Party (NPP) well, both in the Executive and in the Legislature."

GNA stated further in its reportage that: “The electoral commission said it would formally announce the final results of Thursday's run-off by mid-morning on Saturday.” Adding that: ‘Mills pledged to make Kufuor's "transition into office as smooth as possible".’

The Electoral Commission in formally announcing and declaring the results of the 2000 Presidential elections later acknowledged the graciousness of Vice-President Mills: ``We wish to congratulate Professor Mills particularly for the manner in which he has taken the loss," Commission Chairman Kwadwo Afari-Djan said. He stated further that: ``Professor.

Mills is a fine gentleman and it is gracious of him to have conceded defeat. That is what is expected in a democracy."

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia might have been labouring under the delusion of the fact that in the runoff presidential elections of 2008 Nana Akufo-Addo and him reluctantly conceded defeat after the declaration of the presidential election results by the EC in words that negated good will on their part as his benchmark for claiming now to be the first incumbent candidate to concede defeat before the EC declared the results.

GhanaWeb reported the condition and caveats under which Nana Akufo-Addo and Bawumia conceded defeat to Prof. Mills and John Dramani Mahama on 3 January 2009 in a news report under: Akufo-Addo concedes defeat for those who wish to read the caveats and conditions. One may ask Dr. Bawumia what he made of the fact that the incumbent President of Ghana conceded defeat to Nana Akufo Addo and him at the 2016 presidential elections before the declaration of results by the EC in those elections.

France 24 with sources as Associated Press reported that President John Dramani Mahama conceded defeat before the EC declared the election thus: Ghanaian President Mahama concedes defeat to opposition leader Akufo-Addo for doubting Thomas’ to read for themselves.

I have taken the trouble to be detailed in establishing the facts and evidence pointing irrevocable to the fact that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was economical with the truth to have claimed exceptionalism for conceding defeat to President-elect John Dramani Mahama in the history of the 1992 Constitution’s electoral history.

Dr. Bawumia has prospects for the future if the NPP will after the mess Nana Akufo-Addo and he have brought the NPP into during their eight years of disinformation, misinformation, and rhetorical deception decide to retain him as their presidential candidate in future presidential elections.

The one touch results of the 2024 presidential elections, however, demonstrates that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia needs to reconstruct his image from being Nana Akufo-Addo’s clone and poodle to a true Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia son with the cultural and moral integrity of the original NT tradition to be acceptable to the electorate in Ghana. The survival of the 1992 Constitution is anchored upon political integrity that puts Ghana First and not upon political deception that considers Ghana as expendable.