The choice was between two northern brothers in Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia of the NPP and John Dramani Mahama of the NDC. Dr. Bawumia, the Vice President and NPP’s candidate, like a prophet was emphatic in declaring that Former President Mahama had a chance but blew it away. He pleaded with Ghanaians to endorse him in the 7th December elections because he has two terms to be President and if he gets elected, he will come back to account. He says President Mahama has had his chance and if we vote for Mahama, he will not be accountable because he will not comeback to seek reelection.

The elections are over and Dr. Bawumia has lost. President Mahama garnered 57 percent while Dr. Bawumia got 42 percent. The gap was a whopping 1.67 million votes. This is a historic defeat and Dr. Bawumia has blown his chance as NPP flag bearer. The bat in its determination to shit on God ends up soiling itself with its own shit. This is what has happened to Dr. Bawumia. The incompetent tag on President Mahama was engineered by Bawumia getting into the 2016 elections and he consistently maintained this attitude towards Mahama until he finally gets humbled with nearly 1.7 million gap in votes.

We must remember, Dr. Bawumia was the choice of the establishment during the NPP presidential primaries. Any one who says no to Bawumia’s candidacy was seen as an enemy and gets punished or shown the exit. Alan Kyerematen, Boakye Agyarko, Kennedy Agyaponng and a host of NPP bigwigs were humbled for Bawumia to succeeded.

Is it not unbelievable that in Dr. Bawumia’s home region, no other candidate got a single vote in the first vote and all other candidates got 50 votes with Bawumia getting 3,444 in the second votes of the NPP primaries? Clearly, there was a deliberate cheat and “it is possible” to do this in the NPP.

In fact Kennedy Agyapong and Alan Kyerematen agents were beaten to run for their lives with Alan's agent hospitalized and replaced without his consent. This forced Alan to resign to contest the 2024 elections as an independent candidate with Kennedy Agyapong promising to mercilessly deal with Nana Addo and Dr. Bawumia.

“President Akufo-Addo, I will give you a showdown in this country, I swear to God. Vice President, I will give you a showdown for chasing my agent away. I swear to God. You will hear what will happen here. I swear to God I will challenge President Akufo-Addo big time.”

Time has proven that Kennedy Agyapong was determined to carry out his threat. During the Parliamentary impasse where Afenyo Markin was not accepting his new Minority Leader status, Kennedy at a press conference declared; “I personally don't care who wins as long as we have a peaceful country where you can breathe.” The results of the elections actually proves Kennedy Agyapong did not care because NPP lost first, in his constituency, Assin South, and second, in the general elections.

It appears Dr. Bawumia was not the NPP’s choice but he was forced on them by Nana addo and his state capture allies. If he were to be their choice, then, “it is possible” for him to have secured more than 41.61 percent of the total valid votes. It must be placed on record that no presidential candidate have performed this woefully in the first round of elections since the year 2000. Also, apart from Rawlings, no other presidential candidate since 1992 has ever chopped the feat achieved by Mahama.

See election years and percentage of votes achieved by the two leading parties in Ghana. 2020: NDC; 47.29, NPP; 51.47, 2016: NDC; 44.35, NPP; 53.79, 2012: NDC; 50.49, NPP; 47.96, 2008: NDC; 47.81, NPP; 49.15, 2004: NDC; 44.6, NPP; 52.4, 2000: NDC; 44.84, NPP, 47.61.

Mahama’s victory is historic. Only Rawlings did better but we must not forget that during the Rawlings era, Ghana’s democracy is not as matured as we currently have. It is only Nana addo and Dr. Bawumia who tried hard to make it horrible but Ghanaians resilience for a democratic state did not let them have their way. God knows the donkey will have a wicked mind and He refused to give it horns. The warlike intentions of Nana and Bawumia were cut short by the huge gap in the vote forcing them to concede defeat even before the election managent body could begin collation.

Who would have thought that posterity will judge Mahama this favourably and very early. All the name calling by Dr. Bawumia and NPP have been nullified by the 1.7 million gap. Ghanaians are wise and they knew they made a very huge mistake by chasing out a complete wife for a beautiful but horrible and disorganized one. Ghanaians say never again for a Nana/Bawumia like government!

We wait to see if Bawumia will have the opportunity to represent NPP again in the ballot. Will Nana Addo have the power to force him on them? For me, the chance is blown.

By Taluta Gbanha Mahama

mymahamataluta@gmail.com

Sissala West District