Even with an economist as the vice president, the present Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration has performed badly in the management of the Ghanaian economy compared to the administration of former President John Agyekum Kufuor who had a contractor as his vice president, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, a former Member of Parliament for Nandon, has said.

He told Johnnie Hughes on TV3 New Day Wednesday August 12 that a president does not necessarily need a vice who has an economic background in order to perform.

To that end, he said, the choice of Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang as running mate to Mr John Mahama ahead of the 2020 elections is an apt decision and will win the elections for the largest opposition party.

Mr Murtala who is also a former Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry was reacting to a comment made by Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Mr Stephen Amoah to the effect that the vice president is the head of the economic management team hence one must have an economics background to be able to effectively manage the economy well.

Mr Amoah had said on the same programme that “you need a very competent running mate to an incompetent Mahama, if he will be able to win” and not just because the appointee is a woman.

But Murtala said: “Gender matters when we talk about politics and if you look at contemporary political discourse gender matters so much. You cannot improve the economic conditions of people without factoring in the interest and the need of women, more so in a country where we are told that women constitute the larger majority of the Ghanaian population. You cannot discuss economic issues without bringing in the gender factor.

“Who told you that in this country you must choose a running mate who has an economic background? I want to remind him that he should sincerely tell us that between the president Kufour administration and the present Nana Addo administration. Which one performed better?

“Every single rational NPP member will tell you that the President Kufuor’s administration has performed better than this disaster we have as a government now under president Akufo-Addo. Under President Kufour his vice president was he an economist? No. He was a contractor.”