Former President John Dramani Mahama has for the first time reacted to Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia's assertion that he [Bawumia] is just like a driver’s mate in the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government and should be made president – the driver – so he can implement his own vision.

Speaking at ‘The 2024 NDC Policy Dialogue’ in the Eastern Region on Thursday, February 22, 2024, Mahama, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), took a subtle jab at Bawumia, the flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Mahama contended that the NPP flagbearer cannot disassociate himself from the current state of Ghana's economy. He points out that Bawumia, as the running mate of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during the 2016 election, held lectures on economic solutions, influencing Ghanaians to vote for the NPP.

He added that after being entrusted with the management of Ghana’s economy, the vice president, having encountered challenges, is now asserting that his role is merely advisory.

“There is no rule in leadership for excuse-making and flight from responsibility. You cannot make grandiose promises on the economy pre-2016 only to be put in charge of the same in government, run it down, push all of us into suffering and hardship, and turn around to say you are only the mate of a reckless driver,” Mahama said.

What Bawumia said:

"I am like a driver’s mate," Vice President Dr. Bawumia reiterated in his first major speech as flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Bawumia on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, outlined his vision for Ghana in an address at the UPSA auditorium in Accra.

During the presentation, he stressed that despite being the driver's mate, "if, by the Grace of God, you make me president, I will be in the driver's seat with constitutionally mandated authority to pursue my vision and my priorities".

He added: "My vision is to create a tent big enough to accommodate all our people, to tap into the resourcefulness and talents of our people irrespective of our different ethnic, political and religious backgrounds, to channel our energies into building the kind of country that assures a food self-sufficient, safe, prosperous, and dignified future for all Ghanaians, to create sustainable jobs with meaningful pay for all, and for Ghana to participate fully in the fourth industrial revolution using systems and data."

This was not the first time he touted his role as a driver's mate and an assistant to the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Bawumia, in his address, also spoke about several taxes he would abolish when elected president and plans and policies he would roll out while pointing to the successes of the Akufo-Addo government.

Watch Mahama’s remarks in the video below:

John Mahama mocks Bawumia's Driver-Mate analogy.#GHOneNews #GHOneTV pic.twitter.com/5Zo6o0eraa

— GHOne TV (@ghonetv) February 23, 2024