Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia spoke with pro-government Asaase Radio for more than an hour, giving the local media his first in-person interview in a long time.
In addition to serving as the official flagbearer for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the 2024 elections, Bawumia spoke a wide range of topics, including the November 4 election, governance, and the nation’s present economic problems.
Throughout his months-long campaign, he avoided the media as he traveled the nation in search of delegates to head the NPP.
When his rivals actively engaged the media to promote their candidacies—nine of them prior to the August 26 superdelegates meeting and three prior to the November 4 votes—Bawumia’s media ban came into effect.
Regarding the NDC’s assertion that it was vying to save Ghana in 2024 from former President John Dramani Mahama, Bawumia asserted that Ghana had already been saved by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s win in 2016.
“This [Ghana] economy had to be rescued by the IMF [International Monetary Fund], they [NDC] had to go for a rescue, that was the real rescue mission, as a price of mismanagement of this economy.
“And so they went for a rescue mission [from the IMF] and they were not even able to stay the course of the IMF programme. They went off track, so, that rescue mission by the IMF didn’t quite work because they were not following the terms of the agreement,” the Vice President added.
He said: “the real rescue happened when by the grace of God with the election of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and with that election we came into office and again, all the things that were going wrong, we have tried to right them, we have very much put everything back on course.”
“We have brought macroeconomic stability, we have restored teacher training allowances, nursing training allowances, we have brought in new initiatives like planting for food and jobs, the one district one factory transformation and that is taking place, and so we have really rescued this country and this economy from the mismanagement of John Mahama,” Dr Bawumia said.
Following the election on November 4, Dr. Bawumia received 61.47% of the votes cast by the NPP’s almost 200,000 delegates, winning the party’s flagbearer battle. Ken Agyapong, his nearest rival, scored about 37.41%.
