{"id":14197,"date":"2024-11-19T12:27:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T12:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=14197"},"modified":"2024-11-19T12:27:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T12:27:20","slug":"mahamudu-bawumia-from-political-outsider-to-ghanas-mr-digital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/14197\/mahamudu-bawumia-from-political-outsider-to-ghanas-mr-digital\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahamudu Bawumia: From political outsider to Ghana’s ‘Mr Digital’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Wedaeli Chibelushi*<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mahamudu Bawumia soared from being a political outsider to become Ghana’s second-in-command – and in December he could make history as the country’s first Muslim president.<\/p>\n

Bawumia, currently Ghana’s vice-president, was chosen by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) as their candidate for the forthcoming general election.<\/p>\n

The 61-year-old Tottenham Hotspur supporter has quite the reputation.<\/p>\n

He is an intellectual educated at Oxford University, is never seen without his signature slim, rectangular glasses and has been dubbed “Mr Digital” thanks to his pledge to whip Ghana into a technological heavyweight.<\/p>\n

But because he is head of the government’s economic management team, many Ghanaians associate Bawumia with the punishing cost of living crisis they’re experiencing.<\/p>\n

Should Bawumia overcome the criticism and win the election, he will replace his current boss President Nana Akufo-Addo, who is approaching the end of his two-term limit.<\/p>\n

“Mr Digital” barrelled onto the political scene in 2008, sparking bemusement and scepticism.<\/p>\n

Bawumia was a 44-year-old who had never held public office, yet Akufo-Addo – then a mere presidential candidate – had chosen him as a running mate.<\/p>\n

Bawumia’s father Alhaji had served in Ghana’s earliest governments after the country gained independence from Britain in 1957, working closely with revered Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Mahamudu Bawumia was born to mother Hajia and father Alhaji in the city of Tamale.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the younger Bawumia had forged a career in economics and banking – serving as the deputy governor of Ghana’s central bank.<\/p>\n

To many commentators and NPP insiders, it made no sense for Akufo-Addo to pick Bawumia over seasoned party members.<\/p>\n

Akufo-Addo ended up losing the election to John Atta Mills from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) by a tiny margin.<\/p>\n

Bawumia lost out on the VP job – but his charismatic campaign had silenced the naysayers.<\/p>\n

“He fired [up] the NPP campaign. I think no-one else could have done a better job, to be honest, in terms of the support he gave to the NPP,” Ghanaian political scientist Dr Clement Sefa-Nyarko told the BBC.<\/p>\n

\n

Akufo-Addo and Bawumia gave the elections another go in 2012. Again, they lost.<\/p>\n

The NPP challenged the election results in the Supreme Court, choosing Bawumia as their star witness.<\/p>\n

During the proceedings, which were broadcast on national television, Bawumia came across as witty and unflustered by the relentless, days-long cross-examination.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were like, who is this guy? He’s really the guy to root for,” said Dr Sefa-Nyarko, who lectures on African leadership at King’s College London.<\/p>\n

Akufo-Addo decided to keep Bawumia on his ticket and in 2016, on their third shot at power, the NPP won with 51.3% of the vote. Bawumia finally became vice-president.<\/p>\n

Bawumia’s journey to the top began in 1963, when he was born into a large family in the northern city of Tamale.<\/p>\n

He was the 12th of his father’s 18 children.<\/p>\n

After completing primary and secondary school in Ghana, Bawumia moved to the UK for undergraduate study and went on to gain a masters in economics from the prestigious Oxford University.<\/p>\n

To support himself during his studies, he took up jobs as a taxi driver and cleaner.<\/p>\n

He returned to Ghana in 2000 to work at the central bank, where he worked his way up to become deputy governor.<\/p>\n

Bawumia campaigned on this economic know-how during his attempts to become VP. Therefore, he faced heavy criticism when Ghana plummeted into its most severe economic crisis in years under his watch.<\/p>\n

Inflation hit a record 54% in December 2022 and the country was forced to take a $3bn (\u00a32.3bn) loan from the International Monetary Fund after government debt soared.<\/p>\n

In response to the criticism, Bawumia has said the economic management team he headed had no “decision-making powers” and that it merely provided advice to the government.<\/p>\n

But for many, this wasn’t good enough.<\/p>\n

“In terms of character, in terms of integrity, people started questioning themselves: ‘What is this? How did it end up here? We thought you were the best guy, and look at where we’ve ended up’,” Franklin Cudjoe, a Ghanaian political commentator and head of the Imani Centre for Policy and Education, told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Along with his role as an economist, Bawumia has also built the reputation of being a digital visionary.<\/p>\n

Ghana’s digital ecosystem has seen “significant growth” especially in areas such as mobile phone connectivity, Charles Abani, head of the United Nations team in Ghana, remarked last month.<\/p>\n

This “remarkable digital transformation” was “spearheaded” by Bawumia, news website\u00a0African Business<\/a>\u00a0reported, while Ghanaian newspaper\u00a0The Chronicle<\/a>\u00a0hailed Bawumia’s “expertise in global digital transformation”.<\/p>\n

Bawumia said he initiated a partnership between Ghana’s government and US-based company Zipline, which led to the creation of the world’s largest vaccine delivery network.<\/p>\n

He said he reached out to Zipline, which uses drones to fly health products to hard-to-reach clinics, after his father died from a loss of blood.<\/p>\n

Although this passion for technology is celebrated by some, others are more sceptical.<\/p>\n

Mr Cudjoe said Bawumia has been campaigning on digitalisation rather than confronting debates about the government’s handling of the economy.<\/p>\n

“Whether Bawumia was in power or not, digitalisation was bound to happen in this country because we had already started it anyway,” Mr Cudjoe said.<\/p>\n

Dr Sefa-Nyarko said of Bawumia: “What he has been very successful at is to push and also claim all credit for digitalisation outcomes of the current government.”<\/p>\n

Bawumia’s personal life has also been a strength in his presidential campaign. His wife of 20 years, Samira, is a former beauty queen who is widely admired for her chic outfits.<\/p>\n

The Second Lady is also vocal when it comes to party politics – and has embarked on campaign tours for the NPP.<\/p>\n

The couple have four children together. They are proud followers of Islam – a religion practised by roughly one in five Ghanaians.<\/p>\n

Most people in Ghana are Christians but there is not much evidence that coming from a religious minority will hinder Bawumia’s election chances, Dr Sefa-Nyarko said.<\/p>\n

The NPP has given its “full support” to Bawumia’s candidacy, “his Muslim faith notwithstanding”, Dr Sefa-Nyarko added.<\/p>\n

“This could translate into widespread support across the country as well.”<\/p>\n

Bawumia’s geographical identity might be of greater consequence than his religion. The vice-president hails from northern Ghana, which is one of the NDC’s strongest political bases.<\/p>\n

By choosing Bawumia as its presidential candidate, the NPP will be hoping to make inroads in the north, while retaining support in its heartland in the south.<\/p>\n

Bawumia has been traversing north, south, east and west in what he calls the “possibilities bus”, a blue and red campaign vehicle emblazoned with the slogan “it is possible”.<\/p>\n

To some, he is the face of economic mismanagement, but the vice-president retains some of the optimism he held when he was a 44-year-old embarking on an eight-year battle for power.<\/p>\n

“I have the courage to accept when things do not go as well as planned,” he told voters in his manifesto.<\/p>\n

“But I also have a mindset of possibilities, and faith in ourselves, that we can rise and achieve great things in our lifetime.”<\/p>\n

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Additional reporting by the BBC’s Thomas Naadi in Accra.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mahamudu Bawumia soared from being a political outsider to become Ghana’s second-in-command – and in December he could make history as the country’s first Muslim president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":14,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"BBC","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,9,27],"tags":[158,1686],"class_list":["post-14197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-figures","category-west-africa","tag-ghana","tag-mahamudu-bawumia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}