Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has told New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters in Kumasi that he is a seed former President Kufuor discovered and planted, but watered for it to blossom by President Akufo-Addo.
Dr Bawumia has always insisted on most political platforms he has mounted that the second president of the Fourth Republic is his political godfather and that he gave him useful tutorials, which helped to shape his political career.
President Kufuor, who led the United Party (UP) tradition to win power after decades in the wilderness, has on his part persistently described Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as a ‘True Son.’
The former president in most public platforms praised Vice President Bawumia’s loyalty to him, especially when served as Deputy Governor at the Bank of Ghana, during his reign as president.
“Let me single out one person, he is also a father, but I can claim that he happens to be my son too and that’s the Vice President sitting right by me.
“In your narration, you said when the planners decided to invite the Vice President, you learnt he had gone to the North for some duties and you even doubted whether he will manage to come”, he is quoted to have said at a public event.
Delivering a public commentary on the father-son relationship between them, Dr. Bawumia enumerated how he was discovered and given critical roles under the presidency of Kufuor and subsequently become running mate in 2008.
“There was a time that the Financial Times organised a forum on Ghana’s economy during President Kufuor’s era. At that forum, President Kufuor, Osafo Maafo, Dr. Paul Aquah, myself and other key dignitaries from Ghana attended.
“Whilst the forum was going on, I sensed some things were not put right about the economy of Ghana, so I asked to be given the opportunity to speak and thankfully my request was granted.
“When I finished speaking, the whole atmosphere in the room had changed. People had then understood what the economic policy of the Kufuor government was. In short, while we went for a coffee break and President Kufuor asked for me.
“When I went he said, young man, you have done well, keep it up, you will go far. Just the same week after we returned to Ghana, President Kufuor appointed me to the board of Ghana telecom”, he revealed.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia served as the Co-Chair of the Economic Policy Coordinating Committee under President Kufuor, a key member of Government’s Technical Negotiations team for HIPC in 2001.
The Team that negotiated $4 billion relief for Ghana that helped President Kufuor stabilise the economy, Chairman of the Capital Markets Committee that made Ghana the first post HIPC country in the world, to access the international capital markets and a key member of the team that implemented the redenomination of the cedi, Ezwich and the Bank of Ghana’s inflation targeting framework.
