With a struggling economy and widespread dissatisfaction with his party’s leadership, former Ghanaian Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia faced an uphill battle in the 2024 elections.
On Election Day, Ghanaians delivered a decisive rejection of his bid for the presidency.
Dubbed the Akufo-Addo administration’s “economic whiz,” Dr. Bawumia and the National Patriotic Party (NPP) had hoped to retain power at the polls. Unfortunately, their performance, especially regarding the economy, left much to be desired by Ghanaian voters.
In the last two years, Ghanaians saw inflation soar to record highs which pushed the prices of goods and services to new heights.
Dr. Bawumia had attempted to campaign on his government’s record of digitization and policies like Free Senior High School to sway voters in his favor.
But the effects of the economy were too overwhelming for voters, who decided to opt for the alternative.
At the polls, the NPP presidential candidate won just 41% of the nearly 11 million valid votes while his opponent, President John Mahama, won 56% of the total votes.
Dr. Bawumia’s inability to craft a compelling message on why voters should trust him with the mandate, despite a struggling economy, left him burdened by the reality that the economy would be his undoing.
It Was Always About the Economy
The impact of economic hardship on political fortunes is not unique to Ghana, as recent elections in the United States demonstrate.
On November 7th, the majority of Americans voted out their incumbents for economic reasons, including rising costs of living, the high price of rent, and inflation.
In a Gallup poll in the lead-up to election day, 52% of respondents stated that the economy was the most important issue on their mind.
Image Credit: Gallup
The US Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, in her campaign bid, failed to address the worries of American voters on the economy, and on voting day, they made their voices heard by voting for her opponent, Donald Trump.
The NPP administration appeared destined to share the same fate as their American counterparts, with the economy emerging as the decisive factor at the polls.
Evans Nunoo, a Ghanaian economist, stated that the effects of Ghana’s bad economic conditions had negative consequences on Dr. Bawumia’s campaign bid.
He cited several economic developments, including the 2022 inflation rate hitting a high of 54.1%, the policy rate of banks, pushing interest rates above 33%, and the downgrade of Ghana’s credit status, which affected its borrowing ability.
“All the international institutions like Moody and Fitch downgraded our credit status which affected our ability to borrow on the international markets,” he said.
Ghana’s debt hit almost 100% of GDP by the end of 2022, leading to the inability to pay its debt. This unprecedented situation led President Akuffo Addo to announce that he would request a $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to keep the country and economy from collapsing.
The amount would be the largest request in Ghana’s history.
The IMF bailout placed requirements on the government to increase its revenue.
Some of these requirements led to the introduction of new taxes, including an Electronic Levy (E-Levy), which placed a tax on mobile money transfers and higher electricity tariffs, much to the chagrin of average Ghanaians.
With the economy in dire straits and Ghanaians paying more for daily expenses, Dr. Bawumia could not run on the economy on his campaign trail and instead focused on his digitization efforts.
The Whiz Kid Runs Out of Economic Magic
Dr. Bawumia was sworn in as Vice President in 2016 and was seen as a bright spot for the NPP party. His tenure began with bold promises—industrialization and digitization being his focal points.
The administration hit the ground running with Bawumia taking the helm as the master of digitization.
He was at the forefront of the much-lauded mobile money interoperability system and championed the rollout of digital initiatives like the Ghana Card, the Digital Property Address System, and the digitization of the Passport Office.
By many accounts, he was seen as the next in line to lead the NPP and Ghana after his predecessor.
However, by the time the 2024 election campaign was in full force, most of his achievements were overshadowed by the downward economy and other issues facing the NPP administration, including corruption allegations.
During his campaign, Dr. Bawumia could not leverage the economy as he resorted to successes of the party’s digitization efforts and their flagship policy, Free Senior High School.
His manifesto continued to push his digitation agenda, highlighting initiatives including the introduction of an e-residency program and a 5-year Digital Nomad Visa and Work Permits to attract global tech talents.
But his failure to own up to some of his earlier proclaims about the economy would haunt him during the election campaign.
His past proclamations of “stabilizing the cedi” rang hollow with the record depreciation of the Ghanaian currency.
Nevertheless, Dr. Bawumia doubled down on digitization with a flurry of public commissions.
These included the launch of a local ride-hailing platform, a music streaming app focused on Ghanaian artists, and the commissioning of an e-Gate project at the Kotoka airport.
Some critics said it was a political stunt as the project had already been commissioned almost two years ago.
In the final lap of the campaign, Dr. Bawumia could not escape the gloomy realities of the economy.
In November 2024, Ghana’s inflation rate, which had seen a reduction to almost 21%, rose to 23%.
Interest rates at local banks had stayed above 30%, and fuel prices rose to 14 GHC per litre at the pumps.
Economic Conditions Played a Critical Role in the Polls
On Monday, 9th December, the Electoral Commission officially announced John Mahama as President-Elect, winning the 2024 elections by more than six million votes.
Much like US President Joe Biden’s administration in the US, the struggles of Ghana’s local economy proved to be the undoing of the NPP and Dr. Bawumia’s campaign.
Perhaps Dr. Bawumia should have taken heed from the famous phrase of US strategist James Carville: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
The famous phrase, adopted by the campaign of former US president Bill Clinton to win the 1992 election, emphasized the economic recession that happened under the watch of his opponent George H.W Bush.
It would appear that bad economic factors would once again claim their latest victim of Dr. Bawumia and his presidential campaign.
As Ghana moves forward, rebuilding trust in the economy will take lots of effort.
For Dr. Bawumia and NPP, the 2024 elections will serve as a stark reminder of how the economy plays a major factor at the ballot box.
