There are two main systems of democratic governance: we have the Parliamentary system, like Ghana’s Second Republican Administration with Prof K.A. Busia as Prime Minister, and then we have the Presidential System, like the Third Republican Administration with Dr Hilla Limann as President of Ghana.
In the Parliamentary System, the President is a very ceremonial job, so there is no Vice President, but in the Presidential System, the centre of political authority is the President, so a Vice President is key.
Currently, in Ghana’s Fourth Republic we are practicing a hybrid of the two: a Parliamentary cum Presidential system – where the executive authority is the President, but he is compelled by the Constitution to appoint more than half of his Cabinet Ministers from Parliament.
Jerry Rawlings shot his way to Castle on 31st December 1981, but after nearly 10 years of autocratic rule, pressure from all sides forced him to go Constitutional to become Executive President, so he needed a Vice President.
Rawlings made history when one day as Cabinet was in session he stormed the Cabinet Chamber and started beating up his Vice President, Nenyi Kow Nkensen Arkaah. Everybody present was so stunned that they looked on in horror, until a military officer, Commodore Steve Obimpeh, rose up to restrain the Head of State from turning the Vice President into a punching bag.
According to a publication in the “Free Press” at the time, the heavily assaulted Vice President went straight from there to the Police Headquarters, where he made a complaint of assault, battery, and causing harm. In law, the death of a complainant does not mean the crime is “dead.”
It became necessary for President Rawlings to select another running mate for the 1996 elections, and he selected another person from the Central Region, my Lecturer in Commercial Law at Legon (1976-77) and later Company Law at the Ghana Law School (1984-85), Professor John Evans Atta Mills.
There was a very witty cartoon in The Chronicle in those days when Professor Atta Mills was cartooned in boxer shorts in a boxing ring doing training with gloves and all, and a question – “Prof, are you now a boxer?” Reply: “With what happened to Kow Arkaah, maybe I might need same boxing skills…”
When Prof Mills became the NDC presidential candidate for the 2000 General Elections, he selected my senior at the law Faculty at Legon and his own student, Martin Amidu, as his running mate. They lost, and for 2004 he selected the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kumbungu, Mohammed Mumuni, but they lost, finally, in 2008, Prof Mills made a very brilliant choice of former Assembly Member cum District Chief Executive (DCE) cum Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Secretary cum MP cum Minister of Communications, John Mahama, as his running mate.
John Mahama is a politician, through and through. You remember the run off in the 2008 General Elections – the final race was at TAIN, and GTV showed the vice presidential candidate, John Mahama, standing at the roadside with National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporters waving and laughing good naturedly at a New Patriotic Party (NPP) pick up load of supporters.
When his boss died in July 2012, he picked up a financial technocrat, Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur, from the Central Region as his running mate, and retained him for the 2016 General Elections, but, most unfortunately, the man died in 2017.
After his re-election by an overwhelming margin to become the NDC presidential candidate, John Mahama’s headache was who to name as running mate.
I have never been a presidential candidate so I do not have the experience of having to select a “Running Mate,” but judging purely from history, I can say authoritatively that a good choice strengthens the ticket, and a bad choice weakens the candidate.
Richard Nixon, a seasoned lawyer, Vice President to General Eisenhower, lost the 1960 elections to John F. Kennedy, but came back strongly in 1968 to win the Presidency. Senator George Bush was Vice President to Ronald Reagan for eight years, and went on to become President, after him, for one term.
Barack Obama made a brilliant choice of Joe Biden as his running mate, who is now today in pole position to successfully challenge beleaguered Donald Trump, come November 2020.
According to US history, one famous presidential candidate made a terrible mistake by naming somebody as his running mate, who turned out, from the media, to have once had a mental case at the Psychiatric Hospital – the two of them lost the elections miserably.
A classmate of mine from Achimota School Form One to Upper Six, together in Aggrey House and later together at Commonwealth Hall, Legon, was named running mate for one of the presidential candidates in the 2000 General Elections. After their defeat, he once came to Parliament, saw me as MP for Berekum, and jokingly remarked, “Effah D, I have beaten you. I was running mate!”
The point is solid: a good choice of a running mate strengthens the ticket, and a bad choice weakens the candidate. Against this background, let us examine the choice of Professor Jane Opoku-Agyemang by John Mahama as his running mate.
For purpose of GENDER, Prof is a good choice, but how strong is the gender argument in Ghana? At any rate, if candidate John Mahama desperately wanted a female candidate from the Central Region, why not AMA BENYIWA DOE, four times MP, Central Regional Minister, younger in age, and a politician through and through?
In terms of experience, Prof is a technocrat – an educationist, former Vice Chancellor, who was Minister of Education for four years, and incurred the displeasure of teacher trainee students with the cancellation of their allowances – they should vote for her to become Vice President so that she cancels the allowance?
The perception is that the running mate must be physically younger in age than the boss, but Prof is far older in age than John Mahama – is it a prudent decision?
Why does the NDC like preserving the Central Region as their production house for Vice Presidents – Kow Arkaah, Prof Mills, Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur, and now… Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang?
The Akans have a beautiful proverb: “Nothing that a chicken will do will impress the eagle.” As an NPP politician, I will conclude that John Mahama’s running mate is a bad choice.
Written by Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s editorial stance
The post A Running Mate? appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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