Mahamudu Bawumia: From political outsider to Ghana’s ‘Mr Digital’

Mahamudu Bawumia soared from being a political outsider to change into Ghana’s second-in-command – and in December he may make historical past because the nation’s first Muslim president.

Bawumia, at the moment Ghana’s vice-president, was chosen by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) as their candidate for the forthcoming basic election.

The 61-year-old Tottenham Hotspur supporter has fairly the status.

He is an mental educated at Oxford University, is rarely seen with out his signature slim, rectangular glasses and has been dubbed “Mr Digital” due to his pledge to whip Ghana right into a technological heavyweight.

But as a result of he’s head of the federal government’s financial administration workforce, many Ghanaians affiliate Bawumia with the punishing value of dwelling disaster they’re experiencing.

Should Bawumia overcome the criticism and win the election, he’ll change his present boss President Nana Akufo-Addo, who’s approaching the top of his two-term restrict.

“Mr Digital” barrelled onto the political scene in 2008, sparking bemusement and scepticism.

Bawumia was a 44-year-old who had by no means held public workplace, but Akufo-Addo – then a mere presidential candidate – had chosen him as a working mate.

Bawumia’s father Alhaji Mumuni had served in Ghana’s earliest governments after the nation gained independence from Britain in 1957, working carefully with revered Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah.

But the youthful Bawumia had cast a profession in economics and banking – serving because the deputy governor of Ghana’s central financial institution.

To many commentators and NPP insiders, it made no sense for Akufo-Addo to select Bawumia over seasoned get together members.

Akufo-Addo ended up dropping the election to John Atta Mills from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) by a tiny margin.

Bawumia misplaced out on the VP job – however his charismatic marketing campaign had silenced the naysayers.

“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 advised the BBC.

Akufo-Addo and Bawumia gave the elections one other go in 2012. Again, they misplaced.

The NPP challenged the election ends in the Supreme Court, selecting Bawumia as their star witness.

During the proceedings, which have been broadcast on nationwide tv, Bawumia got here throughout as witty and unflustered by the relentless, days-long cross-examination.

“People have been like, who is that this man? He’s actually the man to root for,” said Dr Sefa-Nyarko, who lectures on African leadership at King’s College London.

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.

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

He was the 12th of his father’s 18 children.

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.

To support himself during his studies, he took up jobs as a taxi driver and cleaner.

He returned to Ghana in 2000 to work at the central bank, where he worked his way up to become deputy governor.

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.

Inflation hit a record 54% in December 2022 and the country was forced to take a $3bn (£2.3bn) loan from the International Monetary Fund after government debt soared.

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.

But for many, this wasn’t good enough.

“In phrases of character, when it comes to integrity, individuals began questioning themselves: ‘What is that this? How did it find yourself right here? We thought you have been the perfect man, and take a look at the place we have ended up’,” Franklin Cudjoe, a Ghanaian political commentator and head of the Imani Centre for Policy and Education, told the BBC.

Along with his role as an economist, Bawumia has also built the reputation of being a digital visionary.

Ghana’s digital ecosystem has seen “important progress” especially in areas such as mobile phone connectivity, Charles Abani, head of the United Nations team in Ghana, remarked last month.

This “exceptional digital transformation” was “spearheaded” by Bawumia, information web site African Business reported, whereas Ghanaian newspaper The Chronicle hailed Bawumia’s “experience in world digital transformation”.

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.

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.

Although this passion for technology is celebrated by some, others are more sceptical.

Mr Cudjoe said Bawumia has been campaigning on digitalisation rather than confronting debates about the government’s handling of the economy.

“Whether Bawumia was in energy or not, digitalisation was sure to occur on this nation as a result of we had already began it anyway,” Mr Cudjoe said.

Dr Sefa-Nyarko said of Bawumia: “What he has been very profitable at is to push and likewise declare all credit score for digitalisation outcomes of the present authorities.”

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.

The Second Lady is also vocal when it comes to party politics – and has embarked on campaign tours for the NPP.

The couple have four children together. They are proud followers of Islam – a religion practised by roughly one in five Ghanaians.

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.

The NPP has given its “full help” to Bawumia’s candidacy, “his Muslim religion however”, Dr Sefa-Nyarko added.

“This may translate into widespread help throughout the nation as effectively.”

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.

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.

Bawumia has been traversing north, south, east and west in what he calls the “prospects bus”, a blue and red campaign vehicle emblazoned with the slogan “it’s attainable”.

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.

“I’ve the braveness to simply accept when issues don’t go in addition to deliberate,” he told voters in his manifesto.

“But I even have a mindset of prospects, and religion in ourselves, that we will rise and obtain nice issues in our lifetime.”

Additional reporting by the BBC’s Thomas Naadi in Accra