Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President of IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, has strongly argued that the redemption of former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia depends on regaining the trust of the Ghanaian people as a leader capable of charting his own course.
In a nuanced blend of admiration and critique, Mr. Cudjoe painted a portrait of a man burdened by association with a government that, in his view, steered the country into economic catastrophe, despite his undeniable brilliance and promise.
“My friend, former Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu, has always exuded charm with numbers, ‘precocious smart and quiet scholar’, one of his undergraduate chaperones said of him to me when l met her at Buckingham University a few years ago.”
Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President of IMANI Centre for Policy and Education,
This early praise, he noted, hinted at a future destined for greatness but that promise, Mr Cudjoe lamented, was compromised by Dr Bawumia’s alignment with what he describes as “the wrong political camp” — a camp he harshly labels as “purveyors of aimless and destructive bond supremacists.”
Using vivid metaphor, Mr Cudjoe described the economic management of the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration as one that led to a fiscal inferno.
The government, he argued, borrowed recklessly, enriching a select few while the nation’s economy overheated and collapsed under the weight of excessive debt.
“The economy overcooked itself into volcanic magma out of which we all became lava, igneous rocks and literally died,” Mr Cudjoe wrote, lamenting the devastation left in the wake of financial mismanagement.
In his view, the 2024 elections became a rescue mission for Ghanaians who had suffered deeply under the failed economic regime.
Bawumia’s Sympathy
Mr Cudjoe did, however, extended a measure of sympathy to Dr. Bawumia, noting that his silence during the peak of the administration’s economic recklessness may have been strategic or enforced, even though damaging.
While calling out his failure to vocally oppose egregious policies and decisions, Mr Cudjoe also recalled an important moment where the former Vice President demonstrated courage.
According to him, after IMANI conducted a covert investigation into serious and organized criminal activity at Ghana’s ports, the former Vice President took action, making a significant revenue-impacting decision that bucked the tide of indifference and dysfunction within the cabinet.
“He stood up against the mad house cabinet,” Mr Cudjoe noted, acknowledging a rare instance of bold leadership. Despite these occasional glimmers of resistance, Dr Bawumia ultimately suffered from what Mr Cudjoe calls “the sins of his bad company.”
For him, Dr Bawumia’s guilt by association, combined with an unwillingness or inability to dissociate from the administration’s failures, ensured that he bore the brunt of public disapproval in the last elections.
“He was punished accordingly,” Mr Cudjoe stated, underscoring the political price the former Vice President paid for being complicit, or at the very least, too quiet, in the face of national decline.
Yet, all is not lost in Mr Cudjoe’s estimation, adding that there remains hope — and it lies in Dr Bawumia’s capacity to evolve and finally embody the transformational leadership many once hoped he would personify.
Mr Cudjoe referenced a recent video in which Dr. Bawumia challenges the traditional economic orthodoxy that sees tariffs as tools of national savings.
Instead, Dr Bawumia persuasively argues that tariffs stifle growth, and that developing countries should prioritize building robust macroeconomic foundations capable of withstanding external shocks — including aggressive trade policies from more powerful nations.
But most significantly, he champions the opening of African markets and intra-continental trade as the path to shared prosperity.
“Tariffs are growth shattering,” Mr Cudjoe quoted from Dr Bawumia’s argument, praising the clarity with which he dissected the fallacy of protectionist policies.
Importantly, Mr Cudjoe noted that Dr Bawumia does not only speak as an economist; he also emphasizes the role of trust — among nations and between governments and their citizens — as the cornerstone of diplomacy and sustainable exchange.
Foundational Principle
In Mr Cudjoe’s view, this insight could serve as a foundational principle for any future leadership vision Dr Bawumia may seek to build.
The path forward, Mr Cudjoe concluded, must be one of reinvention and reconnection. Dr Bawumia, he argued, must now prove himself as his “own man”.
He cautioned against a “quiet intellectual bound by party orthodoxy” but a bold leader capable of transforming deserts into lush fields — a metaphor for reviving Ghana’s economy and public trust.
“What remains now is for my friend, Dr. Bawumia, to earn the trust of the Ghanaian again,” he wrote, underscoring the stakes of the political and personal renaissance that lies ahead.
Whether Dr Bawumia succeeds in this task will depend on his willingness to fully disentangle from the shadows of a troubled administration, assert his own policy vision, and show the courage to lead with integrity.
READ ALSO: Cedi’s Sharp Rally May Not Last: Absa Bank Warns of Partial Reversal by Year-End
