Ignore calls to drop Professor Opoku Agyemang - Mahama told

The National Democratic Congress presidential candidate for the 2024 election will be shooting himself in the foot if he changes his running mate.

According to a member of the NDC and a United States-based Financial Management Consultant who says that changing Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang would amount to Mr. Mahama committing a marketing blunder of unwise proportions.

“In Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, you have a well-marketed personality given her public engagements following her selection as running Mate in 2020,” said Mr. Mike Yaw Offei.

According to him, “changing her will also mean Mr. Mahama is unnecessarily sentencing himself, the party and his ticket to an unnecessary chore of reinventing the wheel in respect of a personality for the ticket. This would be most unwise because it is trite knowledge that when something is not broken, you do not fix it,” he said in an interview.

Mr. Michael Offei has in his track record, experience from working with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He was one of the brains behind the sterling performance of the Atta Mills government which oversaw the reduction of inflation to single digits and the transition of Ghana from a poor country into a lower middle-income country.

His take comes in the wake of media reports that Mr. Mahama is looking to name a new Running Mate for the 2024 elections.

According to a report by pro-government newspaper, Daily Guide, the former President has already commissioned a “listening survey” among NDC delegates to gauge who would be most suitable to partner the former President on the 2024 ticket.

The paper claims that within the NDC, there is discontentment among party faithful about the value that Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang brought to the NDC’s presidential ticket in 2020 hence the decision to drop her for someone else.

However, Mr. Mike Offei scoffs at this reasoning.

“I hope it is not true but if indeed, it is true that John Mahama wants to drop Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang because he thinks she did not bring much value to the 2020 ticket then this is some seriously disjointed logic because we still remember how the Jane and John ticket scared the NPP in 2020,” Mr. Mike Offei said.

Mr. Mike Offei also said that reason would be very strange because, “most people in the NDC actually believe that the party won the 2020 election but then the vote was stolen for the incumbent president.”

Mr. Offei urged President Mahama to be reminded of “how he will be shooting himself in the foot after creating the historical first appointment of a woman as Running Mate.  

“He should not let it be said that John Mahama and the NDC only used the first female Running Mate and dumped her.”

He also urged Mr. John Mahama to remember the insults that Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang endured from the NDC’s opponents after she was selected as running mate in 2020.