Veep slot: Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang deserves a second chance - John Mahama told

Professor Smart Sarpong has appealed to former President and leader of the largest opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC), John Dramani Mahama, to give Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang a second chance at becoming his Running Mate.

With the National Democratic Congress and the governing New Patriotic Party gearing up for the 2024 electioneering year, both parties have been advised to strategically choose their Running Mates with caution that a wrong choice would adversely affect their political fortunes.

On the part of the New Patriotic Party(NPP), names such as Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Energy Minister, Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare and a host of others have cropped up for consideration.

On the side of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the former Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, former Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Authority, Sylvester Mensah and Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang among others are some potential names for the slot.

However, some members within the NDC object to the re-selection of Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang but the Senior Research Fellow of the Kumasi Technical University, Prof. Smart Sarpong believes the former should be given the benefit of the doubt.

He explained that Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang as an academic may not have had the political instincts when John Mahama chose her as Running Mate into the 2020 elections but she deserves another shot.

Prof. Smart Sarpong argued that dropping Prof. Opoku-Agyemang may send a wrong signal to Ghanaians.

"If they will give the woman another opportunity, I think it wouldn't have been bad. It would have signified or represent consistency. It would have signified and represented that, at least, we know that women largely as some people call them 'weaker cells' but when you give a woman an opportunity, she can do things that a man cannot. If you like touch a woman's child and you will see the man in her".

"If you drop the woman, people will begin to read a lot of meanings that you don't believe in consistency; you don't give second opportunity...I know the woman as a former Vice Chancellor. We all didn't know her as a politician, so maybe given a second chance, the woman can prove something very greater than what we saw her do in the first contest," he asserted while commenting on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show.