2028 looks like Bawumia vs Naana Jane - Enimil Ashon writes
Social media has taken an early lead in the debate as to who should be flag bearer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2028.
The crowd is rooting for Ato Forson.
Ato, by his body language, so far, does not look like someone who has even given life in Jubilee House a minute’s thought.
His face is blank most of the time – but so is Haruna
Iddrisu, the Education Minister, and so are Julius Debrah, Chief of Staff and Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang, the Vice-President.
For some reason, I have ruled out an Asiedu Nketia candidature.
I believe he is too crafty a politician to have embarked on a ‘Thank you Tour’ with an eye on the Presidency. But have I spoken too soon?
Only this week, a post appeared on social media in which Charles Asiedu, MP for Tano South and son of General Mosquito, flagged a message to the effect that “Time asoooo, time aso” (meaning, the time is now). Is the General testing the waters?
I couldn’t believe what the media were saying about Julius Debrah’s ambitions until I saw banners all over the place inviting Ghanaians to “Walk with Julius”. He has handled the Chief of Staff portfolio well, thus far, but his face looks to me too nice for a fighter.
If Naana becomes flag bearer, Ato, for tribal balance, cannot be the running mate. Same can be said for Julius.
That leaves Haruna the only one standing.
On October 13, 2025, President John Dramani Mahama, speaking at the opening ceremony of the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women in Beijing, China, said, “I am confident that in the very near future, our women will break the glass ceiling and that a woman will be President of the Republic”.
Some say he was not categorical; others believe that he was dropping hints.
Since then, though there is no art to read the mind from the face, I think Naana and Haruna are, by gestures, teasing conclusions from Ghanaians.
In front of press cameras, they have embraced like long-lost age-mates and smiled boldly, eyeball to eyeball.
Plus, Naana has, since Mahama’s prediction, multiplied her image in the media. If nothing negative happens between now and NDC’s presidential primary, our first female Vice
Chancellor of a public university and first Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana stands the chance of an NDC thumbs-up.
Again, the dice is loaded against Ato and Julius, even in the race for Running Mate.
If Naana bears the flag, she would be looking northward for a Vice President, not because she would be constitutionally enjoined to do so but because it would be in the interest of NDC. In that permutation, Haruna will be her driver’s mate.
If Prof. gets NDC’s nod, the lines are drawn for a direct battle with Bawumia, the recently elected NPP flag bearer.
Wager
On which of these two will you wager your bottom pesewa and for what reasons?
Are you one of those who think that a woman of Naana’s age cannot withstand the pressures of the job? And are you concluding so because she fell ill after the heat of the 2024 campaign?
You forget that Dr Bawumia, as Vice-President, was flown to the UK for medical treatment on January 19, 2018 – young as he was.
Besides, to consider any human task too much for a woman is an insult to Ghanaian womanhood.
Was Yaa Asantewaa a male?
What about Mabel Dove (Danquah), first Ghanaian female member of the Legislative Assembly (1954), Elizabeth Ohene who, in the Third Republic, turned down the President’s appointment as Editor of Daily Graphic, insisting that only the Constitution could make that appointment!
What about Joyce Aryee, PNDC Secretary (Minister) for Information and later, Education, CEO of the male-dominated Chamber of Mines?
Remember, Brigadier-General Constance Edjeani-Afenu (RIP) was a woman.
Against Bawumia, Naana is a midget in Economics. He will have much to tout in that area – plus digitalisation. Naana can only pray that her current Economic Management Team, with the likes of Sam Jonah, Kwame Pianim and Kwabena Dufuor, will work the magic so that their deeds will speak for her.
A stronger trump card will be the promised Women’s Bank (which I am told she is passionate about).
Candidate Opoku Agyemang has a formidable constituency if the media, by 2025, start turning out stories of “massive millions of women who have been helped out of poverty with loans from the Women’s Bank.”
Age? Twelve years separate them. Naana, born in 1951, will be 77 in 2028 while Bawumia, born in 1963, will be 65. Both of them have garnered a lot of experience as “driver’s mate” beside their respective Presidents, with Bawumia spending much longer in the trenches and bearing the most battle scars.
To spite tribalists and religious bigots, I will contemptuously leave out any discussion of tribe and religion. It’s enough that framers of the Constitution, in Article 35, titled ‘Directive Principles of State Policy’, made provision to ensure tribal balance in ministerial and other high level appointments. `
Bawumia would no longer need to be narrating his history of associations with Boys Brigade, looking for photo opportunities with Father Campbell or spending precious Sundays in churches – just to woo Christian votes.
NDC supporters, for whom the 2024 victory makes 2028 a “cool chop” or who are counting their blessings because the NPP looks too fractured to heal by 2028, will need a reminder that when that party was worst hit by internal crises, such as suspending Afoko and Kwabena Agyepong, that it emerged victorious in 2017.
Besides, Bawumia is still in the hearts of Ghanaians for that early concession speech in 2024 that spared the country bloodshed.
But will Naana stand?
