Road to Election 2024: Of flag bearers, running mates: Bawumia & Opoku Prempeh versus Mahama & Opoku-Agyemang (2)

While the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has exhibited a soft spot for Fantes, it is also a known fact that the Volta Region is its ‘World Bank’, probably because its founder, Jerry John Rawlings, hailed from there.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has also been severally tagged as an Akan party, largely due to its strong base in the Ashanti Region, coupled with the fact that since 1996, the party’s flag bearers have been Akans (former President John Agyekum Kufuor and current President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo).

Though for the upcoming 2024 election, the party has broken that tradition by choosing a flag bearer who is of northern extraction (Dr Mahamudu Bawumia), the choice of then Energy Minister and Member of Parliament for Manhyia South, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh (aka Napo), has put paid to the tag of the NPP as a political party with a strong Akan foundation.

Indeed, before the choice of Napo, there were very strong sentiments that the running mate for Dr Bawumia must definitely come from the Ashanti Region.

Unveiling the NPP’s running mate in Kumasi on July 9, 2024, President Akufo-Addo emphasised his belief that the Dr Bawumia and Dr Opoku Prempeh pair would develop the country better than he had done.

The President said his belief was premised on the fact that the success of his government’s flagship Free SHS Policy was all due to Napo’s role as the Minister of Education and prayed the people would reward him and the flag bearer’s hard work by renewing the mandate of the party.

Education ministers

It is certain as the rising of the sun that one of the key issues that will be touted on the campaign platform as we inch closer to the December polls will be the impact that the two running mates of the NPP and NDC had on education in the country while they presided over the sector.

Dr Opoku Prempeh was the Minister of Education from January 2017 to January 2021 while Professor Opoku-Agyemang was appointed Minister of Education by the Mahama-led government from February 2013 to January 2017.

A statement by the NPP General Secretary, Justin Kodua Frimpong, on Thursday, July 4, 2024, after the confirmation of Dr Opoku Prempeh as the party’s running mate, stated in part, “Owing to his passion for education, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo appointed him as Minister of Education during his first term.

“As Education Minister, Napo, as he is affectionately called, spearheaded the implementation of the famous Free Senior High School policy. Under Dr Prempeh, the successful implementation of the government’s flagship Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy saw the country’s SHS population leap from 800,000 in 2016 to 1.2 million by January 2021.

“It is instructive to note that Napo ensured that this policy was rolled out within the first year of the Akufo-Addo government when he was appointed as Education Minister.

He didn’t ask for a honeymoon. I repeat he didn’t ask for a honeymoon. “It will be recalled that at the time he announced that he was going ahead to implement the policy, many people, including some from civil society organisations (CSOs) and some senior members of the government, thought it was too early to implement such bold and far-reaching policy.

“But, typical of Napo, he would have none of that. He showed boldness and decisiveness when it mattered most, and went on with the policy, which is by far, the biggest social intervention in the nation’s education sector since independence. Today, posterity has vindicated him. Ghana certainly needs leaders who are bold and decisive, because that is the only way we can achieve results.

“It is also worthy to note that throughout his four-year tenure as Minister of Education, there was significant industrial harmony and stability on the education front.

He ensured that the concerns of teachers and other players in the education sector were adequately attended to.

“This, therefore, confirms that Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has incredible interpersonal and negotiation skills. He is arguably the only Minister of Education in this Fourth Republic to have achieved this feat.”

Recognition

The statement by the NPP General Secretary also posited that it was in recognition of his leadership skills and his contribution towards education in Ghana, particularly in respect of his role in the implementation of the government’s flagship Free SHS programme and other transformational policies in education, that Dr Prempeh was honoured by the University of Education Winneba, the University of Cape Coast and the University of Professional Studies, Accra, with conferred honorary doctorate degrees.

It goes on to say that it was due to his stellar qualities that Dr Prempeh was reassigned to the Energy Ministry in the second term of President Akufo-Addo’s presidency and that despite the challenges in that sector, he ensured that they did not last beyond three months.

Meanwhile, according to an opinion poll by the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana dubbed “Assessment of the 275 Members of Parliament (MPs) – Perspective from the Constituents”, which was carried out from March to June 2019 with funding from Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Dr Prempeh emerged the best-performing minister in the Akufo-Addo-led administration for 2019, based on policy and delivery, competency and hard work.

He is also credited for leading various policy reforms that have had a far-reaching impact on Ghana’s educational landscape and leading a team to deliver on curriculum reforms, teacher reforms and several initiatives to promote and mainstream Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

He also secured approval for the successful recruitment of over 93,725 teaching and non-teaching staff to drastically improve the pupil-teacher ratio at the pre-tertiary level.

Opoku-Agyemang

Conversely, announcing Prof. Opoku-Agyemang as Mr Mahama’s running mate, a press release signed by the NDC’s General Secretary,  Fiavi Kwetey, and issued on March 7, 2024, stated: “The National Democratic Congress (NDC) proudly announces the selection of Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as the Running Mate to the party's flag bearer, John Dramani Mahama, for the 2024 presidential election.

"Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang is a distinguished academic and leader renowned for her dedication to education and public service.

"Having served as Minister for Education and as the first female Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, she has emerged as a trailblazer for women in leadership across Ghana.

"Her nomination underscores the NDC's unwavering commitment to inclusivity, diversity and the empowerment of women in leadership roles.

“Possessing extensive qualifications and experience, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the NDC's presidential ticket.” 

Still speaking of her credentials at the Education Ministry, a former Deputy Minister of Education and Member of Parliament for South Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, ballyhooed the achievement of Prof. Opoku-Agyemang during her four-year tenure as Ghana's Education Minister, when she was first chosen as the running mate for Mr Mahama for the 2020 election.

Achievements

Taking to his Facebook page to list the achievements of the former Education Minister, Mr Ablakwa, who was her deputy for three years (between 2013-2016), said, “Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang's sterling record as Minister of Education is a healthy mixture of innovative policy initiatives, quality outcomes and massive infrastructural development.”

Listing those achievements, he said, “She successfully championed many reforms such as the conversion of polytechnics into technical universities, upgrading Colleges of Education into tertiary institutions, reducing teacher absenteeism from 27 per cent to 7 per cent, introducing the unprecedented Private BECE.”

He continued that Prof. Opoku-Agyemang led negotiations with the World Bank, which secured for Ghana the flagship Secondary Education Improvement Project and the African Centres of Excellence initiative, resulting in the establishment and funding for the West African Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) both at the University of Ghana and the Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre (RWESC) at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

Also, she supervised Ghana's overall best performing WASSCE nation award by WAEC for four consecutive years when she served as Minister and the massive retooling and infrastructural development which she tirelessly delivered; abolished the quota system at the Colleges of Education, which led to enrolment increasing from 9,000 to 15,400, thereby creating more teaching opportunities for the youth; ensured teachers were automatically posted without National Service and Licensure Examinations and procured and distributed more than 150,000 tables and chairs to basic schools.

Mr Ablakwa said Prof. Opoku-Agyemang also upgraded facilities at 50 less endowed Senior High Schools and 75 under-performing Senior High Schools, donated some 54,000 laptops to teachers and stocked computer labs with 60,000 computers during her tenure, recruited 2,400 mathematics and science teachers as a special intervention to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics and science at the SHS level and engaged more than 40,000 newly recruited teachers during her tenure as minister, which is confirmed by EMIS data, while GES staff strength increased by 18.2 per cent from 247,254 to 292,238.

The North Tongu MP also credited the Prof. with superintending over the allocation of some 500 buses and double cabin pickups to educational institutions and district education offices, improving quality of basic education that resulted in Ghana's all-time best BECE performance, distributing 787,485 free school uniforms to deprived districts across the country, supervising the distribution of over 40,000 free made-in-Ghana leather sandals for vulnerable students, overseeing the distribution of bicycles, school bags, mathematical sets, solar lamps, calculators and textbooks to some 155,781 pupils and increasing the capitation grant by 100 per cent for 11,650 public basic schools in 75 deprived districts.

Further, Mr Ablakwa said Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, during her tenure as Education Minister, constructed 25 district education offices, spent some GH¢61.3 million on BECE subsidy for all registered candidates in private and public basic schools, eliminated the shift system in public basic schools, constructed some 1,129 classroom blocks, 73 teacher accommodation blocks and rehabilitated 622 schools at the basic level, as well as more than 2,000 school projects with the view to eradicate the schools under trees phenomenon.

He also said she introduced the progressively free SHS policy which was targeted at 458,700 poor and vulnerable students, provided 472,800 Teacher Notebooks, 653,700 Class Attendance Registers, 12.8 million Core Textbooks, 2.5 million dictionaries, 4,994,328 boxes of white chalk and 180,000 boxes of coloured chalk, initiated the construction of 124 Community Day Senior High Schools and completed 50 at the time of handing over.

According to the former deputy Minister of Education, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang “administered the Skills Development Fund, which saw some US$50 million worth of grants being awarded to 646 businesses and 93,446 employees/members of trade associations and farmer-based groups, secured funding from the African Development Bank under the Development of Skills for Industry Project (DSIP), which was utilised for the construction of 13 modern and well-equipped Technical Institutes across the country and upgraded facilities in all 38 Colleges of Education.”

He said it was also the Prof. who supervised the completion of the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho, secured funding and initiated work on the University of Environment and Sustainable Development in the Eastern Region, embarked on massive infrastructural expansion in all public tertiary institutions, increased student loan beneficiaries from 13,833 in the 2012/13 academic year to 24,951 in the 2015/16 academic year, saw to an upward review of the students' loan from GH¢650 - GH¢1,600 over two semesters to GH¢1,000 - GH¢2,000 for same period and introduced the Students' Loan Plus to cater for students who gain admission but face financial handicap in raising the initial, time-bound registration fees.

Impact of running mates

The above competencies of the two running mates of the two major political parties seem to put them on an even keel. However, it still remains to be seen if their selection would impact the fortunes of their parties.

 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (middle), presenting Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh as Flag bearer and Running Mate to NPP faithful in Kumasi

A survey conducted by the iRIS Research Group (Ghana 2020 Pre-Election Survey: Report of the study of 36 competitive constituencies) asked respondents: “Would the selection of the running mate influence your choice of the presidential candidate you would vote for?” It drew some interesting responses.

Out of the total number of respondents, only 25 per cent answered yes. 59 per cent responded yes to Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, swaying their vote for the NDC while 49 per cent confirmed Dr Bawumia would influence their vote for the NPP.

As is commonly said, the rest is history. Then running mate Dr Bawumia’s party, the NPP, won the 2020 election, although the study gave him a lower percentage of yes.

But as to whether it is his choice that influenced the victory of his party, there have been no forensic studies proving that, although it has been widely accepted that he brought a lot to the table.