More jobs and no ‘nuisance taxes’

Ghana’s former president John Mahama will be under immense pressure to meet voters’ expectations after his landslide victory in Saturday’s elections.

Returning to power after eight years in opposition, he presided over what political analyst Nansata Yakubu described as a “masterclass” in campaigning.

He defeated Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia with 56.6% of the vote to 41.6%, achieving the largest margin of victory for a candidate in 24 years.

But turnout in the 2020 elections was lower than in the 2020 elections, especially in some core countries of Bwaumia’s New Patriotic Party (NPP), indicating that people there – disillusioned with the party’s performance in government – ​​are at home stayed instead of switching sides.

As Mahama’s supporters celebrated his victory, Belinda Amuzu – a teacher in the northern city of Tamale, a Mahama stronghold – summed up their hopes.

“I expect that the new government will change the economy so that hardship will decrease. He should also prosecute corrupt officials so that it will be a lesson to others,” she told the BBC.

“The hardship” has become a common phrase in Ghana since the economy hit rock bottom in 2022, triggering a cost-of-living crisis that tore apart Bawumia’s reputation as an “economic whiz kid” – and led to his defeat. from Mahama.

Ghanaian economist Prof. Godfred Bokpin told the BBC that the challenges for the next government are enormous.

“What Ghana needs now is credible leadership, a streamlined government and efficiency in public services. Without that there can be no future,” he said.

Mahama has promised to reduce the size of the Cabinet from more than 80 to about 60, but Prof. Bokpin argued that it should be smaller, while political analyst Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante stressed that appointments should be made on merit in instead of based on loyalty.

Mahama will be flanked by former Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, who will become Ghana’s first female Vice President when the new government takes office next month.

Dr. Yakubu said her appointment was not one of “tokenism” and that she was not someone who could be “manipulated”.

“We have a fantastic first female vice-president in Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang,” she told the BBC Focus on Africa podcast.

Mahama served his first four-year term as president after winning in 2012, but lost his re-election bid in 2016 when Nana Akufo-Addo came to power with Bawumia as his running mate.

Dr. Yakubu said Mahama contested the 2016 elections based on his record of building roads, schools and hospitals, but voters rejected him because their mantra then was: “We don’t eat infrastructure.”

But, she said, during the Covid pandemic, voters began to appreciate the infrastructure his government had built, especially hospitals.

This – together with the fact that the economy had entered a deep crisis under the current government, forcing it to request a $3 billion (£2.4 billion) bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – led to Mahama being re-elected. Dr. Yakubu added.

She told the BBC that Mahama is now expected to fulfill his campaign promise to create jobs to reduce unemployment by almost 15%, and to ease the cost of living crisis by eliminating some taxes – or what the Ghanaians call it. “nuisance taxes”.

Mahama has promised to make Ghana a ’24-hour economy’ by creating night jobs in both the public and private sectors. He said he would give tax breaks to businesses to stay open at night and lower electricity prices for them.

But his critics have their doubts, pointing out that Ghana suffered its worst electricity crisis during his first term and that the power cuts were so severe that Mahama joked at the time that he was known as ‘Mr Dumsor’ – ‘dum’ means ‘off’. and “sor” means “on” in the local Twi language.

He has also pledged to abolish several taxes, including the much-criticized electronic levy on mobile transactions and that on CO2 emissions from petrol or diesel vehicles.

Prof Bokpin said he doubted the Mamama government could deliver on its promises.

“They didn’t do the cost-benefit analysis. There is no budgetary space to translate these promises into reality,” he said.

But Mahama is confident he will prove his critics wrong, saying he plans to renegotiate the terms of the IMF loan to free up money for “social intervention programs” in a country where 7, 3 million people lived in poverty.

In an interview ahead of the election, Mahama told the BBC that the IMF wanted “some balance” in public finances.

“And so if you can cut spending, increase revenue and increase non-tax revenue, you can create a balance,” he said.

Dr. Asah-Asante said Mahama’s experience as a former president stood him in good stead as he navigated Ghana through choppy waters.

“Of course, he will probably encounter difficulties, but he has what it takes to turn things around,” the analyst added.

Mahama’s previous stint in government – as vice president and president – was plagued by allegations of corruption, but he has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

In 2020, a British court ruled that aviation giant Airbus had used bribes to secure contracts with Ghana for military aircraft between 2009 and 2015.

An investigation was subsequently launched in Ghana, but the Office of the Special Prosecutor, in a decision announced just months before the elections, concluded that there was no evidence that Mahama himself was involved in corrupt activities.

The outgoing government is also dogged by allegations of corruption, including over the $34.9 million purchase of ambulance spare parts and a controversial national cathedral project on which $58 million was spent without any progress in its construction.

Mahama vowed that his government would tackle corruption and ensure officials were prosecuted for misconduct.

“We are thinking about special courts,” he told the BBC.

Dr. Asah-Asante said Mahama should demand financial accountability from the outgoing government during a handover phase so that he can “correct whatever went wrong” once his government takes office next month.

The analyst added that Mahama, who will be inaugurated next month when President Akufo-Addo steps down after his two terms in office, had no choice but to live up to the expectations of Ghanaians – otherwise they would “punish his government in the way they did that’. the nuclear power plant”.

Mahama succinctly acknowledged this in his victory speech, saying: “The expectations of Ghanaians are very high, and we cannot afford to disappoint them.

“Our best days are not behind us; our best days are ahead of us. Always forward – never backward.”

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfricaon Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at BBCAfrica

BBC Africa Podcasts