Comparing Prof. Jane Opoku Agyemang to Bawumia absurd – Brigitte Dzogbeneku
With the two main presidential candidates choosing their running mates, the selection of a woman for the NDC’s candidate John Mahama has drawn comparisons.
But another woman who was once a running mate has described some comparisons as “absurd”.
Brigitte Dzogbeneku was running mate to Progressive People’s Party (PPP) presidential candidate Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom during the 2016 presidential elections.
The running mate position has been in recent times branded by the governing New Patriotic Party as a position fit for an astute economist.
The Vice-President whoever the person is would conventionally head the government’s Economic Management Team.
The NPP has been raving about VIce-President Mahamudu Bawumia, whom they say has fitted the bill very well.
And so the National Democratic Congress’s decision to approve an educationist Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang as the running mate to John Mahama is being viewed by some through the lenses of economy.
But speaking on Accra based Joy FM in an interview monitored by theghanareport.com, Madam Dzogbeneku said Prof. Opoku-Agyemang brings on board a plethora of advantages onto the NDC’s ticket.
“I think that people try to dwell on her academics and immediately pitch her against Dr. Bawumia which I find absurd. Because she is unique as a woman and she already has her constituency. But women’s leadership is different.
“I think our democracy has got to go beyond competition and power to leadership and good governance and service. If you’re talking about that, women make fantastic leaders and she has held many leadership positions,” she said.
RELATED: NDC Running mate: Who Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang?
The 2016 Vice Presidential candidate for the PPP, Madam Dzogbeneku also eulogized her former teacher at the Wesley Girls’ High School in Cape Coast.
“She is a fantastic leader. She’s not only book-long. There’s a lot more to her than just the book. She’s an amalgam. She’s someone who can get people to come together – Unifier. A woman has innate empathetic and compassionate values. The fact that she went to Wesley Girls’, she brings out those values that we hope that will have an influence on the party.”
Following her nomination, there have been varied reactions on social media.
She becomes the first female running mate of the largest opposition party in Ghana, which for months had been under pressure to name its Vice-Presidential candidate.
Other close contenders in the race were Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, an economist and a former Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).
Dr. Kwabena Dufuor, former Minister of Finance and Economic Planning during the Mills administration; and Alex Segbefia, a former Minister of Health in the Mahama administration were also in the hat.
The choice of Prof Opoku-Agyeman means the NDC is sticking its faith with the Central Region where it has picked most of its running mates since 1992— Ekow Nkensen Arkaah (1992); J.E.A Mills (1996) and Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur (2012 & 2016).
The university don has scored many first already—she is the first Ghanaian woman to be appointed a Vice-Chancellor in 2008.
Other female running mates in Ghana
Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang is, however, the seventh woman to run on the ticket of a political party in Ghana as a Vice-Presidential candidate.
In 1992, Naa Afarley Sackeyfio became the first woman to be selected as a Vice-Presidential candidate in Ghana, joining the Presidential bid of the National Independent Party’s (NIP), Kwabena Darko.
The Peoples National Convention (PNC) followed suit 16 years later with Petra Amegashie as Dr Edward Mahama’s running mate.
In 2012, Cherita Frimpomaa Kumankuma ran with Forster Abu Sakara on the ticket of the CPP.
The PNC’s Hassan Ayariga also partnered Helen Senorita Dzatugbe Matervi in the 2012 polls, while the PPP’s Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom found competence in Eva Lokko(now late) as a running mate also in the same year.
In 2016, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom made another female choice for a running mate by choosing Brigitte Dzogbenuku.
However, the first woman to contest as a Presidential candidate was Former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings.
Great piece
Wesley Girls and she as a professor, leaked questions to Prez Mahama in the 2012 IEA debate?
Please look at her morals as well!!!!