It appears desperate attempts by former President John Dramani Mahama to select a Running Mate for election 2020 will linger a while longer.
This is because details have emerged over how bigwigs of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Mr. Mahama has approached for the offer have kept vary miles of distance from the idea of running mate, apparently treating the request like a comment from an ‘outcast.’
The New Publisher’s sources insist that so far Alex Kofi Mensah Mould, a former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) who was approached by Mr. Mahama to pair him for the elections tuned down the offer.
It said the situation was not different when the former president knocked on the door of the Chief Executive of Stanbic Bank Ghana, Alhassan Andani.
According to the source, Mr. Andani, an astute banker also rejected the request of a running mate for Mr. Mahama, making the search for a Vice Presidential Candidate for the Umbrella Party a herculean one.
Interestingly, Dr. Johnson P. Asiama, a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana has been widely rumored to be the last bet for Mr. Mahama.
Dr. Johnson P. Asiama is among four (4) personalities shortlisted to partner the former President although it would not come as a surprise if he should also waive the offer.
Of the four names, Dr Johnson Asiama was reported to be standing tall as a result of his age, general appeal, technocratic background, unblemished record and hailing from the Volta Region.
Other names on the list, the paper gathers include Ms. Hannah Serwaa Tetteh, a former Minister for Foreign Affairs, and two men from the Volta and Ashanti Regions respectively who both served in important positions in the Mahama administration without blemish.
The grape vine also has it that in the event that the choice for Dr. Asiama goes the way of the others, the former president could settle on Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi, a former Minister for the Interior and Ghana’s first Ambassador to the Comoros as an alternative.
If it turns out to be him, Dr Asiama will be the second top official from the BoG to become the running mate of Mahama after the late Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur with whom they won the 2012 elections.
The choice for Mr. Ahwoi would be a departure from convention as the practice over the years has been to pair a politician with an economist as in the Nana-Bawumia pair, Rawlings-Atta Mills and Mahama-Amissah-Arthur duo.
It is unclear why it appears more people are shying away from Mahama.
The paper cannot also say for a fact whether it is because politics in Ghana is dirty or decent people don’t just want to partner Mr. Mahama whose government political watchers claim was riddled with acts of corruption.