Naana wasn’t my favourite, but she’s a brilliant pick – Kwamena Ahwoi

NDC kingmaker, Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi, has lauded the choice of Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as Mahama’s running mate in the upcoming 2020 elections.

The NDC stalwart said he knew the capabilities of the first female running mate for the party and she would deliver.

Prof Ahwoi, who served as Minister for Local Government and Rural Development from 1990 to 2001 under the Rawlings regime, said his choice for the role “wasn’t Jane, but the moment she was announced I accepted her because I know she is a very good material.”

Her nomination has caused “confusion in the governing party because this was the last thing they thought could happen.”

He said he has known Jane for a long time as they were both born in 1951.

The party unveiled Prof. Opoku-Agyemang on Monday,July 28 at the UPSA in Accra.

For Prof. Ahwoi, her partnership with former President Mahama for the race “is a brilliant ticket.”

“Naana is a lady of steel,” he emphasised in an interview with Accra-based Joy FM, which was monitored by theghanareport.com.

The choice of the running mate is made by the flagbearer and brought to the NDC Council of Elders for approval.

Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi’s comment that Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang was not his favourite could resurrect previous media reports that he preferred his younger brother, Ato Ahwoi.

Ato Ahwoi was a Minister for Agriculture and later removed and sent to South Africa as Ghana’s High Commissioner. In 2018, Daily Graphic reported that Ato Ahwoi had been touted in some quarters as a possible running mate to John Mahama.

But the rumoured partnership between John Mahama and Ato Ahwoi appears to have irked the founder, Jerry Rawlings.

Jerry Rawlings would go ahead to post his veiled disapproval on social media.

Isn’t the Presidency too busy a place for hopefuls/running mates who spend a little too much time grooming their moustache and dyeing their hair?

— Jerry John Rawlings (@officeofJJR) October 15, 2018

Photo: John Mahama and Ato Ahwoi

Prof Opoku-Agyemang is the first female Vice-Chancellor of a public university, the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

She is the eighth woman to be nominated as a running mate in Ghana since the 1992 elections and the first for the NDC.

She also served as Education Minister under former President Mahama.

If the NDC wins, she would become the first woman to be Vice President of Ghana.

In the assessment of Prof Ahwoi, she possesses managerial acumen and deserving of the nomination.

He said UCC could be likened to a city because it is even bigger than most of the towns we have in Ghana with a huge population.

“It is a good ticket, and I will recommend it to Ghanaians,” Professor Ahwoi concluded.

Jane is targeting the empowerment of women, youth and the aged.