Austin Kwabena Brako-Powers, a legal practitioner and political commentator, has said the former Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and presidential candidate hopeful for the NPP has lost his economic messiah credentials
It will be recalled that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia emerged as a key figure in Ghana’s politics when he was sold th Ghanaians as the Messiah who would rescue Ghana from economic doldrums.
In the lead-up to the 2016 elections, Dr Bawumia criticised the then John Mahama-led administration, promising to stabilise the Cedi by arresting the dollar.
However, under him as Vice President and head of the Economic Management Team, the cedi’s performance was disastrous.
In November 2024, the cedi had depreciated significantly more than during the tenure of the government he criticised, exchanging at GHc17.20 to a dollar.
According to Brako-Powers, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has lost the public confidence that once positioned him as an “economic messiah” in Ghana’s political discourse.
He noted that Dr Bawumia, as the chairman of the economic management, has been fundamentally weakened by recent developments.
Speaking on TV3’s Big Issues on Friday, December 26, 2025, “When you praise someone as an economic messiah and give them the opportunity to lead, only for the economy to deteriorate, the consequence is that people lose confidence in that person”.
“All the cries about economic sovereignty ended with Ghana at the doorstep of the IMF”, he noted.
“If you have lost your economic messianic credibility, you should not be marketed as the solution,” he said, concluding that presenting Dr Bawumia again as an economic hope would be akin to “selling something nobody wants to buy.”
Meanwhile, Kwaku Sintim-Misa (KSM), a Ghanaian satirist and anti-corruption advocate, has said that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has allowed partisan issues to crowd his intelligence.
According to KSM, Dr Bawumia’s statement about when the fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you is true, but Dr Bawumia’s statement only implied to the NDC when they were in government, which was wrong.
Speaking on KSM UNFILTERED, hosted by Bridget Otoo, Kwaku Sintim-Misa stated, “We have moved from brawn to brain; it’s all brain work; it’s not about being macho that makes you who you are. The numbers don’t mean anything to me; they can be 76 in parliament, but if you hear the quality of the debate and argument, it will feel like it has an impact on a majority.
It’s time everyone understands that we are moving from brawn to brains. Let us use our brains”.
He added, “My thoughts on Bawumia: he has allowed partisan issues to crowd his own intelligence. The statement he made, which we still laugh at him for, is that when the fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you; it is true.
His truth was that it was only true when the NDC was in power. But it doesn’t matter who was in power; his truth was that when the NDC was in power, that is when the fundamentals were weak. That is where he got it wrong”.
He further added, “But he has apologies, when asked by Bridget Otoo if he believes Dr Bawumia’s apology, KSM stated, “No, the apology is politics. The NPP needs to shift from brawn to brains”.