The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, has taken a swipe at Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia over his assertion that he [Bawumia] is just like a driver’s mate in the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government and should be made president – the driver – so he can implement his own vision.

Isaac Adongo, who made these remarks during his keynote address at the Coalition for Restoration Dialogue Series, indicated that the Vice President’s driver-mate analogy is consistent with his character and shows a clear picture of his inferiority complex.

He said that Dr. Bawumia is intentionally using the analogy, just like people who think less of themselves do, to win the pity of Ghanaians.

“As for Alhaji, he uses very derogatory and often inferiority-minded descriptions of himself, such as I’m a driver’s mate, I’m not my own man, etc to con and blackmail Ghanaians to make him president before he clears his mess.

“As a matter of fact, he says he knows how to resolve the hardships he has imposed on us and even though he still has some 10 months left, he will not do it unless we make him president,” he said.

Adongo, who is the ranking member of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance, also said that because Dr. Bawumia has an inferiority complex, he is not able to exert his power as vice president to influence what happens in the government.

He added that Dr. Bawumia failed to perform his role as vice president and is now blaming everybody but himself for the challenges in the country.

“Dr Bawumia’s driver’s mate mindset is born out of an inferiority complex and a queer personality trait that appeals to pity to fool and scam people. Clearly, the problem of Dr Bawumia is not the absence of powers because even if the constitution makes him a co-pilot, he allows his inferiority complex to stand in his way and with his lack of capacity to do the things he says he can do, he goes blaming everyone and blackmailing everybody for more powers to cover his shortcomings.”

The MP said that Vice President Bawumia has been consistently painting himself as a nobody just to win the pity of the Ghanaians.

He said that Dr. Bawumia, whose father was a Member of Parliament and a Minister of State, has always painted the picture that he is from a poor family.

“This driver’s mate mindset has followed Alhaji all his life and born out a clear unacceptable personality trait that pushes him to deploy self-pity to get what he wants. You will recall that Alhaji recently cooked up stories on how he was born a poor boy, was a driver’s mate and engaged in all sorts of menial jobs to finance his education.

“As it turned out, Dr Bawumia was born a privileged child with a golden spoon in his mouth. He was born into an iconic and one of the most respected families and parents to have come out of Northern Ghana,” he added.

What Dr. Bawumia said:

"I am like a driver’s mate," Vice President Dr Bawumia reiterated in his first major speech as flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Bawumia on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, outlined his vision for Ghana in an address at the UPSA auditorium in Accra.

During the presentation, he stressed that despite being the driver's mate, "if, by the Grace of God, you make me president, I will be in the driver's seat with constitutionally mandated authority to pursue my vision and my priorities".

He added: "My vision is to create a tent big enough to accommodate all our people, to tap into the resourcefulness and talents of our people irrespective of our different ethnic, political and religious backgrounds, to channel our energies into building the kind of country that assures a food self-sufficient, safe, prosperous, and dignified future for all Ghanaians, to create sustainable jobs with meaningful pay for all, and for Ghana to participate fully in the fourth industrial revolution using systems and data."

This was not the first time he touted his role as a driver's mate and an assistant to the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Bawumia, in his address, also spoke about several taxes he would abolish when elected president and plans and policies he would roll out while pointing to the successes of the Akufo-Addo government.