A Professor of political science at the University of Ghana, Ransford Edward Van Gyampo, has said an early concession of defeat in an election is not a guarantee of commitment to handing over power.
Gyampo says the monumental level of the defeat, as it was emerging, makes it not a surprise to have the losing candidate coming out to accept defeat before the Electoral Commission’s (EC) official declaration of the results.
The Vice President and 2024 flag bearer of the governing New Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, prior to the EC’s declaration of the presidential results on Monday, December 09, 2024, came out a day earlier to concede defeat.
On Sunday, December 08, Bawumia and some members of his team, together with his wife, at a press conference at his Accra residence, announced that the results collated at their own outfit indicated that they have lost the election, and had called on his main opponent, John Dramani Mahama, to congratulate him on his victory.
The decision, which the Vice President says was opposed by his team, has been commended by many saying the political tension that was created by the EC’s silence was subdued by Dr. Bawumia’s concession.
Speaking on the KeyPoints on TV3 Saturday, December 28, 2024, Prof. Gyampo said that showmanship, though commendable, does not guarantee one’s willingness to hand over power.
He, therefore, admonished the public not to indulge in any acts of violence that will create room to alter the successful transition to elongate the stay in power of the incumbent administration.
“Early concession of defeat upon seeing how monumental it is going to be and nominating people to serve on transition team, though commendable, in my view are not necessarily a show of one’s commitment to handing over power. Little dogmatic minds and those who feel they are educated without the ideals of their education going through them beyond they speaking English, are the ones that see such gestures as significant,” he stated.
The political science lecturer continued that “even the severe governance deficit we have faced and we had to endure with the current regime, I’ll call on the generality of Ghanaians that let us be calm, but let us still be vigilant.”
“Let no one do anything that will force a declaration of a state of emergency that may be licentious for some people to want to hold on to power so they can cover up their loot and everything they have done wrong that they are scared are going to be exposed,” he further advised.
Why set up a committee if you know apathy caused your defeat? – Gyampo quizzes NPP
