Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has insisted that the former Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, was sidelined by the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration, and should be granted the opportunity to redeem himself.
Bentil says Bawumia’s woes were evident to everyone that has followed the political dynamics of the country, indicating the man refused to resign despite the challenges because he felt he was in a position to have altered things for the better.
According to him, his public utterances about the dangers of taxing electronic transactions –E-levy –is part of the evidence that vindicates the man as being opposed to some of the unpopular decisions of the then administration that plummeted the economy.
Speaking on The KeyPoints show on TV3 on Saturday, January 31, 2026, during the conduct of the NPP presidential primary, Bentil, a supporter of Bawumia argued that, the two-term Vice President is the best person to lead the NPP and Ghana in future, indicating the excesses of the previous administration cannot be extended to him since he was sidelined in the process.
“The issue of he being sidelined is not an opinion, it’s a fact. If you don’t know then you’ve not followed Ghana’s politics in the last eight years,” he was emphatic.
He explained that “in the first four years, things were good. In fact there were people who were touting Nana Akufo-Addo as the best President in Africa. Not everything was perfect but they managed things well. It was in the last four years when the Finance Minister took off on his own.’
Bentil substantiated his assertion with Bawumia’s position on the infamous e-levy where he said the former Vice President opposed its implementation.
“If you doubt it at all, Dr. Bawumia made statements about how he didn’t like things like e-levy. Dr. Bawumia said publicly how it is not good to be taxing electronic transfers because people will suffer,” he stated, adding that he protested that by absenting himself during the presentation of the last budget.
“You saw in the last budget he didn’t even go to Parliament. Anybody who has been watching knew what was going on and under those circumstances, the man managed to be effective.”
