Martin Amidu, a former attorney general and minister for justice, has urged Ghanaians to be circumspect about who they choose to take over from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
According to him, the election would be between two ‘northern brothers’ – the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, and that of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
Amidu, who made these remarks in an editorial copied to GhanaWeb, added that Ghanaians have no choice but to choose between the two men under the current dispensation.
“I have stated elsewhere that the 2024 presidential election is going to be a contest between the lesser of two evils under the 1992 Constitution,” he wrote.
Amidu, a former special prosecutor without naming names, indicated that one of the ‘northern brothers’ has repented from his evil ways while the other keeps sinning.
“In making that decision, the non-sycophantic reasonable electorate may have to weigh the effects of the biblical and koranic edicts on punishment and repentance, and continued sin camouflaged with polished deception,” he said.
The former special prosecutor made these remarks while rebuking Nana Akomea, a deputy chairperson and strategist of the campaign team for the ruling NPP, for using his [Amidu] 2015 interview to score political points again.
He warned both Mahama and Bawumia against using his name and statements he had made in the past to score political points.
“John Dramani Mahama and Mahamudu Bawumia are both my northern brothers and it is dangerous for both the NDC and the NPP to seek to use what I said or wrote before the Nana Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Siamese twins assumed the governance of this country on 7 January 2017 to date.
“I wish the better of the two, John Mahama and Mahamudu Bawumia, win the 2024 presidential election through decent campaigning and speaking truth to the electorate. Should both sides drag my name into their affray and compel me to speak out as a senior northerner, those who baited me should not blame me. I need nothing from John Mahama or Mahamudu Bawumia when either of them wins the 2024 elections just as I took nothing from the Nana Akufo/Bawumia governments,” he added.