THE FOURTH JOHN EXCERPTS: The night before Atta Mills named John Mahama as his running mate

We will be bringing you excerpts from Manasseh Azure Awuni’s book, The Fourth John: Reign, Rejection & Rebound. Today, we bring you excerpts from Chapter Three titled “The Making of President Mahama”.

…John Mahama himself was preparing to quit politics at the time the northern caucus had the agenda of grooming him for the presidency. The 2004 election was his last parliamentary contest. He had told friends and people around him that he would go back to school and transition into the next phase of his life, outside politics.

“I had started the admission process and was going back to school. I had told my constituents that I wasn’t going again. The University for Development Studies had just started and I wanted to contribute to the intellectual base of that university and impart knowledge,” Mr. Mahama said in an interview for this book.

Getting Mahama to rescind his decision of going to school was part of the initial resistance which Bagbin and others had to deal with. They told him he should think beyond himself, that he was being supported to represent a bigger interest, a service to his people. He was carrying the hopes and dreams of the north and he should not let his people down. They managed to convince him, and his family also supported the ambition to get him to the next step of the political ladder. President Mills reportedly sent a respectable traditional ruler to speak to him at a point.

In December 2006, Professor Mills was elected presidential candidate of the NDC for the third time. He polled 1,362 votes, representing 81.4% of the total votes. Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah polled 146 votes, representing 8.7%, while Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, a former Minister of Defence, had 137 votes, representing 8.2%. Mr. Eddie Annan, a businessman, got 28 votes, representing 1.7%.

Professor Atta Mills and the NDC announced that on May 6, 2008, the party would name its vice presidential candidate. Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, who partnered Professor Mills in the 2004 election was lobbying for the slot. But those who dominated the media discussion were John Mahama and Betty Mould Iddrisu, wife of Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, who had contested Professor Mills for the flag bearer slot. Betty Mould Iddrisu was being backed by Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, wife of Jerry John Rawlings.

Betty Mould-Iddrisu would later be appointed the Minister of Justice and Attorney General in the Mills-Mahama administration and have herself embroiled in what became known as the Woyome Scandal, in which a huge sum of money was paid to businessman and financier of the NDC and NPP, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, under dubious circumstances.

At the time the scandal became full-blown, Betty Mould Iddrisu was the Minister for Education and was compelled to resign because of her role in the scandal. Even though Woyome, like many politically-exposed entrepreneurs, sponsored both the NDC and NPP, the NPP distanced itself from him because the money was dubiously paid during the NDC administration.

Mr. Rawlings did not indicate who he was backing, but it was clear he was not very pleased with John Mahama. Sources close to him say he felt Mahama had snubbed him when he (Rawlings) wanted to meet him for a discussion and to offer him his blessing as Mills’ running mate.

 Some sources close to John Mahama say he, for various reasons, did not want to be seen as a “Rawlings boy”. He did not want to belong to any of the opposing camps in the party, one of which was led by Rawlings. He also did not want to be seen lobbying or using influential people to advance his cause. He wanted to give the candidate the freewill to choose without any pressure.

Rawlings still wielded substantial influence in the NDC at the time, and the uncertainty about who had his backing stoked excitement in who Prof. John Atta Mills would name as his running mate even though John Mahama appeared to be leading the media speculations.

What stood in John Mahama’s way was the fact that he was a Christian. There were concerns about not only getting a northerner, but someone who was a northerner and a Muslim at the same time because the Muslim population in Ghana is predominantly in the north. That was dealt with when the Mills team considered the fact that a vast majority of MPs from the north were Christians. If the people of the north would overwhelmingly endorse Christian MPs, then they would not have a problem accepting a Christian running mate.

The night before Professor Atta Mills announced his running mate at a short ceremony at the Kama Conference Centre in Accra, he had sent his spokesperson, Mahama Ayariga, to bring John Mahama to his house at the Regimanuel Estates on the Spintex Road. The two Mahamas were to meet the NDC flag bearer at 8p.m. John Mahama told Mahama Ayariga, who had arrived very early, to wait for him (John Mahama) at the Goil fuel station at the Regimanuel Junction so that they would go to see Professor Mills as scheduled.

Mahama Ayariga waited for three hours, during which time John Mahama was not answering his phone. Was he going to reject the offer to be running mate after the presidential candidate had announced to the nation that he would name his running mate the following day? And if that happened, who was Professor Mills going to fall on?

There was a reason John Mahama delayed. When Mahama Ayariga left John Mahama’s house in Dzorwulu and headed for the Goil filling station, John Mahama called his friend who would later become his national security advisor, Baba Kamara, and they headed for the residence of Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, the man who was President Atta Mills’ running mate in 2004.

Mr. Mumuni was still lobbying to be the running mate. John Mahama had not lobbied. Even if he did, it was not open or direct. He considered Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni as a senior brother from the north and openly lobbying would have meant he was competing with him. He had even assured Mr. Mumuni of his support and did not want the announcement to be like he was betraying him.

When everything was settled after what was reportedly a heated discussion with Alhaji Mumuni, John Mahama left for the Spintex Road. He and Mahama Ayariga entered Prof. Mills House at about 11pm.

“I want to name my running mate tomorrow and I want it to be you. I want to hear from you first,” Prof. Mills told John Mahama.

“I will do it, Sir. Thank you, Sir” John Mahama said.

That meeting did not last for five minutes. Professor Mills wished him good night and they departed.

The following day, John Mills announced John Mahama as his running mate and declared, “John is a broad-minded person who understands what it takes to become a team player, and I hope he will complement my effort to secure the seat. I have a running mate in whom I am well pleased.”

The Mills team was not certain what Mr. Rawlings had up his sleeves, or inside his “boom” microphone, so the plan was to announce the running mate as early as possible and depart before he arrived at the Kama Conference Centre. Even though many reasons were given for the absence of the NDC’s founder at such an important function, the real reason was that they didn’t want any explosive missiles that would take the media’s attention from John Mahama.

The differences between John Mahama and John Rawlings were later ironed out by various interventions, including Alban Bagbin’s visit to Rawlings. Bagbin and the chief of Bole at the time, also met Mr. Rawlings, who indicated he had nothing personal against John Mahama but insisted he (Mahama) resolve his impasse with the Bole constituency chairman of the NDC, Alhaji Meigida.

Sources close to the former president, however, say he felt John Mahama was too laid back and lazy for his liking. Rawlings was instrumental in the 2008 victory of the NDC, campaigning as though he was the one on the presidential ballot paper.

Editor’s Note: To find out why and how the Northern Caucus in parliament and some influential political figures wanted John Mahama to contest Prof. Atta Mills for the NDC flag bearer ahead of the 2008 elections, get your copy of the book and enjoy this concluding chapter and other juicy details.

About the Book

An influential northern caucus is secretly meeting and grooming him to contest the man who will select him as a vice presidential candidate; a meeting between the first lady and the Brong Ahafo caucus results in, perhaps, the fastest ministerial reshuffle in the history of the country; at 2a.m., before the breaking of a major scandal, there is a meeting between the president’s friend and the investigative journalist about how to involve the main opposition leader in the story to minimise the damage to the president in the upcoming election; the wife of the president reports the wife of the vice president to the vice president’s mother; and the night before a crucial election, the president and his main contender are locked up in a meeting with Ghana’s most revered traditional ruler. 

These and other revealing accounts on governance, policies and programmes of the fourth presidency of Ghana’s Fourth Republic are the intriguing contents of this book. Here, the journalist whose investigations are believed to have contributed to the downfall of the administration gets brutally intimate with the regime. Rare interviews with key figures of the governing party and historical contexts to contemporary events provide readers and students of African politics the inside story of what is considered the model democracy on the continent. The fluidity of the writing style and humour make this book about politics and governance in Ghana’s Fourth Republic, informative, educative and entertaining.