Eight years after leaving it, John Dramani Mahama is preparing to return to power in Ghana. The former head of state (2012-2017) largely won the presidential election of December 7 against Mahamudu Bawumia, outgoing vice-president and candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), with 56.55% of the votes cast. – six points more than during his first election, in 2012.
At 66, the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is now following in the footsteps of the tutelary figure of his party, Jerry Rawlings, elected in 1992 after two putsches in 1979 and 1981. With one major difference: John Dramani Mahama does not has never led a coup d’état and is therefore the first Ghanaian president to return to power through the ballot box.
His political career began in 1996, with his election as deputy in his native region of Savannah (northwest). A time as communications minister for Jerry Rawlings, he experienced his first national recognition in 2008 after the election of John Atta Mills, who chose him as vice-president. “The NDC saw in him a young candidate appreciated by a large part of the populationanalyzes Franklin Cudjoe, founder and president of the Ghanaian think tank Imani. He was not the type of politician to behave in a crude or aggressive manner, which allowed him to gain the respect of a good part of the political sphere. »
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John Dramani Mahama has always been immersed in politics. His father, Emmanuel Adama Mahama, was a member of Parliament and then was appointed administrator of the Northern region by Kwame Nkrumah, father of independence and figure of Pan-Africanism. The fall of the first president of Ghana, overthrown in 1966 by a coup d’état, will mark the spirit of John Dramani Mahama. In My First Coup d’Etat : Memories from the Lost Decades of Africa, his memoirs published in 2012, he recounts in particular that “this moment marked the awakening of [sa] conscience » et “has changed [sa] life and influenced all the moments that followed ».
Corruption scandals
On July 24, 2012, he ascended to the supreme office after the death of John Atta Mills. Less than five months later, he was elected and confirmed in office. He then devoted his mandate to massive investments, particularly in the field of health. But his presidency is also marked by numerous corruption scandals and hit by one of the worst energy crises Ghana has ever known.
“This crisis has had serious economic and social consequencesrecalls Lloyd Amoah, political science researcher at the University of Ghana. Result: the president was generally perceived as less competent than what was expected of him. » A popular disavowal which will lead him to lose the 2016 presidential election.
According to Vladimir Antwi-Danso, specialist in international relations and academic head at the Command and Staff College of the Ghana Armed Forces, John Dramani Mahama notably demonstrated, during his first mandate, “pragmatism in foreign policy”. Current President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) from 2013 to 2015, “he maintained, in accordance with Ghana’s tradition of non-alignment, strong links with the West and the Commonwealth, but also with China and Russia”.
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Its relations with Russia have recently resurfaced in public debate. Five months before the presidential election on December 7, the former student at the Moscow Institute of Social Sciences went to the Russian capital on a trip dedicated to the reissue of his memoirs. “This trip had raised some fears about possible attempts at foreign influence on Ghanasouligne Vladimir Antwi-Danso. But this is partly unjustified. During his first term, he did not move any closer to Russia than his predecessors had done. »
