Lawyer and Senior Vice President of IMANI-Africa, Kofi Bentil, says it will be unfair for Ghanaians to dismiss Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s vision for Ghana due to his association with President Akufo-Addo.

According to Mr Bentil, the constitutional authority of a vice president is that of an assistant to the president, hence the need to give the 2024 flagbearer of the NPP a fair hearing.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, the renowned lawyer said the biggest baggage Vice President Bawumia has is the current Akufo-Addo-led government.

He insists that the "sins of the father must not be passed on to the son. If this was a vote for their second term, I would have voted them out but by the design in our constitution, this government and all its people are going away and the biggest baggage Vice President Bawumia has is this government.

"He is having to pay for the sins of this government and he is part of it. But the next government is not President Akufo-Addo’s government and one of the things that I want to see and I have found a way to tell Vice President Bawumia is that I don’t want to see key members of this government in his team. If he does that I will criticise him.”

Mr Bentil told host Samson Lardy Anyenini that President Akufo-Addo must be held responsible for the current economic crisis instead of his vice.

He explained that there have been numerous instances where the Vice President had objected to some policies being implemented by the government.

“I think if you see the utterances of this person before and his actions and utterances after you can get exactly where he is going. Let me take e-levy for example, clearly he was against it because he made utterances before and then a decision is made by his boss that 'we are going to go this way'.

"Instruction was given to the Finance Minister and when people talk about why he didn’t resign, see when it is not your right to make decisions and the person whose right it is to make decisions makes it, you don’t have a right to say you are going to resign. You have done your job. But he stayed there and fought for the GH₵100 exemption. That is the driver-mate thing that people don’t seem to understand.

"The ultimate decision is that we are going to do e-levy and it is done against his express objection but then he says 'ok, you are going to do it but can you exempt GH₵100?'. He fights for it and gets that. That is what you get by staying there and that is what he meant by being a mate. You don’t make the decision but you influence it. Now they could have refused that too but at least he got that.

"When you give your ideas and advise and it is not taken, you cannot be blamed. It is the person responsible who should answer for it.”

The comments by Mr Bentil follow an appeal by the New Patriotic Party’s flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, to vote for him as the next president so he will have the mandate to implement policies that will grow the country.

Addressing the nation on Wednesday, February 7, in Accra, the Vice President said he has learnt lessons from the seven years of the Akufo-Addo government and reviewed his visions for the country.

“As Vice-President, I am like a driver’s mate. But if, by the Grace of God, you make me President, I will be in the driver's seat with constitutionally mandated authority to pursue my vision and my priorities.”

“Clearly, the initial conditions that we inherited in 2017 are not the same as will be in 2025. Therefore, my priorities will be different. We have done many good things and I will be seeking to build on them,” he noted.

Dr Bawumia assured that as President he will ensure he will create a government that will accommodate everyone to tap into the resourcefulness and talents of our people irrespective of the different ethnic, political and religious backgrounds.