Bawumia bows out at last

The Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has written to disengage from his remaining 18-month contract with the bank.

Joy News sources at the BoG say Bawumia has also applied for his accumulated leave for nine years, and is no longer likely to return to work from Monday.

He put in a letter of intent, according to the sources, on Friday.

Bawumia, considered a very instrumental and competent monetary policy expert for the bank, has been the subject of heated debates in and out of government circles following his return to post after a political adventure that did not go exactly well.

He took a leave of absence from the bank to partner New Patriotic Party presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo to make a go at the presidency in election 2008, but the then ruling party lost out to opposition National Democratic Congress and its candidate, now President John Atta Mills.

Bawumia has since returned to post at the bank where he is on contract until June next year, however that action has left his image, largely picketed at on principle, badly in the lurch.

He has therefore decided to do what many had predicted would be honourable; move on with his life but away from the bank.

Joy News sources say ordinarily, he was required to serve a three-month notice of his intention to exit his contract, however the board of the bank has allegedly decided to waive the requirement, and he would be paid his entitlements.

The new Government has not officially commented on its relationship with the young politician but close associates of Dr. Bawumia have claimed the pressure on him to resign has largely, and forcefully, come from government circles.

Management consultant, Ato Conduah had proffered during Joy FM’s Front Page programme last Friday, that forcing Bawumia out of office would be a breach of the Labour Laws, while his friends in the NPP, including Ken Ofori-Atta, Executive Chairman of Databank Group and Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, believe he is being hounded out of office purely on the basis of his political affiliation with no recourse whatsoever to his competence.

Ken Ofori-Atta in particular believes it is an “archaic way of thinking.”

Story by Isaac Yeboah