Late Amissah-Arthur vindicated over "frivolous questions" - Mahama

Former President John Mahama has eulogised his former deputy and Vice-President, Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur as a man who spoke with his actions more than he did with his words.

In a tribute published in the brochure of the last Vice-President, Mahama said Amissah-Arthur was not boastful of his achievements, a trait, he said manifested during the heat of the 2016 campaign season when "certain questions were directed at him".

The former leader recalled Amissah-Arthur's private response to him. "Mr. President, these questions are frivolous. We will not be distracted by them"

According to Mahama, "today, Paa Kwesi has been vindicated".

It was the then NPP vice-presidential candidate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia who posed  in September 2016 to the man he sought to replace as vice-president.

The economic statements and claims were made after Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia had delivered his much-publicised economic lectures that proved a thorn in the government's flesh.

The September 2016 lecture on the topic “The State of the Ghanaian Economy – a foundation of Concrete or Straw” was to ostensibly prove, the Mahama government had run the economy aground.

Dr. Bawumia zoomed in on Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur for a response because by his position he was the head of the government's Economic Management Team.

The former Bank of Ghana Governor was under intense pressure to respond to Dr. Bawumia who was also a deputy governor at the bank before jumping into politics.

But Amissah-Arthur refused to respond and explained the so-called questions were claims and statements that did not need answers.

The then Vice-President told Dr. Bawumia to ask "serious questions".

 His party lost the 2016 general elections and Bawumia replaced him as the second gentleman of the land.

Dr. Bawumia once joked, he hoped Amissah-Arthur left the answers to his questions in his handing-over notes.

Amissah-Arthur would later tell since he was now in government.

“Economic questions don’t change over time [so] he can answer them,” he told Joy News Central Regional correspondent Richard Kwadwo Nyarko weeks after the NDC were defeated at the polls.

The saga played out in Mahama's tribute to the man he praised for his "razor-sharp intellect" and "deep intelligence".