In the event of any last-minute changes, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang will be the running mate of National Democratic Congress presidential candidate John Dramani Mahama on December 7, 2024.
His running mate in his unsuccessful bid to secure reelection as president in the 2020 general election was Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, a former education minister in the John Mahama administration who held power from January 7, 2013, to January 7, 2017.
Opoku-Agyemang’s selection as Mahama’s running mate signifies the NDC’s decision, made in 2012, to once again choose its vice presidential candidate from the Central Region.
The predicted reelection of Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as Mahama’s running mate will mark the second such choice in the NDC’s history, having been founded with the commencement of the Fourth Republic.
During his two stints as president on the NDC ticket, the former president Jerry John Rawlings ran against the same running mate in each election.
John Mahama and Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur ran and won in 2012. The same duo ran for office in 2016 but was unsuccessful. After Amissah-Arthur passed away in June 2018, Mahama selected Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as his running mate for the first time in 2020, however, he was unsuccessful in that election.
In October 2023, the party reduced the pool of potential running mates for the NDC’s Election 2024 ticket to three regions. Ashanti, Central, and Eastern regions were the focus areas. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang was the Central Region’s favored candidate.
The consensus among the NDC’s rank and file is that Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang’s selection as Mahama’s running partner in 2020 did not result in the party’s triumph in the Central Region or the country as a whole.
Many NDC supporters think that having her again as the party’s running mate will not significantly strengthen the party’s ticket, bring the NDC any political advantages, or help the party’s chances in the general election scheduled for December 2024.
