President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has reiterated his respect for the electoral laws of Ghana and said he has no intention of hanging on to power as has happened in some African countries.
He said he will never tamper with the electoral rules of the country ahead of the 2024 general election, after serving two terms as mandated by the 1992 Constitution.
President Akufo-Addo came to power in 2017 after winning the 2016 Presidential Election and went on to retain power in last year’s (2020) Presidential Election and was sworn into office on January 7 2021 to enable him serve for a final term 4-year term per the dictates constitution.
After his final term on January 6, 2025, Nana Akufo-Addo will be barred constitutionally from contesting to become President of Ghana again.
However, in most African countries, when the leaders are nearing their term limits, they change their constitutions to remain in office and that has brought pockets of civil strife on the continent.
Speaking at the 2nd Kofi Annan Peace and Security Forum in Accra yesterday, President Akufo-Addo pledged to hand over power to whoever will be elected President in the 2024 election and would never do anything to interrupt the power transfer process.
“As President of the Republic of Ghana and current chair of the authority of the ECOWAS States and Government, I pledge to continue to respect the tenets of ECOWAS protocol on democracy and good governance,” he said.
He added that “I will not make a course to make any substantial modification to the electoral laws in the last six months before the next elections. I will respect the two-term limits for the exercise of presidential authority as stipulated in the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.”
He said “I will not be an impediment to the conduct of free and fair, transparent elections. I will hand over power to the next elected president on 7 January 2025 and I will rally my fellow ECOWAS heads of state to take the pledge and support them as they continue to work towards democracy and good governance in their respective countries.”
Whilst he acknowledged the threat being posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to disrupt the fragile security situation in the West African sub-region, he decried those that relate to the unacceptable change of term limits, poverty and economic starvation among others.
“Undoubtedly the most recent of these challenges has been COVID-19 which has eroded in substantial measure the economic gains chalked in recent years and is threatening to assassinate the already fragile security situation in many parts of the region,” he said, adding “the maintenance of peace and security remains a critical challenge in West Africa and beyond.”
Although the magnitude of the challenge varies from state to state, President Akufo-Addo maintained that countries in the region are generally grappling with the extraordinary forces of threats that undermine both stages in human security.”
Chambas Effect
The President then appealed to Ghana’s top diplomat, Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, to assist ECOWAS to restore constitutional rule to Guinea following the coup d’etat that removed Prof. Alpha Conde from office recently.
He admitted that the task to restore Guinea to democratic path is a sensitive one that requires persons such as Dr. Chambas who has just been appointed as the Chair of the Kofi Annan Peace and Security Forum to handle.
“I must, at the outset, congratulate Ghana’s distinguished diplomat, the chair of the Kofi Annan Peace and Security Forum, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, on his new appointment as ECOWAS Envoy to Guinea.
“He has won many hearts in the course of his stellar career and I want to assure him of the support of the Authority of ECOWAS whose Chair I am privileged to be the current occupant, in the collective quest to restore Guinea on the path of democracy and stability.”
“If there is anyone who can assist the authority to accomplish this sensitive task, it is my good friend of many years Mohamed Ibn Chambas,” he said.
The Kofi Annan Peace and Security Forum, founded by the late US Secretary General Kofi Anna, is Africa’s biggest forum that addresses contemporary peace and security issues on the continent. The two-day programme is being jointly organised by KAIPTC and the Kofi Annan Foundation in Geneva on the theme: “Democracy and Governance in the Context of Complex Crises in Africa”.
Six African former presidents and two former prime ministers are participating in the two-day forum.
They include Ghana’s two former presidents, John Agyekum Kufuor who celebrated his 83rd birthday yesterday and John Dramani Mahama.
Other former Presidents attending the meeting are Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia; Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone; Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of Nigeria; and Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu