The President Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo has indicated his willingness to embrace an opportunity to contest as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer for the 2020 elections if he’s given the opportunity.
The President, who made this known at his second Media Encounter at the Flagstaff House said: “I do not have a difficulty facing the Ghanaian people. I have been trying to do so all my life in various degrees of success and I do not have any difficulty, and especially with the opportunity that has been given me to serve them in this capacity.
“If at the end of the day, the NPP decides they want to renew my Flagbearership and to go the country, I will do so and I will do so with a great deal of confidence .”
The President’s revelation somewhat dispels suggestions that he might just go for one term considering his age, to allow his Vice, Mahamadu Bawumia to contest with others who may show up.
The President, who made the revelation in response to a question on whether his government was enjoying incumbency advantage, further indicated “As far as the issue of incumbency is concerned, it should never be an advantage in a proper functioning democracy because the process should be sufficiently transparent. The voice of the people at any one stage will be kept through. It cannot be because incumbency advantage is in an advanced stage then it means the electoral plain field is being distorted or engineered to favour incumbency. That should never be the case. The only advantage you can have if you are in government is the quality of your performance.”
He added that “if the performance [of a government] is good and the people feel it is worth endorsing for another round, they will do so. If they feel that the performance is poor and it is not worth endorsing, they will destool you so there should be no issue that incumbency is an advantage. Incumbency can only be an advantage in a situation where it means that some distortion, some unfair, some untoward advantage is being gained by the fact that you are in office.”
–citifmonline.com