President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has admitted that the New Patriotic Party’s quest to make history by being the first party under the 4th Republic to have a consecutive third term will be a herculean task if it does not resolve the current economic crunch.
Speaking in an interview on Tamale-based North Star radio on August 8, the president blamed the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war for the challenging times the country finds itself in.
He stated that the country was on the path of progress and enviable growth rate until the twin crisis disrupted the trajectory.
President Akufo-Addo believes, however, that the policies and programmes being implemented by the government will turn things around for the better.
“We did it when I first came into office and I’m of the strong belief that we can do it again because the policies are sound. They are about putting Ghana in a strong place,” he said, adding that Ghanaians should have confidence in the government to deliver on its goal.
The President also observed that it was incumbent on the government to restore the economy lest it faces difficulties in winning the 2024 elections.
To this end, he said the NPP was going to work assiduously to retain the confidence of Ghanaians to ensure that it wins the elections.
“The government which has gone through such difficulties, the IMF economy which we inherited, that was able to go through this Covid situation, I am confident that this government with the policies that it has committed to, will find a way to bring our economy back to a better place and improve the lots of Ghanaians.
“We are required to do so. Apart from everything else, we are politicians and I am well aware that if you don’t improve things, 2024…it is not going to be easy for us at all. This our mantra of breaking the 8 is certainly not going to be assisted by the economy in disarray.
“We are going to work in such a way that the people of Ghana themselves will see that these are the people who are a safe pair of hands [that] you commit the economy in their hands, you commit the nation in their hands and progress will be the result for the people of Ghana so that our goal which has now become part of vocabulary of political discourse in our country…breaking the 8…will become a reality” President Akufo-Addo said
The 2024 general elections is expected to be a keenly contested one between the two major political parties in the country – New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC).
While the NPP looks at extending it stay in power in what it has christened as ‘break the 8’, the NDC is also lacing up it boots to wrestle power from the governing party.