President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has reiterated his desire to hand over power to a New Patriotic Party government in 2025 when his tenure comes to an end.
In an interview on Nandom FM during his tour of the Upper West region on August 22, the president said what mattered most for him was to work with the party executives to oversee the election of a flagbearer fairly and transparently.
He said once a flagbearer emerges out of the contest for the position fairly and transparently, NPP will be able to unite and triumph over the National Democratic Congress in the 2024 elections.
“Let’s create the conditions for a fair, transparent process. One that will enable us after the competition to unite. We want out of that process somebody who will come who will have the capacity to unite our party and put it in a position to confront the traditional opponent National Democratic Congress and beat the National Democratic Congress in December 2024. Mine is to do whatever I can do to assist the new leadership of the party,” President Akufo-Addo said.
He added that the current economic crunch confronting the country has made the opposition NDC jubilate suggesting that they were very confident in winning the 2024 elections.
But the president has asked the NDC to hesitate in celebrating because he has defied their assertion that he can never be president and won the presidential bid twice in 2016 and 2020.
“I know that there are people especially the National Democratic Congress who have begun to celebrate already because of the difficulties of the country.
“One swallow does not make a summer. Tell them. They shouldn’t hesitate. They have been writing me off all my political career. I could never make it. I couldn’t win. I have won twice and I am going to win again for the party in December 2024,” he stated.
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 its stay in power in what it has christened as ‘break the 8’, the NDC is also lacing up its boots to wrestle power from the governing party.
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has said the government intends to roll out policies to steer the country out of economic difficulties.
Speaking at the General Assembly Meeting of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana at Abetifi, President Akufo -Addo said:
“The Akufo-Addo government has not thrown up its hands in despair. We are determined to bring relief to the Ghanaian people and return the economy back to the high rate of growth that characterised our development in the 3 years preceding the Covid-19 outbreak which made our economy one of the fastest growing in the world at the time. The approach to the IMF is a major step in the short run towards that goal.”