The National Organiser of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, also known as Nana B, has warned that the presumptive presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama will not respect the last four-year term left for him, should he win the 2024 elections.
Mr Mahama, according to Nana B, will likely orchestrate an amendment of portions of the 1992 constitution to ensure he stays in power for two terms.
Nana B recently told journalists that John Mahama’s plan to extend his stay beyond the four year term was one of the key reasons behind the ousting of Haruna Iddrisu and Muntaka Mubarak from the NDC’s leadership in Parliament.
According to Nana B, Haruna Iddrisu and Muntaka were seriously not in favor of Mahama’s plans and the duo are believed to have set in motion a plan to stifle Mahama’s chances at winning the next elections.
INTERVIEW ON VOA
However, Nana B says he has become more convinced about Mahama’s scheme, following the latter’s response to a question during an interview on Voice of Africa, a Washington based television programme.
Nana B claimed Mahama confirmed his intention in the VOA interview when he touched on the term of office for Ghanaian presidents.
The Chronicle has watched the said interview and observed that the discussion was about the seeming regular refuge Ghana seeks at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the interviewer had asked the interviewee, Mahama, what he would do differently; giving that he has been president before.
Mahama indicated that frequenting the Fund must end, and that the next NDC government would put measures in place to strengthen institutions.
He then veered to talk about the tenure of office which he said was not enough to roll out many projects for the country.
“One of the things we will do when we come back; that’s the NDC – I didn’t say I because we are not sure who will lead us – is to strengthen state institutions, strengthen anti-corruption institutions, but most importantly look at the constitution again.
“We’ve been operating with this constitution for more than 26 years and I think that the time has come for us to look at it again and do some tweaking in order that we can have a proper constitutional environment in which to grow the economy.
“We have a four-year term like they have in America, not in other countries where they have five year terms. So there is very little you can do in terms of infrastructure. We do our best [to] invest in the health sector, invest in education…,” he said.
ARTICLE 66
If this alleged move manifests, then the ex-president would have constitutionally ruled the country for 12 years and five months, beginning from July 2012.
However, he may have to amend Article 66 clauses one and two, which are all entrenched provisions and require a referendum for its alterations.
Article 66 (1) says, “A person elected as President shall, subject to clause (3) of this article, hold office for a term of four years beginning from the date on which he is sworn in as President.”
The clause two also states that “A person shall not be elected to hold office as President of Ghana for more than two terms.”
