Flashback: Akufo-Addo is too old to be President – Quarshigah

In August 2012, the Propaganda Secretary of the-then ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Richard Quarshigah remarked that age plays a significant role in a nation’s quest to find a leader thus Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who is now president was too old to be handed the position.

Richard Quarshigah said this at a time the country was preparing to go to the polls to elect a new leader. Then, the current president was the flagbearer of his party, NPP and was over 65 years old.

He said “Nana Addo would have been a better candidate four years ago when he was between 63 and 64, but today he has passed 65 years and he is not suited for the presidency.”

Read the full story originally published on August 25, 2012, on Ghanaweb

“Nana Addo would have been a better candidate four years ago when he was between 63 and 64, but today he has passed 65 years and he is not suit for the presidency,” these are the words Richard Quarshigah, the Propaganda Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), have for Nana Akufo-Addo.

According to him, age would play a pivotal role in Ghana choosing a new president in December, stressing that Ghanaians, especially the youth now need relatively a young leader for the high office of the land.

Nana Akufo-Addo on Thursday is reported to have told journalists in Accra that claims in a section of the media that President Mahama's age puts him in a suitable position for the presidency are untrue and a political gimmick.

“It doesn’t surprise me that Nana Akufo-Addo will reject that assertion. I suspect that what he is trying to do is to show some amount of strength by showing to appear youthful but no matter how much cosmetics he will do, age has already caught up with him,” the propaganda secretary added.