President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo recently announced that he is yet to tell his party, upon representations being made to him, whether or not he will seek re-election.
This in itself is no news. It is only to be expected. Indeed, he himself has often expressed an aversion to a one-term presidency and used to threaten John Mahama with it during the 2012 campaign. An announcement to the effect that he will not seek re-election is what could be considered newsworthy.
Recall that President Buhari of Nigeria early in his first term announced that he would not seek re-election that did not grab the headlines, forgiven his state of health; the announcement was in line with all expectations.
He champed his mind and that was news. In retrospect, President Buhari in his earlier announcement was only doing what was decent and also his health was obviously failing with many not expecting him to survive. Once he got well, the calculus changed.
Back to President Akufo-Addo, he need not answer the question now. In spite of all the glamming indications that he has already laced his boot for 2020 and is now worrying about who may or may not be contesting him. He has up to the end of 2019 to formally declare. So why hurry. He has to clear all his internal issues and satisfy himself that he can, before he affirms.
As is to be expected, whispers abound as to what the possible outcomes could be. He could announce that he will seek re-election which then closes the matter and the chatter.
He could decline even at the last hour to seek a second term in which case, his party will have to hurriedly get and prepare a new candidate for 2020. A third more sinister option has been widely making the wounds and it goes like this, in order to ensure control, the President will contest alright but then find an excuse to step down mid-way and hand over to whoever is his Vice President.
The rumor further has it that, the Vice President will be the current Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who will then be instructed to choose cousin Ken Ofori-Atta as his Vice.
This trickery will amount to nothing less than a grand fraud perpetrated on the NPP in particular and Ghana in general. It will deny the party the rightful of making a collective choice according to its collective wisdom.
The truth below the radar discussions currently making the rounds within the party will seem to suggest that such an act of treachery will rand the party asunder and sound the death knell of the NPP.
It will be an unmitigated disaster on the NPP; engineered by a sitting President with the acquiescence of a small but Machiavellian set of elements around him.
If the President decides on seeking a second term, the NPP must do well to support him in that quest. If he decides not to proceed with a second term, then the NPP must soul search and do well to select a very credible replacement to face off the NDC.
However, if it is the third and nefarious option that the President has up his sleeve, then the NPP must do well to stop him dead in his tracks. Bluntly, it will mean denying him, by all means necessary, the chance of being presented in 2020. That way, potential harm can be averted.
The President will serve his party best by firmly and inexorably closing their option outrightly.
The future and fate of the governing party now rests squarely on the bosom of its sitting president, a great fear.
