Political Scientist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Kwame Asah-Asante, said he strongly opposes any discussion suggesting that President John Mahama could seek a third presidential term.
Speaking on the AM Show on Wednesday, December 10, Dr Asah-Asante explained that he did not support any attempt, however minor, to alter the constitution to extend the presidential tenure.
“I am fully against any idea, however small it may be, from any quarter, with a day increase in the tenure of the presidency of Mr Mahama. No, I don’t want to know, and I don’t want to hear that.”
He said the experiences of other African countries should serve as a warning. “As a student of democracy, we have seen from the sub-region, from Africa, the difficulties that countries would have tinkered with their constitution to change it, to suit the whims and caprices of their leaders for a third term, the trouble they brought to them. We don’t want that,” he said.
Dr Asah-Asante stressed that Mr Mahama himself had already dismissed any such ambition. “Mahama himself has said that he’s not interested, and that is, for me, the end of the road.”
He added that he would be shocked to see the former president ever change his mind. “I’ll be surprised that Mahama will come back one day and say that, yes, the good people said I should come back, and I’m for it. Even if the people say so, I’ll be so surprised.”
He warned that the NDC would also face resistance if it entertained the idea. “I believe that the NDC will not dare to move this country into a third term, because nobody is going to sit down for a third term to happen in this country. We will use all the legal means to scatter all those attempts and all that,” he declared.
Dr Asah-Asante criticised those promoting the idea of a third term for Mr Mahama. “What is fuelling this is a section of the people in this country and some members of the NDC who are saying Mahama for a third term and all that. Those people should think about this state and then condemn themselves that they are unfair to the president. The president himself said I’m not interested. Why are you saying this?”
Explaining the intent behind Ghana’s constitution.“They don’t know the wisdom behind the premise of this constitution and how they developed it and say that, look, it doesn’t matter who you are. You can be the Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, with all type of ideas that are very legitimate and strong, but you cannot go beyond two terms. For now, let us stay our course.”
He said two terms provide more than enough time for a leader to leave a legacy. “If you are a leader and you have something to share, you have something to leave as a legacy, you don’t need three terms. The constitution doesn’t give anybody two terms. It gives you only one. By dint of hard work, the people will add one term to it,” he explained.
He further warned of the dangers of extending presidential tenure. “People have forgotten the fact that if you encourage this and this thing comes to stay and you have a bad leader, all of us will end up being ghosts in this country. There will not be any Ghana because you have a brutal leader and with a long tenure, you can’t survive,” he said.
Dr Asah-Asante concluded by promising strong opposition to any attempt to introduce a third term. “Let us not go on that trajectory at all. And as I have said, we will use all legal means to resist any attempt, any thoughts of it within the public space, because this is no, no, no. I stand for democracy and I stand for two terms, nothing more, nothing less.”
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