The NPP and its presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, are currently in their second term of office, having won the 2016 and 2020 general elections.
However, no political party in Ghana has stayed in government for more than eight years since the birth of the Fourth Republic in 1992.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, March 21, 2021, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said the NPP wants to break the eight-year power cycle.
“We are very much aware of this tendency [as observed in the EIU report], but we believe that this whole thing where every 8 years even when the country is making progress, power changes hands, it is something that can actually set us back,” he said, as quoted by Citinewsroom.
“That is why this administration intends to work very hard to retain the confidence of the people by the time that our second term mandate is done. So that we can break the 8 years cycle.”
“So it will ordinarily be a risk but it is a phenomenon that we are akin to break and this expectation that every 8 years power changes hands, which is what is informing what they have put out there, is one that we intend to break.”
The Information Minister’s comments were in relation to a prediction by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) that said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will return to power in 2024.
The EIU said the NDC is likely to change its presidential candidate and will win both the presidential and parliamentary elections.
“The next parliamentary and presidential elections are due in 2024. Under the constitutionally mandated term limits, Mr Akufo-Addo cannot run for a third term,” the EIU said in its report.
“Mr Mahama is reportedly considering whether to run again, but we expect the NDC to seek to revitalise its prospects with a fresh candidate. After two terms of NPP government, we expect the NDC to win the 2024 presidential election and to gain a small majority in parliament.”