The General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Nana Yaa Jantuah, has revealed that the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has a hidden agenda to hold on to power after their constitutional tenure of office has expired.
Speaking to Prince Minkah on the Tonton Sansan show on TV XYZ, Madam Jantuah hinted that the NPP are doing what they can to stay in power beyond 2024 despite the anger among most Ghanaians who are determined to boot them out of power for massive corruption and tyranny.
“The vision to stay on at all cost is there,” she disclosed and went on to quiz, “If you say ‘Breaking the 8’, is it not the vision to hold on to power against the people’s wish?”
Asked by the host whether or not the NPP would be engaging in illegality when they win the 2024 polls with a different candidate other than President Akufo-Addo, the former PRO for the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) said “when your time is up, it is up and you need to go because the people may have had enough of you.”
“It is not for nothing that the constitution gave every elected government to be out of power after every four years,” she added while explaining that every party that stays on after its mandated tenure would have exhausted all its compelling ideas to satisfy the people.
To her, the ‘Breaking the 8’ mantra is an agenda to psyche Ghanaians to accept the 2024 elections results when it favours the NPP again, stressing that there could be foul means to make that happen in the next polls.
Coup and Unrest
Jantuah’s comments come after Guinean special forces seized power in a coup, arrested their president, Alpha Conde, and promised to change the country’s political architecture.
The now-ousted President Alpha Conde, in October 2020, won a controversial third term, but only after pushing through a new constitution in March 2020 allowing him to sidestep the country’s two-term limit.
The 82-year-old’s bid for a third term had been condemned by analysts and described as an abuse of power.
Back in Ghana, Jantuah believes the government could be testing waters with their popular mantra to stay on after 8 years, neglecting pressing issues that have been raised by CSOs, agitating youth groups, and the opposition parties in the country.
Comparing the coup that has toppled Conde’s government in Guinea, Jantuah said ‘Breaking the 8’ is akin to holding on to power against the people’s wish.
“This is problematic because some people have said we should…It is problematic because when water is kept in a bottle for a longer period, it becomes stenchy. The party may have been bereft of ideas,” she stated in Akan.
Breaking the 8
President Akufo-Addo who was re-elected in December 2020 cannot run for elections in the 2024 polls, but it has become obvious that the NPP is bent on staying in power for 12 years or more after it introduced the slogan ‘Breaking the 8’.
Most top officials of the NPP, including Vice President Dr Mahamadu Bawumia who is likely to succeed Akufo-Addo in the next elections, have said in public they are optimistic NPP will stay in power beyond 8 years.
The slogan, typical of the NPP, has triggered various discussions on whether the performance of the Akufo-Addo’s government will be able to secure the NPP another term or more in power, despite the hardship fuelled by tax hikes on petroleum products and other services.
Vice-president Dr Mahamudu Bawumia recently told members of the NPP that they are poised to break the 8-year record when all fanatics work hard at it.
Speaking at a TESCON meeting in Cape Coast on Saturday, 7 August 2021, Dr Bawumia said: “I am very sure all of us gathered here are not dreaming that the ‘Break the 8’ mantra will end as one of the platitudes in politics”.
“It rather calls for a united party that rises above pettiness, rancour, selfishness, and any other associated intra-party vices”, he said while anticipating a massive win for the party, 8 months after winning controversial polls.
There has been backlash at the government as all conversations are geared towards winning the next elections – some 39 months from now.
President Akufo-Addo won a second term with only a small majority in parliament but his government has since been under pressure as the country struggles with economic troubles and heightening cost of living worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.
Agitations over bad leadership, impunity, corruption, illegal mining and joblessness in Ghana have swelled in the second term of Akufo-Addo.
The protesters chanted patriotic songs as they took over the streets of Accra.
Several thousands of youth rallying behind an online protest, #FixTheCountry campaign , hit the streets of Accra on August 2, 2021, to embark on their much-talked-about protest that was initially prohibited by the police for weeks.
However, Bawumia is seen to be projecting the agenda to win the next polls than holistically addressing the concerns of the aggrieved youth group that keeps piling pressure on the government to act in the interest of the poor.
Bawumia again tells a pro-NPP student group, TESCON, that “breaking the 8 is a political pursuit that requires us [the NPP] to gird our loins together,[and] build a strong party.”
He adds, “the President and I are committed to breaking the 8 and I implore you, cherished patriots, to commit to same.”
Caution To NDC
The main opposition party in the country, NDC, has been warned over the mantra of the NPP which they accuse of manipulating the 2020 polls in their favour.
Former National Organiser NDC, Yaw Boateng Gyan cautioned the leadership of the umbrella family on the alert and face the NPP squarely.
He said with compelling ideas that resonate with Ghanaians, they can win the 2024 polls but hastened that they need to be careful about ‘Breaking the 8’.
Speaking on Dwaboase on Power FM hosted by Oheneba Boamah Bennieh, Gyan, one of the leading members of the NDC cautioned his top officials not to joke with the NPP’s plan.
The NDC lost the 2020 elections to Nana Akufo-Addo who is serving a second term after beating former president John Mahama by a little over 500,000 votes in December last year.
After three months of litigation, the Supreme Court upheld the victory of Akufo-Addo and the NPP in an election that was characterised by pockets of violence in some parts of the country that led to the death of at least 5 persons in Techiman South and Ablekuma Central.
The NDC holds the view that the election was rigged to favour the NPP but the governing party insists they won on fairgrounds, calling for an all hand on deck approach to retain power beyond 2024.
But Yaw Boateng Gyan argues that “Break the 8′ can break the NDC in the sense that the NPP is planning to use every means necessary to retain power despite the hardships that have led to series of agitations in the country.
“I have heard these people [the NPP] talk about ‘break the 8’ campaign aimed at us,” he said “These people are dangerous and whatever they say they will do, they are able to do it.”
He said if the NDC does not review their election strategy, the NPP can triumph over them through spurious means, citing the violence recorded during the last elections.
“They are not saying they will break the 8 for saying sake,” Boateng Gyan insisted.