Nana Akufo-Addo: "Um, Mr President, It Is Only The Ghanaian People Who Can Give You A Second Term"

Ghana's center-left president is talking smack, but it's Nana Akufo Addo (pictured) who leads in Ghanaian polls

Lately Ghana's center-left president has been talking much smack, claiming that the country's opposition center-right "will be chased into the bush like their cousins, the Republicans" after the December 7 presidential election. President John Mahama argues that he will be elected (the former vice president in his current position because of the late President John Atta Mills's death in July), because U.S. President Barack Obama was re-elected. Of course, Mr. Akufo-Addo (pictured), Ghana's center-right presidential candidate, disagrees. From Joy Online (Ghana): "President John Mahama, in his closing remarks in Wednesday’s second Institute of Economic Affairs Presidential Debate, stated: 'The NDC government has done a lot in four years. Our constitution gives presidents two terms. Take it that I am the spare driver or caretaker. Prof. Mills, of blessed memory, started the process and I am finishing his unexpired term. I believe the NDC government deserves a second term to be able to build on the foundation that it has laid in these four years.'"

It's a matter of semantics, but Mr. Akufo-Addo takes issue with the statement: "This, Nana Addo insists, is a clear misrepresentation of the constitution and should not have come from the president, who is supposed to be the embodiment of the constitution. After his failed attempt to rebut the president’s comments during [day before] yesterday’s debate, (the moderators said candidates could not rebut during closing remarks,) Nana Addo told Joy News’ Benjamin Tetteh that the president erred when he said the constitution gives every president two terms. He stated there is nowhere in the constitution that says that a president is entitled to two terms. 'Otherwise, what were we doing at the debate, if the president was entitled to two terms by the constitution?' It is the people that give a second term and not the constitution, he insisted. He added that it is only if the people are satisfied with the performance of a sitting president that they vote to retain him in office for a second term."
  
Ghana's Center-Right Responds 

Kwame Safo, a supporter of Mr. Akufo-Addo's presidential bid, responds on Joy Online's website: "President Obama fought hard to win this election by proving to Americans that he had their interest at heart showing that Obamacare and other social intervention programmes were credible solutions for the people of America. Even so he had to fight for it by convincing the American people. NOT BECAUSE THE CONSTITUTION OFFERED HIM A SECOND TERM! President Mahama must prove to Ghanaians that he has a vision for Ghana to improve lives and stop making noise about the need for him to be re-elected because the constitution allows him to serve a second term. If you have a good analystical mind you will understand what Nana Addo was saying. He is a leader with vision. If Mahama has no plan for Ghana he does not deserve the mandate."