I’m not lame duck President - Akufo-Addo rejects Speaker’s characterisation
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has refuted claims by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, that he is a “lame duck” President.
Advertisement
Until January 7, 2025, he said he would continue to be the President of the country and that, there was no doubt that the power to make decisions and to carry out policies was still firmly in his hands.
The President made this rebuttal while speaking at the occasion to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Chief of Nima, His Royal Majesty Nii Futa last Sunday.
Nii Futa has served as the Chief of Nima, a heavily populated suburb of Accra, since 2003.
In honour of his two decades of leadership, Zango chiefs from across the Greater Accra Region and other parts of the country, were present at the grand anniversary durbar with glitz and glamour.
Lame duck President
The Speaker, while expressing his dismay over the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu’s failure to ensure the presence of his members during the 2024 budget debate, characterised his performance as “limping.”
The Speaker attributed the Majority’s lacklustre performance to the shifting allegiances within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) following the party’s presidential primaries.
He observed that with Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia now the NPP’s flag bearer, loyalties were shifting away from the incumbent, President Nana Akufo-Addo.
Mr Bagbin argued that this shift in allegiances had led NPP MPs to neglect their responsibilities and treat President Akufo-Addo as a “lame duck” President.
Rebuttal
President Nana Akufo-Addo, while refuting the claims said, “Speaker Bagbin says I’m a lame duck, well, that’s his language.
I am still the President of the Republic of Ghana and I will continue to be so until January 7, 2025.
“I do not doubt that the power to make decisions and to carry out policies is still firmly in my hands, and I am not going to let it go.
I don’t know what he’s talking about when he says I’m a lame duck.
He has his understanding of that but I am not a lame-duck President,” he said.
Disagreement
His Royal Majesty Nii Futa said he disagreed with the Speaker on his comment about the President, stating that he was still left with a year as President and still had a lot to offer.
“A year of politics is a long time.
So much can be done and so much can be achieved within a year.
Mr President, you can make this last year of your Presidency the most exciting and most memorable.
I know you are capable of doing even more than we can imagine,” he said.
“I want you to remove the phrase lame duck from the dictionary of politics,” Nii Futa said.