THROWBACK: If I Come And Fail, Please Vote Me Out: Nana Addo

Prior to the 2016 presidential elections, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo pleaded with Ghanaians to vote him out of office if he failed to carry out his responsibilities as head of state.

As the NPP’s then-flagbearer, Akufo-Addo made a number of pledges to the populace, including “development and prosperity.”

He stated as follows:

“This year, try me too. Give me the chance to show you what I can do. Four years is not so far away.

If I come and I don’t succeed, kick me out. God knows my heart and I can assure you that I won’t disappoint you. Progress and prosperity are what I am offering the people of Ghana,” he made this claim while speaking before a gathering of Muslim clerics and chiefs of settlement villages at Derma, in the Tano South Constituency, in the then-Brog Ahafo region.

Presently, several organizations have taken to the streets to protest President’s Akufo-administration, Addo’s indicating how upset and unhappy Ghanaians are with his administration.

To that effect, hundreds of Ghanaians have congregated in the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and its surroundings for the Kume Preko protest, one of many demonstrations, to call for better living conditions.

Additionally, participants have called on the president to resign and for that matter, “Step down”.

Akuffo-Addo’s Presidential Journey

Akufo-Addo ran for president of the NPP in October 1998 but was defeated by John Kufuor, who went on to win the election in December 2000 and become president of Ghana in January 2001.

In the 2000 election, Akufo-Addo led Kufuor’s primary campaign. He eventually went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development after serving as the Kufuor era’s first attorney general and minister for justice (NEPAD).

Furthermore, he was the front-runner predicted to win the 2007 New Patriotic Party presidential primary. Akufo-Addo ran for the NPP against the NDC’s John Atta Mills in a hotly contested election in 2008.

Akufo-Addo received 49.13% of the vote in the first round, just ahead of Atta Mills but falling short of the required 50% of the vote under the constitution to be declared the winner.

Akufo-Addo then declared in March 2014 that he would run for his party’s nomination a third time in the 2016 election.

As a result, he received 94.35% of the votes in the NPP primary held in October 2014, making him the winner.

Fast forward to 2016, Nana Akufo-Addo became the flagbearer for the New Patriotic Party(NPP).

To that effect, he centered his campaign on the economy, vowing to lower unemployment rates and stabilize the country’s foreign exchange rate.

Mahama, the incumbent president, conceded defeat to Akufo-Addo on December 9, 2016. Akufo-Addo defeated Mahama with 53.83 percent of the vote to win the election.

In advance of the 2020 general elections, Nana Addo made his decision to seek reelection known by selecting a nomination form as the NPP’s flagbearer.

With just 51.59% of the vote needed to be re-elected in one round, Nana Addo was declared the victor of the 7 December 2020 Ghanaian presidential election on December 9.