President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has rejected the lame-duck tag given him by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, had asserted that the President was losing loyalty from key personalities in the NPP, including MPs, after the Vice President became the flag bearer of the party.
Speaking during the debate on the 2024 budget statement in Parliament, the Speaker, after describing the President as a lame-duck, said the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, as limping.
“I expect the Majority who have a limping majority leader, limping because when you look at his back you’re less than those in front of you. You have a lame duck president, a lame duck because you have elected a flag bearer, and loyalty and commitment are shifting. So your president is now lame duck president.
“You need this side of the house to support you to finish your eight years,” Mr. Bagbin stated. “And so if you don’t behave well we have difficulty in proceeding as a nation…please, I expect you to cooperate; I will not allow them to bully you. You’ll get sufficient time to put across your case,” he added.
But the President, speaking with the chiefs and residents of Nima in Accra said he is still in charge of the country until he hands over to another person in January 2025.
“Speaker Bagbin says I am a lame duck. Well, that is his language. I am still the president of the republic and I will continue to do so until January 7, 2025. And I have no 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. So I don’t know what he is talking about when he says I am a lame-duck president. I am not a lame-duck president,” President Akufo-Addo insisted.
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