After being described by the Speaker of Parliament as a lame duck, Prof. Ransford Gyampo of the University of Ghana believes the powers of President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has been circumscribed.
His comment comes on the back of questions he raised about the President’s reshuffle which many have doubted its positive impact on his government before the end of his tenure.
According to Prof. Gyampo, it appears the President undertook the decision to prove a point that he is still in charge of his appointees.
Making a contribution on the subject Saturday, February 17, 2024, on TV3’s the KeyPoints, Prof. Gyampo indicated that these changes do not address any of the reasons required to undertake a reshuffle.
“Is it an attempt to establish the President’s control over his appointees? Because the President as I see him now, is not –I don’t want to use the word lame duck –it appears that his powers are now circumscribed even though the constitution backs him, but practically, is it that you’re bringing on board new ideas?
“What I see is that, it appears that it is rather partisan in outlook, an attempt to allow others to appear in the system. So I look at all these and I say that this particular reshuffling does not satisfy the conceptual framework of reshuffling,” Prof. Gyampo pointed out.
Prior to Prof. Gyampo’s assertion of the President’s powers being circumscribed, the Speaker of Parliament, the Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, had said Mr. Akufo-Addo had become a lame duck.
The Speaker had said 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, is also 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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