Akufo-Addo: Election 2024 is my last challenge as president

President Akufo-Addo has declared that, having served nearly eight years in office as president, he considers the 7 December 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections as the last challenge he has to deal with before he retires from office on 7 January 2025.

He made this observation in his last address to senior citizens when he played host to them at a banquet at Jubilee House in Accra today (5 August 2024). The banquet was one of the events held to mark 4 August as Founders’ Day in Ghana.

In his address, President Akufo-Addo said that, like Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor, he finds it the greatest honour of his life to have served two terms in office.

He further said he has done his best, especially steering the ship of state through the deeply troubling times of the COVID-19 outbreak and its aftermath.

“It’s been a very difficult time and most of us can see that we are now turning the corner and we are turning our economy back to normalcy and revived growth, the growth that made our economy one of the fastest-growing economies in the world in the years prior to the outbreak of the pandemic,” said the president, in brief remarks at the senior citizens’ luncheon.

“We did it in the past; we will do it again.

“The last major challenge for me is to preside over peaceful and fair elections in December and that is a commitment that, with the help of all Ghanaians, I intend to realise,” President Akufo-Addo said.

“The people of Ghana deserve no less than to be given the best atmosphere in which to choose, freely, their next president and parliament. I intend to ensure that our reputation as the beacon of democracy and stability in Africa and the world is maintained,” Akufo-Addo added.

Founders’ Day

Founders’ Day (4 August) holds historical importance in Ghana, marking as it does the contributions of successive generations of Ghanaians who played pivotal roles in liberating the country from colonial rule.

The decision to designate this day as a public holiday was part of a broader initiative by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who proposed amendments to the Public Holiday Act in 2018.

The Public Holidays Amendment Bill 2018, which was presented by the then minister of the interior, Ambrose Dery, led to the cancellation of three existing public holidays and the introduction of two new ones.

As a result, Founders’ Day was designated on 4 August, while 21 September was set aside as a memorial day for Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, in recognition of his significant role in the fight for Ghana’s independence on 6 March 1957.

The three holidays affected by this amendment were Republic Day (which Ghana previously observed on 1 July), the African Union (AU) Holiday, observed on 25 May, and Founders’ Day, which used to be Founder’s Day and fell on Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday, 21 September.

According to the explanation section of the bill, 4 August was chosen to replace Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day because it holds historical significance as the day when Ghana’s modern independence movement began in 1947.

On this date, Ghanaian patriots such as George Alfred Grant, Joseph Boakye Danquah, R A Awoonor-Williams, Edward Akufo-Addo, Ebenezer Ako Adjei and various chiefs formed the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).

The UGCC was founded on the principles of the Fante Confederacy of 1868 and the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society of 1897, with a shared mission of achieving Ghana’s independence.

While Founders’ Day has been established as an official public holiday, two opposition political parties – the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) – have declared that they may consider scrapping the holiday if they come into power.

Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra

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