Presidential Spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu has dismissed the NPP’s Supreme Court suit on presidential term limits as part of a scaremongering strategy. He also insisted that nothing in the republic suggests President John Dramani Mahama wants a third term.
Hon Kwakye Ofosu, who is also Minister for Government Communications and an MP, traced the third term narrative to the NPP’s 2024 campaign, when he says the party grew desperate. He also questioned the motives of a plaintiff in a related case and the NPP’s stated doubts about the judiciary.
“Nothing has happened here that should trigger this conversation.”
Minister of State in charge of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu
Hon. Kwakye Ofosu accused the NPP of adopting scaremongering as a political tool, especially in campaigns. He gave two examples. In 2008, he recalled, the party sponsored adverts suggesting that Rawlings would be in control if Professor Mills won, with the aim of reviving fears of human rights violations.
In 2020, he stated that the NPP claimed that President Mahama would cancel Free SHS if he won. He described both as the same tactic, an attempt to scare people into voting for the party.
A Hail Mary Move in 2024
The spokesperson argued that the third term claim followed the same pattern. When the NPP saw defeat coming in 2024, he explained, it turned to what he called a “Hail Mary” strategy, a term from American football for a long speculative throw in the closing seconds of a losing game.
In his account, the party began telling voters that a vote for Dr Mahamudu Bawumia would lead to a third term for Mahama, hoping to dissuade people from backing the NDC. “That is where this thing started,” he stated, and he insisted that that is all the matter is about.
Hon Kwakye Ofosu did not deny that people have talked about a third term. They are free to speculate, he noted, as they have speculated about the NDC’s candidate and running mate. He called the third term talk “somebody’s fleeting comment on social media.”
“There is a clearly laid down structure and procedure for doing this.” He added that he has travelled with President Mahama and watched him rule out a third term publicly and behind closed doors.
The President did so during a visit to Singapore, he recalled, which he placed in September 2025, standing beside the Singaporean president before international media after a journalist asked him directly.
He said the President has made the same statement in private meetings with other heads of state. The Vaultz News reported in July that President Mahama said he will honour his one-term mandate.
Questions About Kuranchie and the Joinder Route
The spokesperson also turned to the court filings. He is not a lawyer, he conceded, but he understands that anyone who wants to join a case files an application for joinder.
He singled out Ken Kuranchie. Before the 2020 election, he claimed, Kuranchie went to court to argue that President Mahama could not contest, and now he has gone to court to argue that President Mahama should be able to.
“So really, did we go or did we come?” he asked. He described Kuranchie as a former NPP member whose allegiances “shift very fluidly,” and he noted that Kuranchie says he has left the party.
Hon Kwakye Ofosu’s remarks followed the NPP’s writ, which asks the Supreme Court to define the presidential term limit. Legal scholar Kwaku Azar has since urged that the suit be dismissed.
Confidence in the Judiciary Challenged
The NPP has cited doubts about the judiciary as a reason to join the cases. Hon Kwakye Ofosu asked when that doubt began. He claimed that the NPP can file a motion and see a panel selected within hours, while the NDC’s challenge to the e-levy, filed about four or five years ago, remains pending and has not even been called.
He also argued that a majority of the judges now on the bench were appointed by former President Nana Akufo-Addo. He recalled what he called the NPP’s long hold on the courts and said that confidence only vanished once a Chief Justice was removed. The claims are his own, and the material available does not include any response from the judiciary or the NPP.
He closed by telling the party to stop wasting everyone’s time. Instead of “chasing pipe dreams,” he argued, it should put its act together and present a cogent message to Ghanaians. The Supreme Court has yet to announce a hearing date for the suits.
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