The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) must be at the helm of affairs of Ghana’s governance for 60 years, former Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko has said.

Speaking at Kyebi during the NPP’s Eastern Regional Delegates Conference, Mr Agyarko said: “…So, after breaking the 8, then we hand over power to NDC? Absolutely not”.

“My intention for this party is to become the dominant political force on the political space”, he said, “so that there would be no challenger to the NPP in any election that we go to”.

“So that every election after election, we will continue rule”, Mr Boakye Agyarko stressed.

He cited some examples to buttress his point.

“The Japanese Liberal Party has been in power for 54 years. The PRI of Maxico has ruled for 71 years. So, NPP, ours must be 60 years”.

A few months ago, a former flag bearer aspirant of the party, Mr Nkrabeah Effah Dartey, also made a similar statement, saying the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) will not come to power again until after the next 40 to 50 years because the majority of Ghanaians agree that the NPP is a better manager of the economy.

The NDC, at a press conference addressed by the National Communications Officer, Mr Sammy Gyamfi, in Accra on Monday, 30 August 2021, described the NPP government as a bunch of thieves plundering the state coffers.

Mr Gyamfi said the NDC is confident that come 2024, all well-meaning Ghanaians who wish to see the progress of the nation, will join forces with the party to “break the eight years of stealing, break the eight years of nepotism, break the eight years of lawlessness and impunity, break the eight years of deception and broken promises and break the eight years of injustice and intolerance.”

Responding to this on 505 news programme on Class91.3FM on the same day with Joshua Kojo Mensah, the retired Captain said: “I think the majority of Ghanaians agree to the principle that NPP are better trustees of the national purse than the NDC and that is why we won 2020 and that is why we are going to win 2024 and we are going to break the eight-year jinx and the NDC will not come to power until the next 40 to 50 years”.

“The New Patriotic Party, we are going to prove that we can handle Ghana better and more responsibly than the NDC”, he said.

The two-time former Member of Parliament for the Berekum constituency also said Ghana has not had a leader “as corrupt as former President John Dramani Mahama” and his “cabal of thieves”.  

According to the retired Captain, under the Mahama-led NDC administration, corruption was the order of the day.

He said: “He [Sammy Gyamfi] is accusing the New Patriotic Party administration of corruption. It is an attractive song, an attractive melody, which all opposition parties throughout the world, always use to castigate those in government”.

“What I expect Sammy Gyamfi to do or to tell Ghanaians is to give specific analysis, specific details that the minister for so so and so has done so so and so; that this contract or this or that has been undersigned or over-invoiced”.

“Give specific examples”, he said, adding: “We have appointed a special prosecutor whose job is to ensure sanity on the public purse, so, if you think you have evidence of corruption against any public official, more so ministers of state, and you’re accusing them of corruption, carry all your data to the special prosecutor and secure conviction”.

“That will make your case credible but if you go to stand on a treetop and hold a press conference and you use words like ‘corruption, abysmal failure, incompetent’ and so on, you make me laugh and it is sad”, the former lawmaker said.

He continued: “Sammy Gyamfi is playing an old song, an old song which we have heard so many times before. Compared to when John Mahama was President of Ghana, the corruption that took place in this country has he forgotten so soon where a whole car was caught on the road to Kumasi full of millions of cedis. What happened to that case? Nobody knows. No official explanation [given] and even the auditor-general’s report [had said] the accounts of central government had gotten missing and cannot be accounted for under the watch of John Mahama”.

“So, if there’s anybody who is more corrupt than John Mahama and his cabal of thieves, I wonder if we can get anybody…” he stated.