Mahama has become a permanent tenant in NPP’s mind – Edudzi Tameklo

The governing National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Director of Legal Affairs, Godwin Edudzi Tameklo, has said President John Dramani Mahama has become a permanent tenant in the minds of New Patriotic Party (NPP) members.

He says the party’s Supreme Court action over presidential term limits is a distraction from its internal problems.

Speaking on the BigIssue segment on the NewDay morning show on TV3 Monday, November 2, 2026, Tameklo said the NPP should focus on its electoral performance in the last elections and how to better it, rather than chasing absurdity.

He said Dr. Bawumia’s performance in the last poll was nothing to write home about, especially when his output from the Ashanti Region, the NPP’s stronghold, is taken out of the equation.

“You present a presidential candidate, 276 constituencies, he manage to win 77 constituencies. If you take Ashanti Region of 47 constituencies that gave NPP 43 or so, if you take that number from the 77, this is the weakest showing by any presidential candidate,” he stated.

His comments follow the NPP’s suit at the Supreme Court to seek interpretation of Ghana’s presidential term limits.

The suit is seeking declarations on Articles 58(2) and 66(1), (2) and (3)(a) of the 1992 Constitution. The party wants the court to declare that a person can be elected President only twice, regardless of whether the terms are consecutive or non-consecutive.

The party also wants the court to affirm that a person cannot hold the office for more than two four-year terms, amounting to eight years in total. The writ was filed by the party’s solicitor, Godfred Yeboah Dame, with the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice named as defendant.

According to the party, interpreting the limit to mean two consecutive terms only could allow a former President who served one term, lost re-election and later returned to serve two more terms.

Godwin Gyamfi, a Communications Team Member of the NPP, speaking on the same platform, had earlier indicated that the NPP is not taking any chances regarding President Mahama’s possible return to contest again, hence the party’s decision to go to court for clarification.

However, Tameklo, who is also the CEO of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), questioned the party’s strategy for recovery, saying the making of President Mahama the centre of their politics is not the solution.

“What is the solution to that problem? It is not to make President Mahama a permanent tenant in your mind,” he stated.

“Today as we speak, President John Dramani Mahama, has become a permanent tenant in the mind of NPP people. You have manifested that in many material respect,” Edudzi added.

He also took a swipe at the NPP’s flagbearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, whom he said was presented as an economic messiah and wizkid, but abandoned the economy after what he described as a disastrous management.

According to him, Bawumia shifted to digitalisation and is now struggling to return to the economic conversation.

“When your candidate comes in the form of Dr. Alhaji Bawumia, a man who proffers economic messiah, economic wizkid, given the benefit of power, after a disaster of managing the economy, what do you see, the man runs away from economics, and now started talking about digitalisation,” he said.

“Now he wants to find a way back into the economic conversation and it is not sustainable,” he added.

NPP’s Supreme Court suit over term limit absurd, waste of court’s time – Edudzi Tameklo