When flattery tempts power and the Constitution
is treated as an inconvenience
Ghana is once again being invited to admire invisible clothes.
In recent weeks, murmurs—some loud, others whispered in elite corners—have emerged suggesting that President John Dramani Mahama should be given an opportunity to serve a third term. The idea is being floated with clever language, selective memory and an unsettling confidence that the Constitution can somehow be bent, massaged or reinterpreted to suit political convenience.
But let us be clear: the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana does not permit a third presidential term. Not by implication. Not by sentiment. Not by political affection. Not by nostalgia.
Yet, like the emperor in Hans Christian Andersen’s famous tale, there are courtiers who insist that what does not exist should be admired, applauded and even defended.
These advocates of a third-term agenda present themselves as patriots, loyalists and defenders of stability. In truth, many appear to be offering dangerous counsel wrapped in sweet praise—the kind that flatters power while quietly undermining the very foundations of the Republic.
The Constitution was designed precisely to protect Ghana from the excesses of personality politics. Presidential term limits are not a personal judgement on any individual; they are a national safeguard against overreach, entitlement and democratic fatigue.
Ghana’s democratic progress has been built on a simple but powerful principle: no one is bigger than the Constitution. From Rawlings to Kufuor, Mills, Akufo-Addo to Mahama himself, and onward, the orderly transfer of power has been our strongest badge of honour.
To suggest that one man—however accomplished or popular—deserves an exception is to open a door that history, across Africa, has repeatedly shown leads to instability, division and the erosion of trust in state institutions.
The danger is not only in the suggestion itself, but in the silence of those who know better yet choose to clap along, hoping not to be seen as dissenters.
In The Emperor’s New Clothes, it took a child to speak the obvious truth. In Ghana today, the truth is equally plain: there is no constitutional garment called a third term.
Pretending otherwise risks leaving our democracy exposed
