In the eight years he crisscrossed the country after the loss of the 2016 general elections to Nana Addo, Mahama himself made numerous admissions, openly and quietly, to party elites, supporters, and the general public about some of the mistakes his government had made in the first term (January 2013 to January 2017). In his appeal for support, he promised to turn a new leaf and atone for his mistakes if given a second chance to lead this nation.

After given another opportunity by the Ghanaian voters in the December 7, 2024 general elections, it did not take six months of stewardship by the new president for any independent observer to see the apparent changes across the major sectors of the economy and public life in general. In some sectors, such as economic stability, the turnaround has been meteoric and unparalleled in the nation's history.

However, these gains from Mahama in his second coming risk being eroded if the party and the government itself fail to properly steer the transition from Mahama to a new leader with thoughtfulness.

Many names have been bandied around as potential aspirants for the presidential candidacy of the party in the coming 2028 elections. While I do not want to hazard a speculation of some of these names, I could glean from some of the bandied names that those aspiring to lead the party cut across the various generations of the party leadership from its inception to the current generation. I mean from the Rawlings generation down to the generation of my good friend Sammuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the foreign minister.

My information suggests that as many as 30 individuals are nursing presidential ambition, but as to how many of them can muster the needed fortitude and resources to enter the ring and battle it out is another issue. The danger in this heavily crowded internal party struggle is the potential to weaken the government and make the president a lame duck, more than two years before the end of his tenure. Already, acrimonious alliances are being formed in a manner reminiscent of the internal struggle that led to the defeat of the NDC in the 2000 general elections. Similar internal acrimony also contributed to the defeat of the NPP in both the 2008 and 2016 elections.

Even the most ardent critic would attest to the progress being made by the Mahama government so far in both domestic and international spheres, particularly concerning economic stability.

The economy has witnessed its best performance in terms of stability since the 1980s. However, one can even argue that the performance of the economy in the last year and a half regarding macroeconomic stability has surpassed that of the 1980s because in those years the stability was artificially engineered and sustained by a massive amount of donor support. The current stability is purely the by-product of domestic policies and financial resources, particularly regarding the Ghana Gold Board project.

In terms of foreign policy, the recent adoption of a United Nations resolution, proposed by Ghana, to recognise transatlantic slavery as the “gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparations has put Ghana back in the global spotlight, parallel to the era of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the founder of this nation.

The rejection of the United States $109 million bilateral health aid in exchange for citizens’ sensitive health data for American pharmaceutical companies was a demonstration of courage, conviction and patriotism by the Mahama government in the international arena. For decades, Western pharmaceutical firms, backed by their governments, have used Africans as guinea pigs in their medical research and experiments, and many Africans have lost their lives as a result. This act of wickedness was carried out often with the connivance and complicity of selfish African leaders.

In terms of media freedom, Ghana is also doing far better now. Ghana was ranked 39^th out of 180 in the 2026 Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index. This is a significant recovery from 52nd in 2025 and 62nd in 2023.

While Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index has only marginally improved from 42 in 2024 to 43 (out of 100) in 2025, we are seeing less of the impunity we saw in the past in terms of corruption. In spite of this, it is in the area of corruption and corruption perception that the Mahama government would face the biggest test if the internal party competition to replace the president is not well managed and regulated. For those who doubt this claim, the allegations of bribery and vote-buying in the recent NDC parliamentary primary in the Ayawaso East Constituency are there as evidence of what would happen to the image and goodwill of the Mahama government and the party if steps are not taken to prevent such situations in the forthcoming presidential primaries.

An acrimonious challenge to replace Mahama could prove costly not just to the president’s legacy, but to the progress of the nation in the last two years of his tenure. This is especially the case when there is enough evidence that the next two years could herald more progress in the economy, particularly regarding the most pressing issues of employment and infrastructure development. Not only would the appointees’ attention be distracted from their duties and obligations to the nation, but they are also likely to shift their loyalty to the newly elected presidential candidate at the detriment of their work. Those who are defeated in the contest may also assume a nonchalant behaviour in government. More aggrieved individuals may even go as far as playing the roles of spoilers within both the government and the party, while victors may also isolate the vanquished, as has been the case in internal competitions in Ghana. This could prove costly to the nation.

My view is that the NDC leadership, including the president himself, must put their foot down and go back to the roots of the party and select a presidential candidate by consensus instead of allowing dangerous, divisive and financially expensive internal competition to erode their own goodwill among the larger Ghanaian population.

 Abdul Hakim Ahmed, PhD

Senior Lecturer

Department of Political Science

University of Education, Winneba

E-mail: ahahmed@uew.edu.gh