A national debate on Ghana’s presidential term limits has intensified following controversial remarks by Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Shamima Muslim, who described the current four year mandate as wholly insufficient for sustainable development.
Speaking in an interview with TV3 on October 31, 2025, Muslim argued that the short political cycle fuels instability, promotes wasteful spending on frequent elections, and disrupts long term national planning. “It is true that the four year term is wholly insufficient if we are truly to change the path and trajectory of our development. Expensive elections that begin and start upon the end of another election don’t look like a practical way of managing very scarce resources,” she stated.
Muslim explained that Ghana’s governance system leaves limited time for effective leadership, as administrations spend much of their tenure on appointments and election preparations. “Year one is literally spent making appointments. By year two, even in year one, people are already talking about who leads which political party and who takes over from which political party,” she said.
The Deputy Presidential Spokesperson went further, suggesting that Ghana should consider allowing political leaders to serve more than two terms if they are delivering transformative change. “Even if we do not want to extend the term limits, we must look at the possibility of allowing multiple terms for political party candidates. Once a political party elects someone to lead, that person should be able to go more than two terms if the people themselves see that we are on a certain transformative path that requires continuation,” she argued.
Muslim urged policymakers to leverage the ongoing constitutional review process to rethink Ghana’s governance framework. “Possibly, the Constitutional Review Committee will give us what we need to have this conversation because it would be detrimental to the country if we don’t,” she added.
However, legal scholar and governance advocate Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare has strongly rejected the proposal. In a Facebook post on November 3, 2025, Professor Asare, known as Kwaku Azar, acknowledged that claims suggesting four years or two presidential terms are too short are reasonable, but insisted that Ghana does not need longer presidential terms.
According to Azar, what the country truly needs is better leadership and more effective time management in governance. He highlighted how political appointments often drag on for extended periods and how campaigns are unnecessarily prolonged.
The legal luminary stressed that term limits serve a vital democratic purpose. “They protect democracy, prevent power from personalizing, and allow citizens to renew leadership before it calcifies into entitlement,” he stated.
Azar further argued that building strong systems and institutions can enable a leader to achieve a great deal in just four years. “The problem is not how long we let leaders stay, it’s how little they do while they are there. We waste too much time governing poorly and too little time governing well. A government that cannot deliver in eight years will not perform miracles in twelve. The cure is not to extend mandates but to enforce discipline, efficiency, and accountability,” he wrote.
The debate comes at a significant moment in Ghana’s democratic journey. Ghana’s 1992 Constitution limits presidents to two terms of four years each. This provision was designed as a safeguard against the concentration of power and authoritarian drift following decades of military coups and political instability.
President John Mahama, who was elected in December 2024 and inaugurated on January 7, 2025, is currently serving his second non consecutive term. He previously served as president from 2012 to 2017 and is constitutionally barred from seeking another term in 2028.
The government has established a Constitutional Review Committee to examine potential reforms to Ghana’s governance framework. However, any changes to presidential term limits would require broad public consultation and likely a referendum, given the sensitivity of the issue.
Across Africa, attempts to extend or remove presidential term limits have proven controversial and, in some cases, led to political instability. Several African leaders have faced fierce resistance when attempting to amend constitutions to allow themselves additional terms in office.
The contrasting positions between Muslim and Azar reflect a broader tension in African democracies between the desire for policy continuity and the imperative to prevent power consolidation. While proponents of longer terms argue that development requires sustained leadership, critics warn that weakening term limits opens the door to authoritarian governance.
Public opinion in Ghana and across Africa generally shows strong support for maintaining presidential term limits as a democratic safeguard, according to various Afrobarometer surveys conducted in recent years.
