Dear President-elect,

Accept my sincerest and heartfelt congratulations on your overwhelming victory in the 2024 general presidential election. As a PR fanatic, I must say I was impressed by the optics of your campaign. One of the things that stood out for me was your ability to carry your family along—at every point in time, it was either you and your children or your wife on the campaign trail. Another thing worth mentioning was the fact that, in the absence of all the former presidential candidates and flagbearers of the NDC, the late Prof. J.E.A. Mills and Ft. Lt. J.J. Rawlings, you carried their children along. This, I must say, gave many party folks a reason to go out there to campaign – after all, your children were also out there campaigning.

Well, elections are over so enough of that but just before I depart from mentioning how attractive your campaign looked, I want to say a very big thank you for choosing Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang again against all odds. Many questioned her social capital, political wits and capacity to take over from you since you’re only allowed by the 1992 constitution to run for a just term. Your resolve in pushing through with that decision only tells me one thing, this isn’t about the next election – it's about the people of Ghana, their well-being and your desire to succeed and leave a legacy. Thank you for giving us the first female vice president – this means a lot for the girl child who aspires to do more and become more. As she highlighted in her acceptance speech, “It’s not about being the first to go through the door but holding the door open for others to come through” – this she has lived! As the first female vice-chancellor for a public university in Ghana, she’s opened the door wide for other females to attain this height with the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology having female vice-chancellors after her. Indeed, with her depth and wealth of experience, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang has what it takes to make you succeed as President. I hope you put her to judicious use and not relegate her to the background.

Now let’s get down to serious business. Mr. President, you hold the record as the only sitting president to have suffered a defeat in an election – the biggest defeat in the history of the Fourth Republic and currently hold the record for the biggest comeback any presidential candidate has ever made. Indeed, you are the only former president to have been re-elected into office. You were rejected big in 2016 and accepted even bigger in 2024. Mr President, I believe you and I know what this means: “Sovereignty resides in the will of the people” as spelt out in the 1992 constitution of the republic. If there is anything you have learnt, I believe it’ll be not to take the Ghanaian people for granted.  Indeed, Nkrumah saw beyond his generation and never lied when he said, “Ghanaians are not timid people as has been suggested in the foreign press. Far from it. They may be slow to anger and may take time to organise and act. But once they are ready, they strike and strike hard. It pays no one to tamper with Ghanaians' freedom and dignity”.

Mr. President, no Ghanaian really expects you to come and turn their lives around in the next year or two. We know the debt crisis the nation is saddled with. Indeed, many voted for you not because you had the best policies to turn their lives around. They voted out of anger! What many Ghanaians expect from you is to create an enabling environment for growth – an enabling environment for their businesses to thrive, an environment where free speech and media freedom will not be clamped down on, an environment where people can express their displeasure even through demonstrations and go home safe and heard and not locked behind bars for exercising their constitutional rights, an environment where media men and women wouldn’t have to keep looking over their shoulders anytime they have the course to be critical about your governance. We want to go to the polls and have every citizen return home without bloodshed and fatalities – that is the Ghana we want. Ghanaians want accountability, probity and justice! Ghanaians want responsive and empathetic leadership!

Mr. President, just a quick reminder that Ghanaians gave you not just an overwhelming victory but also an overwhelming majority in parliament. Over a two-thirds majority. You have no excuse, Mr. President! You can’t blame the NPP side in parliament for any inefficiency. You have exactly what you need to succeed.

I was going to touch on other deep things but “if I say everything now, what will I say tomorrow” – if you know, you know (on a lighter note).

I loved your acceptance speech and some of the concessions you made in that speech. It was full of grace and humility. Mr. President, that being said, we shall be watching you closely -  the first and foremost indication of your commitment to the Ghanaian people shall be the calibre of persons whom you shall appoint to your cabinet, and the size of your government. I am interested in the Ministry of Health, Education, Finance and Foreign Affairs: The Ministry of Health most importantly and specifically; Health Financing, which I shall write about in subsequent letters after you have settled in properly.

Until then, I pray for you, Mr. President, that the Lord will grant you wisdom, deep insight and courage to solve difficult problems like Daniel. I know you sought the face of the Lord in your bid to secure power. I encourage you to seek His face at all times in your governance continuously. I pray for you, that you will be sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and yield to His direction. Like the Holy books admonish us: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, never lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct your path”.

Hopefully, I shall be writing more of these letters to you for various reasons in the course of your administration. Until then, I wish you well and congratulations once again.

Yours in service,

TENGAN, Charles Lwanga

A citizen and not a spectator!