NPP, the dollar or fuel prices: Who ‘breaks the 8’ first?

Usually, in the lead up to major elections, slogans fly around. The political parties, both big and small, know the effect slogans have on the electorates and the race for who gets the most catchy slogan is always intriguing. Remember “Asie Ho, Forward ever, backwards never, Ghana must work again, Edey bee k3k3, Arise for Change, Positive Change, 4More4Nana, Round 2 and the many others? They are potent political campaign tools.

But the next election is in 2024 and already the ruling New Patriotic Party is trying to steal a march on their opponents.

Today, the slogan ‘Breaking the 8’ has become the common tagline for especially members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), as they hope to take a seat in the history books of Ghana as the first political party under the fourth republic to govern beyond the cyclical two consecutive terms or eight years in power.
In Ghana, political parties have so far only managed to be in power for at most 8 years, which is the equivalent of two-straight terms in office but that may just be changing soon.

The NPP says so and they hope to work at achieving just that, but would they be the first to really ‘Break the 8?”

We’ll break the 8 with our superior record

In December 2021, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia expressed confidence that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will become the first political party in the Fourth Republic to break the eight-year power cycle.

This, he said, is based on their superior record in governance, a thing he said the opposition, National Democratic Congress (NDC), does not possess.

“I believe by the grace of God we’ll be able to break the eight because we have a superior record. We can give you at least 25 social interventions we have implemented to reduce the suffering of Ghanaians. Can you mention any social intervention by the NDC?” he said during the NPP’s Annual National Delegates Congress in Kumasi.

Since then, several notable personalities in the party have also trumpeted this new mantra of ‘Breaking the 8’.

The sitting president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, also reiterated this tagline at the same congress.

“I am determined to hand over the baton to the next NPP presidential candidate.
“We want to break the 8 not just for ourselves but for Ghana because we know the zigzag: NPP comes to clean for them to be polluted, this is not the way progress will be brought to our country.

“We need a secure period in office to make that irreversible change in the fortunes of our nation and we are capable of doing it. We will get a candidate that will unify our party and all of us will campaign to make that candidate the next president of the Republic,” he added.

Rising fuel prices

However, with the recent increment in fuel prices, ‘Breaking the 8’ has taken a different direction as Ghanaians have expressed unhappiness with the growing development, amidst dire economic hardships.

This has also been compounded by the global effects of the novel Coronavirus.

Now, the seemingly catchy slogan is becoming an albatross for the NPP.

These days, as a form of trolling, some Ghanaians say the NPP is racing with the dollar, and fuel prices in who becomes the first to ‘Break the 8’.

For instance, Total Ghana sells fuel at the pumps at GHc7.99, while other major fuel stations price theirs between GHc7.3 to GHc7.99, which has become a major concern to Ghanaians.

Aside from the novel Coronavirus, fuel price increments have been attributed to the rising crude oil prices on the international market.

But the question is, between fuel prices in the country, the dollar which has now crossed the 7 cedis mark and the NPP’s Breaking the 8 agenda, which comes first – who carries the baton?