I became president after three attempts by God’s grace - Akufo-Addo

Akufo-Addo says faith encouraged him to persist to become president

People said I was too short to be president, Akufo-Addo

My Christian faith shaped my professional life as lawyer and politician, President

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that he won the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections purely by God’s grace.

The president said that his trust in God was the only reason he never gave up on his bid to become president even though he failed on two previous occasions, the 2008 and 2012 elections, asaaseradio.com reports.

Akufo-Addo, who said this at the Museum of the Bible’s inaugural Africa lecture held in the US on Thursday, May 5, 2022, added that he never gave up his dream to be president despite the insults, name-calling and other negative comments against him because of his Christian faith.

“It took three tries between 2008 and 2016 for me to get elected. By which time, the popular catchphrases of ‘Akufo-Addo cannot be president’, ‘God does not want Akufo-Addo to be president’, ‘Akufo-Addo is short, and does not have the stature to be president’ had become so prevalent, you had to be firmly rooted in your faith to have had the courage to persist.”

He added that “I committed that third election campaign to God and indicated to the Ghanaian people that “The Battle is the Lord’s. By God’s grace, I won a famous victory against an incumbent president by a gap of nearly a million votes, the largest margin of victory for two decades and by the same grace, I won re-election in the December 2020 elections, and I am now in my second and last term as president.”

The president also said that Christian faith was very important in his upbringing and his professional life as a lawyer and politician.

According to him, his Christian faith has largely policed how he has acted in professional fields which has, in turn, influenced heavily his vision for Ghana and Africa's transformation.

He further stated that his parents, who were staunch Presbyterians, played a key role in the development of his Christian faith, adding that attending an Anglican secondary school in England also help to develop his faith.

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