Former Power Minister and Pru East Member of Parliament Dr. Kwabena Donkor is calling for Ghana’s presidential term to be extended to seven non-renewable years, paired with a prime minister accountable to Parliament and a national system for deliberately training the workforce the country needs over the next decade.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The High Street Journal, Dr. Donkor argued that the current four-year electoral cycle is structurally incapable of producing long-term development because governments spend the bulk of each term positioning for the next election rather than implementing policy with a generational horizon.
His proposed model would seat a president for a single seven-year term with no renewal option. Alongside that executive, a prime minister would lead government business in Parliament and remain removable by legislators if the administration underperforms. Dr. Donkor believes this dual accountability structure would shift the governing incentive from vote-seeking to nation-building.
The reform argument does not stop at the constitution. Dr. Donkor says Ghana’s failure to plan its human capital needs is equally damaging. He points to universities running science and technology programmes without functional laboratories, producing graduates trained largely on theory in fields that require hands-on skill. The result, he says, is visible in the labour market, where Ghana continues to import artisans and technicians from Togo and Benin to fill roles that local institutions should be producing domestically.
His proposed fix is a targeted scholarship and investment model where the state declares, in advance, exactly how many engineers, medical doctors, statisticians, surveyors and other technical professionals the economy will need over the next ten years, and then funds education accordingly through institutions including the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC).
“I’m very passionate that our four-year cycle is not helpful. I sincerely believe we should elect leaders for seven years,” Dr. Donkor said.
He was careful not to dismiss the value of Ghana’s democratic record. He sees it as a foundation that has succeeded on its own terms but has now reached the limit of what electoral stability alone can deliver. The next phase, in his view, demands that democracy be redesigned to produce development outcomes, not merely peaceful transitions of power.
Dr. Donkor’s call adds a fresh dimension to a longstanding national debate. Former presidents John Kufuor and John Mahama, as well as other senior public figures, have previously voiced support for longer presidential terms, though none has framed the proposal with the same emphasis on workforce planning and parliamentary accountability.
