Governance analyst Professor Kwaku Agyeman-Duah has rejected proposals by the Constitutional Review Committee to reduce Ghana’s minimum presidential age from 40 to 30 years, arguing that the country’s social and educational realities make such a move impractical.
Prof Agyeman-Duah said Ghana’s context must be central to constitutional reforms, noting that many citizens complete their formal education much later in life.
“I think if you take the Ghanaian context into account, for instance, you finish school, well, some do finish school very early, but most Ghanaians from the villages, as I come from, by the time you finish your first year, you are almost 27, 28,” he said on JoyNews on December 27, 2025.
He questioned whether a 30-year-old, even with advanced academic qualifications, would have accumulated enough exposure to govern a complex state like Ghana.
“And even if by then you have finished your master’s, what experience do you have, what exposure have you had to run the country? And run the country is not running a NUGS organization,” he stressed.
Drawing on his own experience, Prof Agyeman-Duah argued that leadership of a sovereign nation demands maturity that comes with age and prolonged engagement with society.
“Knowing what I know, and at my age, I know that 30 years simply means you haven’t attained the age of maturity to run a nation, that’s what I’m talking about,” he said.
In a nutshell, he said the presidency requires more than academic credentials, insisting that life experience and national exposure remain critical to effective leadership.
