Ghanaians voted for change but are we getting transformation or just retribution? As Minority Leader, I must sound the alarm before it’s too late.
One year ago today, I watched as the people of Ghana rendered their verdict at the polls. It was not the outcome my Party; New Patriotic Party (NPP: Development in Freedom) had hoped for but it was the people’s choice and I respected it then as I respect it now. Democracy demands nothing less.
But respect for electoral outcomes must run both ways. Those who win the people’s mandate inherit not a licence to govern anyhow, but a sacred duty to govern responsibly. One year on from that historic vote, and nearly a year since President Mahama’s inauguration on 7th January 2025, I must speak a difficult truth: those who won the people’s trust are living dangerously.
𝙄 𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙣𝙚𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙖𝙣 𝙜𝙡𝙚𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙬𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘, 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙮, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙪𝙣𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙪𝙨.
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗡 𝗪𝗘 𝗖𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗢𝗥𝗘
First came the purge; thousands of citizens, working lawfully within state institutions and parastatals, were sent home without just cause or due process. Then came the unprecedented removal of the Chief Justice. Now, the top echelons of the Electoral Commission and the Office of the Special Prosecutor face the same fate.
A pattern emerges, clear as daylight. Party hawks are the ones apparently driving the agenda. This is not RESET; it is retribution. This is not legacy-building; it is vendetta politics dressed in the language of renewal. When a government spends its energy removing people rather than creating opportunities, when it focuses on settling scores rather than solving problems, it reveals its true priorities and those priorities have nothing to do with the welfare of ordinary Ghanaians.
Meanwhile, where is the promised 24-Hour economy? Where is the industrial transformation? Where are the jobs for our young people?
𝗔 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗗 𝗧𝗢 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧 John Dramani Mahama: 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗥𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗦𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗗 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗘
Mr. President, I address you directly now, with the respect your Office commands and the candour our nation’s situation demands.
Let us begin with a simple historical fact: what you achieved in December 2024 is extraordinarily rare in democratic politics. A president who lost an election, who spent eight years out of power, who watched three complete election cycles pass such a leader almost never returns to the presidency. Globally, you can count such comebacks on one hand. Grover Cleveland in the United States. A handful of others scattered across more than a century of democratic history. This is not ordinary political victory; it is a remarkable restoration of public trust.
That feat alone should be profoundly humbling. It should serve as a clarion call not to the hawks who appear to be dictating your government’s agenda but to you personally, Mr. President. The people did not bring you back to watch you preside over a government of removals and retribution. They brought you back because they believed and they hoped that you had learned from the past and would deliver transformation in the present.
When history judges your presidency, it will not count how many opponents your government arrested or how many officials were removed. It will measure what you built, what you left behind that improved lives and expanded possibilities.
When we speak of President Kufour, we speak immediately of the National Health Insurance Scheme; a transformative policy that continues to serve millions. When we mention President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, we think at once of Free Senior High School, regardless of whatever criticisms one might have about implementation. These are legacies; concrete, enduring contributions to national development that transcend partisan politics.
What will be your legacy from this unprecedented second chance? At this rate, history will remember it as the administration of removals and arrests of hawks dictating policy whilst moderates stood silent and you, Mr. President, allowed it to happen. Surely that cannot be the chapter you wish to write. Surely that cannot be the epitaph of a presidency that defied political gravity to return to power.
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 𝗜𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗨𝗦
Mr. President, let us be honest about the world we now inhabit. This is the age of artificial intelligence and unprecedented human innovation. Whilst your government busies itself with the politics of “I will show you where power lies”, other nations are making transformative investments that will determine global leadership for the next century.
Countries across the world are pouring massive resources into AI, technology, and infrastructure. They are building extensive human resource capacity that positions them as formidable players in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The United States, China, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia; these nations have made deliberate choices to lead in technological transformation. Their leaders have personally championed these efforts. They have shown the way.
And the results are staggering. From agriculture to security, from healthcare to education, AI is driving seismic change. Farmers in advanced economies now use AI-powered systems to maximise yields and minimise waste. Security services deploy sophisticated AI tools to predict and prevent threats. Manufacturing, logistics, finance; entire industries are being reimagined through machine learning and automation.
This is not science fiction; this is the present reality and the gap between those who are preparing for this future and those who are not grows wider every single day.
Where is Ghana in this race? What are you doing, Mr. President, to ensure our young people can compete in this new world? What investments is your government making in the digital infrastructure, the research capacity, the education systems that will allow us to participate meaningfully in the global AI economy?
We too must find our core competencies in this space. We must identify where we can compete effectively, where we can create jobs, where we can transform our development paradigm in ways that benefit millions of Ghanaians. This is how our young people will secure well-paid employment, both within Ghana and globally. This is how they will contribute to global solutions, wealth creation, and human progress. This is the path to genuine economic transformation that your presidency should be remembered for.
But none of this can happen whilst your government focuses its energy on removing constitutional office holders and arresting opponents. You cannot build a technology-driven economy or create a knowledge economy when your administration’s priority is settling old scores rather than building new industries.
𝗣𝗨𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗙𝗢𝗢𝗧 𝗗𝗢𝗪𝗡, 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧 John Dramani Mahama
The hawks who currently appear to be driving your government’s agenda have no interest in Ghana’s long-term development. Their horizon extends only to the next arrest, the next removal, the next demonstration of power. They are stealing time and energy that should be devoted to transformative nation-building. More dangerously, they are stealing your legacy.
You have an onerous duty, Mr. President; a duty not to your party’s hawks but to Ghana’s future. You must put your foot down. You must not allow yourself to be led astray by those whose only agenda is retribution. You have 189 seats in Parliament; a commanding majority that represents enormous public goodwill. That goodwill is not infinite and it is being squandered with each passing day that your government focuses on settling scores rather than creating opportunities.
I know there are moderates within your party; people of goodwill and genuine patriotic conviction. Empower them. Listen to them. Let them help you build the legacy that your rare second chance deserves. The politics of revenge must not overshadow the politics of development not now, not when the stakes are this high, not when the world is moving this fast, not when you cannot afford to fail.
Your unprecedented return to power should be a legacy-defining moment. But legacy is not built on how many people you removed from office; it is built on what opportunities you created for those not yet born. It is measured by whether you prepared your nation for the future or left it trapped in the conflicts of the past.
Make Ghana’s progress and transformation your agenda, Mr. President. Not the hawks’ agenda of vengeance. Not the party machinery’s agenda of consolidation. Ghana’s agenda. That is the onerous duty that history and the people’s unprecedented trust have placed upon your shoulders. You cannot afford to fail—not this time, not with so much at stake, not when your place in history hangs in the balance.
𝗔 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗞
Beyond our borders, the warning signs are everywhere. I watch the news from across the world with growing unease. From Paris to Antananarivo, from Nairobi to Jakarta, young people are taking to the streets. They are energy-packed, impatient, and increasingly unwilling to accept the status quo. They have grown weary of leaders who promise transformation but deliver only the same tired patterns of self-enrichment and partisan warfare.
Here in West Africa, the situation is particularly alarming. We have witnessed constitutional crises and democratic backsliding in nations we once held up as models of stability. Military juntas have seized power, often to the initial cheers of populations who had lost all faith in civilian governance.
Let me be unequivocal: I condemn unreservedly the undemocratic capture of political power. The barrel of the gun has never been, and will never be, the answer to poor governance. Those who romanticise military intervention forget too quickly the darkness such detours inevitably bring.
But we must ask ourselves the uncomfortable question: why do frustrated populations sometimes welcome such ruptures? The answer indicts all of us in political leadership. Democracy loses its lustre when those elected to uphold it abuse it. When politicians treat the Constitution as an inconvenience rather than a sacred covenant. When the powerful demonstrate an arrogance that blinds them to the suffering of ordinary citizens.
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗠𝗜𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗟𝗘
Here is a truth I have come to hold deeply: 𝘿𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙮, 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨, 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢 𝙤𝙛 𝙜𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙮𝙚𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙮. Why? Not because it is flawless, but because unlike autocracy, democracy contains within itself the mechanism for its own correction.
Through the ballot box, through free expression, through independent institutions, democracy allows a people to chart a new course without bloodshed. It has toppled tyrants without firing a shot. It has transferred power from the arrogant to the hopeful. But that mechanism only works if we maintain it, if we protect it, if we refuse to allow today’s victors to dismantle the very structures that might tomorrow hold them to account.
The ballot box corrected what many saw as our failings last December. That same ballot box can correct what many now see as this government’s failings. But only if the institutions that safeguard free and fair elections remain independent and credible.
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗦 𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡
Yes, the Cedi has stabilised somewhat and the government trumpets this as evidence of economic competence. But let us not deceive ourselves about the source. The Bank of Ghana is pumping reserves into the foreign exchange market; artificial respiration for an economy that lacks genuine productive capacity.
When you depend on imports for essential commodities yet produce little, when you prop up your currency through forex injections rather than through real production and exports, you are building a house on sand. The bubble will burst. It is not a matter of if, but when.
A year has passed. Beyond the rhetoric and the public relations gimmicks, what real achievements can this government point to? What industries have been built? What jobs have been created for the young people who believed the promises?
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗗𝗙𝗢𝗢𝗧 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗜𝗘𝗥𝗦
And speaking of young people, here lies perhaps the most dangerous oversight of all. The youth who formed the vanguard of political campaigns, who braved confrontations at police stations, who believed they were fighting for their future, have been abandoned. The big men have received their appointments; every foreign mission now boasts its deputy. The NDC upper-middle class is being sorted out nicely, thank you very much.
But what of the young people who did the fighting? What of those who believed that this time would be different? They have been left with the same unemployment, the same hopelessness, the same sense that the system works only for those already comfortable.
Do we not see the danger in this? Do we not understand what happens when a society tells its young people, again and again, that their only value is as political foot soldiers, to be used during campaigns and discarded afterwards?
𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗙𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗨𝗥𝗘
But let me turn the mirror on my own party as well. This is not merely a problem for the NDC. We in the NPP must engage in honest self-reflection. Our own conduct in power, our own manifestations of arrogance, our own detachment from the realities facing ordinary Ghanaians and these too contributed to the people’s verdict against us.
𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙣 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧, 𝙬𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙤 𝙤𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙬𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙞𝙩. 𝙒𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙪𝙢𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙜𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙤𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚’𝙨 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙨. This is a bipartisan failing, and unless we all confront it honestly, we are doomed to repeat it in an endless, destructive cycle.
We must always have at the back of our minds that when the people’s anger is finally unleashed, it will make no distinction between NPP and NDC.
The suffering youth do not care about our party colours. They care about jobs, about opportunity, about a future that seems increasingly beyond their grasp.
Let us be very careful. We may wake up one morning to find ourselves facing a reality that none of us will be happy to see.
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔’𝗦 𝗦𝗔𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗗𝗨𝗧𝗬
I turn briefly to the Fourth Estate. You face a choice. You can choose silence in the face of constitutional violations. You can choose comfort over courage, access over accountability. Or you can choose to fulfil your historic role as democracy’s watchdog.
𝘼 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨 𝙨𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝙚; 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙩. The people of Ghana need you to tell the truth, especially when that truth makes the powerful uncomfortable.
𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗪𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗡𝗧 𝗔𝗦 𝗢𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡
As Leader of the Minority, let me state something that may surprise some: we want this government to succeed. That is not political theatre; it is the truth. We want them to succeed because their success is Ghana’s success and their failure would be Ghana’s failure.
A responsible opposition does not pray for national calamity to score political points. A responsible opposition offers constructive criticism, presents alternative ideas, and holds government accountable whilst genuinely hoping for the good of the nation. That is what we are trying to do, even when our motives are questioned.
𝗞𝗘𝗘𝗣 𝗙𝗔𝗜𝗧𝗛
I close with this: democracy is imperfect. It is messy. It frustrates us. It moves slowly when we wish it would run. It sometimes elevates the unworthy and disappoints the hopeful. But democracy, unlike its alternatives, does not trap us in perpetual darkness. It always offers a way out. It always provides a mechanism for renewal.
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙤𝙭 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙞𝙣𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙨 𝙞𝙛 𝙬𝙚 𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣, 𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣, 𝙞𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙥𝙩.
To President John Dramani Mahama: seize this moment. Build the legacy your rare second chance deserves. Put your foot down against the hawks and make Ghana’s transformation your agenda.
To those in power around him: honour the trust placed in you. Victory at the polls is not a licence to govern anyhow or to weaponise the authority of the state. To the youth: do not lose hope; your day will come through the ballot not the bullet.
To my fellow political leaders, regardless of party: 𝙬𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙘𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙨, 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨, 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙘. 𝙇𝙚𝙩 𝙪𝙨 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙙𝙤𝙢, 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖 𝙯𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙞𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙖 𝙬𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙛𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚.
One year ago, the people spoke. They can speak again. That is both the promise and the warning inherent in democracy. May we all have the wisdom to hear it.
