Excuse me, Messrs, why were you shouting thieves, thieves, thieves?

In their desperate attempt to return to the Jubilee House, in 2024, the then NDC flagbearer, President John Dramani Mahama and his teeming supporters gleefully gave all sorts of lofty and richly interesting, albeit unachievable promises, among other things, the seemingly illusory 24-hour economy of ‘1,3,3’ shift work, astronomical cocoa price increase for farmers, do away with the NPP administration’s enumerable single/sole source contracts, and end the menace of galamsey.

The crucial question every concerned voter should be asking is: has the NDC administration honoured the aforementioned lofty promises upon the assumption of office?

Your guess is as good as mine, my dear reader.

My dear reader, prior to the 2024 general elections, the NDC brassbound loyalists informed the good people of Ghana that President Akufo-Addo and his appointees were voraciously emptying the national coffers through the squeamishly ugly sole source contracts, and that if given the nod, the NDC administration was going to put an end to such disgusting practice.

Regrettably, upon the assumption of office, the Mahama administration has hypocritically resorted to sole source contracts under their much-touted ‘Big Push’ projects.

The Mahama administration, disappointingly, has given about 81 out of 107 road projects to contractors to the tune of GH73 billion on sole sourcing since assuming office, with a flimsy excuse that it is not illegal.

The all-important question then is: was single/sole source unlawful during the erstwhile NPP administration?

We can, therefore, conclude that the Mahama administration is deceitfully using sole source to create loot and share.

My dear reader, let’s be honest, if such behaviour is not a typical example of hypocrisy, what it is then?

Even though, a 24-hour economy is more or less a free market economy which draws its strength from the all-important supply and demand with minimal or no government interference, President Mahama and NDC operatives somehow managed to hoodwink some voters in believing that it is a sustainable policy.

Suffice it to say, no government on planet earth can legislate, coerce business owners, or have total control over a 24-hour economy.

As I write, the much-trumpeting 24-hour economy of ‘1,3,3’ shift work promised by President John Dramani Mahama has not been honoured.

Again, the Ghanaian hardworking farmers were given a juicy promise. President Mahama, somewhat blithesomely, promised to increase cocoa price from around GH3100 to about 6500. But the Mahama administration has rather unkindly reduced the price to around 2500 to the dismay of the farmers. How bizarre?

Moreover, despite President Mahama promising solemnly to stop the activities of the stubbornly impenitent galamseyers on assumption of office, the conscienceless illegal miners are back in business. How unfortunate?

My dear reader, we cannot ignore or deny the fact that small-scale mining is a significant contributor to the economic and social well-being of many people and households in rural, remote, and poor communities in Ghana.

Nevertheless, the way small-scale mining sector is being managed in Ghana, it does not look promising. The sector is being managed abysmally.

Unfortunately, the recalcitrant illegal miners are all over the place stealing our mineral resources, terrorising the indigenes and destroying the lands and water bodies with mephitic mercury and cyanide.

President John Dramani Mahama must keep his promise of ending galamsey. He cannot and must not allow some criminally-minded foreigners, greedy politicians, mindless Ghanaians, and villainous chiefs who do not have the nation at heart but only harbour ulterior motives to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of Ghanaians.

Given President John Dramani Mahama and the NDC’s enthusiastic devotion for dishonouring promises, some of us were somehow on point to doubt President Mahama on his 2024 manifesto promises.

It is worth emphasising that the social contract theory emerged during the era of enlightenment. There was a time that human beings lived without rules or laws. In fact, human beings neither had government nor laws to regulate the activities of mankind.

Consequently, there were rampant hardships and oppression, and in order to remedy the hardships, human beings entered into social contract.

In the grand scheme of things, citizens came together and pledged to obey an authority and surrendered the whole or part of their freedom and rights to an authority. The authority, in turn, guaranteed everyone protection of life, property and to a certain extent liberty.

In effect, citizens agreed to establish society by collectively and mutually abdicating the rights they had against one another in the State of Nature and they vested authority in someone or assembly of persons to enforce the initial contract.

In a way, human beings agreed to live together under common laws and then created an enforcement mechanism for the social contract.

Thus, our contemporary authority or government came into being as a result of the emergence of the social contract. It is against that backdrop that President Mahama entered into agreement with Ghanaians prior to the 2024 general elections.

President Mahama asked the electorates to give him the mandate, and in return, he guaranteed everyone protection of life, property, provision of social amenities, better socio-economic standards of living and to a certain extent liberty.

With all due respect with no hidden condescension whatsoever, the teeming supporters of the NDC must engage in a carefully considered reflection and accept the painful truth that they blatantly lied to Ghanaians to win power in 2024 general elections.

May God bless our homeland Ghana!
K. Badu, UK.
[email protected]