Mr Mahama, You can't Arrest us and Sell us too

Let me be honest. Yes, I may have my political lens, everyone does. I may have argued for a political party before. I may have defended, I may have shouted, but not on this one. On this one, I beg you, I am not NPP, I am not NDC, I am just a Ghanaian, a well-meaning Ghanaian citizen who cannot sleep at night.

Ghana has been seen as the beacon of democracy in Africa and one of the beacons globally. When they mentioned Ghana, the world said, oh that small country where you can talk; where you can criticize the President and still go home and sleep peacefully. That was our pride. Oil will finish, gold will finish, but that respect, that freedom to speak, must not finish. We should not lose it but we are losing it, little by little.

Today, the number of arrests in less than two years is more than the progress we have seen. If care is not taken, this government will be boasting of how many people it has arrested and how many people it has given out to foreign countries as its achievements. Arrest here, arrest there, is that the achievement we voted for?

We feel like beasts in a cage. We feel like we are in the ancient NDC military regime where our fathers and grandfathers would have to go on exile, or this current one is one in disguise? Are we heading to a culture of silence? We feel like aliens in our own motherland. What a lugubrious state we find ourselves in now.

A young man types "light off" on Facebook and he is picked up, another forwards a video of a bad road and he sleeps in cells. Free speech is under strain. A Ghanaian youth activist, David Essandoh arrested on Monday, May 11, 2026 over allegations of publishing false news after criticizing dumsor. Abronye DC arrested twice and remanded. More than fourteen similar arrests recorded. Every day, a new arrest.

And now the painful new thing. People are being arrested day in, day out, for believing to have a link with someone operating behind pseudo social media accounts, whilst those known and spewing more dangerous words on our leaders are being encouraged, protected and ignored. What a shame and nonsense. Nothing makes sense in Ghana anymore.

As this is being written, hands are shaking, not because of lies, but because of fear of being next. Fear that being a brother's keeper has become a crime. That saying what market women say at Kumasi Central and Agbogbloshie markets, what trotro drivers say at Kejetia and Circle lorry stations, what farmers say when cocoa rots on the farm, could lead to a dawn arrest. If the writer of this piece is picked up tomorrow, let it be known he did not steal. He only loved Ghana more than he feared prison.

This fear is double because now we don't only arrest our own inside Ghana, we also give our own people out.

We are quick to give or sell our brethren out to other countries, to extradite them. In the case of Abutrika, a Ghanaian was hurriedly handed over to face trial outside, while those same countries will never allow their own citizens to be touched. They protect their own. America will not extradite its own to Ghana. The UK will not do it. But we package our brothers like parcels and ship them out. So it is arrest here inside Ghana, and giving our people out there outside Ghana. Inside and outside, Ghanaians are not safe.

And then the painful one. Our own Ken Ofori-Atta, former Ghana's Finance Minister. The man who is supposed to face trial here is sitting abroad, being protected by the nation where he is. That government has not given him to us.

And let me say this fairly, Ken Ofori-Atta may have his questions to answer, yes, he must face the law, but he also did some good stuff for his country Ghana. He held Ghana when Covid came, when the whole world was shaking and collapsing, he stood and led. He pushed the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda, he worked for financial stability, he brought programmes that at a point kept the economy moving and kept hope alive. A man can do good and still have questions to answer, that is democracy.

You call him to come home and face the law, and yes he doesn't need to be protected abroad forever by a foreign government. But you also don't need to be quick to sell other small Ghanaians abroad when you cannot even bring one big man home to face our own courts. Where is the justice in that? Where is the sovereignty? It all boils down to the same thing: arrest, witch-hunting, and showing power over the weak while big men are shielded by foreign protection.

And blood has become a sentence.
I don't intend to remind us of pain, on August 6, 2025, eight Ghanaians died tragically in a helicopter crash near Obuasi. They were on their way to launch a programme aimed at stemming galamsey. The helicopter crashed in the Adansi area of the Ashanti Region while travelling to Obuasi, killing all eight on board. Among them were Defence Minister Dr. Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Dr. Murtala Mohammed. They did not die at rest, they died at work, they died for Ghana.

If those eight look down today, what do they see? In Mfantseman, cocoa farmers are facing severe challenges as illegal mining has destroyed access routes to their farms, leaving large quantities of cocoa uncollected and stranded. Deep trenches and open pits have made farm roads unusable for over a year. Between January and August alone, at least 27 people died after falling into abandoned galamsey pits. Was this what they died for?

Power was lent, not ownership given. Yet cocoa money has been cut from GH¢58,000 per tonne to GH¢41,392. Nkoko nketekete farmers watch their birds die, feed too expensive just like the Nkonfem that flew to Burkina and never returned. Rice farmers with over one million tonnes unsold, buffer stock failing to buy. Fishermen with no premix. Fish rotting, rice rotting, cocoa rotting.

Nurse trainee allawa not paid for months. Teacher trainee allawa not paid. They go to class hungry and go to wards hungry to heal us. Fuel up every week, light off every evening especially in Ashanti Region, water bills up, telecom network down blaming it on galamsey and your own flagship program Big Push that fibre wires are being cut as a result of them. So you dig roads with Big Push to develop Ghana, but you cut your own fibre and put Ghana offline. What a confusion.

Then Accra drowned. The 2026 Ghana floods took place at the end of June 2026, affecting Kaneshie, Adabraka, Circle, Weija, Adentan, East Legon, Achimota, Spintex, Teshie and other places. June 2026 observed the greatest rainfall of 593.2 millimetres since 1995 with 169.2 millimetres within 24 hours. At least 12 people died after torrential rain flooded large parts of Ghana including Accra, with over 38,000 displaced. Mother Bridget lost her two children in that flood. The cause was mainly building on waterways and disposal of waste into drainage systems. Self-inflicted, they said, but the flood control project Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) project had no funding for 16 months.

Hospitals are rotting. Nanton Agenda 111 Hospital Project remains abandoned years after construction began, reaching about 50 percent completion by September 2023 but still incomplete in 2025. In Berekum West, the site is overrun by weeds. No Agenda 111 project is ready for use despite $400m spent. Schools are demolished to build markets where no human being passes.

On television, they debate whether GoldBOD lost $1.7bn or made surplus. CEO Sammy Gyamfi strongly rejected claims of $1.7bn losses as a barefaced lie, presenting audited report with operational surplus GH¢907 million and overall surplus GH¢5.4 billion. The common Ghanaian does not understand surplus. He understands his pocket is empty.

And where are the fathers of the land? Where is the Peace Council? Where are the religious leaders, the clergy, the imams, the traditional chiefs, the CSOs who used to shout when a fly died under previous governments? Why have you kept mute? Has a sweet song been played to you in a room? Have you been given soft chairs, cold water and sweet music at Jubilee House, and now your mouths are heavy?

When arrests happen here and our people are given out there, you are silent. When eight died fighting galamsey, you said a prayer and went to lunch. When Accra flooded and children died, you issued a communique and went silent.

There is a beast queen rising, not in office. She is the market woman who still gives food on credit when she has nothing. She is the cocoa farmer who still plants after his land is destroyed. She is the trainee nurse who still holds a dying patient without allawa. She knows crowns can wait, she treats the wounded first.

Ghana must treat the wounded first.
So arrest what is killing us. Arrest galamsey, not Ghanaians. Arrest bad roads, not the boy who videoed them. Arrest hunger, not the hungry. Arrest dumsor, not the man who said dumsor is back. Arrest road accidents that kill our people every day on Accra-Kumasi, Accra-Cape Coast, Kumasi-Tamale roads. Arrest potholes, arrest killer highways, arrest darkness on our roads. Arrest no-bed-syndrome, arrest the hospitals with no beds to save lives. Arrest filth, arrest floods, arrest the gutters choked with plastic. Arrest joblessness, arrest the young graduates with no work. Arrest the about 60,000 students with no Free SHS placement sitting at home.

Arrest nepotism and favouritism, arrest the dangerous one where if you are not NDC you are not part of the national cake. Arrest the inconsistencies in your government, today you say free SHS is good, tomorrow you say it has failed, today you say Agenda 111 is waste, tomorrow you commission the same building, yada yada yada, every day a new story. Arrest the rot in procurement, arrest the corruption that makes buffer stock not buy rice. Arrest premix shortage, arrest water shortage, arrest schools under trees. Arrest the lies that make cocoa rot and rice rot and fish rot. Arrest the problems of the Ghanaian who brought you to power but not the Ghanaian. SeLaH!!!

And stop selling our brothers abroad while you cannot bring one home to face justice here. Stop counting arrests as progress.

It is impossible to arrest 33 million Ghanaians and impossible to extradite 33 million Ghanaians.

Nkrumah said Ghanaians are not timid. Slow to anger, but when ready, they strike and they strike hard. And when we strike to save our democracy, no sweet song will stop us.

History is writing this chapter. It will note who spoke and who kept mute.

From a well-meaning Ghanaian citizen. Yes, I may have my political lens, but not on this one. My hands are shaking as I write, because I don't know if being my brother's keeper will make me next. Not NPP, not NDC, just Ghanaian who still believes Ghana is the beacon of Africa.

SeLaH!!!
Concerned Citizen Nana Yaw Boakye Yiadom Opoku Agyemang [N.Y.B.Y.O.A.] of Let Truth Be Told Alliance [L.T.B.T.A.]

+233243065430 | [email protected]