SPEECH: Remarks by HE John Mahama at the 2024 Manifesto Launch.

Resetting Ghana_ Jobs | Accountability | Prosperity 
NDC 2024 Manifesto. 

My dear comrades, members, supporters, sympathisers, and followers of the National Democratic Congress. 
The good people of Ghana, watching and listening from across the country and the world, and those who have joined us here in Winneba. 
Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin.
Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, my running mate for 2024. 
National Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah 
General Secretary Fifi Kwetey
My beloved wife, Lordina. 
Ladies and gentlemen. 

Today, we gather with hope as one people, united in victory, and as one nation – Ghana – with a common, interwoven, indivisible destiny.

Today, we also gather to re-ignite and re-affirm the dreams of our forebears, led by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the founder of our great nation—a nation with one destiny. A destiny that cannot afford to endure one additional day beyond January 7, 2025, of the maladministration, mismanagement, and state capture this nation has been subjected to over the last almost eight years. 

For the sake of God’s children and in the name of God, the people of Ghana will wake up from this nightmare and envision a bright new dawn of opportunities for all its people.

My brothers and sisters, Ghana is bleeding. Ghana's soul is crying for change! Mother Ghana is crying for its true and genuine patriotic citizens to rise to reset our beloved nation. Ghanaians can take no more of the hardship, impunity, state capture, hypocrisy, lies, and bad governance inflicted over the two terms of this outgoing administration. 

We cannot fail Mother Ghana. Therefore, I urge you to vote for CHANGE on December 7. 

We, the members of the National Democratic Congress, gather to express our utmost belief in democratic governance and to proclaim right here in Simpa that this administration's time is up. 

They have decimated our democracy beyond recognition, destroyed livelihoods and families, and pushed millions of Ghanaians below the poverty line. Your vote on December 7 will end tyranny, cronyism, corruption, and hardship. It will also pave the way for the vision, experience, and trustworthiness I, John Dramani Mahama, will restore to the Flagstaff House.

As I have said before, this government must begin writing its handing-over notes if it has not done so already. This NPP administration has been the biggest political scam perpetrated against Ghanaians since our independence in 1957. 

And I will explain why! Repackaged with ribbons and sweetly scented with enticing promises, most Ghanaians will agree that Nana Akufo-Addo is indeed the President Ghana never got. Indeed, I daresay his much-touted economic whizz kid, Dr Mahamoud Bawumia, is also the economic messiah Ghana never got.  

This NPP government took over from my administration on January 7, 2017. They inherited an energy sector we had stabilised with the fastest mobilisation of emergency power of almost 800 megawatts. 

Along with this came a new Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) with potential revenues of GH¢3 billion per annum to pay off legacy energy sector debts. They also inherited an ongoing Millennium Challenge Compact of $547 million to make Ghana’s energy sector the most efficient in Africa. 

The family’s quarrel over shares in the PDS company led to the US pulling back $190 million, which was meant for the most critical component of the compact, private sector participation and improvement in collections at the distribution end of the electricity value chain.  

They inherited more than $450 million of the IMF Extended Credit Facility initiated by my administration. Most of our state-owned enterprises were breaking even or making a profit.

They inherited a cocoa production of 964,000 metric tons, with a COCOBOD that was making profit and owed only GH¢1.5 billion to the central bank in cocoa bills.

We handed over two new oil-producing fields, TEN and ENI, which increased Ghana’s oil production by more than 100,000 barrels per day with additional gas of more than 200 million scf per day. This increased Ghana’s revenue from petroleum by more than half a billion dollars. 

They took over from my administration a stabilisation fund in which we had accrued $277 million, a Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund with seed money of $270 million, and a sinking fund account at the BOG with a balance of over $200 million.

They inherited a budget with a deficit of 6.1%, zero borrowing from the Central Bank, and a stable currency that traded at about GH¢4 to USD1.

Inflation was at 15.4%. Unemployment was at 8.4%. When we handed over to the Akufo Addo/Bawumia government, Ghana’s debt as a percentage of GDP was 57%.

As a result of rapid fiscal consolidation, we handed over an economy set to grow above 8%, as predicted by the World Bank, IMF, and all the credit rating agencies. Private businesses had an enabling environment to thrive, and foreign investors were queuing to invest in our economy.

This NPP government also took off with a stabilised economy, significant buffers, and enormous domestic and international goodwill. Indeed, this has been the most favoured government in our history. But, alas, the Ghanaian people’s favour has been repaid with pain and anguish. 

This government has received more revenue than all other governments combined in Ghana's history. And as the saying goes, to whom much is given, much is expected. Unfortunately, this administration has severely short-changed the people of Ghana.

This administration's scorecard has been abysmal. The inflation rate went as high as 54% and is currently hovering above 20%. Ghana has one of the highest food inflation rates in Africa.

Our currency has depreciated to almost GH¢ 16 to USD 1, and they have borrowed more than GH¢70 billion from the BOG, causing a serious upsurge in inflation, a debt-to-GDP rate that went as high as 104%, and an unemployment rate of almost 15%. 

Ghana has defaulted on her debts and engaged in a debt exchange, resulting in painful haircuts and deferred bond tenure at lower interest rates.

Cocoa production has plummeted, and for the first time in history, COCOBOD’s annual syndication, which was sought after by international banks, has no takers. Production volumes are down, and COCOBOD seeks to delay delivery of almost 350,000 tons to next year. COCOBOD has defaulted on nearly GH¢13 billion in cocoa bonds.

Oil and gas production has declined by 32%, and debt to independent power producers has increased astronomically. The majority of SOEs are posting massive losses.

The COVID pandemic, rather than being an adversity, turned out to be a blessing. This government received almost GH¢ 25 billion in inflows, most of which were doled out to companies owned by family and relatives.

Most citizens are convinced our country, Ghana, is going in the wrong direction. Faith in our democracy is at its lowest, and many youth do not believe that constitutional governance works for them.

Faith in our democratic institution and political leadership is at its lowest ebb. Corruption is at its highest, and Ghanaians are numb to the scandals that are exposed almost every week.

And when a President says he does not understand the hullaballoo about the sale of SSNIT hotels to a minister in his government, then clearly, he is on a completely different wavelength than the rest of the country.  

This is a President who doesn’t get it!

Many domestic and foreign investors have adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Many people I have met have told me they are waiting for a signal from the Ghanaian people that the political and business environment will change—that we will effect a change of course.

Matthew 25:14-30 – tells one of the parables of Jesus Christ – “The Parable of the Talents”. 

This parable teaches us to invest wisely in whatever is put in our care for the benefit of our master. The master, in this case, is the people of Ghana. This administration is akin to that of the last servant, who buried the talent that was given to him and returned the same talent to his master upon his return.  
In the case of Akufo-Addo/Bawumia and their cabal, they did not bury the talents given to them by the people of Ghana and return them to us. They gambled with the talents we gave them and landed the people of Ghana in huge debt.

We cannot continue on this path! Voting for the NPP will express satisfaction with the impunity of the last eight years. It is a vote for Nana Akufo-Addo's third term. 

A vote for NPP in this election is a vote to escape accountability. It is a vote to allow officials who have raped this country’s resources to evade accountability and to go laughing all the way to the bank.

Their flagbearer and running mate, prominent actors in the horror movies Ghanaians have watched these last almost eight years, cannot be the ones to demand accountability from the government of which they have been an integral part.

We are at a critical juncture in our democratic history. Every choice we make in an election has consequences. We cannot afford to fail this time. A restive youth does not have the luxury of trial and error. 

They do not have the luxury of trying a driver’s mate who has learned his driving from the same driver who crashed the vehicle of the Ghanaian people.

Our nation needs a reset!
Our democracy needs a reset!
Our economy needs a reset!
Our governance needs a reset!
Our attitudes need a reset!

We need a government that will galvanise the efforts of all Ghanaians, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or partisan affiliation. We also need a government that will allow all businesses to thrive, whether domestic or foreign, no matter the ethnic, religious, or partisan affiliation of their owners.

This may be our last chance to get it right. It cannot be business as usual. Ghana is a nation in a hurry. We need to make a change—a change that will usher in a responsive and accountable government. A leadership that will crack the whip when its appointees go down the wrong track.

A responsive government that respects the rights and freedoms of citizens, including journalists, will address the ongoing decay of state institutions and fight corruption by deploying the “Operation Recover All Loot” (ORAL) Strategy.

Today, we present you with a manifesto to help you take back your future. The future of Ghana is in your hands. 

Thank you.