Accra, Ghana//-One-year Assessment of the John Mahama Second Administration conducted by Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has rated President John Dramani Mahama’s first year in office very high.
The report added that the Administration, whose four-year mandate began on 7th January 2025, had put solid foundations and measures across the six thematic areas assessed.
The NGO in its independent assessment stated that Mr Mahama’s first year in office was marked by strong reform signals and visible corrective steps.
It, however, warned the administration that significant structural governance gaps remain and urged the government to address them.
In his welcome address at the launch of the report in Accra on 19th February, the Executive Director of CDD-Ghana, Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, said his outfit had been conducting first assessments since 2002.
The first-year assessments according to him were a global democratic tradition, distinct from the popular 100-day benchmark, stressing that Ghana’s four-year cycle, one year was a significant milestone for evaluating tone, momentum and policy direction.
In his own words: “We think one year is a good marker for assessing how the government is performing. And we’re happy this year also that we have the benefit of a number of experts and analysts and people who usually study and observe and monitor our government to join us to do this”.
In his inaugural address, Mr Mahama outlined four pillars for the “Reset” mandate, namely Economic restoration and stabilisation, Improvement of the business and investment environment, Constitutional and governance reform, and Accountability and the fight against corruption.
Objectives
The assessment’s objectives were to evaluate the administration’s performance during its inaugural year (January 7, 2025 – January 7, 2026) to provide an independent, evidence-based contribution to public discourse.
The specific objectives of this First-Year Assessment, among others, were to highlight key findings, trends, and evidence across the six thematic areas.
The second objective was to provide an independent, non-partisan assessment of the administration’s performance, policy coherence, and early outcomes in relation to democratic governance and development commitments.
The third was to facilitate informed public dialogue among policymakers, civil society, academia, the media, and citizens on areas of progress, stagnation, and concern.
Priority Areas and Assessment Scope
These six thematic areas are:
1. Democracy, Governance, Human Rights and the Rule of Law; 2.Anti-Corruption and Accountability; 3. Economy and Jobs; 4. Environment and Social Development; 5.Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration; and 6.Defence, Security and Peacebuilding.
DEMOCRACY, GOVERNANCE, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW
The assessors of this thematic area are: Director of Policy Engagement and Partnerships at CDD-Ghana, Dr Kojo Pumpuni Asante; CDD-Ghana Fellow, Professor John Osae-Kwapong; Paul Osei Kuffour; and Dr Michael Augustus Akagbor, both of CDD-Ghana.
Reviewing the thematic area, Dr Asante assessed: “The good news is that the President has, from the day of his inauguration, been sending the right signals about the threats to Ghana’s democracy”.
In his inauguration speech, he noted that Ghanaians are dissatisfied with the quality of governance and that if democracy is superior to other forms of governance, then it must improve the lives of Ghanaians.
He has persisted with this message at a number of high-profile events, including the 13th African Union High-Level Dialogue on Democracy, Human Rights, Justice, Peace and Security, held in Accra.
President Mahama argued that ‘Democracy must not just be institutional but also Relational”.
“In essence, the people must feel its effects in their lives. The best example of the President’s signalling of the good governance imperative is his warning to himself and his party that, if he fails to reset Ghana, it could lead to civil unrest, as young people would not forgive him”, Dr Asante added.
In this respect, the publication of a code of conduct to regulate the behaviour of his appointees, the open-door policy to receiving feedback from citizens on the actions of his administration, and the willingness to make a U-turn on government policy direction are all positive.
Key examples Dr Asante mentioned include the reversals on the Lithium agreement and the decision to abrogate the Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) contracts.
The fulfilment of the governing National Democratic Congress’s (NDC’s) promise to pursue Constitutional Reform is further testament to positive signalling on restoring citizens’ faith in democracy.
The composition of the Committee nurtured public confidence and enthusiasm for the reforms.
The decision to publish the summary of the recommendations upon receiving it enhanced the President’s commitment to transparency and consensus-building, he stated.
However, subsequent statements to the effect that the government may issue a ‘position paper’ have raised concerns about the President’s signalling around the national project.
Ultimately, the next round of the Afrobarometer survey will indicate if the President’s posture and actions are affecting the attitudes of Ghanaians, particularly the youth, towards the democracy project.
A key indicator of the President and government’s response to the decline in the quality of governance is to rebuild the relationship with and trust of the Media and Civil Society.
The media continues to play its watchdog role, regularly reporting on happenings in government.
The overall environment freely enables the media to do its work. This is not to say there have not been incidents that have raised concerns about journalists’ safety.
The NDC government, in its first year, has continued with the government accountability mechanisms established under the Akufo-Addo regime, where Ministers regularly made themselves available to brief media and other stakeholders on ongoing work in their various ministries under the President’s Information Minister.
The government has remained open and engaged with the media both offline and online. Two main challenges remain with media relations.
First is the now persistent challenge of violence against journalists. The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has raised concerns for many years, and the incidents continue to occur.
MANAGING POLITICAL TRANSITION
n the Fourth Republic, presidential and state transitions, particularly from the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to the NDC government or vice versa, have been characterised by violence, a run on public institutions by marauding groups of party-affiliated vigilantes, mass dismissals in public services, the pursuit of post-regime accountability and vestiges of post-election violence.
Dr Asante and his team of Assessors noted: “The 2025 presidential and state transitions were not different from previous ones.
Contestation and violence surrounding the declaration of parliamentary results in several constituencies, including the destruction of results sheets, property of the Electoral Commission (EC), assault of poll workers, and an ineffective police containment strategy, created an atmosphere of fear and chaos in the run-up to the inauguration of President Mahama.
Typical of the few weeks of transition, marauding groups of party-affiliated vigilantes illegally entered public installations in an effort to illegally remove NPP-appointed public officers or forcefully secure employment, supposedly promised by the incoming party.
An egregious example is the storming of the Ghana Gas offices on 10th December 2024 by NDC supporters. It took a combined team of police and soldiers firing warning shots to disperse the group.
These activities continued, and one week after President Mahama was sworn in, similar assaults on public institutions persisted.
Typical of the history of presidential transitions, almost no one has been held accountable for clearly criminal acts.
Presidential and state transition in the Fourth Republic has also been plagued by constitutional and legal gaps that have created damaging governance gaps.
Unfortunately, the passage of the Presidential (Transitions) Act 2012 (Act 845) has failed to cure these gaps. Act 845 was expected to sanitise and order the transition process from one party to another.
In a way, it achieved the goal of an ordered process at the top of the governance structure, but less so at the middle and at the bottom.
Since 2020, the public has witnessed the swift setting up of presidential transition teams and a cordial engagement between the outgoing and incoming governments.
However, the application of the Act has not sufficiently addressed the transition of the state or even the Presidency.
Apart from the regular complaints about inadequate handing over of notes, the biggest issue is with last-minute actions taken by the outgoing governments that place undue financial obligations on the incoming government.
In the 2025 transition, the contention was about the handling of payments and recruitment in the transition period.
As a result, the incoming government revoked what was termed ‘last-minute appointments’ (appointments made after 7th January 2025) to the public service. This substantially affected a large number of unemployed youth.
Other state transition issues concern the directive to Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to hand over to District Coordinating Directors upon the incoming President assuming office.
Similar directives were issued for Boards and CEOs of public corporations.
Both mass dismissals of political and non-political appointees created significant governance gaps in the administration of the state.
PERFORMANCE ON GOOD GOVERNANCE PRIORITIES
As part of the President’s interventions to restore trust in government and institutions, the NDC committed to reducing the size and cost of government, setting up a governance council, consolidating codes of practice and reviewing the framework for political financing.
This section assesses how the John Mahama government tackled these issues and how successful they have been.
President Mahama and the NDC’s commitment to reduce the size of government by capping the appointment of ministers and deputies to 60 was fulfilled.
This required the closure of some ministries, the merger of others, and the renaming of others. This is a welcome development after years of advocacy on the cost of Ghana’s oversized Executive and the need to significantly reduce the cost of governing.
The NDC also committed to significantly reducing the number of staffers appointed to the presidency, which notoriously reached over 1000 in 2023.
In March 2025, the President indicated that he had appointed 26 staff members and four directors.
The President is expected to report to Parliament by March 2026 on the number of staff and other personnel working at the Presidency.
The report will provide the nation with a clearer sense of how well the President is fulfilling the promise to reduce the size and cost of government.
So far, the numbers signify substantial improvement. However, the process of amalgamating ministries created some functional and institutional weaknesses.
In the case of the Ministry of Information, which was brought under the control of a single government spokesperson, the positive side is that it has centralised government and presidential communication.
The downside is that it has diminished the relevance and effectiveness of key departments, including the Information Services Department and the Right to Information Unit.
It is also observed that the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) is largely sidelined in its role as the public recorder and archivist of the President’s official duties in favour of private media brands. The problem we will face in the future is the lack of publicly accessible archival records from the President’s time in office.
The Presidency should reflect seriously on these institutional lapses for the sake of posterity.
Another area of cost arises from the harmful decisions of various governments to discontinue projects started by a previous government.
A large part of this anti-development and pro-partisan tendency is to avoid giving credit to an opponent at the expense of prudent management of the country’s resources.
Similar concerns were raised in the first year of President Mahama’s government, and several assurances were given that the government is committed to continuing projects of the previous regime, with the usual caveats about accountability.
Examples of such projects of continuity are the Ofankor-Nsawam road, which was added to the ‘Big Push’ infrastructure projects.
The Education Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, has also affirmed the government’s commitment to continuing projects.
This posture should be encouraged to ensure prudent resource management.
While the government and the President have signalled an open-door policy for policymaking, coordination still leaves much to be desired.
There have been a number of instances of Ministers and other officials articulating major policy decisions not discussed in Cabinet.
Here is the full report: file:///Users/masahudu/Downloads/Copy%20of%20Mahama%20at%20One%20(1).pdf
