John Dramani Mahama has once again exposed the painful truth Ghanaians have known for years: he has absolutely no idea how to create jobs. His record, past and present, shows a leader completely out of touch with economic reality, yet dangerously addicted to empty slogans and political marketing.
Back in 2012, after inheriting power from the late President John Evans Atta Mills, Mahama toured the country promising a flood of jobs. “Jobs, jobs, jobs,” he chanted. But what did Ghanaians get instead? The worst betrayal of a generation.
Despite inheriting an economy with the highest GDP growth since independence, Mahama dragged Ghana to the IMF—not because the country had collapsed, but because his government lacked discipline, direction, and credibility. That reckless decision triggered one of the harshest conditions ever imposed on Ghana: a complete freeze on public sector employment in 2015 and 2016.
That decision alone crippled the dreams of thousands. It forced Ghanaian youth into a corner so tight that they formed the Unemployed Graduates Association, with over 500,000 hopeless degree holders begging for opportunities in their own country. That is the legacy Mahama left behind, youth unemployment, despair, and shattered futures.
Ghanaians kicked him out in 2016, and rightfully so.
But like a politician who never learns and never listens, Mahama stormed back after eight years with the same tired lines. This time, he packaged his promises in flashy labels the 24-hour economy, the Nkoko Nkitinkiti programme as if Ghanaians could be tricked by rebranded slogans.
He won the 2024 election on the back of these new promises. But what has happened since then?
Silence. Confusion. Abandonment. Failure.
The 24-hour economy is nowhere to be found. Nkoko Nkitinkiti has evaporated into thin air. Not a single credible job-creating blueprint has been unveiled. The government is fumbling, clueless, and rudderless.
The truth is simple and brutal:
Mahama campaigns on job creation because he knows it wins votes but he governs with no plan, no courage, and no competence to actually deliver jobs.
His leadership continues to recycle the same old pattern: big promises big disappointment national suffering.
At this point, calling Mahama’s job-creation promises a scam is not an insult. It is an accurate description of a decade-long pattern of deception.
If Ghana is to move forward, the country must stop falling for reheated slogans and recycled promises from a leader who has consistently proven he cannot create jobs — not in 2012, not in 2016, and certainly not now.
