Wednesday, January 7, 2026, was exactly one year since President John Dramani Mahama returned to power after his defeat in 2016 and his stay in opposition for eight years.
His return has given him the opportunity to demonstrate that he still has more to offer Ghana, even though he assumed office amid a severely weakened governance architecture.
This context makes any assessment of his first year particularly challenging.
Nonetheless, one year on, his leadership has revealed a clear sense of direction, discipline and intent in how he seeks to govern the country.
My initial observation is that this first year has functioned as a second chance—shaped by institutional memory, heightened public expectations and a citizenry acutely aware of both his experience and the hardships of the present moment.
One year on, criticism of the Mahama presidency has largely focused on caution.
He is too cautious in the pace of reform, the restraint of rhetoric, and the absence of dramatic gestures.
These critics are understandable, but they often ignore context.
The facts are that the administration inherited an economy under severe strain, institutions weakened by distrust, and a population exhausted by promises that had outpaced delivery.
In such conditions, the Mahama administration began not with spectacle, but with stabilisation.
From my observation, the first year was about repair, not performance.
Debt levels, fiscal credibility, and investor confidence were at points where recklessness would have been more catastrophic.
So choosing stability first was not about timidity; rather, it was triage. Stop the bleeding, start the breathing.
The Economy
I observed the economy-recovery programme’s approach of prioritising repair before relief.
Within a year, inflation declined from crisis-era highs and month-on-month price pressures moderated, even though food and utility costs continued to strain some households.
Meanwhile, debt restructuring stabilised government financing and eased interest pressures, although at the expense of limited fiscal space for spending.
In choosing solvency over short-term stimulus, the government avoided populist interventions that could have deepened future crises.
Growth returned modestly, although employment gains lagged. This reflects economic reality rather than policy neglect: early growth under such conditions signals stabilisation, not expansion, and job creation typically follows only after sustained growth, with a time lag.
Governance
In the area of governance, the government prioritised institutions over impulse.
Though there were loud calls for instant crackdowns and headline prosecutions, particularly following early anti-corruption discoveries (ORAL), the government favoured building and empowering institutions because governance by impulse weakens institutions, and the Mahama administration wanted due process and institutional strengthening over personalised justice.
As a result, cabinet coherence improved, public institutional conflicts reduced, and procedural consistency returned.
This is because governance repair is rarely dramatic, but it is measurable in institutional behaviour.
Infrastructure
In the field of infrastructure, the government chose to build within reality, so a strong ambition remained.
But frankly speaking, ambition without financing is fiction.
I must hasten to add that, as a prelude to the government’s strong ambition for its big (infrastructure) push agenda, the administration emphasised project audits, feasibility, and sequencing. Hence, I noticed that fewer new projects were launched, and inherited commitments were scrutinised.
The resulting slowdown, in my view, was a correction rather than an abandonment.
Delivering fewer projects properly is fiscally more prudent than launching many unsustainably—a lesson Ghana has learned before.
My verdict
After one year, the Mahama presidency is neither a redemption story nor a disappointment.
It is a presidency in recalibration, steady, restrained and conscious of its limits.
What it has delivered is stability and restored credibility.
What it has not yet delivered is broad-based relief.
I believe the first year was designed to stop the decline and create room for acceleration, and that objective has largely been met.
The next phase will be judged not by restraint, but by conversion.
Conversion that must turn stabilisation into growth, and growth into relief.
Steady leadership is not the absence of ambition.
It is an ambition grounded in responsibility, and in difficult times, responsibility remains the truest form of courage.
The writer is a Technical Aide, Office of the President
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh
