The "Big Push" and the Great Paradox
By Dr. Ato Kwamena Danso · 28 March 2026 · Politics
I hope this letter finds you resting in a place where the electricity never blinks and the roads are paved with something sturdier than "good intentions." I hate to disturb your peace, but I thought you’d like an update on the "Industrial Ghana" you dreamt of.It seems we’ve traded your Seven-Year Development Plan for a new strategy. We call it the "Big Push," though, between us, it feels more like a "Big Shove" for the taxpayer. While you were busy building dams and factories, our current leaders have discovered a much more efficient way to spend money: avoiding competition entirely.The fine folks at The Fourth Estate the kind of inquisitive journalists who would have kept your ministers awake at night,have been doing some math. In just five months of this administration, the Ministry of Roads awarded 107 contracts under this "Big Push." You’d be proud of the speed, until you hear the catch: not a single one went through a competitive bid. Imagine building the Akosombo Dam, but instead of calling the best engineers, you just whispered to a few friends, "Koo, want to build a wall?" We’ve "sole-sourced" over GHS 73 billion worth of work. It seems the government’s promise to ban this practice has more holes than a fisherman’s net in Keta. But here is the truly curious part, Osagyefo. While they are busy handing out these billions in the dark at home, they are standing on the world stage in New York, shouting at the top of their lungs about Reparations. Just this week, our President led a historic UN vote to declare the slave trade the "gravest crime against humanity." They are demanding that the West pay for the "resource extraction" and the "hollowing out" of our people that happened centuries ago.The irony is as thick. They ask for compensation for the "stolen futures" of our ancestors, yet The Fourth Estate reveals they are hollowing out the future of the living with these very contracts. They rail against the "inhumane systems" of the past while operating a procurement system that treats the national purse like a private inheritance. They tell the world that the African deserves "restorative justice," but back home, the only things being restored are the bank accounts of a few "sole-sourced" contractors.Is it not a similar thing, Osagyefo? To demand equity from the stranger while practicing inequity against your own brother? To weep for the chains of the past while forging new ones out of debt and corruption?Some of these multimillion-cedi contracts are reportedly going to firms with fewer employees than a trotro has passengers. One man, one shovel, and a GHS 500 million contract. Truly, the African is capable of managing his own affairs, especially if those affairs involve a direct transfer from the Bank of Ghana.We still sing your songs, but I fear we’ve forgotten the lyrics about "State Interest." Now, the state is mostly interested in making sure the "Right to Information" doesn't turn into the "Right to Prosecution. If you see any spare "integrity" floating around up there, please do us a favor and export some back home. We are currently importing everything else. The more things change, the more they remain the same. So long, Ato_KD .