Former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has voiced concerns over the recurring trend of blame-shifting in Ghana’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), particularly during transitions between political parties.
In an open letter reacting to President John Dramani Mahama’s seventh SONA, delivered in Parliament on February 27, 2025, Amidu urged a departure from what he sees as a cycle of lamentations over past administrations’ economic failures.
“After thirty-two (32) years of Constitutional rule and democracy under the Fourth Republic of Ghana, the State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by the incoming President on the occasion of the transition of government from one of the two political parties to the other ought to move from the blame game to a recognition of the past contributions to nation building and a determination to build upon the past for the future,” Amidu stated.
He pointed out that since the 2001 transition from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of President Jerry John Rawlings to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration under President John Agyekum Kufuor, successive presidents have used the platform to highlight the shortcomings of their predecessors.
He argued that this approach serves as a preemptive justification for any potential underperformance by the new government.
“It has been as though each incoming government is insuring itself in advance against its own failure to perform to the satisfaction of the electorate at the end of its own tenure,” he noted.
Amidu also observed the paradox where new presidents, after assigning blame, then seek to assure the public of their commitment to fixing the inherited problems.
“At the same time, after the attributions and blaming of the past government, the new President tells the nation that he is not lamenting or passing the buck because he was elected to right those wrongs for which he is capable of doing,” he added.
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