John and Ibrahim are brothers. Blood relations, true and true. One holds the Seal of State. The other holds the deeds to the mines.
In any functioning democracy, a thick unbreakable wall stands between the Presidency and Private Greed. In Ghana, that wall has been replaced by a boarding pass.
The Republic was not 48 hours old when the leash was broken. It was violently torn apart
January 17, 2025. Two days after his inauguration, John Mahama did not board a state aircraft. Not chartered flight either. He boarded Ibrahim’s private jet to The Gambia and Senegal. The oath was still warm. But he did it because the arrangement was already running.
February 12, 2026. The Ministry of Finance has just slashed cocoa farmer prices “to save the economy” as they put it. While the farmer counts his losses, Ibrahim’s brand new $70 million Bombardier Global 6500 – the one wearing the Dzata signature – lands at Kotoka. Within 48 hours it is carrying the President of Ghana to Seoul. Same brother. new jet. Test flight.
Same arrangement.
The first trip was a favour. This one is a system.
Naana the Veep fell ill. Spent three months in London. We were told Ibrahim paid the bills.
Not the Treasury. Not the Consolidated Fund. Not the Republic that swore an oath to her on inauguration day. Ibrahim paid.
In corporate strategy, this is called Debt-Loading. You do not gift the medical recovery of a sitting Vice President unless you are purchasing the silence of the Cabinet. When a private mining magnate owns the Vice President’s health, he owns the government’s spine.
That hospital bill was not charity. It was a chain. And Naana is not the only one wearing it.
Now Ibrahim loves gold. And he loves football too. Five million dollars for the Black Stars. America. The World Cup. Flags. Anthem. Tears. The burning emotions.
While the tears are falling in the stadium, the pens are moving in Accra. Emotion is the distraction. The concession is the point. Ibrahim does not spend $5 million on sentiment. He spends it on the door to Jubilee House that is never locked when he knocks.
Watch what is happening to the ground beneath your feet.
July 2025. Black Volta Gold Project. Captured.
Q1 2026. Damang Mine. Captured. Tarkwa Mine. Captured. Gold Fields is exiting. Ibrahim’s Engineers and Planners are moving in. This is not indigenization. It is family capture.
Then the cold criminal math. $214 million evaporated from GoldBod. Not misplaced. Not under review. Evaporated. No arrest. No explanation. No shaming.
Then the sovereign robbery. 18 tonnes of Ghana’s gold sold at $3,500 per ounce. Weeks later gold hits $5,200. The same gold bought back at the higher price. $1.27 billion in premiums departed the Republic and arrived somewhere private. Mistakes do not move $1.27 billion with that surgical precision. Only a partnership does.
We know the family.
John Mahama, you cannot hold the 1992 Constitution in one hand and Ibrahim’s flight manifest in the other. You cannot be the referee of the mining sector while your brother is the only striker on the field. You cannot fly on Ibrahim’s jet, let Ibrahim pay the Vice President’s hospital bills, let Ibrahim sponsor the national team, watch Ibrahim’s concessions multiply across the Western Region, and then look this Republic in the eye and call it governance.
It is not governance. It is a joint venture. Ghana is the price
If you want to be a partner in Mahama & Co, do it honestly. Resign. Drop the title. Leave Jubilee House. Walk to Tarkwa and join Ibrahim in the pits. But you cannot sit in the highest office of this land while your brother liquidates everything beneath it.
Ghana is not a family inheritance.
The Treasury is not a family account.
The Ledger is now public.
The gold is gone. The jets are flying. The brothers are eating.
J. A. Sarbah
