Let’s start with a memory.
Think back to 2020, 2021, 2022. Turn on the radio. Franklin Cudjoe was talking. He was angry. About the Agyapa deal. About the Aker agreement. About COVID money gone missing. His voice was a blade – sharp, public, and aimed straight at the government of the day.
Switch channels. There was Prof. H. Kwasi Prempeh analysing SALL, calm and devastating, about constitutional overreach. Or Steve Manteaw breaking down oil revenues and calling out hidden debts. And Senyo Hosi, weighing in on every fiscal malfeasance.
Back then, these were not just analysts. They were fighters. Their target was one: the Akufo-Addo administration.
To the ordinary Ghanaian, it felt like democracy at work – civil society holding power accountable.
To the NPP, it felt like a sustained, brutal, and often unfair political attack. Every week, a new fire. Every month, another scandal amplified. They grew to believe these “neutral” voices were partisan operatives in think-tank clothing. When the 2024 election came and the NPP lost badly, many in their camp blamed these men. Not just the economy, not just their own mistakes – but the relentless narrative war waged by the civil society class.
That loss wasn’t just political. It was personal. And it taught the next government – the NDC – everything it needed to know.
Fast forward to today.
The same voices are still speaking. But something has shifted.
Not their tone – still confident, still public.
But their commander.
1. The $214 Million Word Game
A report surfaces: the Gold-for-Reserves program by Sammy Gyamfi’s GoldBoD shows a $214 million shortfall. The opposition cries foul. The public waits for the usual civil society outcry.
It doesn’t come.
Instead, Senyo Hosi goes on record.
He says: “It’s not a loss. It’s an economic cost.”
That’s not analysis. That’s translation.
Translation from the language of accountability to the language of excuse.
He didn’t ask where the money went. He renamed its disappearance.
The watchdog didn’t bark. He edited the dictionary.
2. The Envy Defense
When the IMF raises concerns on the $214m loss, the old playbook would’ve seen civil society echo and amplify – adding local credibility to global scrutiny.
Steve Manteaw does the opposite.
He says the IMF isn’t concerned about finances – it’s jealous. Jealous of the NDC’s Sammy Gyamfi.
In one sentence, a quarter-billion-dollar hole is turned into a celebrity gossip item.
A question of accountability becomes a drama of envy.
The public is no longer looking at the empty vault. They’re being asked to psychoanalyse the IMF.
3. The Mockery
Then water tariffs go up by almost 16%.
People groan. Life is already hard.
Franklin Cudjoe – the man who built his name fighting for the ordinary Ghanaian against unfair taxes – speaks.
His response?
“If it’s too high, go fetch water from streams and ponds.”
That’s not policy defense. That’s contempt.
The people’s advocate has become the people’s mockery.
He’s not standing between power and the powerless anymore. He’s standing with power, laughing at the powerless.
4. The Capture
Then, the ultimate move.
The government forms a Constitutional Review Committee.
They need a chair – someone with credibility, intellect, neutrality.
They choose Prof. H. Kwasi Prempeh.
The man who spent years writing and speaking about executive overreach, about checks and balances, about democratic safeguards – is now leading the sitting government’s review of the very rules that constrain it.
It’s not a consultation. It’s a co-option.
Who’s left to cry foul when the referee starts playing for one side?
What has changed?
The NDC learned the wrong lesson from the NPP’s pain.
They didn’t learn to govern better. They learned to govern quieter, and through “ways and means.”
They studied the last four years and saw a clear formula: a government can bleed to death from a thousand small cuts, each one delivered not by the opposition, but by the very voices society trusts to speak truth – the CSOs. So they changed the equation.
They replaced confrontation with absorption.
They traded open criticism for closed-door collaboration.
They didn’t silence the watchdogs – they gave them keys to the palace.
But let’s name this: this isn’t co-option. It’s corruption.
Not corruption of the pocket, but corruption of the purpose.
Franklin Cudjoe didn’t just change his mind about tariffs. He surrendered his voice – the one that once defended the ordinary Ghanaian against the powerful. He didn’t just switch sides. He abandoned his reason for existing.
Senyo Hosi didn’t just analyse a loss. He performed linguistic surgery on it. A quarter-billion dollars doesn’t vanish – it becomes an “economic cost.” This isn’t economic analysis. It’s political anesthesia.
Steve Manteaw didn’t just defend a policy. He poisoned the well of public discourse. When he says the IMF is “jealous,” he isn’t making an argument. He’s dismantling the very possibility of sober, fact-based criticism. He’s turning accountability into celebrity gossip.
And Professor Kwasi Prempeh?
His acceptance to lead the constitutional review isn’t statesmanship. It’s the final betrayal. The man who built his reputation on guarding the constitution is now helping redesign the locks – for the very people who might want to pick them.
What has changed isn’t just their target.
It’s their soul.
They haven’t just changed shifts.
They’ve changed uniforms – and now salute a different flag.
The fire they once directed at power now warms the hands of John Mahama.
The voices that once amplified public anger now explain why that anger is misplaced.
This isn’t evolution. It’s extinction – the extinction of independent civil society as Ghana once knew it.
What’s left isn’t criticism. It’s collaboration.
Not accountability, but apology.
Not a watchdog, but a well-trained pet. Trained to mimic the master’s voice.
That’s what has changed.
They’re not guarding the house anymore.
They’re just guarding the door – from the outside.
What’s left is a democracy stripped of its immune system.
The loud, messy, irritating noise that once forced governments to explain, amend, and sometimes retreat – that noise has been manufactured into silence.
Under Akufo-Addo, CSOs held power to account, often mercilessly, often unfairly. Under Mahama, they have become accountability’s undertakers – smoothing the edges, lowering the coffin, and presiding over the funeral of public scrutiny.
The NDC didn’t just win an election. They purchased the opposition’s conscience.
The CSOs didn’t just switch sides. They sold the nation’s eyes and ears.
The citizen is now alone. Not just unheard – undefended.
The watchmen haven’t just changed shifts.
They have deserted the watchtower and now guard the palace vault – telling the rest of us the night is safe.
And when the next government takes it turn, what will be left to purchase? And who will be left to sell?
J. A. Sarbah
