Plea Bargains or Plea Betrayal? NDC Risks Squandering Its Anti-Corruption Mandate

Plea Bargains or Plea Betrayal? NDC Risks Squandering Its Anti-Corruption Mandate

By any stretch of political imagination, nothing could have propelled the NDC back into power in 2024 more than its bold pledge to wage a ruthless, uncompromising war against corruption. “Operation Recover and Loot” (ORAL) was not just a campaign slogan — it was a social contract with millions of Ghanaians who were sick and tired of watching public officials loot with impunity.

Fast forward to today, and the picture is beginning to look disturbingly familiar. Instead of “ruthless accountability,” what Ghanaians are seeing is a government wobbling under the weight of its own promises. The latest headache? The Attorney-General’s embrace of plea bargaining with former public officials accused of looting the state.

Let’s be clear: plea bargaining may be grounded in law. But in the eyes of ordinary Ghanaians, it is nothing short of a betrayal. It turns justice into a marketplace where thieves can haggle their way out of jail so long as they have the cash to “refund” what they stole. How does that square with “equality before the law”? How does that square with ORAL?

Ghanaians were promised a thriller in Manila, a rumble in the jungle when the AG teased prosecutions in the National Service Secretariat scandal. Instead, what do we have by September? A deafening silence. No courtroom drama. No handcuffs. No convictions. Just the sound of disillusionment echoing across the country.

And what about the long list of unresolved scandals? Buffer Stock. Missing ECG cables. The National Cathedral. Wontumi. NSA. Each case is a ticking time bomb, gnawing at the moral fabric of this government. Arrests are announced with fanfare, cameras roll, headlines scream — and then the cases evaporate into thin air.

The NDC must wake up. The goodwill it rode on in 2024 is not infinite. Ghanaians are watching closely, and they will not forgive a government that morphs into the very thing it promised to destroy. If ORAL degenerates into “deal cutting,” John Mahama’s administration risks becoming a cautionary tale of betrayal.

Yes, stolen funds must be recovered — but justice must also be seen to be done. Anything less emboldens the looters and insults the millions who trusted the NDC to clean house.

This is not the time for compromise. It is the time for bold prosecutions, convictions, and deterrent sentences. It is the time for the NDC to prove that ORAL was not an empty slogan but a sacred pledge.

If the government fumbles this, it will not just lose face — it will lose the moral authority to govern, and possibly the 2028 elections too.

The question is simple: will Mahama’s NDC stand tall against corruption, or will it barter away the people’s trust in the name of expediency?

Ghanaians are watching.