A promise is the only contract most citizens ever sign with a government. Ghana's Fourth Republic has produced more of them than any voter can track: manifestos, 120-day social contracts, State of the Nation addresses, sod-cutting speeches, commissioning ceremonies. What it has not produced is a habit of going back afterwards and checking. So we did.

We grouped what we found into four categories: promises kept; projects commissioned before they were completed; promises reversed once in office; and decisions where the bulldozer arrived before the plan. Then we put the government's own best case, and the questions it has yet to answer.

1. Promises kept

Fairness first. Within his first 120 days, President John Dramani Mahama delivered a substantial share of his "Social Contract". Independent scorecards put delivery at around three quarters: the African Elections Project's Penplusbytes report rated 76 percent of the 25 measurable commitments achieved or in progress, and BudgIT Ghana scored 72 percent.

• Taxes scrapped: the e-levy, the COVID levy, the 10 percent levy on betting winnings and the emissions levy were abolished, as promised.
• A lean government: a smaller team of ministers and deputies than any before it in the Fourth Republic.
• Free Primary Healthcare: promised in the 2024 manifesto, launched on 15 April 2026.
• Women's Development Bank: seed money of GH₵51.3 million allocated in the budget.
• Reparations at the UN: on 25 March 2026 the UN General Assembly adopted a Ghana-led resolution declaring transatlantic slavery the gravest crime against humanity.

One gap stands out even in the good news: the Penplusbytes report noted that there was no digital public tracker for the promises. A government confident in its delivery has every reason to publish one.

2. Commissioned, not completed

The pattern that runs through every government: cut the ribbon first, make it work later, if at all.

3. Promises turned around in office

4. The bulldozer before the plan

The 24-Hour Economy is the government's flagship. Its market programme has repeatedly begun with demolition and ended with traders asking where they are supposed to go.

• Kasoa, May 2026: shops pulled down by NADMO; traders who built with personal loans said they had not been adequately informed.
• Enchi, August 2026: market demolished; two months later, traders still waiting for a concrete alternative.
• Agbogbloshie, August–September 2026: notice served, deadline passed, then the redevelopment suspended on 23 September after the yam traders refused to move and took their case to MPs. The same ground was cleared in 2021 for a hospital that was never built. Full investigation.
• Nungua, September 2026: shop owners reject demolition of privately built shops; the assembly pledges priority allocation in writing.
• Suhum, October 2026: more than 1,000 traders reportedly given an ultimatum; their MP asks that the new market be finished first.
• Labadi Beach, October 2026: businesses cleared at dawn; SSNIT and National Security later apologised to the La Traditional Council for the lack of consultation.

After Agbogbloshie, the government itself said the initiative is meant to improve existing markets, not to build new ones without regard to the trade already there. If that is the policy, it should be written down and applied before the next notice is served, not after the next protest.

5. The government's case

It deserves to be put fully, because parts of it are strong.

• It inherited a mess. Saglemi was frozen for eight years under its predecessor; the Jamestown harbour was opened by the previous president, not this one.
• It has delivered early. Independent scorecards rated its first 120 days at around three quarters, an unusually measurable record.
• Markets need work. Many are unsafe, unhygienic and flood-prone, and some structures are genuinely unfit.
• It listens when pressed. Agbogbloshie was paused; the President has publicly warned against arresting critics.
• Galamsey is hard. A state of emergency has costs and risks of its own; the government argues enforcement and guards can work without one.

All of that can be true, and the method can still be wrong. Inheriting a problem does not excuse repeating it. Delivering some promises does not cancel the ones reversed. And a government that listens only after the protest has taught citizens that protest is the only form of consultation that works.

6. What accountability would look like

• A public promise tracker, updated quarterly, as the independent scorecards themselves recommended.
• No commissioning before completion. A project is opened when it works: water, power, access, users.
• Relocation before demolition. A ready site, published consultation records and assessed compensation before any notice is served.
• Honest credit. Name who started a project, who financed it and who finished it.
• Galamsey by numbers. Publish water-quality readings for the major rivers and the seizure and ownership records for excavators, so progress can be measured.

Ghana does not lack promises. It lacks the habit of checking them. Facts outlast ceremonies. A government that wants to be judged on its record should be the first to publish it.