GHANA’S UNWRITTEN PACT: THE MUTUAL ASSURANCE OF IMPUNITY
In nuclear warfare, there is a doctrine called MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction. No superpower fires first because both know the other will retaliate.
In Ghanaian politics, we have perfected our own version. Call it MAI – Mutual Assurance of Impunity.
No party jails the other’s kingpins too hard when in power, because both know the pendulum will swing back. And every party knows that if you are loyal enough, rich enough, or regional enough, your jail term comes with an expiry date: the next election.
HOW IT WORKS
Ghana has not had a military coup since 1981. That is a success story. But with that stability came a new unwritten rule between the two dominant parties, the NDC and the NPP.
The rule has three clauses:
Clause 1: Criminalize the predecessor.
Every new government inherits empty coffers, so it must find money and find culprits. Within the first 18 months, you see a flurry of press conferences. EOCO invites, Special Prosecutor charges, Attorney-General files. The figures are always staggering – GH¢500,000 here, GH¢61.7 million there, GH¢1.8 million for sensitisation. The charges are always heavy: stealing, causing financial loss to the State, money laundering.
The public cheers. Accountability is here.
Clause 2: Prosecute poorly.
This is where the assurance begins. The cases are often built on political urgency, not forensic patience.
Take the recent Court of Appeal acquittal of former MASLOC CEO Sedina Tamakloe Attionu. She faced 79 charges and was jailed 10 years in absentia in 2024. On 30th July 2026, a three-member panel quashed everything. Not because the Court said MASLOC was prudently run. The Court was explicit: “Acquittal does not necessarily mean that every transaction was proper.”
The Court quashed the case because the original letter for a GH¢500,000 refund was not produced, only a photocopy. Because WhatsApp messages alleged by a witness were never tendered. Because regional officers who could prove whether sensitisation programmes happened were never called. Because the prosecution’s own witness admitted GH¢579,800 for Kantamanto fire victims was actually distributed. Because the trial judge reversed the burden of proof and asked the accused to prove she had authority, instead of asking the prosecution to prove she didn’t.
In short, the prosecution did not do its homework, but expected the court to mark it anyway.
This is not unique to one party. The Sedinam case mirrors the collapse of several cases under both governments – Ghana@50 cases under NDC, SSNIT, COCOBOD and ambulance cases under NPP. The charges are filed first, the evidence is looked for later. When evidence is thin, you add more charges – 78 counts sounds more serious than 3, even if all 78 rely on the same weak document.
Clause 3: Guarantee the return.
This is the most important clause. When your party loses power, you endure. You get invited, you get detained, you get remanded. Your party holds press conferences at EOCO. Your supporters cry political witch-hunt.
When your party returns, you are freed. Not by a prison break, but by process – a nolle prosequi, a discontinued case, a collapsed trial, or a Court of Appeal acquittal that finds the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
It happened when NPP officials were jailed under Kufuor and later had their convictions politically softened. It is happening now under Mahama 2.0, where several high-profile accused persons under the Akufo-Addo era have seen cases discontinued or acquitted.
And it is being promised in advance.
The clearest example is NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi. Detained under the current NDC government over allegations related to mining and financial matters, he has become the NPP’s symbol of persecution.
Top NPP leaders have not said “Let the law take its course and if he is guilty he will be jailed.” They have said the quiet part out loud: “When we come to power in 2028, we will free Wontumi.”
That single statement is MAI in its purest form. It tells every party financier, every regional chairman, every CEO who knows where the party’s funds come from: Stay loyal, your freedom is assured on rotation.
THE COST OF THE PACT
The cost is not just financial. It is psychological.
1. For the honest public officer: Why be diligent with procurement if your colleague who inflated prices by 300% will be acquitted because the charge sheet did not mention the correct PPA regulation?
2. For the investigator: Why spend two years tracing bank accounts if your boss wants charges filed before the next budget reading?
3. For the citizen: Why believe in accountability if every 8 years the saints become sinners and sinners become saints?
We have created a system where both parties need each other to survive. The NDC needs the NPP’s failed prosecutions to justify its own acquittals. The NPP needs the NDC’s selective justice to justify its promise to free its own.
BREAKING THE PACT
Breaking MAI will require more than a new Special Prosecutor or a new OSP law.
It will require three things neither party wants to do:
First, prosecute your own. Until an NDC government jails an NDC appointee for corruption, and an NPP government jails an NPP appointee, the public will see all anti-corruption drives as theatre.
Second, separate audit from jail. Not every procurement breach is stealing. The Auditor-General can surcharge and disallow. The courts should be reserved for cases where dishonest appropriation can actually be proved with original documents and witnesses who were there.
Third, punish malicious prosecution. If a charge sheet is manifestly defective, if originals are not produced, if witnesses are not called, there must be professional consequences for the investigators and prosecutors, not just an acquittal for the accused.
Until then, the pact holds. The NDC will clear its people. The NPP will vow to clear its people. The Court of Appeal will continue to remind us that suspicion is not proof, and politics will continue to remind us that in Ghana, proof is optional when power is assured.
Mutually Assured Impunity is not in our Constitution. But it is the most obeyed clause in our politics.
Alexander Afriyie, supervising editor, ghanacrimereport.com and ghanatalk.com