Osei Asare: Mahama’s SONA full of populist promises and blame

Former Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei Asare, has strongly criticized President John Dramani Mahama’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA) of his second term, accusing him of failing to set a clear governance agenda.

President Mahama, in his address on Thursday, February 27, 2025, painted a bleak picture of the Ghanaian economy and pledged to restore stability.

However, Osei Asare, who is also the Member of Parliament for Atiwa East, dismissed the speech as filled with “populist promises, economic doom-saying, and blame-shifting.”

She also took issue with the President’s lack of clarity on how he plans to fund his proposed social intervention programs.

“President John Dramani Mahama’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA) was expected to set the tone for his administration’s governance agenda. Instead, it was a predictable mix of economic doom-saying, political blame-shifting, and populist promises without a credible funding plan.

“In addition to creating a gloomy picture of the economy he has inherited, the President has outlined heavy expansionary fiscal policies that, at best, may be considered populist and unsustainable. It is ironic that, on the one hand, the President describes the economy as being in an intensive care unit (ICU), yet, on the other hand, he is pushing for massive new social intervention programs without indicating how they will be financed.’