Mahama gov’t had no intention of honouring earlier agreement with cocoa farmers – Martin Amidu  

By
Makay
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Cocoa

Martin Amidu, a former Special Prosecutor and former Attorney General, has said the John Mahama government had no intention of honouring an earlier agreement with cocoa farmers.

According to Martin Amidu, the Mahama government had no intention of honouring their agreement for the 2025/2026 Cocoa season at the time it was made, and this was demonstrated by its failure or refusal to pay the poor rural cocoa farmers.  

Martin Amidu, in his latest epistle wrote, “The President Mahama Government’s deception and failure to honour the agreements i willingly reached with stakeholders of the cocoa sector, particularly the mass of rural cocoa farmers who make up the bulk of the industry, for the 2025/2026 Cocoa season on Tuesday 2 October 2025 to increase the producer price of cocoa to GH$3,625 per bag or GHS58,000 per tonne representing an increase of about GHS400 per bag, equivalent to a 12.27% rise over the price announced in August 2025 with the new price to take effect on Friday, 3rd October 2025 has exposed the real nature of a government pretending to be committed to the national democratic ethos of development.

The President Mahama government had no intention of honouring the agreement at the time it was made as demonstrated by its failure or refusal to pay the poor rural cocoa farmers whose entire livelihood depends on farming and selling cocoa to sustain millions of thein families leading to agitations from November 2025 calling on the COCOBOD and the government to pay for their produce it had already bought and to buy those still at the farmgate.

It had to take advocacy by Joy News, editorial comments by the Ghanaian Chronicle newspaper and other media to galvanise the people for President Mahama to scramble to call ‘an EMERGENCY CABINET SESSION for tomorrow, Wednesday, 11th February 2026 to address all issues affecting the Cocoa sector.” The results of the emergency cabinet meeting, instead of ameliorating the financial plight of the poor rural cocoa farmer, led to a reduction of the agreed and expected receipt from the produce of their labour in the name of addressing the ongoing liquidity crisis in the cocoa sector”.

He further asserted that Cocoa farmers are justified in protesting impunity and abuse of power under the Mahama government, arguing that Mahama’s effrontery to flaunt to Ghanaians his unlawful acquisition of acres of land for cocoa farming in abuse of office.  

Martin Amidu added, “It made promises to the rural cocoa farmers on whom it depended for votes to come into office, and it cannot be heard on 12 February 2026 to seek to change the goal posts by giving the mass of rural cocoa farmers reduced prices without any consultation with them or other stakeholders. Insultingly, as though he was not speaking to the very electorate who made him President, President Mahama had the effrontery to flaunt before Ghanaians the unlawful acquisition of acres of land for cocoa farming in abuse of office as an excuse for the indigent cocoa farmer to accept the government’s breaches of trust on the agreed producer price for the 2025/2026 season,

The cocoa farmers were justified in protesting against the impunity and abuse of power exhibited by the government in suddenly reducing their expectation of remuneration on their;ocoa for the 2025/2026 season as agreed with the government.

The fact that the cocoa farmers protested against the government’s recent reduction of the cocoa producer price from GHS3,625 to GHS2,587 per 64-kilogram bag started on Thursday 19 February 2026 from the strong hold of the NDC in the Western North Region where President Mahama made promises on 15 November 2024 and recently on 17 July 2025 demonstrates that contrary to the assertions by sycophants of the government that the protests are politically motivated partake of the usual propaganda to deflect accountability.

The protesters were right to call the breach of the contractual arrangements between them and the government in the unilateral reduction in the producer price as being unfair and damaging to their livelihoods”.

“The cocoa farmers’ argument that “rising costs for labour, fertiliser and transport mean the new price barely covers production expenses” is valid, and one does not expect such farmers to accept President Mahama’s declaration of being also a cocoa farmer.

Cocoa is the lifeblood of the mass of rural farmers, and every patriotic citizen ought to support the protest by the mass of rural cocoa farmers. It was, therefore, right for cocoa farmers to have picketed the headquarters of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) in Accra on 20 February 2026 over the falling producer prices and the delayed payments that have pushed farming households into economic distress.

President Mahama, whose emoluments and retirement benefits are at the taxpayers’ expense under Article 68 of the Constitution, cannot feel the pain of the ordinary cocoa farmer wher he farmer says that: “We depend entirely on cocoa. When payments are delayed, or prices drop, our families suffer.’ Or when the picketers carry inscriptions stating that: “We worked, you lied,”‘ “Government celebrates, but our families mourn, and “We can’t pay our kids’ school fees.”`

The fact that the ordinary cocoa farmer protesting the government’s breach of trust and contract has nothing to do with partisan politics is demonstrated by the contents of the press”.

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