Professor Opanin Kofi Agyekum, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, has quizzed when a government in Ghana will truly serve the nation instead of wrecking it.
The UG professor weighed in on the ongoing debate about sole-sourcing contracts under the government’s Big Push programme.
According to Professor Opanin Kofi Agyekum, politicians keep playing with the intelligence of Ghanaians.
He highlighted that the ruling NDC government, which once condemned sole-sourcing contracts while in opposition, is now repeating the practice in office and also defending it.
Speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo on April 7, 2026, Professor Opanin Kofi Agyekum stated, “Sometimes when you think about some of these things and compare them to the Big Push, it’s unnerving. As they claim, about 70% of the contracts are sole-sourced. Then what are they trying to tell us? The same thing they spoke against… It is surprising”.
“The same politicians who criticised opponents when issues arise, are the same people you find defending the situation. Until when will a government come and truly serve the nation instead of wrecking it?” he asked.
Meanwhile, President Mahama, addressing a gathering at the National Economic Dialogue in 2025, also highlighted that single-source procurement should not become standard practice.
“Single source procurement must be the rare exception rather than the norm. We must also subject government projects above a certain threshold to value-for-money audits,” Mahama stated.
The video has surfaced amid the Fourth Estate publication, which suggested President John Dramani Mahama and his government have been playing lip service in terms of promises to minimise sole-source procurement to encourage competitive bidding.
President John Mahama, on numerous occasions, has reiterated his government’s commitment to make single-source procurement a rare exception rather than the norm.
In the NDC People’s Manifesto, they also pledged to “make single-sourced procurement (sole-sourcing) an exception and not the rule.”
John Mahama, during his recent SONA, also repeated his vow and commitment, “Mr Speaker, we are bringing legislation to this House to tighten our procurement processes by banning sole-sourced contracts, except in exceptional circumstances,” the President told Parliament.
However, after one year in office, the report by The Fourth Estate has unearthed that the Road Ministry awarded 81 sole-sourced contracts worth over GHS73 billion in 7 months.
The Fourth Estate stated, “Data available to The Fourth Estate indicates that in the last seven months, the ministry has awarded 107 road contracts. Contrary to the President’s promise to ensure competitiveness and transparency in the awarding of public contracts, not a single one of 107 contracts was awarded based on competitive tendering.
A whopping 81 out of the 107 road contracts worth over GHS73 billion were awarded through sole-sourcing. The remaining 26 contracts worth about GHS8 billion were awarded through selective tendering. This means over 90% of the amount of money expected to be spent on roads under the Big Push programme so far was given out through sole-sourcing.
Despite this glaring contrast, the majority leader and leader of government business in Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, audaciously proclaimed to Parliament on March 11, 2026, that “let it be known, the era of the sole-sourced contract is dead.”
However, the Roads Minister speaking in Parliament on March 24, 2026, explained that a mix of procurement methods was used in line with the laws of Ghana.
The Road Minister detailed that only 44 per cent of Big Push contracts awarded by the Roads Ministry under President Mahama were through sole sourcing.
Watch the video below: