Kabiru Tells Mahama Government to Apologise to Cocoa Farmers Over Self-Inflicted Crisis

New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Walewale, Dr Tiah Abdul-Kabiru Mahama, has escalated his criticism of the Mahama administration over the cocoa crisis, declaring that the government owes farmers a formal apology for creating the very problem it is now struggling to resolve.

Dr Kabiru said the current hardship facing Ghana’s more than one million cocoa farmers is not an inheritance from the NPP but a direct result of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government’s own decisions since taking office in January 2025. In his view, a government that went into opposition loudly promising to rescue the cocoa sector, and then proceeded to deepen its problems after assuming power, cannot credibly continue assigning blame elsewhere.

The lawmaker said the NDC capitalised on cocoa farmer discontent during the 2024 election campaign, making promises about price increases and structural reforms that it has since reversed. He described this as a deliberate political strategy that misled farmers about what the party intended to do once in office, and argued that the people who placed their trust in those promises are now bearing the consequences.

“The cocoa situation is self-inflicted,” he said. “The government must apologise to the farmers.”

His intervention adds a pointed new dimension to a political debate that has largely been framed around NPP versus NDC blame-trading since the government slashed the cocoa farmgate price by approximately 28.6 percent on February 12, 2026, reducing it from GH¢3,625 to GH¢2,587 per 64-kilogram bag. The government has defended the cut as a necessary response to falling international cocoa prices and the unwillingness of buyers to purchase Ghana’s cocoa at previously elevated rates. Critics, including farmer groups, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ghana, former Attorney General Martin Amidu, and now Dr Kabiru himself, have challenged the sincerity and sufficiency of that explanation.

Amidu, in a widely circulated open letter, noted that as recently as July 17, 2025, President Mahama publicly declared in Juaboso: “Let me be clear: we will honour our promise to pay our hardworking farmers 70 per cent of the world market price of cocoa.” The government set and then raised the price in line with that commitment before reversing it in February 2026.

Farmers from Sefwi Wiawso, Juaboso, and Bia West marched through community streets on February 19, 2026, and subsequently picketed the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) headquarters in Accra. The Western North Region, which delivered eight of its nine parliamentary seats to the NDC in December 2024, has been the epicentre of the protests.

At Friday’s State of the Nation Address, President Mahama acknowledged the price cut was painful but defended it as essential for broader economic stability, assuring farmers that ongoing structural reforms would eventually guarantee fair and transparent pricing. The Licensed Cocoa Buyers Association of Ghana (LCBAG) separately appealed the same day for a government bailout to settle the $750 million its members owe commercial banks.

Dr Kabiru’s call for an apology, coming from an opposition MP who has consistently appealed for the debate to transcend partisan politics, carries a weight that purely party-line attacks do not. It signals that even voices inclined toward cross-aisle pragmatism have concluded that the government’s handling of the crisis has crossed a line that demands accountability rather than just policy correction.