In the hallowed chambers of our national conscience, a ghost is being summoned. It is the same restless spirit of acidic partisan malice that sought to deconstruct a presidency in 2016, now reappearing with sharpened claws to tear down a pillar of indigenous industrial might.
The target is Engineers & Planners (E&P); the weapon is a recycled narrative of nepotism; and the perpetrators are the very architects of the “No Objection” that paved this path just two years ago.
To understand the present assault on E&P’s bid for the Damang Mine, one must first peel back the layers of a breathtaking double standard. In March 2024, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, under the custody of the then-NPP administration, issued a formal “No Objection” letter. At that moment, the logic was sound, the patriotism was evident, and the constitutional clarity was absolute: Ghana must empower its own. Yet, as the political winds shift and the NPP finds itself in the cold shadows of opposition, the same hands that signed the approval are now being used to point fingers of scorn.
This is not mere politics; it is a moral bankruptcy of the highest order.
The history of Engineers & Planners is not a tale of overnight political patronage, but a marathon of grit that began in 2002. For over two decades, while others sought the comfort of importation and middleman commerce, Ibrahim Mahama was in the trenches of Damang. By 2017, E&P had evolved into the sole mining contractor, proving that the Ghanaian spirit, when given the tools, can match any global giant. When Gold Fields faltered in 2023, leaving a vacuum that required nearly a billion dollars in resuscitation capital, it was not “the President’s brother” who stepped forward, it was a battle-hardened Ghanaian entity with the institutional memory of the terrain.
The NPP’s sudden “discovery” of Ibrahim Mahama’s sibling status is a masterpiece of theatrical deception. When he provides heavy machinery to clear disaster zones or offers his hand in private generosity to their suffering constituents, they applaud his “humanity.” But the moment he seeks to formalize a legitimate, high-stakes investment that would secure thousands of Ghanaian jobs, he is suddenly rebranded as a “risk.” This is the “evil of the bystander”, they love the fruit of his success but seek to axe the tree that bears it.
E&P stands above this acidic fray. A company that has survived the volatile cycles of the global commodities market and the shifting sands of local governance does not owe its existence to a family tree; it owes it to its balance sheet and its blood-and-sweat equity. To suggest that a firm with twenty years of operational history in Damang is a “beneficiary of favor” is not just a lie; it is an insult to every Ghanaian engineer and laborer who wears the E&P helmet.
The strategy is transparent. It is the 2016 playbook being dusted off for a 2026 audience. The NPP believes that by painting every legitimate business success of the Mahama family with the brush of scandal, they can distract from the clarity of their own prior approvals. They forget, however, that the Ghanaian people are no longer the gullible spectators of a decade ago. We have seen the difference between those who build and those who merely brandish slogans.
It is a profound irony that the very people who officially validated E&P’s competence in 2024 are now the ones inciting their supporters to cast stones. This “acidic politics” seeks to burn down the house to kill a perceived enemy, ignoring the fact that the house is our national economy. The Damang Mine requires between $600 million and $1 billion to breathe again. This is a task for titans, not for the timid or the politically sheltered. If we allow the vultures of partisan jealousy to pick apart this bid, we are signaling to every local investor that their success is a crime if their last name is “wrong.”
The NPP’s attempt to resurrect the dirty politics of yesteryear is hitting a wall of modern reality. We know them now. We see the hypocrisy of a group that grants a “No Objection” in power and screams “foul play” the moment they smell the scent of opposition.
Let the truth be the ultimate arbiter. The Damang Mine belongs to the future of Ghana. Ibrahim Mahama and E&P have earned their seat at the table through twenty years of heavy lifting. It is time to bury the politics of envy and embrace the era of indigenous industrial sovereignty. Those who trade in shadows will find that the light of truth is now too bright for their comfort.
By Raymond Ablorh