{"id":109528,"date":"2026-01-02T11:47:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T11:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=109528"},"modified":"2026-01-02T11:47:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T11:47:18","slug":"an-open-letter-to-h-e-john-dramani-mahama-the-audacity-of-the-third-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=109528","title":{"rendered":"\u200bAn open letter to H.E. John Dramani Mahama: The audacity of the third shift"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 20 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
\"\u200bAn<\/p>\n

\u200bYour Excellency,<\/p>\n

We stand at a crossroads where the ticking of the national clock has become the very pulse of our survival. The \u201cReset\u201d you have championed is no longer a mere campaign refrain; it has become the oxygen of a gasping republic.<\/p>\n

As the sun rises in 2026, your 24-hour economy stands as the vital bridge between the Ghana that was, a colonial-era daylight casualty, and the Ghana that must be: a self-reliant, industrial titan.<\/p>\n

\u200bBut let us speak with the intellectual honesty this crisis demands: a 24-hour economy is not a mere extension of opening hours. It is an emergency surgery on the nation\u2019s soul. To move from the 14.7% unemployment abyss to the promised land of 1.7 million jobs, we must bridge the chasm between macro-optimism and micro-reality.<\/p>\n

A 24-hour economy cannot run on a 12-hour power grid. The recent tariff hikes are, in effect, a tax on your own ambition. You must insulate the pioneers of the 24H+ Programme through a \u201cTime of Use\u201d shield. Power consumed between 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM must be billed at a rate below $0.07\/kWh.<\/p>\n

We cannot ask factories to choose between the bankruptcy of high costs and the \u201cDumsor\u201d of the past. If the lights flicker in an industrial park in the Bono Region at 2:00 AM, the policy dies in the hearts of the people.<\/p>\n

We cannot build a high-speed economy on a low-trust labour foundation. You are asking the Ghanaian worker to trade the sanctity of sleep for the hope of a paycheck. This requires a 15% Night Premium, a mandatory wage boost for the \u201cThird Shift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, do not let this burden the employer\u2019s solvency. Make this premium tax-neutral; let the worker keep the full amount while the employer receives a corresponding rebate on their SSNIT contributions. A nation that treats its workers as mere cogs in a machine will soon find the gears of its economy grinding to a halt.<\/p>\n

The sun may set on the Ghanaian horizon, but it must never set on the Ghanaian factory floor. A woman finishing her shift in Kumasi or a logistics driver traversing the Afram Plains must feel the invisible but omnipresent shield of the state.<\/p>\n

We, thus, require a dedicated \u201cNight-Shift Police Task Force\u201d and the radical expansion of solar-powered street lighting. Security is the silent currency of this revolution; without it, the private sector will remain in a \u201cwait-and-see\u201d crouch.<\/p>\n

Efficiency at the factory is a hollow victory if the product stalls at a checkpoint. We must implement the \u201cGreen Lane\u201d Digital Interface. Using AI-driven risk profiling, 24H+ certified cargo must be cleared-on-water, moving from the Tema Port to the plate of the consumer without the friction of the \u201cmidnight toll.\u201d We must digitise the corruption out of our trade arteries.<\/p>\n

The current budget allocation of GH\u00a2110 million is a seed, but it is not a harvest. To silence the critics who dismiss this as a \u201cmirage,\u201d you must leverage Public-Private Partnerships. Offer a 120% tax deduction for companies that upskill youth specifically for the \u201cThird Shift.\u201d Make the night cheaper than the day, and you will make the 24-hour economy inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u200bMr. President, you know this better than I do, leadership is not just the ability to steer the ship in a storm, but the courage to tell the passengers the truth about the leaks.<\/p>\n

The first year of your return was about survival; this year must be about substance. The 24-hour economy is currently a bold architectural drawing. To make it a home for the masses, you must provide the electricity to light it, the capital to build it, and the law to protect it.<\/p>\n

\u200bHistory will not judge us by the slogans we shouted in the sun, but by the industries we kept alive in the dark.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\u200bAn\u200bWe stand at a crossroads where the ticking of the national clock has become the very pulse of our survival. The “Reset” you have championed is no longer a mere campaign refrain; it has become the oxygen of a gasping republic.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[477,10,9,1155,14823],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-politics","category-popular","category-president-john-mahama","category-raymond-ablorh"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/109529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}