President John Mahama appears to have backtracked on an earlier promise to put money in the pockets of Ghanaians.

Speaking at a campaign event in Hohoe in the Volta Region, the president said it was impossible for him or any other leader to put money in the pockets of Ghanaians.

“No president is going to come to Ghana one day and line all our people up and say, ‘everybody come and get it; here is free money.’ It will never happen. The only way you can put money in your pocket is to work for it.”

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“...And, so, the only way money can go into citizens’ pockets is when they work for it. And, so, government’s responsibility is to make sure that we give our citizens the skills to work and to make money for themselves,” the president said.

In February 2016, the president said when voted into power for a second term, he will put money in the pockets of Ghanaians after the complaints from the opposition circles said roads and hospitals won’t put money in pockets.

«I can understand when people say things are tight...We have spent these last four years investing in bringing the social infrastructure back to scratch and when I win the second term, then we will start putting money in your pocket. And I wish to pledge that we will continue working in the interest of the people of Ghana."

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This is not the first time the president has gone back on his own words. When he was campaigning for the 2012 elections, he dismissed the opposition’s promise to institute free education for senior high school students. Instead, he proposed an upgrade of existing schools and the building of more schools.

But in an address to Parliament in 2014, Mahama announced that his government would be making education free for senior high school students at a time when the promised schools had not been built.