Aidoo’s Son Leads Counter-Coup to Whitewash a $3.8bn Legacy of Loss
By Gifty Boateng
The implosion of Ghana’s cocoa sector has thrust the mismanagement of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) under the previous administration into sharp focus, forcing a deeply uncomfortable reckoning for the New Patriotic Party (NPP). As the Minority lambasts the current management over producer price cuts, the architects of the current crisis are executing a meticulous disappearing act, leaving a fresh-faced proxy to field the flak.
The spotlight has fallen on Joseph Boahen Aidoo, who served as Chief Executive for the full term of former President Akufo-Addo. His tenure, which ended in early 2025, is now synonymous with financial catastrophe. Sources indicate that under his watch, COCOBOD was locked out of the syndicated loan market for the first time in years, a direct consequence of mounting debts and opaque accounting.
The institution he left behind is staggering under a reported overhang of GHS3.8 billion in debt, compounded by a rollover liability of 330,000 tonnes of cocoa – essentially, beans paid for by banks but never delivered.
The scale of the failure was flagged well before the NPP’s electoral defeat. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, a leading party figure, publicly lambasted Aidoo during the 2023 presidential primaries for reducing a once-viable institution to a loss-making leviathan. “You are not a cocoa farmer,” Agyepong rebuked him, pointing to six consecutive years of losses that Aidoo seemed oblivious to while engaging in partisan politicking.
Yet, for all the public anger, Aidoo senior has maintained a bunker-like silence. Instead of facing the music, he has deployed his son, Michael Kwasi Aidoo, the newly elected MP for Oforikrom, as his chief defender and media mouthpiece.
The younger Aidoo, whose parliamentary seat was secured with the quiet machinery of the party establishment, has been on a vigorous media tour, defending his father’s legacy with a filial zeal that has surprised many unaware of the connection.
His media blitz reached a crescendo on Saturday, 14 February, when he represented the NPP on Joy FM’s Newsfile. In a striking display of audacity, the Oforikrom MP pinned the sector’s woes squarely on the current management, led by his father’s successor,
Dr Randy Abbey. He argued that the current difficulties are a “self-inflicted problem” born of a failure to capitalise on record global prices through strategic forward sales, rather than the inherited mess.
This charge is echoed by Fiifi Boafo, the former head of Corporate Affairs at COCOBOD, who has also resurfaced in the media. The ex-television host, now rumoured to be eyeing the NPP primary in Tarkwa Nsuaem, is similarly seeking to whitewash the previous administration’s record, insisting the current leadership alone bears responsibility.
This coordinated counter-offensive by the old guard and their protégés lays bare a bitter internal battle for the narrative. By hiding behind his MP son, Aidoo senior is testing whether familial loyalty and political connections can shield him from the growing demands for accountability.
For the NPP, still reeling from defeat, the strategy risks further alienating an electorate watching a party that mismanaged its most prized asset now scramble to blame everyone but themselves.