This was a year of push and pull under the imagery of the government’s engagement with the International Monetary Fund, IMF, for a deal to bail Ghana out of financial distress.
It dominated the national year, with the government applying itself to very tough conditionalities stipulated by the Bretton Woods Institution before accessing a credit line.
Some analysts blamed the government for mismanaging The economy and hankering after “just” 3 billion dollars from external sources to shore up the Ghanaian Cedi and the economy at large.
Essentially, the government had blamed the Covid pandemic and the aftershocks of the Russian war in Ukraine which it claimed froze national economic activities for a year, and distorted global supply chains.
Two major fallouts of this deal were the multiplied taxation under the prerequisite of increased revenue mobilization, and the hydra-headed domestic bondholders issue. The government had no choice but to impose more taxes at the risk of political popularity whilst the bad publicity on the bondholders rubbed salt into injury.
IMF
Suggested IMF interventions, previously pooh-poohed by some leading government officials, looked like the stopgap and credible measure to halt the fast depreciation of the Ghanaian currency, slow down inflation, and reverse economic decline. In August, Ghana received the first tranche of 600 million dollars which to some extent placed the economic indicators on the right trajectory.
The government had its innovative measures such as the Gold-4-Oil deal, to avoid touching foreign exchange reserves. Credit was given to the Vice President.
That the Ghanaian populace was smarting under a troubled economy cannot be gainsaid. This took center stage in the year under review. First, organized labor took an uncompromising stance, albeit legitimate, in the demand for relevant wages in the wake of galloping inflation. The government delivered a 30 percent increase for all public sector workers, taking effect from January 2023. In the next financial calendar, workers are guaranteed 23 and 25 percent wage increments every six months respectively.
The Ghana Union of Trade Associations, GUTA, and allied groups berated the authorities for continually piling taxes with a crippling effect on business.
There were spells of public demonstrations by some political parties and pressure groups barking at the government to take prudent measures and restore the economy to a balance. Protest leaders accused the government of economic mismanagement, holding some senior state actors accountable for the difficulties Ghana faced. Ken Ofori-Atta, the minister of finance was the object of the backlash, one of them being the unprecedented call to resign by his own party’s parliamentary caucus. The under-fire minister was subjected to the litmus test but he survived the committee set up by the Speaker.
By December 15, Ken Ofori-Atta announced inflation dropped to 26 percent, half of its highest peak in a year.
POLITICAL PARTIES
While there was no let up on the economic front, both at the macro and micro economic levels, the political front was also boiling. The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, and the Trade and Industry Minister, Mr Alan Kyerematen resigned from the Nana Akufo Addo administration to join others to vie for the Flagbearer slot of the governing New Patriotic Party, NPP.
NPP POLITICS
A super delegate’s vote saw the Vice-President, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia placed first, the maverick Assin Central MP, Kennedy Agyepong in second position, with Alan Kyerematen in a distant third. Dr Afriyie Akoto was fourth, with a fifth-place tie between former Mampong Asante MP, Mr. Francis Addai Nimo, and former Energy Minister, Mr. Boakye Agyarko.
The latter ceded to the former Mampong MP, but then this was to be followed by the withdrawal from the race among the top five by Alan Kyerematen, citing a grand scheme by the party’s apparatchik to grant the inside track of the race to favor a particular candidate, the vice president. The move only preceded the main “political earthquake” which was the decision by Alan Kyerematen to break away from the NPP to form his party, the Movement for Change. All these heralded the final vote of Vice President Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as the next Flagbearer of the NPP and one who bears the onerous task of the party to break the “8”, to wit, becoming the first political party in Ghana’s Fourth Republic to have three consecutive terms in office.
NDC POLITICS
That is fiercely opposed by the opposition to National Democratic Congress, NDC. This political tradition also went through some turbulent times.
The former President John Dramani Mahama was hotly contested for the Flagbearer mantle by Dr Kwabena Duffour, a past Governor of the Bank of Ghana and finance minister. The latter however threw in the towel at the last juncture citing anomalies in the party’s voter register. At this stage, the die was already cast with opinion polls suggesting a strong lead for the former president and this was sealed by the vote.
Afterward, the NDC stirred the political front with some radical changes in the leadership of the Minority in Parliament. Dr Cassiel Ato Forson was made to take over from Haruna Iddrisu as the Minority Leader, with Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah as his deputy. From the shrill to the hush-up, was the wavelength of the rhythm by those who opposed the directives of the party.
With the major political parties wagging their tails, some for reasons best known to themselves, the camp of the NPP was not spared either. It sacked the quartet of Nana Ohene Ntow, Yaw Buaben Asamoa, Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Saddique, and Hopeson Adorye for throwing their weight behind Alan Kyerematen’s MFC.
New executives in the parties gave vent to the new dynamics. At the very top, the NPP had Stephen Ayensu Ntim as chairman, and the general secretary as Justin Kodua Frimpong. The NDC had a fresh lease of life under the chairmanship of Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, with the general secretary being Fifi Fiavi Kwetey.
CPP POLITICS
The Convention People’s Party, CPP, the Dr Kwame Nkrumah heritage, also turned eyeballs with the dissolution of its entire executives. They were asked to step aside under the suspicion of flirting with Alan Kyerematen’s MFC and trading party’s secrets. All the accused denied the allegations.
Two by-elections, one in a stronghold and the other in a fairly open area tested the popularity of the NPP and the NDC. The former won in Kumawu, and the latter also grabbed Assin North. Each was a retention of a seat.
DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES
It is not clear whether the promise to pay wages to assembly members by one of the political parties is the cause of heightened interest in the district-level elections. Candidates tripped over each other as they flooded the space, yet in sharp contrast to the above scenario was voter lethargy and apathy leading pollsters to predict sixty percent participation in the process. Voters had complained that the local issues had remained after every round of elections hence their passive attitude to the exercise.
GHANA CARD
The call to register for the Ghana Card caused massive consternation amongst the citizenry, particularly based on the caveat that it could be the only recognized prerequisite for all official transactions. Most citizens could not beat the deadlines, compelling the government to extend them, in response to public outcry, demands by civil society organizations, and the political opposition. The NDC kicked against the EC requirement that only the Ghana Card be used for voter identification. It is a saga awaiting a definitive closure before the 7 December 2024 general elections.
OSP & CECILIA DAPAAH
Corruption remained topical in 2023. Accusations had wanton dissipation of national resources, and corruption in view, with the explainers leaning heavily toward official profligacy, wastage, and a naked robbery. Those at the receiving end of the critique had smooth-sailed inquisitorial processes, at times the hot issues deflected by other evolutions, until the whole nation barged into the Cecilia Dapaah-gate.
Out of the blue, the news rang out of the sanitation minister’s domain following huge cash discoveries at her residence. The money in currencies such as dollars, euros, and the Ghana Cedi, became public when domestic workers were hauled before the courts allegedly for stealing more than one million dollars from the minister’s bedroom. The Office of the Special Prosecutor weighed in amidst a dogged defense by the minister and her husband.
Notable personalities who spoke against alleged corruption in high places were Dr Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe, Mr. Kwame Pianim, Prof. Stephen Adei, and Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng.
THE IGP
It looked like the twists and turns were never going to end when the Inspector General of Police, IGP, George Akuffo Dampare was dragged to face an investigative committee of Parliament chaired by Atta Akyea. Among his charges was that he set up other senior officers in the service into an incriminating conversation with a former NPP Northern Regional Chairman, Alhaji Bugri Naabu. The leaked tape initially drew a fence around the other officers including a recently retired Police Commissioner, George Alex Mensah. But then, in fighting back, some accusations landed on the doorsteps of the IGP as the architect of the plot. While the atta Akyea-led committee was at it to get to the bottom of the matter, this case remained open-ended. The IGP denies the allegations leveled against him.
JUDICIARY
President Nana Akufo Addo appointed Justice Gertrude Esaaba Torkonoo as the new Chief Justice to replace the retired Isaac Dotse. She becomes the third woman to occupy the position within the judiciary. She emphasizes digitalization within the judicial service as a plug in the whole art of e-governance. She also fiercely commits to upholding integrity within the judicial service. Justice Georgina Woode and Justice Sophia Akuffo are her female predecessors. Notably, the Supreme Court dismissed a suit against former President John Dramani Mahama whose eligibility to contest the 2024 elections was challenged by one Ken Kuranchie.
Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, the renowned heart surgeon turned politician was in the thick of affairs, the eye of a heavy storm, supposedly.
GALAMSEY
The acoustics from his end run counter to those of the government in which he served as the minister of environment, science, technology, and innovation in Akufo Addo’s first term. With the hullabaloo surrounding illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) tainting his image, being allegations he vigorously denies, Prof. Frimpong Boateng departed from the governmental norm of collective responsibility. In absolving himself, he mentioned some publicly known figures who he alleged were involved in the illegality.
He had a face-off with the government in the process. Sometime later the protagonist, being the good old professor, seized the opportunity offered by a Multimedia Forum on illegal small-scale mining to explain to the whole nation the implications of the malpractices and these looked dire.
A Chinese national, Aisha Huang, nicknamed the “Galamsey Queen” was deported for flouting the rules on mining but returning to the country incognito, was rearrested, put before the court, and sentenced to 4 years in jail. Other culprits and suspects are under chase by government-assigned operatives, mainly drawn from a joint task force of the security and sector-related services.
PENDING COURT CASES
Status of other cases of high public interest include the conviction of the former Chief Executive of the liquidated capital bank, Ato Essien, who has begun serving a 7-year prison sentence. NAM 1 of the defunct gold dealership company, Menzgold, would be given a verdict in January 2024. Also awaiting their fates are the alleged coup plotters against the state. The legal tussles go unabated on the former Works and Housing minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda, the former Chief Executive of Ghana Cocobod, Dr. Stephen Opuni, and the Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson.
LITHIUM
Lithium is the new ware in Ghana’s resource cabinet. Renowned business mogul and public administrator, Sir Dr Sam Jonah is reported to have commended the government over the lithium mine agreements it had signed. However, other decent voices have spoken against the lithium deals as another frontier where Ghana is set to be shortchanged by international trade partners. Lithium is an emerald that is held to be of high value, over and above even gold, and cocoa.
AKOSOMBO DAM SPILLAGE
In August, the Volta River Authority announced the imminent spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong Hydro-Dams to release excess water. It followed the upsurge in the natural phenomena in the order of the pluvial. Nationwide, about fifty thousand people (50,000) were displaced by the spillage, 40,000 of them in the area downstream, with the town of Mepe in the Volta region as the epicenter of the flood disaster.
The necessity of the spillage coupled with the ensuing devastation, engendered questions pointing at national preparedness for emergencies, and civil engineering works ahead of such occurrences. Many were not happy Ghana had no resilience to emergencies, including rechanneling the spilled water into some form of storage for later use, even for agricultural purposes.
All across, there were donations to alleviate the plight of the flood victims, notably by the NDC, the government through the ministry of finance, Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the former president John Dramani Mahama, organizations, and philanthropists. The member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa marshalled the multiple interventions to beneficiary communities.
SIGNIFICANT PERSONALITY DEATHS
Not in any particular order of occurrence, among the high-profile deaths in 2023 were, the former First Vice Chairman of the NDC, and former minister of fisheries and aquaculture, Sherry Ayittey, a former NPP Majority Leader, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Lands and Natural Resources, and Roads and Highways minister, Felix Owusu Agyapong, as well as a Council of State member, Enoch Teye Mensah, affectionately called E.T Mensah, who was a former minister of employment and social welfare, and youth and sports. Others were Ama Busia, a sister of Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia the prime minister of Ghana’s Second Republic, and Mrs Theresa Kufuor, wife of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, affectionately called “Mother of the Nation. A former Member of Parliament for the Bantama constituency in Kumasi, Okyem Aboagye, Lawyer Anthony Akoto Ampaw, Education critic, Sydney Casely-Hayford, and the Paramount Chief of Berekum Traditional Area, Daasebre Amankona Diawuo III also died.
ROYAL FEUD
In this particular year, the royal banter directly between His Majesty the Asantehene and the Dormaahene created quite some discomfort within the citizenry. It is not known if the National Peace Council had weighed into this case, with the view to stamping it out once and for all.
Asantehene continued his campaign of upholding and protecting the sanctity of the chieftaincy institution in Asante. The Bantamahene was saved from being dethroned on the sound of the last bell, while alleged machinations to bypass custom with regards to who ascended the Offinso throne to replace the late Nana Wiafe Akenten II were obstructed. The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II sought uprightness in the rules, thus chiefs who fell foul were removed or stripped of their chieftaincy titles.
PARLIAMENT
Parliament was one of the hottest beds of governance. One of the teething issues handled by the people’s representatives was an issue discussed in paragraph nine. Both the Majority and the Minority took irreconcilable positions, and the Speaker resorted to a committee of inquiry to throw a dice on the case. The finance minister wriggled out of the tight corner.
Three key things the lawmakers did on legislation in 2023. The President agreed to the death penalty bill, which revoked the death penalty for a life prison sentence. The president was yet to assent to the bill on witchcraft, which seeks to hold legally accountable perpetrators of crime against persons labeled as such, as of the time of filing these memoirs.
The Trade and Industry minister was forced to take steps backward based on the Minority’s call. It was in respect of the Legislative Instrument which has twenty-two items penciled to face import restrictions. The government said the measure will be an incentive for local production. The opposition said it could lead to retaliatory measures against Ghana by the affected countries, in addition to creating monopolistic trade cartels.
Last but not least, was the decision by the Bank of Ghana to construct a new head office at a whooping cost of about three hundred million (300) million dollars. The Bank of Ghana and the critics raised some interesting points in their arguments. It is important that it took the oversight role of Parliament for this to a full public knowledge.
The hung Parliament in Ghana with an amplified opposition voice has been insisting on legislative approval to all major transactions being conducted by the executive. This sounds weird because it is already on the statutes, what is supposed to be the formalized exchanges among the three arms of government.
BAWKU CONFLICT
Gaining considerable attention for all the wrong reasons in the outgoing year is the Bawku chieftaincy conflict that has turned into a bloody affair. Trigger-happy kooks have taken advantage of the fluid situation to wreak havoc, setting themselves to tangoes with official security whose rules of engagement are basically to contain clashes between the factions. Some have had cause to say the alarming rate of indiscriminate and targeted shootings, could mean more than meets the eye. This school of thought thinks rebels from Ghana’s regional neighborhood might have entered the Bawku war theatre. Bawku is in the Upper East, close to the borders with Burkina Faso and Togo. Mali and Niger are not far from here.
NKWANTA SHOOTINGS
Another incident that threatens to shatter Ghana’s image as a peace haven was the shooting incident at Nkwanta in the Oti region. This was also chieftaincy-related, and the casualties were staggering.
CRIME
Armed robbery continues to take a toll on Ghanaian society. 2023 suggests the shift in the gears and tactics of hardened criminals whose modus operandi is to put fear in people by killing. They have had no mercy on police escorts on bullion vans, but the police have also shown a high sense of professionalism in their ability to nab some of the culprits after the crime scene situations are over.
To be specific about targets, mention can be made of fuel sales and mobile telephony cash transfer points, highways, and prank hiring of taxis in which vehicles are snatched from their drivers. Again, the focus of armed robbery is gradually receding to the countryside, with fuel stations and gold trading companies in the line of fire. Gangsterism and gun-running are certain twin phenomena gnawing Ghanaians like hideous insects. The full statistics would shock the international community, and cause some to revise notes on Ghana as a beacon of peace.
Ritual murders have also taken a firm foothold in the scheme of things. Victims of the heinous crime have been discovered often without vital organs such as genitals, eyes, tongue, heart, and brain. There has not been any response to these mysterious killings. Only self-confession has brought closure to some of these cases. Your vulnerability to these human hunters lay in your unsuspecting nature, being lonely most of the time, and relying on quackeries instead of following due processes in the formalized economies.
Mob justice, rightly corrected to be known as mob injustice, continues to have a place in the body politic. Here, the masses take the law into their own hands to administer instant justice or punishment to crime suspects.
ACCIDENTS
Ghana recorded many drowning cases in the year 2023. Judging from how they occurred, it was clear the hapless victims moved in rickety boats, had no weather warnings, and had no life jackets. Instances where overloading caused boats to overturn, and minors voyaged unaccompanied, revealed no official monitoring of water transport in the country. They were on their own devices.
Still in accidents, the police stated in December 2023, that the Winneba-Mankessim stretch in the Central region is the most dangerous and accident-prone. In the year under review, needless deaths were recorded from road accidents often due to wrong judgment, and overspeeding, especially at night.
HEALTH
In health, the authorities revisited the almost forgotten HIV/AIDS issue, saying new cases of the disease were alarming, and that the high numbers were in Central, Ashanti, and Greater Accra regions.
The Renal Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra was temporarily closed down on the back of a fourteen (14) million Ghana cedi debt. The government listened to public outcry and committed to paying the debt to allow the vital service of kidney dialysis to continue. The President then charged relevant stakeholders in the health sector to work on a formula for how kidney treatment may be funded. The year also recorded a massive exodus of Ghanaian health professionals for higher-paying jobs.
EDUCATION
The education front was busy as usual. The senior high schools wrote the WASSCE Exam, and the junior high schools wrote the BECE exam. The government did not budge on calls to postpone the school reopening date from December to January for SHS freshers, pointing out that a change could distort the academic calendar. Free Senior High School Education funded with oil revenue is a major policy intervention in Ghana.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The visa-free deal between Ghana and South Africa signaled a breakthrough in pulling down the walls between African countries for greater partnerships. Few other countries have either followed suit such as Zimbabwe and Botswana, whereas Kenya has made a declaration of intent to toe the same line.
Ghana pulled a stunner by sending one of the large delegations to the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai. Its number of 613 was among the top six largest delegations. The government’s explainer was that most members of the Ghana delegation outside the government footed their bills.
FOREIGN LEADERS WHO VISITED GHANA IN 2023
Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz.
US Vice-President, Kamala Harris.
President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissocco Embalo.
Prime Minister, Czech Republic, Petr Fiala.
SPORTS
Ghana continues to participate in international sporting competitions, despite the low standards. The male senior national soccer team the Black Stars managed to qualify for the 2024 African Cup of Nations with La Cote D’ Ivoire as hosts. Their female counterparts, the Black Queens have also qualified for the female version to be staged in Morocco.
Ghana’s World Cup qualifiers have been on and off, but it is hoping to squeeze through an increasingly unpredictable group. Preparations to host the 2024 All Africa Games are ongoing with new sites being developed as event centers. Alongside these, are provisions of astro turfs in various communities by the government.
Meanwhile, at the club level, Medeama FC and Dreams FC represented Ghana in the various CAF competitions and both recorded fairly good results at the beginning of their campaigns. Non-traditional sports in Ghana continue to recede.
