2012 in retrospect: Ghana's highs and lows (Tuesday, January 1, 2012 pg, 13)

THE year 2012 is over and the curtain goes down on one of the most dramatic years in Ghana’s history filled with political turbulence, disasters, scandals and some progress for a country struggling to keep pace with its infrastructural development.

The year was very interesting politically. It was characterised by intrigues. There was tension, and many times, it  rose to a crescendo that many thought the tiny thread that bound the country together would break.

Just a step into the year, the spill over of petroleum subsidy removal brouhaha in late 2011 got the opposition parties, Trade Union Congress and civil society organisations into frenzy with calls on the government to bring back the subsidy or face a sit down strike. In the end, the fuel price was reduced slightly much to the disappointment of organised labour.

Before the proverbial dust settled on the subsidy rumpus, there was a ministerial reshuffle that knocked out the Health Minister, Joseph Yieleh Chireh; the Deputy Volta Regional Minister Cyril Necku and Information Minister John Tia Akologu.

The  hand  of death and smooth transition

President Mahama filing past the body of the late President Mills

The year will be well remembered for the devastating and unexpected deaths that rocked the country’s political circles. But the sudden demise that took over headlines and brought the country to a virtual standstill was that of President J.E.A Mills. The affable President succumbed to death on July 24 just three days after his 68th  birthday.

He was rushed to the 37 Military Hospital from the seat of government at the Castle, Osu, where he was said to have collapsed in his office. President Mills passed away at the hospital at 2:15 p.m.
The President’s demise hit the entire country like a thunderbolt. That was  the first time in the history of the country that a sitting President had passed away.


His death immediately pulled the break on the campaign of the various political parties.The  flag bearers suspended their campaigns to mourn the late President.

The mammoth crowd of mourners

For a nation that was so polarised, it  was amazing how Ghanaians cast away their political colours to mourn the death of the late President who was buried on August 10 but without an acrimonious debate about his burial place. Thousands of Ghanaians turned up at the Independent Square to witness the burial service.

He was eventually buried at what is now known as the Asomdwe Park, formerly known as the Geese Park, located between the Independent Square and the Osu Castle.

The grave side

With President Mills in the belly of earth, the cause of his death and the circumstance surrounding his death became topical. Trust the spin doctors who  spun tales about the cause of his death.

President Mills’ created a vaccum that was filled within six hours by the then Vice-President John Dramani. Once again, Ghana passed the democratic litmus test without any challenge and such a smooth transition  received a global applause. Mr Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, the then Bank of Ghana Governor became the Vice-President.

As if losing President Mills was not enough in one year, death snatched away former Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama. The soft spoken statesman died at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital after a short illnesss.



Beside the two were a number of members of Parliament including Henry Ford Kamel, the Volta Regional Minister who passed away on Christmas day. Others were Alhaji Sani Iddi,MP for  Wulensi and Emmanuel Owusu Ansah, Kwabre West Member of Parliament.

Presidential honours.

 After his death, President Mills has received two posthumous awards for his excellence in leadership and selfless devotion to service which benefited Ghana and Africa.

In December The Lifetime Africa Achievement Award, which recognizes excellence in Democratic Governance and Development in Africa, was conferred on late President in Kenya.

Earlier in September, the Institute of International Education (IIE), one of the world’s largest renowned higher education and training organizations, posthumously honoured the late President, for being a truly exceptional leader.

The then Vice-President Mahama was also honoured with a Doctorate Degree in Public Administration by the Ekiti State University in Nigeria, in recognition of his sterling leadership qualities.

The award, which was given at the university’s 17th convocation and 30th anniversary celebration in April also recognised the Vice-President’s contribution to the politico-socio economic development of Ghana and Africa at various stages of his political career.

The economy

Death took it toll but not inflation figures. The government’s efforts at keeping inflation at bay continued in 2012 and was sustained for a record 29 months. This is the longest ever sustained period of single-digit inflation in Ghana’s entire history. As at November 2012, the country’s rate of inflation was  9.30 percent.

That was, however not the case for the cedi. The currency took a downward slip. the Ghana cedi depreciated against the US dollar at a cumulative rate of 18 per cent between January and August 2012, the central bank figures indicated.

But the cedi’s fall has slowed in recent times on monthly basis due to some stringent measures put in place by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

President Mahama, the Vice-President was in China to sign the $ 3 billion Chinese loan.

Arms cache.

Just as the BoG propped inflation figures, the police were at their effective best this year as they busted quite a number of arms smuggling syndicates.  Prominent among the arrests included 26 people in a dawn swoop at Apesokubi near Worawora in the Biakoye District in the Volta Region for allegedly possessing offensive weapons and gadgets.

The Volta Regional Police Task retrieved from the suspects, comprising 19 men and seven women, 13 single-barrelled shotguns, one locally manufactured pistol, 85 live cartridges, 83 empty shells of cartridges, a Milo tin of gunpowder, three machetes, a dagger and an ammunition pouch.

Six days earlier, the Greater Accra Regional Police Command impounded a Nigeria-bound truck loaded with a cache of arms and several boxes of ammunition. The ammunition included a large quantity of AA and BB cartridges and pump action and double-barrelled guns .

A  MAN Diesel truck with the Nigerian licence plate number XA 761-YAB and branded in Coca-Cola colours, was impounded at Achimota in Accra, together with five suspects, including two Nigerians.

In June Customs officials, acting on a tip off, impounded nine AK 47 rifles, a loaded foreign-made pistol and 281 rounds of ammunition at a checkpoint at Anwia-Nkwanta on the Kumasi-Obuasi road at dawn.

The arms were found concealed in a sack on a Mercedes Benz cargo truck fully loaded with cola nuts from Cote d’Ivoire.

Another pile of weapons was seized by the Ashanti Regional Police Command  in September in at a private residence in the Sekyere East District  of  the Ashanti Region. The weapons, both foreign and locally manufactured, were discovered following a tip-off.

N1 and Achimota-Ofankor roads open.

Just as the progress made  in hunting down criminals, so were some good news in the road sector. President John Evans Atta Mills  commissioned the 14 km N1 Highway, also known as the Tetteh Quarshie-Mallam highway .

The highway was constructed with 547 million dollars funding from the US Millennium Challenge Corporation and named after former US President George Walker Bush. The 14- kilometre road started in  2008 under the Kufour administration.

 Although it has eased traffic considerably, the carelessness  exhibited by pedestrians and drivers has resulted in a number of deaths.

After years of completion dates had been postponed several times, the  5.7-kilometre Achimota-Ofankor road was fully opened to traffic in September. Work on the Achimota-Ofankor Road project started on November 15, 2006 and was originally scheduled for completion by November 15, 2009. Due to some variations to the project, the completion date was revised, first to May 15, 2011 and then  to May 15, 2012.

Two  universities born

The government made good its promise to build two universities. The University of Allied Health Sciences in Ho in the Volta Region and the University of  Energy and Natural Resources in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region. The two universities  matriculated 200 students each.

Judgement debt expose

The year will be remembered in Ghana for being the one that opened a can of worms on judgement debts. Ever since the payment of GH¢51.2 million in judgement debt to the businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome was made public in December last year, a number of other judgement debts, have dominated public discourse.

Eighty-six institutions and individuals benefited from such payments in 2010 alone. Among them were Balkan Energy Limited (GH¢170,726), CP (GH¢ 180,0 12,982), African Automobile Limited (GH¢2,500,000), MS Rockshell International (GH¢7, 140,500), Latex Foam Limited (GH¢133,165), Novotel Limited (GH¢573,058) and Nene Yobo Asutsuare Sugar Factory (GH¢2,525,600).


Others including 94 million euros paid to CP and that of the African Automobile Limited got the Public Accountant Committee on its feet. Former Attorney –General, Mrs Mould-Iddrisu and current Attorney-General,Dr Benjamin Kunbour made some dramatic appearances before the committee.

Later Mr Woyome and Dr kunbour incurred the displeasure of the committee for failing to honour its invitations. That pushed the PAC Chairman, Mr Albert Kan- Dapah to order the arrest of  two gentlemen, but it never happened.

With the judgment debt controversy never ending, President Mahama appointed a Sole Commissioner, Justice Yaw Appau, to  unravel such payments from as far back as the inception of the 1992 Constitution. The commission is yet to complete its work.

Woyome continua and the fallouts

The Woyome  judgment debt storm started gathering late in December 2011 and gained momentum in 2012.

The Auditor-General’s Report 2010 to Parliament captured the GH¢42 million judgement debt award to Mr Woyome as one of several avoidable debts which together imposed a GH¢275 million cost on the state. The amount was later established to be GHC $51.2.

In a swift reaction, the late President Mills ordered the Economic and Organised Crime Office to look into the matter. The report released in  February indicted Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome for putting in a claim for an amount, which by his own documentary submissions he was not entitled to.

According the preliminary report, Mr Woyome manipulated documents and information and riding on the negligence (and/or complicity) of public officials, managed to receive money which he was clearly not entitled to.

That was not all. Excerpts of the 16-page report signed by Mr B. Mortey Akpadzi, Executive Director of EOCO gave details of the roles played by specific individuals in the whole saga including Mr Yaw Osafo – Maafo, Dr Kofi Amoah, Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, Mr Rex Danquah, Mr Joe Ghartey, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei and Mr Kwaku Agyemen-Manu, Ministers and officials in Former President Kufuor’s regime.

Others were, Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh, Chief State Attorney in Charge of the case at the Attorney Generals (AG)Department whose wife the report said was paid GHC 400,000.00 on June 16, 2011 by Mr Woyome. The rest were Mr Paul Asimenu, Director– at the Legal Department of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP).

With this information in hand, the police went after Mr Woyome and was picked in traffic. The case has since been in court where the drama continued.

The fallouts of the Woyome saga has been catastrophic; It resulted in the resignation of Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, under whose tenure the amount was paid, while Mr Martin Amidu, her successor  was allegedly sacked for misconduct.

 There were also calls from the opposition New Patriotic Party especially for Deputy Attorney General, Ebow Barton-Odro, to resign. Prior to that Mr Amidu had released a press statement accusing some government officials of ‘gargantuan ‘crimes against the state.

His epistles were to follow. He accused pro-NDC newspapers of being a ‘rented presses hired to vilify him. Since then, he has been on the crusade of a citizen vigilante.

STX Kaput

 The government ambitious plan to  house some 30,000 men and women of the security services, bit  dust with constant   boardroom wrangling between partners in the project-STX Ghana and their Korean counterparts. The government in the course of the year terminated the agreement and initiated steps to recover its assets.

When tapes speak

This year can also be described as a year of secret tapes. Indeed they came in torrents. The content of a few were scary and a point to politicians not thinking beyond partisan interest.

Controversial Assin North MP Kennedy Agyepong, perhaps, led the race with a tape in which the MP declared war and used some inflammatory language. The police went after him and he was eventually arrested and charged with treason.

Scores of New Patriotic Party supporters stormed the Police Headquarters chanting patriotic songs and pelting police officials with stones, following attempts by the police to move Kennedy Agyapong to an undisclosed location.

The supporters again besieged the court when the firebrand MP was sent to the court to answer charges against him. He was later granted bail and bonded to be of good behaviour. The case is still in court.

Not long afterwards, another leaked tape of the MP surfaced in which he confessed  to  allegedly using  about 1,000 thugs in the heat of the 2008 general elections.

On the said tape recording, the Assin North law maker expressed outrage over what he said were internal attacks on his person despite his many contributions to the fortunes of the party.

The tape came at a time there was mounting public pressure on the Ghana Police Service to arrest the NDC National Organizer, Yaw Boateng Gyan, for plotting to infiltrate the nation’s security agencies.
The 35-minute tape was suspected to have been recorded in a meeting with an unidentified party foot soldiers.

 The tape  had Mr Boateng-Gyan discussing plans to draft them into a special force of the Ghana Armed Forces whose members would later be given National Security identification cards to enable them to infiltrate the ranks of some parties, especially, the National Democratic Party (NDP).

Interestingly, the National Security chief, Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo Lartey, in response to the public outcry said he found nothing worth investigating.

Then came the Pastor Mensah Otabil tapes in which the popular man of God, questioned the quality of free education, among other issues concerning the free school policy.

But in response, Pastor Otabil maintained that  recording or sermon was delivered some ten years ago, and had been doctored out of context.

Nation wide blackout and load shedding

The country was plunged into total darkness a number of times this year. In September, a load shedding exercise was rolled out as the Asogli plant was shut down because of damage  to a West Africa Gas Company pipeline that carries gas to Ghana. The load shedding was suspended in December.

 Strike galore

As the year progressed, so did single spine-induced  industrial strikes flowered. The Government and Hospital Pharmacist Association embarked on an industrial boycott to press home demand for fair wages.

The Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association embarked on an industrial boycott to press home demand for fair wages.

The Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) also joined the fray compelling authorities of Kumasi and Takoradi polytechnics to close down the schools indefinitely.

The Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU) were not left out of the strike galore. The union also went on strike to pour out its  frustrations about the long silence of government, the Labour Commission and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission on the major disparities in the salaries of its members since they were migrated on the Single Spine Salary Structure last year.

Communal clashes

A wave of communal clashes swept through portions of the country, disturbing the peace in those areas, leading to the loss of lives and property, displacement of people, a breakdown of law and order and seriously disrupting socio-economic activities.

In the Northern Region, Kokombas and Bimobas clashed over the ownership of a parcel of land at Kpamale, a village near Nankpanduri, among a number of other major conflicts in the north.  At Ekumfi Narkwa in the Central Region, clashes between the Ewe and the Fante communities over the murder of a clan head resulted in the death of two persons, injury to three and the torching of eight dwelling houses.

Even as the security forces and the political administrators worked around the clock to restore normalcy to those areas, another violent clash erupted in Hohoe in the Volta Region between members of the Zongo community, comprising  mainly Muslims, and the indigenous Gbis.

The Hohoe violence erupted following the exhumation of the body of the local Chief Imam by some youth said to be indigenes of the area, an act that incensed the Muslim youth to resort to violence, vandalising a chief’s palace and setting some properties on fire.
New constituencies

Being an election year, the year saw a buzz of electoral activities. From parliamentary primaries  in which some  big wigs within the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP)  fell through to a biometric registration exercise characterised by pockets of violence, there was no dull moment.

The creation of 45 constituencies generated a lot of debates, with the NPP and some civil society organisations, including the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) calling for the suspension of the exercise.

Finally, consensus prevailed and the EC went ahead to lay the Constitutional Instrument before Parliament but that was also not without its withdrawal twice because of mistakes and omission of some polling stations.

The NPP was on the throat of the have also been concerns, particularly from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), over the essence of creating new constituencies in a period very close to the 2012 general election.

Election 2012: the candidates, the campaign

With President Mills gone, the NDC went to congress in Kumasi to endorse President Mahama to lead the party into the 2012 race.  The Peoples National Convention (PNC) settled on businessman, Mr Hassan Ayariga.

While the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) went in for an agriculturist, Dr Abu Sakara; the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) presented, businessman mogul, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom.

 For the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Dr Henry Lartey was the ideal man to lead the party to victory. Even without the support of some executive of his party, the United Front Party (UFP), Kwesi Addai Odike led the party into the election  with an  independent candidate, Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah staking a claim to the presidency.

Significantly, the NDC rescinded its decision not to participate in the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) debate. That was the first time a sitting President participated in the debate in Ghana since it was introduced in 2000.

The long-speculated National Democratic Party (NDP) was finally born after months of speculation and denials. Shouldered by former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, the NDP, a splinter party from NDC, made a lot of waves and eventually elected Nana Konadu as its flag bearer.

 Two years earlier, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had been elected  the NPP flag bearer.

Then came the filing of nominations. The NDC, GCPP, NPP, CPP, PPP, PNC, UFP and the independent presidential candidates scaled through when the Electoral Commission(EC) opened nominations. Additionally, 1,452 Parliamentary candidates filed their nominations to contest 275 seats.

In an unprecedented feat in Ghana’s 57-year old history, the Progressive PNC, PPP  and the CPP nominated women to be their running mates.

But the EC pulled the seams out of presidential ambitions of three candidates, NDP’s Nana Konadu, the Independent Peoples Party (IPP)’s  Mr Kofi Akpalu, Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), Ms Akua Donkor and New Vision Party (NVP)’s Prophet Daniel Nkansah.

Not satisfied with their disqualification, the NDP, the IPP and NVP went to court to have the decision overturned but the effort  yielded no fruits.

Two of  officials of the EC – Emmanuel Asante Kisi, the Logistics Officer, and Mr Kofi Asomaning, the Director of Elections – were implicated in alleged  bribery scandals.

Prior to that was the months of rancorous campaign making overtures to the electorate.

For 2012, the central campaign theme was free senior high school education championed by the NPP. This put the ruling NDC on the defensive. The NDC had to settle on quality and increased access to SHS education and making basic education universally free.

The NDC’s ede be K3K3 and the NPP’s Free SHS, the PPP’s party papa paa were some of the slogans that put smiles on the faces of many Ghanaians.

There were also enough humourous moments to douse the political tension. While Mr Ayariga provided  enough for electorate to laugh about with his trademark ‘Ayaricough, Ayarigate’ moments, Ms Donkor also provided more than comic relief.

For the first time, former President Rawlings who declined to campaign for  the NDC met the NPP Presidential aspirant, Nana Addo, an act commended by many but tickled some NDC  executives and supporters on the wrong side.

Contested results

Election day eventually arrived on December 7 and Ghanaians went to the polls dodged with challenges with verification machines. The EC had to push the elections to the next day in some areas.

Even before all the results were collated,the General Secretary of the NPP, Mr Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie had announced at a press conference that the NPP had won the elections with 51.3 per cent. But that was not to be,  as the EC Chairman, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, declared President Mahama as the President elect with 5,574,761 votes, representing  50.70 per cent of votes cast. Nana Addo followed with 5,248,898 votes which is  47.74 per cent of total ballots cast.

Even before the results were announced, the NPP raised red flags about some discrepancies and what it described as an orchestrated fraud to change the results in favour of President  Mahama.  The NPP has since filed a petition at the Supreme Court to challenge the results.

Sadly, the post elections drama irked bitter memories on the minds of many. Irate supporters of the NPP besieged offices to protest the release of the result. A day after the results were declared, pockets of violence were recorded with journalists and some NDC supporters being at the receiving end of physical abuse. There have also been protest marches in Accra and Kumasi against the  results.

Land grab

The Supreme Court dismissed an action by two deputy ministers--Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and Dr Edward Omane Boamah, that challenged the right of the National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey to purchase a state bungalow he had occupied as a minister during the Kufuor regime.

This set the stage for intense debates on who has bought which state bungalow or property under the Accra Redevelopment Scheme.

 A good number of these state lands are located at Cantonments and Ridge Residential Estates in Accra.  In the end, a long list of beneficiaries was published indicating how politicians and civil servants had connived to loot state lands.

Officials of both the NDC, the NPP benefitted from the land grab.

Many of those who paid for the lands, paid below the prices set by the Lands Valuation Board, and in some cases, even far less than the price they themselves quoted in their bid during a phony tender process initiated on the directive of the Ministry of Water Resources Works and Housing (MWRWH).

In some instance, prime lands going for $1 million an acre were sold to private interests and some public officers for a mere $200,000.
Chinese galamsey

In 2012, a number of Chinese illegal miners invaded the country’s mineral rich regions. The Ashanti, Western  and Eastern regions became the pivot of their operations.

  The situation was so bad that at Nsiana in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region, residents clashed with the Chinese miners.

The residents  accused the Chinese miners of occupying the land illegally and contaminating their river source. But the Chinese, numbering about 10 and armed with pump action guns, fired at the residents.

In March, the Western Regional Police Command  arrested 27 Chinese for engaging in illegal mining activities at Kutukrom, Sika ne Asem and Tumantu villages.

Disasters and accidents

This year, the country was spared the casualties that came with serious flooding, but what we did not experience in natural disasters came in accidents.

The most bewildering was a cargo plane attempting to land at the Kotoka International Airport which slammed into a commercial bus loaded with passengers near the El-Wak Stadium.

The Allied (Air) Cargo plane first smashed through the fence that runs around the airport before hitting the bus. The plane's four crew members appear to have survived the crash and were rushed to a local hospital for treatment.

Then before the year reached its last lap, disaster struck again at Achimota where the Achimota Melcom imploded and took with it 14 lives. It took five days to pull out 81 persons trapped under the debris.

Road accidents also took its toll. By November, 13,535 lives were lost in the road carnage according to National Road Safety Commission figures.

That is an average of 40 accidents and six deaths daily. The most heart-wrenching ones included the death of five schoolchildren when a heavy duty vehicle rammed into eight of them among other pedestrians at Santaase near the Opoku Ware Senior High School in Kumasi. On the newly opened N1 Motorway alone 43 lives were lost.

Then just like the year before, the  galamsey pits swallowed illegal miners looking for bread and butter underneath rocks.

This year, 17 illegal miners died at Subriso–Fante near Tepa in the Ahafo Ano North District of the Ashanti Region when a pit in which they were working collapsed and trapped them on Monday .

 One of them, said to be a native of Subriso, escaped with injury but died the next day at the Tepa Cocoa Clinic. Just before Christmas day, two persons were feared dead and eight others trapped in a galamsey pit which collapsed on Sunday at Subriso in the Ashanti Region.

According to reports, the area had been weakened because of the number of pits dug around the place.

The perennial fire breakouts in markets were also rampant in 2012. A number of markets including Madina, Mallam and the Kumasi Central were partly reduced to a pile of rubble as fire swept through them, destroying goods worth millions of cedis.