2011 in review, Saturday, December 31, 2011, SPREAD
THE term ‘Theatre of events’ best describes 2011, which witnessed infrastructural development laced with drama, disasters, scandals and political turbulence.
The year began with a ministerial reshuffle which knocked out a number of ministers and deputy ministers, including the then Education Minister, Mr Alex Tetteh-Enyo, and the Tourism Minister, Mrs Zita Okaikoi.
Then came increases in fuel prices that got the Trades Union Congress (TUC), civil society organisations and the opposition in a frenzy.
Before the dust could settle on the fuel price hikes, President J.E.A. Mills cut the sod for what would have been the biggest housing project in the history of Ghana, the STX Housing Project, which is yet to materialise.
The project, which is to house some 30,000 men and women of the security services, has suffered a setback cast in boardroom wrangling and court action between STX Ghana and its Korean counterpart.
For the ‘ghosts’ on government payroll, 2011 was a year of exorcism as the government launched a pilot project to clear faceless pensioners receiving pay checks from the government.
The economy
The government’s efforts at keeping inflation at bay continued in 2011 and was sustained for a record 18 months. This is the longest ever sustained period of single- digit inflation in Ghana’s entire history.
The country also improved its gross international reserves from $2 billion in 2008, representing import cover of 1.8 months, to $ 4.98 billion, representing four months’ import cover.
In the year under review, the government also secured the biggest loan in the history of the Ghanaian economy, a $3-billion facility from the China Development Bank which will be used to undertake major industrial and infrastructural projects of unprecedented scale from next year.
The projects will include the Western Corridor Gas Infrastructure Project, the Western Corridor Petroleum Terminal Project and the Western Corridor Infrastructure Renewal Project.
The loan approval was, however, not without controversy, as the Minority in Parliament showed its dislike for the facility, which it said would unnecessarily raise the country’s debt stock.
The loan has, however, been described by bodies, including the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), as good if only it will be invested in areas that will ensure quick returns to pay back the debt.
The government also inaugurated the proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Accra estimated to cost US$90 million. It is aimed at reducing vehicular traffic on the road connecting Kasoa to the central business district (CBS) of Accra.
It also presented 6,060 Longda motorbikes, valued at GH¢10.8 million, to more than 6,000 assembly members in the various electoral areas across the country, the first of its kind since the country embarked on decentralisation.
Chieftaincy
After close to 13 years, total peace and reconciliation returned to Anlo, as a successor to the late Torgbui Adeladza II was installed. The enstoolment of Torgbui Sri II brought an end to a volatile chieftaincy dispute in Anlo.
The troubled waters in the Ga State chieftaincy affair were disturbed further when, under the stool name Boni Nii Tackie Adama Latse II, a new Ga Mantse was installed in June by some kingmakers of the Ga State to succeed Nii Amugi II who passed away some six years ago.
The installation of the new Ga Mantse brought to two the number of occupants of the Ga Stool, with King Tackie Tawiah III, who was installed in 2006, still in office.
Angry Andani youth invaded the Supreme Court in Accra in the course of a demonstration and presented a petition to the Chief Justice in reaction to the March 29, 2011 ruling by Justice E.K. Ayebi which freed some 14 people arrested in connection with the murder of Ya Na Andani Yakubu II.
Party Politics
As 2011 is the penultimate year to Ghana’s next elections, it saw a buzz of electoral activities. Remember the FONKAR-Games? Events leading to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) congress to elect a flag bearer were murky. While allegations of intimidation from both camps traversed media circles, allegations of a GH¢90-million war chest turned out to be one of the accusations and counter-accusations levelled against either camp in the contest.
After weeks of campaigning and overtures, the two contenders, President John Evans Atta Mills and a former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, took their cases to the delegates to settle in a battle of thumbs, with President Mills securing 96.7 per cent of the valid votes cast to pull the breaks on Nana Konadu’s presidential ambitions.
Samia Nkrumah, the only daughter of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, made history when she became the first woman to be elected chairperson of a political party in Ghana. She shrugged off a strong challenge from former National Chairmen of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Dr Edmund Delle and Mr Ladi Nylander.
Her leadership so far has not been without controversy. An attempt by Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, the party’s 2008 flag bearer, to announce his desire to contest the 2012 flag-bearer race of the CPP was met with verbal jabs.
Dr Nduom, in reaction, decided to take a back seat in the affairs of the party and has subsequently resigned from the CPP to form a new party.
While the CPP’s woes continued, another Nkrumaist party, the People’s National Convention (PNC), could neither elect a new national executive nor a flag bearer, as it struggled to bob and weave in a legal tussle initiated by Dr Sontim Tobiga, one of its bigwigs who has lately become its tormentor-in-chief.
The flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, undertook a listening tour of the country, ostensibly to draw closer to the electorate in order to improve his fortunes in next year’s presidential election.
Meanwhile, his ‘All die be die’ mantra caused some ripples.
The decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) decision to use a biometric system in the 2012 elections was also not without drama. The government released $50 million for the exercise. The biometric registration is expected to take off next year.
While the EC, at a point, said it could not guarantee electronic verification of voters because of lack of funds, the opposition parties, led by the NPP, maintained that it was only the verification process that could maintain the sanctity of the polls and accused the EC of being in bed with the NDC.
Civil society organisations and churches joined the ‘verification chorus’ and, in the end, cool heads prevailed and the EC decided to budget for it.
The Constitutional Review Commission, which is mandated to undertake a consultative review of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, presented its final report to President Mills after two years of deliberations.
The report, among other things, recommended that a review exercise must strengthen Parliament, enhance the role of traditional authorities in local governance and strengthen independent constitutional bodies to better protect the institutions of state and the rights of people.
Cocaine miracle
The Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Mr Yaw Akrasi Sarpong, took the entire nation by storm when he declared that the board was in possession of a list of politicians involved in the drug trade in the country.
He was challenged by opposition gurus, including the Chairman of the NPP, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, to produce evidence, but the NACOB boss declined to produce the list.
An Accra Circuit Court added to the cocaine drama when a substance seized from an accused person and which had been confirmed through a test at the Police Forensic Laboratory to be cocaine weighing 1,020 grammes later turned out to be sodium carbonate (commonly known as washing soda) after the court had ordered another test to be conducted by the Ghana Standards Board (GSB).
A probe set up to look into the matter is yet to release its report to uncover what really happened.
Woyome’s judgement debt
If there is one man whose name was on the lips of every Ghanaian in December, it was Alfred A. Woyome, a businessman and financier of the NDC, who received GH¢42 million in judgement debts as compensation for contracts that were allegedly abrogated by the NPP government for the renovation of the Accra and the Kumasi stadia.
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.
In a swift reaction, President Mills ordered the Economic and Organised Crime Office to look into the matter.
Accidents
The year 2011 recorded the highest number of accidents since 1991, according to statistics from the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit. More than 2,000 people lost their lives in accidents across the country.
By the first quarter of 2011, there were 2,989 accidents, with 3,166 people injured and 540 dead. By the third quarter, over 1,500 people had died in road accidents in Ghana.
The most heart-wrenching ones included the loss of 22 lives at Yawkwei, near Konongo on the Accra-Kumasi Highway, the demise of 27 people in the Tamale-Savelugu Highway road crash and the loss of 27 lives at Senya Beraku in the Central Region on December 27.
Strike galore
The year 2011 was one that produced so many single spine salary-induced industrial actions. Teachers were on the neck of the government for what they described as “unmet expectations”. As the storm in the teachers’ quarters reduced, the doctors took over and their strike dragged on for two weeks, resulting in the death of about four people.
Gays, lesbians and aid
The year will be remembered in Ghana for being the year that put on the table issues concerning same-sex relationships. It all began with a Daily Graphic publication which claimed that 8,000 gays had been registered in two regions of the country, with majority of them infected with sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. The debate over the issue took long to die.
But the debate was to be resurrected a few months later when the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, incurred the displeasure of Ghanaians, including President Mills, with comments that suggested that the UK would cut aid to countries infringing on the rights of homosexuals.
President Mills, in response, was emphatic that his administration would not accept any form of aid that would compromise the nation’s moral values.
Even before the storm settled on the British Prime Minister’s faux pax, the US Secretary of State, Mrs Hillary Clinton, dropped hints that the US would use aid to bait countries to soften their stance on gay rights.
Pastors on rampage
If gay issues caused outrage, the activities of some men of God came under scrutiny in the year under review, following reported cases of scandals that rocked the clergy.
While some of them are in jail for these activities, others are battling their cases in court or are being investigated by the law enforcement agencies on suspicion of various crimes.
Perhaps one act that got the nation talking about the integrity of some members of the clergy was the attack on Hot FM, an Accra-based radio station, by Bishop Daniel Obinim, the Founder and Leader of the International God's Way Church, who went with two other pastors to attack the host and panel members on a discussion programme.
During the attack, the three attackers, one of whom was said to be wielding a crowbar, reportedly smashed louvres in the studio of the radio station.
More shocking was Bishop Obinim’s confession on another radio station that he had cursed and maimed a child he was alleged to have 'fathered' by the wife of one of his associate pastors.
That was not all. In January, the Accra Circuit Court sentenced Nana Kofi Yirenkyi, also known as "Jesus One Touch,” the Founder of the Jesus Blood Prophetic Ministry in Accra, to 10 years in prison for defiling his own 10-year-old daughter.
In May, the General Overseer of the Vineyard Chapel International, Bishop Vaglas Kanco, was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment by the Accra Circuit Court for defrauding a British national to the tune of £120,000.
The General Overseer of the Fountain Living Waters Church in Takoradi, Vincent Bassaw, was also arrested in February for allegedly impregnating a 15-year-old student.
Another pastor, Prophet Nicholas Osei, also known as Kumchacha, the Leader of Heaven Gate Ministries, was arrested by the police in May for allegedly attempting to rape a married woman at a hotel in Kumasi. The charges against him were dropped later for lack of evidence.
Then came the abominable act of Rev Paul Nkansah, the Head Pastor of the African Faith Tabernacle, who allegedly raped five sisters at Akyem Achiase in the Eastern Region.
Disasters
Torrential rains that swept through Accra and its environs in October took with them 14 lives and destroyed properties worth several billions of Ghana cedis.
About 16 people lost their lives in a gas explosion that rocked a fast food joint in Ashaiman, near Tema.
A similar gas explosion in Koforidua also resulted in the loss of four souls.
The year began with a ministerial reshuffle which knocked out a number of ministers and deputy ministers, including the then Education Minister, Mr Alex Tetteh-Enyo, and the Tourism Minister, Mrs Zita Okaikoi.
Then came increases in fuel prices that got the Trades Union Congress (TUC), civil society organisations and the opposition in a frenzy.
Before the dust could settle on the fuel price hikes, President J.E.A. Mills cut the sod for what would have been the biggest housing project in the history of Ghana, the STX Housing Project, which is yet to materialise.
The project, which is to house some 30,000 men and women of the security services, has suffered a setback cast in boardroom wrangling and court action between STX Ghana and its Korean counterpart.
For the ‘ghosts’ on government payroll, 2011 was a year of exorcism as the government launched a pilot project to clear faceless pensioners receiving pay checks from the government.
The economy
The government’s efforts at keeping inflation at bay continued in 2011 and was sustained for a record 18 months. This is the longest ever sustained period of single- digit inflation in Ghana’s entire history.
The country also improved its gross international reserves from $2 billion in 2008, representing import cover of 1.8 months, to $ 4.98 billion, representing four months’ import cover.
In the year under review, the government also secured the biggest loan in the history of the Ghanaian economy, a $3-billion facility from the China Development Bank which will be used to undertake major industrial and infrastructural projects of unprecedented scale from next year.
The projects will include the Western Corridor Gas Infrastructure Project, the Western Corridor Petroleum Terminal Project and the Western Corridor Infrastructure Renewal Project.
The loan approval was, however, not without controversy, as the Minority in Parliament showed its dislike for the facility, which it said would unnecessarily raise the country’s debt stock.
The loan has, however, been described by bodies, including the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), as good if only it will be invested in areas that will ensure quick returns to pay back the debt.
The government also inaugurated the proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Accra estimated to cost US$90 million. It is aimed at reducing vehicular traffic on the road connecting Kasoa to the central business district (CBS) of Accra.
It also presented 6,060 Longda motorbikes, valued at GH¢10.8 million, to more than 6,000 assembly members in the various electoral areas across the country, the first of its kind since the country embarked on decentralisation.
Chieftaincy
After close to 13 years, total peace and reconciliation returned to Anlo, as a successor to the late Torgbui Adeladza II was installed. The enstoolment of Torgbui Sri II brought an end to a volatile chieftaincy dispute in Anlo.
The troubled waters in the Ga State chieftaincy affair were disturbed further when, under the stool name Boni Nii Tackie Adama Latse II, a new Ga Mantse was installed in June by some kingmakers of the Ga State to succeed Nii Amugi II who passed away some six years ago.
The installation of the new Ga Mantse brought to two the number of occupants of the Ga Stool, with King Tackie Tawiah III, who was installed in 2006, still in office.
Angry Andani youth invaded the Supreme Court in Accra in the course of a demonstration and presented a petition to the Chief Justice in reaction to the March 29, 2011 ruling by Justice E.K. Ayebi which freed some 14 people arrested in connection with the murder of Ya Na Andani Yakubu II.
Party Politics
As 2011 is the penultimate year to Ghana’s next elections, it saw a buzz of electoral activities. Remember the FONKAR-Games? Events leading to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) congress to elect a flag bearer were murky. While allegations of intimidation from both camps traversed media circles, allegations of a GH¢90-million war chest turned out to be one of the accusations and counter-accusations levelled against either camp in the contest.
After weeks of campaigning and overtures, the two contenders, President John Evans Atta Mills and a former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, took their cases to the delegates to settle in a battle of thumbs, with President Mills securing 96.7 per cent of the valid votes cast to pull the breaks on Nana Konadu’s presidential ambitions.
Samia Nkrumah, the only daughter of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, made history when she became the first woman to be elected chairperson of a political party in Ghana. She shrugged off a strong challenge from former National Chairmen of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Dr Edmund Delle and Mr Ladi Nylander.
Her leadership so far has not been without controversy. An attempt by Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, the party’s 2008 flag bearer, to announce his desire to contest the 2012 flag-bearer race of the CPP was met with verbal jabs.
Dr Nduom, in reaction, decided to take a back seat in the affairs of the party and has subsequently resigned from the CPP to form a new party.
While the CPP’s woes continued, another Nkrumaist party, the People’s National Convention (PNC), could neither elect a new national executive nor a flag bearer, as it struggled to bob and weave in a legal tussle initiated by Dr Sontim Tobiga, one of its bigwigs who has lately become its tormentor-in-chief.
The flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, undertook a listening tour of the country, ostensibly to draw closer to the electorate in order to improve his fortunes in next year’s presidential election.
Meanwhile, his ‘All die be die’ mantra caused some ripples.
The decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) decision to use a biometric system in the 2012 elections was also not without drama. The government released $50 million for the exercise. The biometric registration is expected to take off next year.
While the EC, at a point, said it could not guarantee electronic verification of voters because of lack of funds, the opposition parties, led by the NPP, maintained that it was only the verification process that could maintain the sanctity of the polls and accused the EC of being in bed with the NDC.
Civil society organisations and churches joined the ‘verification chorus’ and, in the end, cool heads prevailed and the EC decided to budget for it.
The Constitutional Review Commission, which is mandated to undertake a consultative review of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, presented its final report to President Mills after two years of deliberations.
The report, among other things, recommended that a review exercise must strengthen Parliament, enhance the role of traditional authorities in local governance and strengthen independent constitutional bodies to better protect the institutions of state and the rights of people.
Cocaine miracle
The Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Mr Yaw Akrasi Sarpong, took the entire nation by storm when he declared that the board was in possession of a list of politicians involved in the drug trade in the country.
He was challenged by opposition gurus, including the Chairman of the NPP, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, to produce evidence, but the NACOB boss declined to produce the list.
An Accra Circuit Court added to the cocaine drama when a substance seized from an accused person and which had been confirmed through a test at the Police Forensic Laboratory to be cocaine weighing 1,020 grammes later turned out to be sodium carbonate (commonly known as washing soda) after the court had ordered another test to be conducted by the Ghana Standards Board (GSB).
A probe set up to look into the matter is yet to release its report to uncover what really happened.
Woyome’s judgement debt
If there is one man whose name was on the lips of every Ghanaian in December, it was Alfred A. Woyome, a businessman and financier of the NDC, who received GH¢42 million in judgement debts as compensation for contracts that were allegedly abrogated by the NPP government for the renovation of the Accra and the Kumasi stadia.
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.
In a swift reaction, President Mills ordered the Economic and Organised Crime Office to look into the matter.
Accidents
The year 2011 recorded the highest number of accidents since 1991, according to statistics from the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit. More than 2,000 people lost their lives in accidents across the country.
By the first quarter of 2011, there were 2,989 accidents, with 3,166 people injured and 540 dead. By the third quarter, over 1,500 people had died in road accidents in Ghana.
The most heart-wrenching ones included the loss of 22 lives at Yawkwei, near Konongo on the Accra-Kumasi Highway, the demise of 27 people in the Tamale-Savelugu Highway road crash and the loss of 27 lives at Senya Beraku in the Central Region on December 27.
Strike galore
The year 2011 was one that produced so many single spine salary-induced industrial actions. Teachers were on the neck of the government for what they described as “unmet expectations”. As the storm in the teachers’ quarters reduced, the doctors took over and their strike dragged on for two weeks, resulting in the death of about four people.
Gays, lesbians and aid
The year will be remembered in Ghana for being the year that put on the table issues concerning same-sex relationships. It all began with a Daily Graphic publication which claimed that 8,000 gays had been registered in two regions of the country, with majority of them infected with sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. The debate over the issue took long to die.
But the debate was to be resurrected a few months later when the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, incurred the displeasure of Ghanaians, including President Mills, with comments that suggested that the UK would cut aid to countries infringing on the rights of homosexuals.
President Mills, in response, was emphatic that his administration would not accept any form of aid that would compromise the nation’s moral values.
Even before the storm settled on the British Prime Minister’s faux pax, the US Secretary of State, Mrs Hillary Clinton, dropped hints that the US would use aid to bait countries to soften their stance on gay rights.
Pastors on rampage
If gay issues caused outrage, the activities of some men of God came under scrutiny in the year under review, following reported cases of scandals that rocked the clergy.
While some of them are in jail for these activities, others are battling their cases in court or are being investigated by the law enforcement agencies on suspicion of various crimes.
Perhaps one act that got the nation talking about the integrity of some members of the clergy was the attack on Hot FM, an Accra-based radio station, by Bishop Daniel Obinim, the Founder and Leader of the International God's Way Church, who went with two other pastors to attack the host and panel members on a discussion programme.
During the attack, the three attackers, one of whom was said to be wielding a crowbar, reportedly smashed louvres in the studio of the radio station.
More shocking was Bishop Obinim’s confession on another radio station that he had cursed and maimed a child he was alleged to have 'fathered' by the wife of one of his associate pastors.
That was not all. In January, the Accra Circuit Court sentenced Nana Kofi Yirenkyi, also known as "Jesus One Touch,” the Founder of the Jesus Blood Prophetic Ministry in Accra, to 10 years in prison for defiling his own 10-year-old daughter.
In May, the General Overseer of the Vineyard Chapel International, Bishop Vaglas Kanco, was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment by the Accra Circuit Court for defrauding a British national to the tune of £120,000.
The General Overseer of the Fountain Living Waters Church in Takoradi, Vincent Bassaw, was also arrested in February for allegedly impregnating a 15-year-old student.
Another pastor, Prophet Nicholas Osei, also known as Kumchacha, the Leader of Heaven Gate Ministries, was arrested by the police in May for allegedly attempting to rape a married woman at a hotel in Kumasi. The charges against him were dropped later for lack of evidence.
Then came the abominable act of Rev Paul Nkansah, the Head Pastor of the African Faith Tabernacle, who allegedly raped five sisters at Akyem Achiase in the Eastern Region.
Disasters
Torrential rains that swept through Accra and its environs in October took with them 14 lives and destroyed properties worth several billions of Ghana cedis.
About 16 people lost their lives in a gas explosion that rocked a fast food joint in Ashaiman, near Tema.
A similar gas explosion in Koforidua also resulted in the loss of four souls.
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