2014 in perspective: Ghana's high and low moments
THE year 2014 is over and the curtain goes down on one of the most dramatic years in Ghana’s history.
Filled with economic crunch, political turbulence, Ebola scare, energy crisis, scandals and allegations of corruption as well as some progress for a country struggling to keep pace with its infrastructural deficit, 2014 will also be remembered for its many industrial strikes and demonstrations.
The year was very interesting politically. It was characterised by intrigues and acrimony. There was tension, especially within the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress, and many times, it rose to a crescendo that many thought the tiny thread that bound the parties together would break.
The economy
The Cedi’s fall and rise
Just a step into the new year, the cedi laced it boots for a race against the country’s major trading currencies.
That race took its toll on the currency. If the cedi were to be a human being suffering from dirrhoea, it would have really emaciated. The depreciating cedi proved to be the worst nightmare for businesses and consumers.
The Ghana cedi depreciated cumulatively by 29.8, 29.3 and 24.9 per cent against the dollar, the pound and the euro respectively, from January to August.
There were even predictions by some analysts that the currency would fall to GHc 5 to a dollar by December but did not reach that far.
Desperate to salvage the situation, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) threw in some measures from February 5, 2014 —including pumping $20 million, cash withdrawals for foreign exchange accounts and foreign currency accounts were permitted for travel purposes and would not exceed $10,000, and the banks were also directed to required all exporters to collect and repatriate in full, the proceeds of their exports to their local banks within 60 days of shipment.
However, the action failed to pull the brakes on the fall of the currency, until the measures were reviewed. This somewhat helped the cedi to recover from almost GHc 4.0 to a dollar in September to about GHc 3.2.
This year, inflation, the rate at which the prices of goods and services change in Ghana also hit 17 percent for the month of November, the highest in the last four years.
The IMF bailout
While the economy continues to stumble, the government announced its decision to seek an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail out to “get policy credibility” as President John Dramani Mahama puts it. Negotiations for the financial rescue which ended in November were led by a former Finance Minister in the Rawlings regime, Prof Kwesi Botchwey.The aide is expected to arrive next year and probabbly last until 2017.
Senchi consensus
Long before the government headed for the IMF, there was a three three-day National Economic Forum at Senchi in the Eastern Region in May, ostensibly to find an antidote to the country’s economic woes.
Among other things, the report from the forum, which has become, known as the ‘Senchi Consensus’ called for the need for the nation to be guided by the Directive Principles of State Policy in national development effort, anchored in a long term national development framework with a compelling vision. Related to this is the call for a long term national interest which should supersede all other interests in setting any national development agenda.
2015 budget
In November, the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper took the nation’s budget to parliament to seek the legislature’s blessing to spend GHc 41.4 billion, out of which $30.2 billion, is the country’s expected revenue. The deficit is expected to be financed by the country’s partners, some of which have been unwilling to part with funds because of allegations of corruption in the public sector. The European Union was one such partner that kept its purse closed.
Hand of death
It spares no one and does not differentiate between the prominent or ordinary man. The icy hand of death was busy at work in 2014. The nation woke up to the shocking news of the death of one of the country’s iconic journalists with the BBC, Komla Afeke Dumor, on January 18, 2014. June proved to be a black month for Ghana as a number of prominent people passed away.
It was not only the 41-year old celebrated host of the BBC Focus on Africa that was hurriedly swept away by death, religious clerics— the Ameer and Missionary in charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Ghana, Maulvi Dr Wahab A. Adam and Apostle Dr Augustine Annor-Yeboah, the Founder and Presiding Bishop of Christian Praise International Centre (CPIC), breathed their last four days apart June 22, 2014 and June 26, 2014, respectively. A former Minister of Fisheries in the Kufour regime, Gladys Asmah, also passed away on June 24. Prof Marian Awurama Addy and P.V Obeng were also snatched by death.
Ebola scare and cholera epidemic
Death continued its rampage killing close to 200 people in worse cholera epidemic in three decades in Ghana. More than 12,000 others were hospitalised.
As if that is not enough, Ebola, the deadly virus turned Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone into a playground, killing at least 6,000. While the World Health Organisation estimates shows some 6,000 cases loom, health authorities in the three countries are battling more than 11,000 confirmed cases.
The Ebola scare resulted in the delay in opening universities in the country and a ban on international conferences.
The government with the support of the international community also built three Ebola treatment centres, provided personal protection equipment and rolled out some measures to tackle any possible spread of the disease.
Strikes and demonstrations galore
While death was busy at work, strike and demonstrations also flowered. In May the Polytechnic Teachers Association (PoTAG) declared an indefenite nationwide strike over the government’s plan to scrap the book and research allowance and instead establish a national research fund.
This lasted for three months and during the period, the government decided to freeze the salary of the striking lectures, a decision that further fueled the anger of the teachers but eventually the strike was kept off just in time for polytechnic students to write their exams and prepare for their national service posting.
Before the dust settles on the POTAG strike the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) joined their colleagues in the polytechnics over delay in the payment of their book and research allowance.
The mother of all strikes, however, arrived in October when 12 labour unions made up of public sector workers including doctors, teachers, local government employees, doctors, and nurses laid down their tools to compel the government to release their second tier pension funds.
The sticky point of disagreement had been over the appointment of Pension Alliance Trust to manage the funds when the workers claim they had their own schemes to manage their money. Eventually the workers called off their after the government secured an injunction to restrain them.
While the workers fume over their pension money, demonstrators were also on the street protesting about a wide range of issues, including the fuel price, the state of the economy and the energy crisis.
From Occupy Ghana protest tagged as a middle class demonstration, the NPP led “Ya y3 den? to wits “what have we done”in Kumasi, the Alliance for Accountable Governance “Aagbe w)” or “We are being killed” through to Trades Union Congress (TUC) demonstrations, Ghanaians were resolute in demanding a better performance from the government.
Scandals, corruption allegations and controversies
This year did not spare us scandals in public office. They came in abundance. In September, the Daily Graphic broke the story of how the Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Lauretta Lamptey, has, since August this year, moved into a hotel after the US$5,500 monthly rent for her apartment at the African Union (AU) Village expired. Apart from the Auditor-General which queried the anti-corruption institution, Ms Lamptey is to be investigated after the Chief Justice established a prima facie case against her.
Just a month after the CHRAJ scandal, the Daily Graphic again broke another story about a stinker at the National Service Secretariat (NSS) where officials of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) uncovered a GH¢7.9 million deep-rooted rot at the scheme. The former Director of the NSS, Alhaji Alhassan Imoro, is under prosecution. A new director, Dr Mike Kpesah-Whyte was appointed to lead reforms at the NSS.
In January, the government signaled its determination to stem corruption in the country, with the termination of all contracts between the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) through the Ministry of Youth and Sports on one hand and its service providers, on the other hand.
Several companies were paid huge sums of money for contracts they failed to honour. A former coordinator of the agency, Abuga Pele, is being prosecuted for some financial malfeasance that occurred during his administration.
Another topical scandal for 2014 was the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority scandal where trees were planted by ACI Construction Limited, a company said to be a subsidiary of Roland Agambire’s AGAMS Group, could not be accounted for.
The Authority’s Guinea Fowl Project also did not yield any egg, in spite of the millions sunk into it. The authority had GHc 200 million to spend. Six officials of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) were asked to pay back over 830,000 Ghana cedis to the authority.
HIV Ambassador’s U-turn
In the last lap of the year, Joyce Dzidzor Mensah, one of the women who represent the face of demystifying HIV stigmatisation in the country stunned the country with a rather dramatic U-turn that she was not HIV positive. She had been a living lie for the past seven years, after the Ghana AIDS Commission made her an AIDS Ambassador in 2007, a contract that was terminated in 2012.
Legon tollbooth and national security show of power
This saga also makes the A-list of Ghanaian controversies in 2014. The summary is that the decision of the university to collect tolls from February 1, 2014 to pay back the loan contracted for the maintenance of the roads became a subject of controversy and public anger. The university claimed it owed its debtors GHc 8 million and the tolls was meant to offset the debt and also bring sanity to the campus.
Even though Parliament has put its stamp on the initiative; the government has opposed the payment, with the Chief of Staff advising the university to rescind its decision.
With back and forth between the government and the university going on, operatives of national security went to demolished the tollbooth with the National Security Coordinator, Lt Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (retd), described the tollbooth as a “public nuisance” and stated that the “exercise was carried out for the larger interest of the public.”
Lt Col Gbevlo-Lartey was later fired in April and replaced with Mr Yaw Donkor, the then BNI Director.
Ministerial musical chair
Talk of replacements in public office, and President Mahama did his part in 2014 in the musical chair of reshuffles twice this year. In March, the reshuffle had regional ministers changing places—the second time in recent history after firmer President Rawlings carried out a similar exercise in the late 1990s. In May, it was the turn of the sector ministers and their deputies.
VIP drug burst
Ruby Adu Gyamfi alias Nayele Ametefe thought she has things going in her favour when she left Ghana through the VIP Lounge of the Kotoka International Airport with 12.5 kilogrammes of cocaine worth $3.5 million. She was caught at the Heathrow Airport in London on November 10, sparking a great debate about the country’s fight against the drug war.
Rumours about her carrying diplomatic ebbed and flowed but the British High Commission to Ghana discrete the allegation. He, however, said there was no collaboration between the two countries in the arrest of Nayele contrary to a press statement issued by Narcotics Control Board (NACOB).
Other arrests, including a certain Alhaji Dawood who allegedly made calls for Nayele to have access to the VIP lounge, were made in Ghana and the UK in connection with the drug burst.
Nayele pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in a UK court on November 27. The case has been adjourned to January 5, 2015.
Long before Nayele’s ill-fated trip, 36-year-old Ghanaian business woman was arrested for possessing 10 kilogrammes of a brownish substance suspected to be heroin at the KIA, on April 14.
Mercy Agyeman Prempeh, was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) by officials of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) on her arrival from Tanzania, carrying drugs worth $650,000.
In May, two Ghanaians, including the owner of Le Baron Hotel at East Legon in Accra, David Kwadwo Anim, have been busted at the Heathrow Airport in London for alleged drug trafficking and money laundering.
Castro’s disappearance and Kenu’s slaps
It has been almost 6 months and the disappearance of hiplife musician, Castro and his female companion who drowned while jet skiing at Ada is still a topic for discussion. The musician together with his friend Asamoah Gyan, the Black Stars Captain, and others, were in the area to have fun when the unfortunate happened.
With Ghana’s law stating that a missing person could only be declared dead after seven years, Castro still remains a missing person.
This has, however, brewed a lot of speculations in the ‘pot of rumours.’ In September, a Daily Graphic reporter, Daniel Kenu’s , attempt to seek information to clear the air during a Black Stars pre-match press conference in Kumasi, allegedly earned him (Kenu) some beatings in the hands of Baffour Gyan, the brother of Asamoah Gyan, and some thugs.
The state began the prosecution of the case but in a move that shocked the entire country, Mr Kenu withdrew the case on September 19, before a packed courtroom in which the Managing Director, Mr Ken Ashigbey and Director of Newspapers, Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafo were present but had no knowledge of the decision.
He later apologised for the decision citing personal reasons and the health of his mother. On November 19, he was fired by the company. However, in a swift reaction, the board of the company and the National Media Commission directed that Mr Kenu should be reinstated.
Missing baby saga
Castro cannot be found, and so is the entire country still looking for Madam Swabia Abdul-Mumin’s baby that disappeared at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. The baby was allegedly stillborn to on Wednesday, February 5, this year, but her body could not be found.
Her relatives reacted to the incident and descended on the hospital allegeding that the baby was stolen.
The Ministry of Health ordered investigations into the scandal and some hospital staff, including nurses and a doctor on duty were interdicted and later arrested by the police. They were asked to proceed on leave in February. The Chief Executive Officer of the hospital Professor Ohene Adjei, was also asked to take all his accumulated leave in March.
Apart catching the attention of Parliament, the Attorney General’s Department also opened investigations into the saga.
Footbal matters
A messy Brazil 2014 appearance
Kenu was the only person in sports circles to be at the receiving end of slaps and punches. Black Stars midfielder, Sulley Muntari, and a Black Stars management member, Moses Parker, traded blows in a messy Brazil World Cup appearance that marred the nation’s image internationally.
The messy affair started with players demanding their appearance fees before their final group game against Portugal. The government had to fly $4 million to the players. The team was booted out of the competition in the group stages, the first time since Ghana’s first appearance since Germany 2006.
A three-man Presidential Commission chaired by a High Court judge, Justice Senyo Dzamefe was inaugurated to investigate the events that unfolded in Brazil.
Tears flowed freely when the former Youth and Sports Minister, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah and former Adenta Member of Parliament, Mr Kojo Adu-Asare, a member of the team in charge of supporters and logistics, appeared before the committee.
Black Stars coach sacked
Black Stars coach, Mr Kwesi Appiah, was also axed on September 11in spite of being in a good position to qualify the team to Morroco 2015 which later became Equitorial Guinea 2015. No reason was given for his removal but the speculation was that it was because he granted radio interviews that he wanted a technical director when in fact he agreed to it much earlier.
New Black Stars coach
In November, Avram Grant, former Chelsea Coach arrived as Appiah’s successor. He has been charged to lead the Black Stars to a respectable place in the 2015 AFCON but must win the ultimate in 2017 to retain his job.
Equitorial Guinea was handed the right to host the AFCON after Morroco’s exit over a possible Ebola spread.
Disasters
Apart from the World Cup disaster, this year, the country was spared the casualties that came with serious flooding, but what we did not experience in natural disasters came in other accidents.
The most bewildering were a helicopter which caught fire before plunging into the ocean on May 8, then a January 22 gas explosion that killed eight people and caused life-threatening injuries to 13 others, most of who were received treatment at the Burns Unit of the Komodo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi.
Road accidents also took its toll. By September, according to the NRSC figures, there had been 10,061 crashes involving 15,600 vehicles. The casualties recorded during the period were 1441 deaths and 8,802 injuries.
The perennial fire breakouts in markets were also rampant in 2014. A number of markets including Kumasi Central Market and were partly reduced to a pile of rubble on February 26 as fire swept through them, destroying goods worth millions of cedis, with more than 500 traders losing their sources of livelihood. The worse of the market fires was in Makola where 200 shops burnt down and resulting in about 2,000 traders losing their jobs.
Political party elections
NPP’s bowl of elections
Away from the disasters and into the realm of politics, this year was a busy one for the NPP and the NDC, as the two giants of Ghana politics, went to the polls to elect their leaders.
In a campaign characterised by backbiting and acrimony, the NPP elected Mr Paul Afoko, as the National Chairman and Mr Kwabena Agyepong as the General Secretary. Ms Otiko Djaba maintained her position as the National Women Organiser.
After months of throwing verbal punches at each other’s camp, the NPP went to congresson October 18 to elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as it flag bearer, months after he easily dismissed a similar challenge from seven other contestants to trim the number of contestants to five. Nana Akufo-Addo’s landslide victory, which gave him the opportunity for the third time dealt a blow to Mr Alan Kyerematen’s third attempt for the party’s ticket.
Although the congress was generally peacefully, events before then pushed the party’s unity to the limit. On August 19, some supporters of the opposition NPP stormed the headquarters armed with knives, cutlasses and other weapons and disrupted the a press conference being held by the Party's National Chairman and General Secretary.
The two were addressing a press conference to thrown more light on the recent directive to the Party's Communications Acting Director, Perry Okudzeto to proceed on leave and removal from office of the Director of Finance and Administration, Kwadjo Opare Hammond.
NDC shocker elections
In the NDC camp, after a number of courtroom battles that were withdrawn by the plaintiffs. The party went to Congress on December 20, to elect new offices. Before the congress,alliances were formed and threats made but the writing was on the wall that some of the current executives will not answer the roll call of national executives next year.
Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia made a case for the party’s faithful to vote for the incumbent National Chairman, Dr Kwabena Adjei but the plea fell on deaf ears as the party faithful chose to put their faith in the hands of the National Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Kofi Portuphy to lead the party into the 2016 elections. Mr Asiedu had a comfortable ride, dismissing the bluff of his opponent, Mr Ishaq Abdullah Farrakhan.
It remains to be seen how Mr Asiedu-Nketiah would work with Mr Portuphy. But politics being what it is, you cannot take what politicians say on a hot podium serious.
Another shocker at the NDC Congress in Kumasi was the flooring of the National Organiser of the party, Mr Yaw Boateng-Gyan by Mr Kofi Adams, a Deputy General Secretary.
While the NDC congress in Kumasi was very peaceful, the same cannot be said of youth congress in the same city.
Armed police officers wearing bullet proof vests whisked away the Ashanti Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Mr Paul Boateng, to safety, while other officers of the Commission and security agencies abandoned ballot boxes at the NDC youth congress to elect national youth organiser and two deputies.
While there was no problem with the result of Mr Sidi Abubakar Musah beating the incumbent National Youth Organiser, Mr Ludwig Hlodze, the chaos came with protest from contestants in a deputy positions, Ms Abigail Elorm Mensah, who raised red flags about the results.
Is our President travelling too much?
President Mahama came under a barrage of criticism for travelling a number of times this year. The President’s trip has taken him to countries including France, Mali, the Vatican, Nigeria, Qatar, Burkina Faso, Norway and the United Kingdom.
But President Mahama who also wears the hat of an ECOWAS chairman pulled the seams out of the fabric of criticisms insisting that the travels were necessary as he combines his role as the President of Ghana and as ECOWAS Chairman.
In November, a constitutional arrangement put the presidency on the shoulders of the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho. However, the Mr Adjaho stirred the controversy soup when he refused to be sworn in as president because he has already taken the oath.
On two occasions in November the Chief Justice went to Parliament to swear-in the Speaker in the absence of the president John Mahama and his vice Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, who were on official duties in Burkina Faso and India respectively.
But on both occasions, the Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, refused to be sworn-in despite accepting to act as President.
He told Members of Parliament there was no point in repeating an oath he had taken in September 2013 while the President was away in Mali and the Vice-President in the United Kingdom.
His position was supported by the Ghana Bar Association.
Ghana Gas flows at last but ...
The controversies had their way in 2014 but there were some streams of good news to live up the country. After years of dodgy scheduled completion dates, the Ghana Gas Project finally delivered its first gas from the Jubilee Fields to the Atuabo Gas Processing plant on November 10, against advice from the Energy Commission.
Ghana Gas had announced that the plant was ready to receive gas, as all the necessary mechanical works had been completed, but the commission, in a terse letter dated November 8 to the company, warned that it was too risky to do so.
However, the Aboadze Thermal Plant received its first gas for power generation from the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant on November 24.
That did not close the chapter on the most anticipated gas project in the country. When the Finance Minister, Mr Seth Terkper, read the 2015 budget in November, he also announced the government approval of the takeover of the Ghana National Gas Company by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
The consolidation of GNPC and GNGC, the finance minister said would make it possible to enhance a more integrated management and continue financing of projects in the oil and gas enclave immediately.
It would also make it possible to ease the conditions that investors impose for the national gas aggregator and start financing projects in the oil-and-gas enclave immediately
This apparently tickled nerves in Ghana Gas. A battled of words ensued between the Board Chairman of Ghana Gas, Prof Kwesi Botchwey and the Energy Ministry.
Another subject in the oil and gas sector that sparked a heated debate was The GNPC’s plans to secure a $700 million loan to support its exploratory activities.
The Minority in Parliament accused the Corporation of engaging in an illegality, but the corporation insisted it had the legal mandate to get the credit facility without parliamentary approval.
Epileptic electricity supply
While the Gas project brought joy, the same cannot be said of the energy crisis. In 2014, the electricity supply suffered one of its worst epileptic seizures. It was so bad that while residential users had to receive 24 hours of power and 12 hours off.
This has been as a result of shortfall in generation of power from the Akosombo and Bui Dams, inadequate gas supply from Nigeria and renovation works being carried out on thermal plants across the country.
Industrial users were also put on the load shedding on December 1. Some residents of Accra were up in arms against the unplanned blackouts. Businesses, especially cold stores have collapsed as a result of the energy crisis.
In the end, the Electricity Company of Ghana Managing Director, Rev William Hutton-Mensah was removed from his position. ECG employees did not take kindly to the removal of their boss and threatened to plunge the entire country into darkness if the government refused to reinstate him. Some stability returned to energy supply but the load shedding continued unabated.
To rub salt in the injury of consumers, the Volta River Authority warned that the situation would persist in 2015.
Energy investments
To find a lasting solution to the energy crisis, the government this year signed the Millennium Challenge Account Compact II, which would offer $498 million investments to the energy sector in the country. President Mahama in December inaugurated a new Board of the Millennium Development Authority (MIDA) to oversee its activities.
Fuel prices that refused to come down
The year was also for price hikes. Water, electricity and fuel went up at least twice. Public calls for the National Petroleum Authority to reduce fuel prices to match international crude prices, which fell as low as $57 have not yielded any fruit. The NPA claims prices would not be reviewed downwards because it is using the low prices to defray debts that have accrued from subsidies.
In spite of the fuel increment, severe fuel gas shortage hit Accra and other parts of the country at least twice this year. In January, there were long queues of vehicles at the stations. It was worse in June when fuel shortages hit parts of Accra, forcing business and private activities to grind to a halt. In October, consumers were roaming around with their cylinders for liquefied petroleum gas.
Adomi Bridge
Ghana’s culture of lack of maintenance run its full course and resulted in the closure of the Adomi Bridge, a bridge that connects Northern Ghana to the south through the Eastern and Volta Regions. The bridge was officially closed down in March for two years to enable engineers carry out repair works at the cost of € 13 million.
The closure of the bridge resulted in major difficulty for motorists and travellers crossing the Volta Lake on ferries at Senchi. They have to endure endless hours of waiting and frustration.
Sod-cutting for day schools
Away from the frustration, there is good news in the educational sector. In March, President Dramani Mahama, began the process leading to the fulfillment of a major electoral promise when he performed the joint sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of the first batch of 50 community day senior high schools (SHSs) at Nyanoa in the Upper West Akyem District in the Eastern Region.
From the courts
On the legal front, businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, suffered a legal blow in Accra on July 29 when the Supreme Court unanimously ordered him to refund GHȻ51.2 million to the state.
According to the court, Woyome got the money out of unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the state and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008.
International Front
On the international front, President Mahama was chosen by his peers as Chairman of ECOWAS. The President assumed his position at a time Ebola and Boko Haram—West Africa’s twin troubles were dishing out misery in some parts of the sub-region.
Boko Haram was it merciless best this year. In April, the group kidnapped some 230 girls in Chibok in the Borno State in Northern Nigeria.
More than 1,800 people are believed to have been killed in attacks blamed on Boko Haram this year alone.
Ghana-Cote d’voire maritime crisis
Ghana initiated arbitration proceedings under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), seeking a declaration that it has not encroached on Cote d’Ivoire’s territorial waters in the exploration of oil.
In order to avoid a diplomatic spat, Ghana has since served Cote d’Ivoire with a notification of arbitration, in accordance with the provisions of UNCLOS.
Blaise Campaore kaput
Angry Burkina Faso protesters demonstrated what ‘peoples power’ means when they invaded Parliament and burnt the building down to prevent the House from amending the law that limits presidential tenure. In the ensuing melee, President Blaise Campaore who has being in power for 27 years resigned and now living in exile.
ECOWAS leaders led by President Mahama managed to broker a deal that saw the military exit power replaced by a transitional civilian government led by a career diplomat, Michel Kafando.
Filled with economic crunch, political turbulence, Ebola scare, energy crisis, scandals and allegations of corruption as well as some progress for a country struggling to keep pace with its infrastructural deficit, 2014 will also be remembered for its many industrial strikes and demonstrations.
The year was very interesting politically. It was characterised by intrigues and acrimony. There was tension, especially within the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress, and many times, it rose to a crescendo that many thought the tiny thread that bound the parties together would break.
The economy
The Cedi’s fall and rise
Just a step into the new year, the cedi laced it boots for a race against the country’s major trading currencies.
That race took its toll on the currency. If the cedi were to be a human being suffering from dirrhoea, it would have really emaciated. The depreciating cedi proved to be the worst nightmare for businesses and consumers.
The Ghana cedi depreciated cumulatively by 29.8, 29.3 and 24.9 per cent against the dollar, the pound and the euro respectively, from January to August.
There were even predictions by some analysts that the currency would fall to GHc 5 to a dollar by December but did not reach that far.
Desperate to salvage the situation, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) threw in some measures from February 5, 2014 —including pumping $20 million, cash withdrawals for foreign exchange accounts and foreign currency accounts were permitted for travel purposes and would not exceed $10,000, and the banks were also directed to required all exporters to collect and repatriate in full, the proceeds of their exports to their local banks within 60 days of shipment.
However, the action failed to pull the brakes on the fall of the currency, until the measures were reviewed. This somewhat helped the cedi to recover from almost GHc 4.0 to a dollar in September to about GHc 3.2.
This year, inflation, the rate at which the prices of goods and services change in Ghana also hit 17 percent for the month of November, the highest in the last four years.
The IMF bailout
While the economy continues to stumble, the government announced its decision to seek an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail out to “get policy credibility” as President John Dramani Mahama puts it. Negotiations for the financial rescue which ended in November were led by a former Finance Minister in the Rawlings regime, Prof Kwesi Botchwey.The aide is expected to arrive next year and probabbly last until 2017.
Senchi consensus
Long before the government headed for the IMF, there was a three three-day National Economic Forum at Senchi in the Eastern Region in May, ostensibly to find an antidote to the country’s economic woes.
Among other things, the report from the forum, which has become, known as the ‘Senchi Consensus’ called for the need for the nation to be guided by the Directive Principles of State Policy in national development effort, anchored in a long term national development framework with a compelling vision. Related to this is the call for a long term national interest which should supersede all other interests in setting any national development agenda.
2015 budget
In November, the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper took the nation’s budget to parliament to seek the legislature’s blessing to spend GHc 41.4 billion, out of which $30.2 billion, is the country’s expected revenue. The deficit is expected to be financed by the country’s partners, some of which have been unwilling to part with funds because of allegations of corruption in the public sector. The European Union was one such partner that kept its purse closed.
Hand of death
It spares no one and does not differentiate between the prominent or ordinary man. The icy hand of death was busy at work in 2014. The nation woke up to the shocking news of the death of one of the country’s iconic journalists with the BBC, Komla Afeke Dumor, on January 18, 2014. June proved to be a black month for Ghana as a number of prominent people passed away.
It was not only the 41-year old celebrated host of the BBC Focus on Africa that was hurriedly swept away by death, religious clerics— the Ameer and Missionary in charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Ghana, Maulvi Dr Wahab A. Adam and Apostle Dr Augustine Annor-Yeboah, the Founder and Presiding Bishop of Christian Praise International Centre (CPIC), breathed their last four days apart June 22, 2014 and June 26, 2014, respectively. A former Minister of Fisheries in the Kufour regime, Gladys Asmah, also passed away on June 24. Prof Marian Awurama Addy and P.V Obeng were also snatched by death.
Ebola scare and cholera epidemic
Death continued its rampage killing close to 200 people in worse cholera epidemic in three decades in Ghana. More than 12,000 others were hospitalised.
As if that is not enough, Ebola, the deadly virus turned Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone into a playground, killing at least 6,000. While the World Health Organisation estimates shows some 6,000 cases loom, health authorities in the three countries are battling more than 11,000 confirmed cases.
The Ebola scare resulted in the delay in opening universities in the country and a ban on international conferences.
The government with the support of the international community also built three Ebola treatment centres, provided personal protection equipment and rolled out some measures to tackle any possible spread of the disease.
Strikes and demonstrations galore
While death was busy at work, strike and demonstrations also flowered. In May the Polytechnic Teachers Association (PoTAG) declared an indefenite nationwide strike over the government’s plan to scrap the book and research allowance and instead establish a national research fund.
This lasted for three months and during the period, the government decided to freeze the salary of the striking lectures, a decision that further fueled the anger of the teachers but eventually the strike was kept off just in time for polytechnic students to write their exams and prepare for their national service posting.
Before the dust settles on the POTAG strike the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) joined their colleagues in the polytechnics over delay in the payment of their book and research allowance.
The mother of all strikes, however, arrived in October when 12 labour unions made up of public sector workers including doctors, teachers, local government employees, doctors, and nurses laid down their tools to compel the government to release their second tier pension funds.
The sticky point of disagreement had been over the appointment of Pension Alliance Trust to manage the funds when the workers claim they had their own schemes to manage their money. Eventually the workers called off their after the government secured an injunction to restrain them.
While the workers fume over their pension money, demonstrators were also on the street protesting about a wide range of issues, including the fuel price, the state of the economy and the energy crisis.
From Occupy Ghana protest tagged as a middle class demonstration, the NPP led “Ya y3 den? to wits “what have we done”in Kumasi, the Alliance for Accountable Governance “Aagbe w)” or “We are being killed” through to Trades Union Congress (TUC) demonstrations, Ghanaians were resolute in demanding a better performance from the government.
Scandals, corruption allegations and controversies
This year did not spare us scandals in public office. They came in abundance. In September, the Daily Graphic broke the story of how the Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Lauretta Lamptey, has, since August this year, moved into a hotel after the US$5,500 monthly rent for her apartment at the African Union (AU) Village expired. Apart from the Auditor-General which queried the anti-corruption institution, Ms Lamptey is to be investigated after the Chief Justice established a prima facie case against her.
Just a month after the CHRAJ scandal, the Daily Graphic again broke another story about a stinker at the National Service Secretariat (NSS) where officials of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) uncovered a GH¢7.9 million deep-rooted rot at the scheme. The former Director of the NSS, Alhaji Alhassan Imoro, is under prosecution. A new director, Dr Mike Kpesah-Whyte was appointed to lead reforms at the NSS.
In January, the government signaled its determination to stem corruption in the country, with the termination of all contracts between the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) through the Ministry of Youth and Sports on one hand and its service providers, on the other hand.
Several companies were paid huge sums of money for contracts they failed to honour. A former coordinator of the agency, Abuga Pele, is being prosecuted for some financial malfeasance that occurred during his administration.
Another topical scandal for 2014 was the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority scandal where trees were planted by ACI Construction Limited, a company said to be a subsidiary of Roland Agambire’s AGAMS Group, could not be accounted for.
The Authority’s Guinea Fowl Project also did not yield any egg, in spite of the millions sunk into it. The authority had GHc 200 million to spend. Six officials of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) were asked to pay back over 830,000 Ghana cedis to the authority.
HIV Ambassador’s U-turn
In the last lap of the year, Joyce Dzidzor Mensah, one of the women who represent the face of demystifying HIV stigmatisation in the country stunned the country with a rather dramatic U-turn that she was not HIV positive. She had been a living lie for the past seven years, after the Ghana AIDS Commission made her an AIDS Ambassador in 2007, a contract that was terminated in 2012.
Legon tollbooth and national security show of power
This saga also makes the A-list of Ghanaian controversies in 2014. The summary is that the decision of the university to collect tolls from February 1, 2014 to pay back the loan contracted for the maintenance of the roads became a subject of controversy and public anger. The university claimed it owed its debtors GHc 8 million and the tolls was meant to offset the debt and also bring sanity to the campus.
Even though Parliament has put its stamp on the initiative; the government has opposed the payment, with the Chief of Staff advising the university to rescind its decision.
With back and forth between the government and the university going on, operatives of national security went to demolished the tollbooth with the National Security Coordinator, Lt Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (retd), described the tollbooth as a “public nuisance” and stated that the “exercise was carried out for the larger interest of the public.”
Lt Col Gbevlo-Lartey was later fired in April and replaced with Mr Yaw Donkor, the then BNI Director.
Ministerial musical chair
Talk of replacements in public office, and President Mahama did his part in 2014 in the musical chair of reshuffles twice this year. In March, the reshuffle had regional ministers changing places—the second time in recent history after firmer President Rawlings carried out a similar exercise in the late 1990s. In May, it was the turn of the sector ministers and their deputies.
VIP drug burst
Ruby Adu Gyamfi alias Nayele Ametefe thought she has things going in her favour when she left Ghana through the VIP Lounge of the Kotoka International Airport with 12.5 kilogrammes of cocaine worth $3.5 million. She was caught at the Heathrow Airport in London on November 10, sparking a great debate about the country’s fight against the drug war.
Rumours about her carrying diplomatic ebbed and flowed but the British High Commission to Ghana discrete the allegation. He, however, said there was no collaboration between the two countries in the arrest of Nayele contrary to a press statement issued by Narcotics Control Board (NACOB).
Other arrests, including a certain Alhaji Dawood who allegedly made calls for Nayele to have access to the VIP lounge, were made in Ghana and the UK in connection with the drug burst.
Nayele pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in a UK court on November 27. The case has been adjourned to January 5, 2015.
Long before Nayele’s ill-fated trip, 36-year-old Ghanaian business woman was arrested for possessing 10 kilogrammes of a brownish substance suspected to be heroin at the KIA, on April 14.
Mercy Agyeman Prempeh, was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) by officials of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) on her arrival from Tanzania, carrying drugs worth $650,000.
In May, two Ghanaians, including the owner of Le Baron Hotel at East Legon in Accra, David Kwadwo Anim, have been busted at the Heathrow Airport in London for alleged drug trafficking and money laundering.
Castro’s disappearance and Kenu’s slaps
It has been almost 6 months and the disappearance of hiplife musician, Castro and his female companion who drowned while jet skiing at Ada is still a topic for discussion. The musician together with his friend Asamoah Gyan, the Black Stars Captain, and others, were in the area to have fun when the unfortunate happened.
With Ghana’s law stating that a missing person could only be declared dead after seven years, Castro still remains a missing person.
This has, however, brewed a lot of speculations in the ‘pot of rumours.’ In September, a Daily Graphic reporter, Daniel Kenu’s , attempt to seek information to clear the air during a Black Stars pre-match press conference in Kumasi, allegedly earned him (Kenu) some beatings in the hands of Baffour Gyan, the brother of Asamoah Gyan, and some thugs.
The state began the prosecution of the case but in a move that shocked the entire country, Mr Kenu withdrew the case on September 19, before a packed courtroom in which the Managing Director, Mr Ken Ashigbey and Director of Newspapers, Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafo were present but had no knowledge of the decision.
He later apologised for the decision citing personal reasons and the health of his mother. On November 19, he was fired by the company. However, in a swift reaction, the board of the company and the National Media Commission directed that Mr Kenu should be reinstated.
Missing baby saga
Castro cannot be found, and so is the entire country still looking for Madam Swabia Abdul-Mumin’s baby that disappeared at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. The baby was allegedly stillborn to on Wednesday, February 5, this year, but her body could not be found.
Her relatives reacted to the incident and descended on the hospital allegeding that the baby was stolen.
The Ministry of Health ordered investigations into the scandal and some hospital staff, including nurses and a doctor on duty were interdicted and later arrested by the police. They were asked to proceed on leave in February. The Chief Executive Officer of the hospital Professor Ohene Adjei, was also asked to take all his accumulated leave in March.
Apart catching the attention of Parliament, the Attorney General’s Department also opened investigations into the saga.
Footbal matters
A messy Brazil 2014 appearance
Kenu was the only person in sports circles to be at the receiving end of slaps and punches. Black Stars midfielder, Sulley Muntari, and a Black Stars management member, Moses Parker, traded blows in a messy Brazil World Cup appearance that marred the nation’s image internationally.
The messy affair started with players demanding their appearance fees before their final group game against Portugal. The government had to fly $4 million to the players. The team was booted out of the competition in the group stages, the first time since Ghana’s first appearance since Germany 2006.
A three-man Presidential Commission chaired by a High Court judge, Justice Senyo Dzamefe was inaugurated to investigate the events that unfolded in Brazil.
Tears flowed freely when the former Youth and Sports Minister, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah and former Adenta Member of Parliament, Mr Kojo Adu-Asare, a member of the team in charge of supporters and logistics, appeared before the committee.
Black Stars coach sacked
Black Stars coach, Mr Kwesi Appiah, was also axed on September 11in spite of being in a good position to qualify the team to Morroco 2015 which later became Equitorial Guinea 2015. No reason was given for his removal but the speculation was that it was because he granted radio interviews that he wanted a technical director when in fact he agreed to it much earlier.
New Black Stars coach
In November, Avram Grant, former Chelsea Coach arrived as Appiah’s successor. He has been charged to lead the Black Stars to a respectable place in the 2015 AFCON but must win the ultimate in 2017 to retain his job.
Equitorial Guinea was handed the right to host the AFCON after Morroco’s exit over a possible Ebola spread.
Disasters
Apart from the World Cup disaster, this year, the country was spared the casualties that came with serious flooding, but what we did not experience in natural disasters came in other accidents.
The most bewildering were a helicopter which caught fire before plunging into the ocean on May 8, then a January 22 gas explosion that killed eight people and caused life-threatening injuries to 13 others, most of who were received treatment at the Burns Unit of the Komodo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi.
Road accidents also took its toll. By September, according to the NRSC figures, there had been 10,061 crashes involving 15,600 vehicles. The casualties recorded during the period were 1441 deaths and 8,802 injuries.
The perennial fire breakouts in markets were also rampant in 2014. A number of markets including Kumasi Central Market and were partly reduced to a pile of rubble on February 26 as fire swept through them, destroying goods worth millions of cedis, with more than 500 traders losing their sources of livelihood. The worse of the market fires was in Makola where 200 shops burnt down and resulting in about 2,000 traders losing their jobs.
Political party elections
NPP’s bowl of elections
Away from the disasters and into the realm of politics, this year was a busy one for the NPP and the NDC, as the two giants of Ghana politics, went to the polls to elect their leaders.
In a campaign characterised by backbiting and acrimony, the NPP elected Mr Paul Afoko, as the National Chairman and Mr Kwabena Agyepong as the General Secretary. Ms Otiko Djaba maintained her position as the National Women Organiser.
After months of throwing verbal punches at each other’s camp, the NPP went to congresson October 18 to elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as it flag bearer, months after he easily dismissed a similar challenge from seven other contestants to trim the number of contestants to five. Nana Akufo-Addo’s landslide victory, which gave him the opportunity for the third time dealt a blow to Mr Alan Kyerematen’s third attempt for the party’s ticket.
Although the congress was generally peacefully, events before then pushed the party’s unity to the limit. On August 19, some supporters of the opposition NPP stormed the headquarters armed with knives, cutlasses and other weapons and disrupted the a press conference being held by the Party's National Chairman and General Secretary.
The two were addressing a press conference to thrown more light on the recent directive to the Party's Communications Acting Director, Perry Okudzeto to proceed on leave and removal from office of the Director of Finance and Administration, Kwadjo Opare Hammond.
NDC shocker elections
In the NDC camp, after a number of courtroom battles that were withdrawn by the plaintiffs. The party went to Congress on December 20, to elect new offices. Before the congress,alliances were formed and threats made but the writing was on the wall that some of the current executives will not answer the roll call of national executives next year.
Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia made a case for the party’s faithful to vote for the incumbent National Chairman, Dr Kwabena Adjei but the plea fell on deaf ears as the party faithful chose to put their faith in the hands of the National Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Kofi Portuphy to lead the party into the 2016 elections. Mr Asiedu had a comfortable ride, dismissing the bluff of his opponent, Mr Ishaq Abdullah Farrakhan.
It remains to be seen how Mr Asiedu-Nketiah would work with Mr Portuphy. But politics being what it is, you cannot take what politicians say on a hot podium serious.
Another shocker at the NDC Congress in Kumasi was the flooring of the National Organiser of the party, Mr Yaw Boateng-Gyan by Mr Kofi Adams, a Deputy General Secretary.
While the NDC congress in Kumasi was very peaceful, the same cannot be said of youth congress in the same city.
Armed police officers wearing bullet proof vests whisked away the Ashanti Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Mr Paul Boateng, to safety, while other officers of the Commission and security agencies abandoned ballot boxes at the NDC youth congress to elect national youth organiser and two deputies.
While there was no problem with the result of Mr Sidi Abubakar Musah beating the incumbent National Youth Organiser, Mr Ludwig Hlodze, the chaos came with protest from contestants in a deputy positions, Ms Abigail Elorm Mensah, who raised red flags about the results.
Is our President travelling too much?
President Mahama came under a barrage of criticism for travelling a number of times this year. The President’s trip has taken him to countries including France, Mali, the Vatican, Nigeria, Qatar, Burkina Faso, Norway and the United Kingdom.
But President Mahama who also wears the hat of an ECOWAS chairman pulled the seams out of the fabric of criticisms insisting that the travels were necessary as he combines his role as the President of Ghana and as ECOWAS Chairman.
In November, a constitutional arrangement put the presidency on the shoulders of the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho. However, the Mr Adjaho stirred the controversy soup when he refused to be sworn in as president because he has already taken the oath.
On two occasions in November the Chief Justice went to Parliament to swear-in the Speaker in the absence of the president John Mahama and his vice Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, who were on official duties in Burkina Faso and India respectively.
But on both occasions, the Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, refused to be sworn-in despite accepting to act as President.
He told Members of Parliament there was no point in repeating an oath he had taken in September 2013 while the President was away in Mali and the Vice-President in the United Kingdom.
His position was supported by the Ghana Bar Association.
Ghana Gas flows at last but ...
The controversies had their way in 2014 but there were some streams of good news to live up the country. After years of dodgy scheduled completion dates, the Ghana Gas Project finally delivered its first gas from the Jubilee Fields to the Atuabo Gas Processing plant on November 10, against advice from the Energy Commission.
Ghana Gas had announced that the plant was ready to receive gas, as all the necessary mechanical works had been completed, but the commission, in a terse letter dated November 8 to the company, warned that it was too risky to do so.
However, the Aboadze Thermal Plant received its first gas for power generation from the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant on November 24.
That did not close the chapter on the most anticipated gas project in the country. When the Finance Minister, Mr Seth Terkper, read the 2015 budget in November, he also announced the government approval of the takeover of the Ghana National Gas Company by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
The consolidation of GNPC and GNGC, the finance minister said would make it possible to enhance a more integrated management and continue financing of projects in the oil and gas enclave immediately.
It would also make it possible to ease the conditions that investors impose for the national gas aggregator and start financing projects in the oil-and-gas enclave immediately
This apparently tickled nerves in Ghana Gas. A battled of words ensued between the Board Chairman of Ghana Gas, Prof Kwesi Botchwey and the Energy Ministry.
Another subject in the oil and gas sector that sparked a heated debate was The GNPC’s plans to secure a $700 million loan to support its exploratory activities.
The Minority in Parliament accused the Corporation of engaging in an illegality, but the corporation insisted it had the legal mandate to get the credit facility without parliamentary approval.
Epileptic electricity supply
While the Gas project brought joy, the same cannot be said of the energy crisis. In 2014, the electricity supply suffered one of its worst epileptic seizures. It was so bad that while residential users had to receive 24 hours of power and 12 hours off.
This has been as a result of shortfall in generation of power from the Akosombo and Bui Dams, inadequate gas supply from Nigeria and renovation works being carried out on thermal plants across the country.
Industrial users were also put on the load shedding on December 1. Some residents of Accra were up in arms against the unplanned blackouts. Businesses, especially cold stores have collapsed as a result of the energy crisis.
In the end, the Electricity Company of Ghana Managing Director, Rev William Hutton-Mensah was removed from his position. ECG employees did not take kindly to the removal of their boss and threatened to plunge the entire country into darkness if the government refused to reinstate him. Some stability returned to energy supply but the load shedding continued unabated.
To rub salt in the injury of consumers, the Volta River Authority warned that the situation would persist in 2015.
Energy investments
To find a lasting solution to the energy crisis, the government this year signed the Millennium Challenge Account Compact II, which would offer $498 million investments to the energy sector in the country. President Mahama in December inaugurated a new Board of the Millennium Development Authority (MIDA) to oversee its activities.
Fuel prices that refused to come down
The year was also for price hikes. Water, electricity and fuel went up at least twice. Public calls for the National Petroleum Authority to reduce fuel prices to match international crude prices, which fell as low as $57 have not yielded any fruit. The NPA claims prices would not be reviewed downwards because it is using the low prices to defray debts that have accrued from subsidies.
In spite of the fuel increment, severe fuel gas shortage hit Accra and other parts of the country at least twice this year. In January, there were long queues of vehicles at the stations. It was worse in June when fuel shortages hit parts of Accra, forcing business and private activities to grind to a halt. In October, consumers were roaming around with their cylinders for liquefied petroleum gas.
Adomi Bridge
Ghana’s culture of lack of maintenance run its full course and resulted in the closure of the Adomi Bridge, a bridge that connects Northern Ghana to the south through the Eastern and Volta Regions. The bridge was officially closed down in March for two years to enable engineers carry out repair works at the cost of € 13 million.
The closure of the bridge resulted in major difficulty for motorists and travellers crossing the Volta Lake on ferries at Senchi. They have to endure endless hours of waiting and frustration.
Sod-cutting for day schools
Away from the frustration, there is good news in the educational sector. In March, President Dramani Mahama, began the process leading to the fulfillment of a major electoral promise when he performed the joint sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of the first batch of 50 community day senior high schools (SHSs) at Nyanoa in the Upper West Akyem District in the Eastern Region.
From the courts
On the legal front, businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, suffered a legal blow in Accra on July 29 when the Supreme Court unanimously ordered him to refund GHȻ51.2 million to the state.
According to the court, Woyome got the money out of unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the state and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008.
International Front
On the international front, President Mahama was chosen by his peers as Chairman of ECOWAS. The President assumed his position at a time Ebola and Boko Haram—West Africa’s twin troubles were dishing out misery in some parts of the sub-region.
Boko Haram was it merciless best this year. In April, the group kidnapped some 230 girls in Chibok in the Borno State in Northern Nigeria.
More than 1,800 people are believed to have been killed in attacks blamed on Boko Haram this year alone.
Ghana-Cote d’voire maritime crisis
Ghana initiated arbitration proceedings under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), seeking a declaration that it has not encroached on Cote d’Ivoire’s territorial waters in the exploration of oil.
In order to avoid a diplomatic spat, Ghana has since served Cote d’Ivoire with a notification of arbitration, in accordance with the provisions of UNCLOS.
Blaise Campaore kaput
Angry Burkina Faso protesters demonstrated what ‘peoples power’ means when they invaded Parliament and burnt the building down to prevent the House from amending the law that limits presidential tenure. In the ensuing melee, President Blaise Campaore who has being in power for 27 years resigned and now living in exile.
ECOWAS leaders led by President Mahama managed to broker a deal that saw the military exit power replaced by a transitional civilian government led by a career diplomat, Michel Kafando.
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