2009, GONE WITH THE WORST? (Centre spread) 01-01-10

Story: Kofi Yeboah

EXACTLY a year by now, a thick cloud of uncertainty hung over the nation as Ghanaians anxiously awaited the results of a presidential election contested on a knife’s edge amidst the beating of war drums.
However, after emerging from that crunch election, Ghanaians heaved a little sigh of relief from both political and economic turbulence.
The challenges of delivering on the campaign promise of building "A Better Ghana" by restoring national cohesion, consolidating the fledgling democracy, reviving the ailing economy, combating armed robbery and illicit drug trafficking, creating employment opportunities for the youth in particular, keeping the national development agenda on track, among other commitments, now confront the Mills administration.
While the government admits that the going has been generally tough, considering the severe impact of the global economic recession and the bad state of the national economy which it claims to have inherited from the Kufuor administration, it is nevertheless hopeful that the coming year would be a watershed of Ghana’s economic prosperity.
That optimism is bolstered by the prospects of an oil find, which will start flowing in the last quarter of 2010, albeit in small economic measure, and a promising outlook of the agriculture sector, which the 2010 Budget has targeted as the country’s growth pole for 2010.
With these glittering rays, President Mills could afford to look deep into the tunnel and assure Ghanaians that his electoral promise to transform the economy, improve on the living conditions of the people and leave a legacy of "A Better Ghana" will surely be redeemed.
Delivering one of such assurances last October when he paid a courtesy call on the Akuapehene, Oseadeeyo Nana Addo Dankwa III, the President asked Ghanaians to remain steadfast and calm while the government continued to get its act together to put the economy on an even keel and address the challenges facing the nation.
That plea may have been accorded a warm reception, given the short period in government, but with intense pressure coming from within and outside his own party to salvage the nation from economic hardship. With Election 2012 fast approaching, and with his own ambition to go back to the electorate for the renewal of his mandate, President Mills has no other option than to hit the ground, not running as he intimated in his inaugural address last January, but sprinting in 2010.

Politics:
The political temperature within the year under review remained very high, having reached a boiling point during the last electioneering. For the first time in the country’s history, no winner emerged for the presidential election, even after a second round of voting.
It took a third round, mainly in the Tain Constituency for a winner to emerge, but with the narrowest of margins ever recorded in Ghana’s political history.
Many people can easily recall the acrimony, violence, threats and the trading of allegations that characterised the elections, but many others might not be able to envisage what would have happened if the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had been declared winner of the closely contested election, or if President Kufuor had not openly declared his readiness to hand over to whoever was declared winner by the Electoral Commission (EC).
In the first instance, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would surely have done something beyond just writing a ‘Stolen Verdict’, considering the pronouncements of some of its leading members. And in the second instance, the NPP would surely have pursued various options, including a legal action to halt the declaration of the election results.
Had either of the instances prevailed, Ghanaians might be writing and telling a different story today.
The tension, violence and the acrimony that characterised Election 2008 and later replicated in the suspended elections at Akwatia and the Chereponi bye-elections were eary signals that the worst was yet to come, but in all that, the spirit of the Ghanaian prevailed.
The usual crossfire between the two major political parties – the NDC and the NPP – has remained hot since the beginning of the year, but it became more intense occasionally, such as instances when national security operatives and some government officials hunted for and retrieved official vehicles from the custody of former government officials.
That exercise, coupled with the arrest of some former government officials, particularly Messrs Kwadwo Mpiani, Stephen Asamoah-Boateng and Akwasi Osei-Adjei by the operatives of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) generated public furore for a considerable length of time.
One historic event of great significance in the annals of Ghana and, indeed, Africa, which seemed to have doused the boiling and the highly polluted political atmosphere in the course of the year was the visit to Ghana by the first Black President of America, Barack Hussein Obama, who was accompanied by his wife, Michelle Obama, and their two daughters.
The two-day visit by the 44th American President to what the White House described as "one of our most trusted partners in sub-Saharan Africa" last July, provided the basis for a brief, but rare rapprochement among President Mills, former President Kufuor and former President Rawlings as, together, they shared a breakfast table and took photographs with the American first couple.
President Obama’s visit, which was largely influenced by Ghana’s recent exemplary strides in democracy, political stability and good governance, served as a good tonic for national cohesion, but not too long afterwards, the old order of political discordant and acrimony was restored.
This time, however, the pendulum of political friction swung from inter-party (usually between NDC and NPP) to intra-party muscle-flexing, involving some big wigs of the two major political parties, sometimes threatening party unity and cohesion.
With regard to the NDC, the criticism made by Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah about the slow pace of the Mills administration in fulfilling the expectations of NDC faithful in particular and Ghanaians in general, and the reply to same by Mr Ato Ahwoi seemed to threaten party unity and cohesion.
The two leading members of the NDC may have succeeded in adding new terminologies to the country’s political lexicon, such as "Team A and Team B players" and "Pissing in and pissing out", but they may not have succeeded in winning the hearts and minds of their NDC comrades with their style of addressing what is considered to be internal party matters.
Turning the radar on the camp of the NPP, Dr Arthur Kennedy’s critical analysis of why the NPP lost the 2008 elections as captured in his book, Chasing the elephant into the bush, stirred controversy strong enough to rip the party apart.
The resurgence of rivalry between the Akufo-Addo and Alan Kyerematen camps in the contest for the flagbearship of the NPP for Election 2012 also suggested that there could be more turbulent times ahead, to which the party must brace itself.
These intra-party frictions are likely to spill over into 2010 and even intensify as the two dominant political parties prepare for their respective national delegates conference early next year to elect national executives, whose principal job definition would be to deliver victory for their respective parties in Election 2012.
One other issue that dominated media headlines in the course of the year was the scandal involving the immediate-past Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, who allegedly swept his official residence of all household effects on leaving office.
Still in the domain of the legislature, the recommendations made by the Chinery-Hesse Committee regarding the end-of-service benefits of former President Kufuor and his stewards, as well as of those of Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic, till today, seem to be a never-ending controversy.
The circumstances under which the recommendations were approved by Parliament have remained a mystery to date, but what perhaps, might have deepened the controversy was the decision of President Mills to constitute the Ishmael Yamson Committee to review the recommendations of the Chinery-Hesse Committee.

Economy:
Politics may have dominated national discourse within the year, but one other issue that also gained substantial prominence and was a subject of critical analysis and controversy was the state of the nation’s economy.
While the ruling NDC often painted a gloomy picture of the state of the nation’s economy it inherited from the Kufuor administration, the NPP vehemently dismissed those assertions.
For many Ghanaians and other people who cherish objectivity, the concern has not been about whose claim is wholesome, but essentially, about the increasing economic hardship and how to tackle the challenges facing the nation.
Prices of goods and services have gone up significantly in the course of the year, while it has been difficult to tame inflation. While acknowledging that the economy has been rough, the government claims to have stabilised the situation, for which reason it assures Ghanaians of good times ahead.
"Considering the huge challenges the Mills administration faced in almost one year, with inflation skyrocketing and the cedi falling freely, it has done remarkably well in respect of stabilising the economy and bringing the core economic indicators on track," the Vice-President, Mr John Mahama, stated in a Christmas message to Ghanaians.
Besides the facts and figures of macro and micro-economic variables, another issue that attracted enormous public attention was what might be termed “petrol politics’. There was hullabaloo as to whether or not President Mills had made a campaign promise to reduce the price of petroleum products "drastically" and the question of why he did not do so upon assumption of office.

Social:
To a large extent, the social front was generally quiet, except in a few areas, particularly the education sector, which was draped in controversy over whether or not to revert the duration of the senior secondary school programme from four to three years. Whereas the government made a preference for a three-year programme, the opposition NPP defended the four-year duration.
Opinion on the issue was intensely divided, even among the academia and such teaching bodies as the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT).
A National Education Forum held in Accra last May on the issue failed to yield consensus. If anything at all, it only succeeded in giving vent to the flaring emotions and the effusions of participants.
In the end, the advocates of a four-year duration had their say, but the government had its way as it subsequently announced its decision to revert to the three-year programme in line with a commitment made in the NDC manifesto.
One historical moment that graced the year was the centenary birthday celebration of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The occasion, which fell on September 21, was declared as a national holiday, but the decision by President Mills to declare it as Founder’s Day sparked off controversy as some critics of the Danquah-Busia stock contested the claim that Nkrumah was the founder of Ghana.
The critics contended that Ghana’s independence was orchestrated by many nationalists, all of whom ought to be honoured as is normally done for a victorious relay team, instead of just for one person, who was just the anchor man of a relay team to breast the tape. The argument only abated after the celebration.
The decision by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to eject an estimated 45,000 residents of Sodom and Gommorah also gained much prominence during the year as AMA officials, on one hand, and residents of the shanty town and human rights advocates, on the other hand, engaged in verbal crossfire.
Apart from gaining notoriety as a den of armed robbers, Sodom and Gommorah was also considered detrimental to the development and beautification of Accra, particularly the multi-million dollar Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project (KLERP). In the end, the powers that be restrained the AMA from carrying out the ejection exercise.

Conflict & crime:
Although the country was relatively peaceful during the year, the people of Bawku did not have a feel of such an atmosphere as the intractable conflict there confined the residents in their homes for long hours under the intermittent curfews imposed on the town.
That followed period skirmishes in the town, which led to the death of some residents and destruction of properties.
The activities of armed robbers also continued to incite fear in the general public. In some instances, the armed robbers were so daring to have taken the fight to the police, attacking and killing some police personnel as they carried out their operations. The police responded to the challenge with a “shoot-to-kill” posture, gunning down some armed robbers in a few encounters to prove their firepower superiority.
Although the new posture of the police was extensively condemned by human rights advocates, they maintained their resolve, and with the support of the public, took the fight to the armed robbers.
One major issue that cannot elude the memory of Ghanaians in 2009 was the increased involvement of the youth in cyber crime, popularly called ‘Sakawa’. The resort to occultism and other spiritual means by the youth involved in ‘Sakawa’ in their quest to get rich quick, generated widespread furore among the general public.

Sports:
Sports made a huge impact within the year under review, for both bad and good reasons. The alleged scandal of financial misappropriation that rocked former Sports Minister, Alhaji Mubarak Muntaka, leading to his subsequent resignation from office, dominated the dark pages of Ghana sports in the early part of the year.
The alleged scandal proved to be a test case for President Mills’ resolve to be hostile to corruption, particularly by not providing cover for his appointees found to be corrupt. As to whether the President passed the test in the case of Alhaji Muntaka is a matter of opinion for all Ghanaians.
Apart from Alhaji Muntaka’s alleged scandal, the country also suffered some setbacks in sports, with two of its world boxing champions – Joshua Clottey and Joseph Agbeko – losing their titles.
On the flipside, however, there were historic and glorious moments to savour as the national Under-20 team, the Black Satellites, won the FIFA Under-20 World Cup trophy in Egypt last October, making Ghana the first African country to achieve that feat. Earlier in the year, the Black Satellites had also emerged as African champions in the CAF Under-20 tournament.
Just around the same period that the Black Satellites won the Under-20 World Cup, the senior national team, the Black Stars, also made history by becoming the first African country to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa and, significantly, the second time of qualifying for the tournament, after their maiden qualification for Germany 2006.
Qualifying for South Africa 2010 also meant a qualification for the Black Stars for the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Angola this month, January.
The achievements of the Black Satellites and the Black Stars have set the tone for great expectations next year as the Black Stars in particular seek a fifth Africa Cup glory in Angola and thereafter, lead an African onslaught on the World Cup in South Africa next June.
Such also will be the high expectations in all endeavours, which Ghanaians would take into the new year, hoping that 2010 would, indeed, be a watershed of individual and national economic prosperity.