2015 year of high and missed expectations (final part) : Dr Kwabena Donkor man of the year
The year 2015 which had missed expectations, however, ended with the arrival of the power barge and like every great people who are always hard to govern, instead of celebrating the power barge, a section of the population started to denigrate it by going back to question the expenditure on it.
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The government, instead of heaving a sigh of relief, had to confront another problem of defending the budget of the Karpower, thus distracting the nation from the main objective of installing the barge to generate the 220 megawatts of electricity badly needed to augment power supply to industry and for domestic consumption.
The Minister of Powers in keeping his word to resign if the power crisis was not solved by the end of the year, has resigned.
Since the beginning of the year, through to May Day, the President had to hammer home the point that the energy challenges had nothing to do with funds to operate existing power plants but had to do with technical challenges.
On May 1, the President, addressing a May Day parade, said the power crisis was purely technical and had nothing to do with funds, but Mr Kofi Asamoah, the Secretary General of Trades Union Congress, stated that Organised Labour was losing hope over the continued energy crisis.
Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire boundary dispute
The President confered with President Alhassan Quattara over the boundary dispute between the two countries in the month of May.
Rule of law
In the same month, while the President was tirelessly leaving no stone unturned to find solutions to the energy crisis, a former Presidential Candidate of the New Vision Party, Prophet Daniel Nkansah, was handed a one-month imprisonment by the Accra Circuit Court for conspiracy to cause unlawful damage.
The court, presided over by Justice Obiri, also fined Prophet Nkansah, who is the founder of New Vision Pentecostal Church, GH¢1,800.
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The Upper East Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Alhaji Adams, who was doused with acid, died at the Bolgatanga Hospital on Thursday, May 21, 2105.
The proportion of corruption continued to haunt the nation as the Special Operation Unit under the Presidency announced that Ghana lost GH¢36 billion annually through fraudulent activities of importers.
The Bureau of National Investigations announced on April 16 that it had so far recovered GH¢30 million from the National Service Secretariat Directors implicated in a multimillion cedi fraud.
The end of May saw 35 National Service Secretariat officials, including the Director, Alhassan Mohammed Imoro, charged with massive fraud.
Following the resignation of the MP for Talensi, Robert Nachinab Doameng Mosore, who was enskinned as the chief of the Talensi Traditional Area (Tongo rana), a by-election was held in the constituency, which was won by former Prison Officer, Mr B T Baba of the National Democratic Congress.
Twin flood and fire disaster
The June 3, 2015 twin flood and fire disaster at the GOIL Filling Station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, which left over 150 dead and a number of people injured, brought the nation together in grief.
In response to the disaster, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) embarked on a demolition exercise at Sodom and Gomorrah in Accra to rid the Odawna drainage area of squatters to prevent future reoccurrence.
Appointment of new EC Chairperson
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (1MF) approved a loan of 950 million dollars for Ghana to support its reform programme to ensure faster growth and job creation while protecting social spending.
Major stakeholders and political parties urged the government to ensure transparency, with the Socialist Forum calling on the government to disclose full content of the IMF agreement.
“This agreement is about us and our future and the people of Ghana deserve to know the full facts,” the Socialist Forum stated.
The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) boss, Ms Charlotte Osei, was named the new Electoral Commission (EC) Chairperson to replace Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan who retired after serving as the electoral boss for 19 years.
The Electoral Commission convened an Inter Party Advisory Committee meeting over the demands for a new voters register and announced that political parties and other stakeholders with proposals on the voters register should submit them to the EC.
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The EC also announced the creation of more polling stations for Election 2016 because of growth in the population size and in order not to burden the biometric verification devices.
The political parties also used the month of August to organise congresses and primaries to elect their parliamentary candidates.
Around the same time, Parliament ordered the suspension of Ebola vaccine trials in the Volta and Brong Ahafo regions.
District level elections
Turn out for this year’s District Level Election was about 39 per cent, which was four percentage more than that of the previous election in 2010. In an overview of the elections in Accra, the Chairperson of the EC said turn out could rise to about 40 per cent if the outstanding elections were held.
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Five districts across the country had legal challenges and, therefore, the EC was waiting for the court ruling before it could hold elections in those areas. Again, some District had logistical challenges which denied them the opportunity of having the elections while some of the candidates tied on votes.
According to the EC, elections in those areas have been scheduled at the end of October, this year.
Judicial corruption
The citizens Movement Against Corruption has called on all Ghanaians to support the Chief Justice to rid the judiciary of corruption. It said Ghana’s record as a nation and the enormity of the ragging crisis in the country’s democratic institutions and processes strongly suggested that the Chief Justice and the Judicial Council could not clean up the rot by themselves, even with the best of intentions.
The last quarter of the year also saw the release of Anas Aremeyaw an investigative journalist exposé on judges who take bribe and over 35 five high court and district magistrates were involved in the scandal of bribery taking.
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Some Members of Parliament collect bribe before approving projects and policies, a former rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Adminstration (GIMPA), Professor Adei, alleged.
According to him, some of them have been going to the extent of demanding favours for their girl friends.
Transparency International (TI) report ranked Ghana as the second most corrupt county in Africa. According to the latest ratings by TI, the country was closely followed by Nigeria, with South Africa perceived as the most corrupt nation on the continent. The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by TI stated that about 71 per cent of people living in Ghana said corruption had increased over the last 12 years.
Manual verification now acceptable
The Inter Party Advisory Committee has agreed that manual verification of voters should be introduced alongside the biometric one.
The Minister for Transport, Mrs Dzifa Attivor, resigned in connection with the issue surrounding the rebranding of 116 metro Mass Transit buses.
The rebranding of the buses, at the cost of GH¢31,648.34 per bus, was greeted by public outcry as a further burden on Ghanaians in the wake of the current serious economic challenges facing the country.
Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire relations
The President also confered with President Alhassan Quattara over the boundary dispute between the two countries in the month of May.
Before the close of the year 2015, Professor Attahiru Jega, the Immediate Past Electoral Commission of Nigeria, delivered a lecture in connection with the 25th anniversary of the Institute of Economic Affairs on efforts to promote good governance and credible elections in Ghana.