GHANA
GHANA: President Akufo-Addo for “Free, Fair Elections A Basis For Strengthening National Cohesion”
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says the conduct of a free, fair, and transparent election, one whose result is beyond dispute, forms a good basis for strengthening cohesion amongst the Ghanaian citizenry, and preventing needless disputations.
Speaking at the Annual Conference of the Ghana Bar Association, albeit through virtual means, on Monday, 14th September 2020, President Akufo-Addo explained that from 1992 to date, the conduct of the country’s elections has evolved significantly.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the current multiplicity of media organisations and the power of social media, the existence of transparent ballot boxes, the decentralized nature of tallying and tabulation, and the mode of voter verification has engendered increasing trust and confidence by the citizenry in the process of electing their leaders.
Together with the compilation of a new voters’ register, ahead the conduct of the December 2020 elections, the President explained that “all of these enhanced processes have strengthened the cohesion of the nation. They have also repudiated as fallacious the contentions expressed at various times of our history that democratic governance would breed instability and ethnic conflict.”
He continued, “There have actually been those who went as far as to state that democracy was inherently alien to our culture and social make-up. The continuing success of the 4th Republic provides the most effective response to this unfortunate viewpoint.”
With electoral disputes wreaking havoc in some African countries, President Akufo-Addo stated that Ghana has been spared such incidents, adding that “we have the good sense of the Ghanaian people to thank for this, and we must continue to act as checks and balances for one another.”
Nonetheless, the President noted that Ghanaians cannot and must not take this good fortune for granted, urging all candidates, voters and citizens to conduct “ourselves in a manner that keeps us together as one people, irrespective of our ethnic, religious, gender or political differences and affiliations. The Ghana Project cannot afford ethnic agitations and sectarian pronouncements.”
The President was of the belief that the pressing challenge for Ghana is negotiating satisfactorily the interface between elections and democratic governance, institution-building and development, poverty, jobs and economic growth, with the overriding objective being to enrich the dignity of the Ghanaian.
“There are many examples of countries around the world where that stable period of constitutional government and intelligent management of the economy led to general prosperity. We, in Ghana, can profitably emulate them, for we can make it, if we work at it,” he added.
President Akufo-Addo expressed his delight at the fact that “the political class and stakeholders have agreed upon the necessity, in the face of the pandemic, to hold the December general elections as scheduled to bolster the evolution of our constitutional order, and maintain the culture where executive and legislative authority are exercised in the 4th Republic only by duly elected officials. Ghanaian democracy will be the stronger for that shared commitment.”
He reassured Members of the Bar Association that his Government is making unstinting efforts to ensure the peace and stability of the nation, as Ghana enters the last three (3) months of the electioneering campaign.
“Ghana has rightly earned a reputation as the pacesetter in democratic governance on the continent, a reputation I am determined to uphold, and, indeed, enhance prior to, during and after the 7th December elections,” the President assured.
To this end, he appealed for the co-operation and assistance of all citizens, especially members of the Bar Association, stating that “we have all to work together to create the environment that will allow the Ghanaian people to make their decision on 7th December in freedom, peace and security. It is their right.”
In concluding, the President added that “when my time is up, hopefully, after four more years, I want to hand over to my successor and the sovereign people of Ghana, a country that is greater, fairer, stronger, more cohesive, more prosperous and more united than I met it in 2017. This is the solemn undertaking to which I have committed myself.”
Source : nanaakufoaddo.org
Ghana will host the 2022 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group from 23 to 27 May in its capital, Accra. This year’s meetings mark a return to face-to-face sessions after the videoconferencing meetings of the past two years. They will be held in a hybrid format with participants present in Accra and online.
Face-to-face sessions, including statutory meetings of Bank Governors and knowledge-sharing events, will take place at the Accra International Conference Centre.
The theme of the 2022 Annual Meetings is “Fostering Climate Resilience and a Just Energy Transition for Africa”. The meetings will allow Bank Governors to share their views on the challenges of climate change and the energy transition facing their countries. They are also an opportunity to present the policy responses proposed to address these challenges.
The governors, representing the 54 African countries and the 27 non-regional member countries of the institution, will have a high-level dialogue with the President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina, and his team.
Discussions will focus on how to stimulate climate adaptation funding and related issues. Climate finance currently accounts for only 10% of global climate finance. Only about 19% of total international financing for adaptation goes to Africa, with the continent receiving only 3% of global climate-related financial flows.
This year’s theme aligns with preparations for the United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in November 2022. It will highlight the need for Africa to increase investment and other forms of financing to accelerate climate adaptation efforts.
The 2022 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group will be the 57th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Bank Group and the 48th Annual Meeting of the African Development Fund, the Bank Group’s concessional financing window.
The Ghanaian National Assembly will remain closed for a period of three weeks following a Covid-19 outbreak that affected MPs and staff. The sessions are therefore suspended until further notice.
Ghana’s bicameral parliament has decided to suspend its sessions because of the health crisis that has affected several MPs. “I have decided, in consultation with political leaders, that the session of the Assembly will be adjourned for three weeks,” said President Alban Bagbin on Tuesday. A decision made to allow “disinfection and sanitation of premises”.
At least 17 parliamentarians and 151 National Assembly staff members were tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Dozens of cases were initially discovered. This forced parliamentarians to reduce their meetings to two sessions per week.
Yet Ghana has taken some pretty drastic measures to stop the spread of the virus. Indeed, gatherings (funerals, weddings and parties) are prohibited throughout the territory. The country’s land and sea borders have been closed to human trafficking since March 2020. Access to beaches, nightclubs and cinemas was also prohibited.
However, the schools reopened in January after a 10-month closure. President Nana Akufo-Addo warned in early February that a return to stricter measures was needed.
73,003 confirmed cases of Covid-19, including 482 deaths, have occurred since the outbreak of the pandemic in Ghana
On Wednesday, 27 January, the Ghanaian people paid a final tribute to former President Jerry Rawling, born Jeremiah John Rawlings. This politician who marked his time retired on November 12, 2020 at the age of 73. He had a state funeral, with full military honours. Several representatives of world leaders attended the ceremony. He was buried in the military cemetery of Accra, the capital, like previous Ghanaian heads of state.
The Ghanaians gave their final farewell to their former head of state who had led the country from 1981 to 2000. Since Sunday 24 January, they had taken over the Accra International Conference Centre where the remains were on display.
He was buried in the presence of current President Nana Akufo-Addo and former President John Dramani Mahama. “Comandante rests and remains in perfect peace in the bosom of the Almighty, until we all meet again on the last day of the Resurrection. Farewell, God bless you and thank you for your help,” the Ghanaian head of state paid tribute on his Facebook page.
Former President John Dramani Mahama, for his part, assured that the memory of the late President will continue to inspire countless generations of Ghanaians to challenge the status quo and use their nonconformism to stimulate societal progress. “You were and you remain the soldier in a lifelong quest for freedom and justice and restless,” he added in a Facebook post.
Jerry Rawling’s remains were buried in a casket draped in national colours, an officer’s cap and a golden sword placed on it. Previously, the coffin of the former Air Force pilot crossed a hedge of honour on the capital’s Independence Square.” You were proud of your duties as a father … you were a passionate and open-minded man,” said his widow, Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings, in her funeral speech read by her daughter, Princess Amina. You had a gift for boundless sharing and you never hesitated to enact laws, if they could help the most vulnerable in our society. Jerry, I know that God created us for each other,” she said. It was an emotional moment.
It was an inaugural mass that opened the state funeral of Jerry Rawlings on Sunday, January 24, 2021. The family of the deceased was present in the front row, as well as President Nana Akufo-Addo and opposition party leader John Mahama, to attend the sermon delivered by the Archbishop of Cape Coast. A wake was then held at the end of the day at the Air Force Officers’ Mess.
Jerry John Rawlings led Ghana for two decades.In May 1979, he fomented a first coup d’état which would be a failure before repeating it three weeks later. He formed a junta and shot eight generals, including three former heads of state, on a beach. A few months later, he returned power to civilians after elections in which he was not a candidate. In December 1981, he led his third coup d’état. In 1992, he left the army, introduced multiparty rule in 1992, founded his party and was elected. Then re-elected without difficulty in 1996 for a new five-year term. In 2000, it complied with the 1992 Constitution, which limited the number of mandates to two and withdrew from power.
