President John Dramani Mahama while addressing the nation on the eve of New Year admonished Ghanaians to eschew cynicism and be hopeful for the coming year 2016.
He further assured of his willingness to listen to the concerns of Ghanaians and tackle their challenges, saying “I have listened, I am listening and I will continue to listen…” adding that any of his official who does not share in his vision should tender in their resignation letters.
However, little did Ghanaians know that the government will take certain decisions that will bring disquiet to citizens.
1. Killer taxes
Some of the decisions that did not go down well with Ghanaians in January 2016 include implementing new taxes approved by parliament in December 2016.
They include the introduction of the energy levies that saw an increment in prices of petroleum products, the rise in withholding tax as well as the implementation of a one percent tax on savings and interest.
Organised labour became furious over the hikes in petroleum products as well as the hikes in utility tariffs which was announced by the PURC in 2015 and demanded a drastic reduction.
They embarked on a nationwide demonstration to have their demands met including an increment in the salaries of public sector workers by 50%.
Government following several negotiations with Organised Labour subsequently reduced electricity prices for low power consumers.
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- The latest increase of between 18 to 27 percent in the prices of petroleum products occasioned by the passage of the Energy Sector Levy (ESL) by Parliament last month, took effect Monday January 4.
- New information from Parliament revealed that the Ministry of Finance only sanctioned a 5% and a 2.9% increase in the price of petrol and diesel, which took effect from January 4, 2016.
- Parliament to summon Finance Minister, Seth Terkper and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Moses Asaga for providing what it describes as misleading information for the passage of the controversial energy sector levy.
- Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, said any attempt to reverse the increased utility tariffs and new taxes will negatively affect government’s ability to fix the energy crisis.
2. Send Gitmo detainees away!
Government’s decision to also host two former inmates from Guantanamo Bay detainees in the country did not resonate well with Ghanaians as it created fear and panic among citizens who believed that the two despite receiving assurance from the US government that they pose low risk could return to unleashing terror on them.
Several groups, bodies and political parties, Members of Parliament put pressure on government to return the former inmates.
President Mahama while addressing the press called for compassion for the detainees, a statement which further muddied the waters.
The president also discounted claims that he had received monies from the US government before hosting the two Gitmo detainees in the country.
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- Government announced that it will receive some Yemen and Syrian refugees in the country including some two former Guantanamo detainees.
- The US government said it has clarified and addressed all security lapses before transferring two Yemeni detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison to Ghana, nearly six years after their transfer approval.
- The United States Embassy in Ghana assured citizens that the presence of the two former detainees from the Guantanamo prison, poses no threat to the security of the country.
- A former Interior Minister in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, K.T Hammond, admonished the government to send the former Guantanamo Bay detainees back to the United States, where they were repatriated from.
- A Member of Parliament’s Committee on Defence and Interior said he will urge his colleagues to invite and question Foreign Affairs and Interior Ministers over the Guantanamo detainee’s brouhaha.
- Mustapha Abdul Hamid, a lecturer at the Department of Religion and Human Values of the University of Cape Coast said Ghanaians must be alarmed by the decision of government to keep the two former Guantanamo Bay detainees despite wide public outcry.
- The NPP is demanding the government disclose the terms of agreement backing the decision to resettle the two former detainees and Yemeni terror suspects from the American Guantanamo Bay Prison.
- The two Guantanamo Bay ex-detainees in Ghana spoke for the first time in an attempt to allay the fears of apprehensive Ghanaians, who say they are security threats to the country.
- President John Mahama has appealed for compassion from Ghanaians for the Guantanamo Bay detainees who will spend two years in Ghana.
- The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ conference described government’s decision to resettle the two former detainees from the American Guantanamo Bay Prison as “wrong” and “dangerous,” joining forces with other christian organisations against the move.
- Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, described the ongoing saga over government’s decision to host the two Guantanamo Bay detainees as yet another example of the failure of leadership on the part of President John Mahama.
3. EC rejects new voters’ register proposal
Following claims by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that Ghana’s voters’ register is bloated with names of foreigners and minors, the Electoral Commission constituted a five-member committee to hear the arguments and make recommendations.
The Committee recommended that there was no need for a new voters’ register because the arguments were “unconvincing.”
Whereas the NDC welcomed the decision, the opposition NPP said they were disappointed at the EC and accused it bias.
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- The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) welcomed the decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) not to compile a new register.
- The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) said it is not happy with the decision of the Electoral Commission to reject demands to compile a new voters’register for the 2016 general elections.
- Pro-opposition pressure group, Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA), hinted of a court action to compel the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voter’s register.
- The New Patriotic Party (NPP) described as “disappointing,” the Electoral Commission’s decision not to compile a new voter’s register.
- In defense of its decision not to create a new voters’ register for this year’s general elections, the Electoral Commission (EC) revealed that the New Patriotic Party failed to provide sufficient evidence to support its claims that there were foreign nationals on the current register.
- The NDC called for the arrest of the NPP’s running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for allegedly “fabricating falsehood” about Ghana’s voters’ register.
4. BNI arrests former NHIA boss
News of the arrest of the former NHIA boss, Sylvester Mensah by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) also surprised a lot of Ghanaians.
Sylvester Mensah was in the grips of the BNI over allegations of financial malfeasance at the Authority under his watch.
All his bank accounts were also frozen by the Financial Intelligence Centre after an ex-parte application sought by the centre at the court,
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- The immediate past Chief Executive Officer of the NHIA Sylvester Mensah was held at the headquarters of the BNI for questioning.
- The Ghana Financial Intelligence Centre has frozen all the bank accounts of the former Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA ) Sylvester Mensah.
- The former Chief Executive of the NHIA, Sylvester Mensah, admonished the NDC members in the Dade Kotopon Constituency, to halt the attack on party offices following his interrogation by the BNI.
5. Brave Taxi driver
A taxi driver took on a very dangerous responsibility to stop two robbers who had just shot a lady.
He rammed his vehicle into the two who were on a motor bike, and for his bravery, got a presidential treat by meeting the Vice President at the Flagstaff House, and was rewarded with a brand new house by President John Mahama.
Popular super market, Koala also bought him a brand new saloon car.
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- The Police say a Supervisor at the Cantonments Branch of the Koala Shopping Mall, masterminded a robbery attackon one of its staff on Saturday.
- Ghana’s former President, Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, commended a taxi driver who knocked down two armed robbers who attacked and robbed a lady of an undisclosed sum of money at Cantonments in Accra on Saturday morning.
- The taxi driver who used his car to prevent the two armed robbers involved in the Cantonments robbery incident from escaping is to be given a new car by the Management of Koala for his bravery.
- An Accra circuit court remanded the three men arrested in connection with a robbery involving a worker of Koala.
6. Ministerial reshuffle
- The former Chief of Staff, Prosper Douglas Bani, was named Minister Designate for Interior in President Mahama’s first reshuffle list for 2016.
- Minister for Food & Agriculture Franklin Fiavi Fiifi Kwetey, was nominated as the Minister of Transport to replace Dzifa Ativor, who resigned from her position on December 23, 2015 over the controversial GHc3.6 million bus re-branding scandal.
7. Pneumococcal meningitis
The outbreak of the deadly Pneumococcal meningitis has put fear in Ghanaians. The disease which was first reported in the Brong Ahafo Region, has been recorded in six other regions. It has so far claimed nearly 40 lives.
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- One more person has been confirmed dead in the Tain District of the Brong Ahafo Region following an outbreak of Pneumococcal meningitis.
- The Pneumococcal Meningitis disease which has so far killed nine people in Tain, Wenchi and Bruohan in the Brong Ahafo Region, has spread to Techiman, in the same region, killing 6 people there.
8. DKM and other dubious microfinance institutions
- Some disgruntled customers of one of the microfinance companies which had their license revoked by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), say they will petition the president, John Dramani Mahama, to help them retrieve their monies.
- President John Mahama ordered the Bureau of National Investigations to confiscate properties of DKM Microfinance as government rolls out plans to pay customers whose investments have been locked up.
9. British murder suspect
- A British man, suspected to have killed his girlfriend, an ex-soap opera star and her two children, fled to Ghana.
- The Government of Ghana confirmed the arrest of a British murder suspect, Arthur Simpson-Kent, in the country and is working on his extradition to the UK for trial.
10. CPP Congress
- Three other persons filed their nomination forms to challenge Samia Yaaba Nkrumah for the presidential slot of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) ahead of the November general elections.
- The Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP) started the vetting process of flagbearer aspirants for the congress.
- A flagbearer aspirant of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Samia Yaba Nkrumah, urged members of the party to choose her to lead the party in the November elections.
- One of the aspirants, Onzy Nkrumah, accused the party’s former Chairperson and her sister Samia Nkrumah, of masterminding his disqualification from the race.
- The Convention People’s Party (CPP) completed the vetting of all four presidential aspirants.
- The former General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Ivor Greenstreet was shockingly elected as the flagbearer for the general elections in November.
Ivor Greenstreet addressing the crowd after his victory.
11. Smarttys bus re-branding
- An amount of GHc1.9 million expected to be refunded to the state by Smarttys Management and Productions Limited, the company at the centre of the bus re-branding saga, has been reduced by over GHc400,000.
- The Minority spokesperson on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Joe Osei Owusu, described the decision by Government to review the amount from GHc1.9 million to GHc1.5 million, as another attempt to cover up rot.
12. PNC’s Ayariga forms new party
- The Electoral Commission is expected to present a provisional license to a new political party; the All Peoples Party (APC). The APC, founded by the former flagbearer of the People’s National Convention (PNC) Hassan Ayariga, is expected to contest the November general elections.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana