It was an election year and the day was D-Day for the general elections; one of the most recent ones in Ghana’s history with many high stakes.
On one end, the incumbent president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was seeking re-election – his second and last term in office, but that was not even the biggest aspect of this poll.
The president was being contested against by his immediate predecessor, John Dramani Mahama, who was also seeking another four-year term. And had he won that bid, it would have also been his very last.
But it seemed Ghanaians had their minds fully made up; they preferred the man touting a mantra for a 4 More To Do More.
Nana Akufo-Addo’s tunes and campaigns reached so far, it resonated in the final results that were declared by the Electoral Commission Chairperson, Jean Mensa.
With a total vote tally of 6,692,630, representing 51.2%, the man seeking re-election got his resounding win over his closest contender, the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) John Mamaha, who had a vote count of 6,170,492, representing 47.2%.
Two years on, the story of what many Ghanaians believed was another confirmation of the mandate of their president, with high hopes that he would turn the fortunes of the country in their favour in a way that makes them proud, have unfortunately seen many downturns.
Having been an election that was conducted in the year of the novel Coronavirus, a lot of excuses and reasons about why things were not working begun to become the narratives of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
One of the first major scandals that have characterized the last two years was the Sputnik-V scandal.
This scandal, with the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, at its center, involved some misappropriations and accusations of corruption in the sale and purchase of COVID-19 vaccines from a Dubai dealer.
After many backs and forth, and several calls for the minister to be sacked and the monies that the government of Ghana paid to the Dubai sheikh retrieved, only the latter was somehow fulfilled.
The conclusion of that matter still hangs in the balance.
In the last two years as well, the economy has experienced some of its worst in the history of the country, with the Ghana cedi at an all-time low against foreign currencies like the United States dollar, fuel prices reaching extraordinarily high levels, food prices and standards of living adversely affected and many businesses have crumbled.
In that same period, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has been involved in several controversies all of which have ended up with a vote of censure moved against him by the Minority in parliament.
At present, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has admitted that the country is in an economic mess, and for which reason it has gone to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), seeking a bailout.
Also, the government has announced a debt restructuring policy that includes such initiatives as a nurses-for-cash program that will see Ghana exchange some of its health professionals with certain countries, for cash.
By December 7, 2022, Ghana’s economic situation has been projected to be at an alarming level, with major predictions of a crisis in the offing.
What other things do you remember in the last two years since Nana Akufo-Addo was elected as president for the second time?
AE/WA
Akufo-Addo delivering his victory speech in 2020 after the general elections