Award-winners’ exploits in Ghana’s interest sole motivation for national honours, says Akufo-Addo

President Akufo-Addo has declared that the exploits in favour of Ghana by all the individuals given 2023 national awards is the sole purpose that motivated the government to recognise the award-winners, and not their political affiliation.

The president was addressing award-winners and guests at the National Honours and Awards, the annual ceremony to confer public service awards on deserving individuals, held at the Accra International Conference Centre today (Tuesday 14 March 2023).

On behalf of the Ghanaian people and government, he expressed gratitude to the men and women who were entrusted with responsibility for keeping the nation safe at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purely national event

In President Akufo-Addo’s view, the awards ceremony “is a purely national event, devoid of partisan, ethnic or religious considerations, and organised solely in recognition of the services offered by its recipients to the growth, development, progress and prosperity of Ghana”.

“I, as the President of the Republic – the font of honour – act as the head of state, and not as head of government, in the distribution of awards,” the president said.

“I can happily say that I am not aware of the political sympathies or views of the overwhelming majority of today’s awardees.

“Their politics is of no moment to me, only their exploits in favour of Mother Ghana,” President Akufo-Addo said.

COVID-19 fight

President Akufo-Addo recalled how, on Sunday 12 March 2020, Ghana recorded her first two cases of COVID-19.

As he said, “It was obvious to me, watching what was happening in Asia, Europe and Latin America, that, if it was not well managed, it would disrupt our lives and livelihoods.

“In fact, it did. That is why I made the statement, which gained some traction at the time, that we know what to do to bring the economy back to life; what we do not know is how to bring people back to life.

“Our first priority in Ghana, then, was the health and safety of our citizens, and that is why the government put in place a comprehensive strategy to deal with this novel virus, whose incidence was unknown,” President Akufo-Addo said.

Recounting some of the hard decisions his government had to take about public health, the president said: “We were restrained from shaking hands and hugging one another; we had to keep a distance from each other; we had to put up with the discomfort of wearing face masks every time we left our homes; we had to endure distress caused by the poking of our nostrils and throats with swab-sticks each time we underwent a PCR or antigen test; and we had to endure, for three weeks, the painful lockdown in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and Kasoa and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area and contiguous districts.

“In addition to this, we had to support households and micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs); we had to keep our schools open and ensure that the education of our children was not truncated; and we instituted a GHC1.1 billion health response package to procure supplies and equipment, and a relief package for health workers, which included tax waivers, allowances, transportation and COVID insurance.

“The government also found the money to recruit, on a permanent basis, 58,041 more health professionals. COVID-19 inspired our domestic manufacturing capabilities and deepened our self-reliance,” President Akufo-Addo said.

“The pharmaceutical industry, at my instigation, responded positively to the need for domestic production of sanitisers, disinfectants and liquid soaps,” President Akufo-Addo said.

“Furthermore, the government was able to procure some GHC81 million worth of personal protective equipment, such as face masks, headcovers, medical scrubs and hospital gowns from domestic garment and textiles manufacturing companies for health workers, and for students who wrote their final examinations,” the president recalled.

“We pioneered life-saving innovations that the [World Health Organization] replicated elsewhere. Our relative success in winning the fight against COVID-19 is a testament to the tireless work of our researchers, scientists, advisors, public health managers, frontline health-care workers, hospital staff, contact tracers, the security services, public and private sector agencies, faith-based organisations, chieftaincy institutions, charitable organisations, and so many others who dedicated themselves to the fight to keep Ghanaians safe.

“That is why we are here today to express our sincere appreciation and gratitude to all these segments of our population, especially as, at the height of the pandemic, Ghana and South Korea were considered the two countries which undertook the best management of the pandemic,” Akufo-Addo said.

ITLOS recognition

In his remarks, President Akufo-Addo noted that the awards also exist to recognise “our foreign friends and partners who aided us [Ghana] in that enterprise [the adjudication of the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea/ITLOS case]”.

“To the men and women who made sure that the maritime boundary dispute with our immediate, western neighbour, the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, ended favourably for the Republic of Ghana, thereby ensuring that our western maritime resources, including its oil and gas potential, rightfully remained in our possession. And to certain outstanding citizens whose work has brought renown and merit to our nation’s development,” he said.

“Our victory in the maritime boundary dispute could not have been achieved through the actions of one person, one political party or one government.

“It was a collective effort, and it is for this reason that the important roles played by successive governments and groups of individuals, cannot not be overlooked, discounted or understated.

“The judgment of the tribunal has brought finality to a maritime boundary dispute that had been extant for over five decades,” President Akufo-Addo said.

Other awards

Apart from the two main categories of award-winners – that is, those honoured for their work to roll back COVID-19 and the ITLOS awardees – there was a third category of award-winners, consisting of a few individuals whose work, according to the president, “deserves the plaudits of the nation”.

At the head of that list of individuals was the late, great philosopher Professor Johnson Kwame Wiredu, by common consent an outstanding thinker of global repute of the modern age.

He was given a befitting posthumous award: Order of the Volta – Companion.

The other people in the third category are Margaret Sophia Darkwah, the first female commissioner of police, Professor Akwasi Osei, a former, long-serving chief executive of the Mental Health Authority, and Dr Veronica Agartha Martinson, a former executive director of the Cocoa Research Institute, Ghana – the only woman ever to hold this position.

Wilberforce Asare

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