Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur

...the new Vice-President

Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur -- the Vice-President

By: JAMES HARRY OBENG

Prior to his vetting by the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Monday and his subsequent approval thereof, Mr. Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur had probably never dreamt of ascending the high seat of the Vice-President of the Republic Ghana in such fashion.

Very much likely also, Paa Kwesi (or Pee-Kay) – as his peers call him – may neither have contemplated that office nor any other responsibilities that came with it, especially when he occupied the position of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

Those who have known him inside-out admire his unassuming disposition and impeccable credentials as an economic technocrat and as a such, would have wished that he still held on to the fort as the main man at the country’s central bank.

But this, however, was not to be, as the nation required his services in that much higher position, particularly at a time of national emergency necessitated by the demise of a sitting president, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills!

By this inexplicable twist of fate (and luck), Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur is today the Vice-President of the country, the fifth since the break of the Fourth Republic in 1992, after Kow Nkensen Arkaah, John Evans Atta Mills, Aliu Mahama and John Dramani Mahama.

Nonetheless, the rise of Paa Kwesi to the Castle brings to the fore, an unprecedented cocktail of chilling historic facts. To begin with, Paa Kwesi becomes the first Vice-President in the annals of the country to step into office because a sitting president died, and as such, was sworn into office at a time that the entire nation was enveloped in grief.

Again, he becomes the first Vice-President to deputise a president who himself was the vice-president to a departed president, but had to constitutionally relinquish his vice-presidential position for the presidency within 24 hours without going through an election.

This invariably also makes him the first Vice-President to be sworn into office, following the approval of Parliament – but not coming out of an election in which the candidate he partnered won.

In fact, all these conditioned by the 1992 Constitution, which indicates in Article 60 Clause 6, that: “Whenever the President dies, resigns or is removed from office, the Vice-President shall assume office as President for the unexpired term of office of the President with effect from the date of the death, resignation or removal of the President.”

Clause 10 of the same Article adds that: “The Vice-President shall upon assuming office as President under Clause 6 of this article, nominate a person to the Vice-President subject to the approval of the Parliament.”

This accounts for why Paa Kwesi was sworn into office on Monday as the second Vice-President under the current administration by the Chief Justice, Mrs. Georgina Theodora Woods, having earlier been vetted and approval by the Appointments Committee and Parliament, respectively.

But aside the constitutional details, Paa Kwesi’s rise has also enjoyed its fair share of the speculations, criticisms and opposition from a cross-section of Ghanaians, both within and without his own party – the National Democratic Congress (NDC)

First, as characteristic of such developments, the choice of a new Vice-President had seen its own speculation in media, wherefore a number of popular nominees who were advertised by the media eventually lost the position to Paa Kwesi whose name never made such a ‘shortlist.’

This had been preceded with criticisms from elements and interest groups within the NDC, who initially opposed the president’s choice of Paa Kwesi on the grounds that he is not a strong party-man – whatever that means!

Others also, through various covert and subtle means, tried to find ways to discredit his professional competence, punching holes into his exploits as a former deputy Finance Minister (1993 – 1997) and Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

But in the face of all these, Paa Kwesi has remained unruffled till his swearing-in as the Vice President last Monday which, in effect, also signalled the end of his tenure as the Governor of BoG.

The Man Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur

Born 29 April 1951 in the Central Regional capital of Cape Coast, Paa Kwesi has worked in various capacities and fields which cut across education and finance.

He attended the Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast, where he obtained the GCE Ordinary Level and GCE Advanced Level certificates in 1969 and the 1971, respectively. He continued to the University of Ghana, Legon, graduating with his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Economics in 1974 and 1976, respectively.

Paa Kwesi then lectured at the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana between 1980 and 1988, having earlier worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research between 1974 and 1975.

At the Economics Department, he had been a teaching assistant from 1977 to 1978, and becoming an assistant lecturer in 1979. He has also lectured at the Department of Economics, Anambra State College of Education, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria from August, 1981 till July, 1983).

He has a rich political background. Between 1983 and 1986, Paa Kwesi was a Special Assistant to the Secretary (or Minister) for Planning and Economic, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, in the erstwhile government of Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) headed by Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings. Here, his main responsibility concerned the management of multilateral assistance in support of Ghana’s Economic Recovery Programme.

From February 1986 to March 1993, he rose to become the Deputy Secretary (deputy Minister) of Finance and Economic Planning, with responsibilities that included the preparation of the annual Public Investment Programme, management of the budget, as well as the management of bilateral and multilateral assistance to the country.

Between April 1993 and March 1997, Paa Kwesi was the Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in the administration of the Rawlings-led NDC, involved with the formulation, design and implementation of the budget, management of revenue agencies and supervision of government expenditures, among others.

He worked as a Consultant for the World Bank in The Gambia (November – Decmber 1997), and as a consultant for the Netherlands government Education project in Ghana (May – December 1997).

Paa Kwesi then worked as Senior Economist for the Sigma One Corporation in Ghana between 1998 and 2000, in addition to many other economic and finance-related engagements, home and abroad.

He was appointed the Governor of the Bank of Ghana in October 2009 by the late President, Prof Mills, a position he has held till last Monday, August 6, when he was sworn into office as the Vice President of Ghana.

A Christian with the Calvary Methodist Church at Adabraka in Accra, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur is married with two children. We, of ‘The Spectator,’ congratulate him on his new position and wish that he brings his rich wealth of financial experience to bear on enhancing the country’s economic development.