Celebrating the Pillar of Peace: If Someone Must be Celebrated, It’s Otumfuo- Mahama
Former President John Dramani Mahama has stated that the Monarch of the Asante Kingdom, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, cannot be overlooked when there is the need to celebrate a high-profile personality in Ghana.
He believes that the move to mint a commemorative gold coin in his honour as well as the conferment of the Pillar of Peace Award on him is meritorious due to his invaluable and selfless contributions to the country and tradition.
During a visit by the Management of E ON 3 Group in February 2022 to present a piece of the Commemorative Gold Coin to him in his office, the former President underscored the significance of honouring the great traditional ruler whose influence goes beyond Asanteman and Ghana.
“So we are proud of him and we are happy that this coin had been issued,” he said.
“Certainly, if anybody was to be celebrated in this country, you couldn’t go past Otumfuo. He has been a part of consolidating our democracy since the time of President Rawlings.”
Economic Contribution
In an elaborative remark, Mr Mahama said his government faced a crisis with the economy in 2013/2014, and an IMF programme was needed to restore debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability to foster a return to high growth and job creation while protecting social spending.
Former President John Dramani Mahama however revealed that, but for the intervention of the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, his government would not have secured the IMF deal.
“We had implemented the single spine salary policy from President Mills’ time and somewhere in 2013, the arrears were kicking in. So we overshot in terms of revenue which became a burden on the budget. Wages and salaries shot up astronomically so we did the Senchi forum and after that, we came out with the Home-Grown Fiscal Consolidation Programme. We tried to implement it but international investors thought that without discipline we could not do that. We tried to convince them but they would not budge.”
The government in that case decided to convene a meeting with the IMF to convince them to buy into the idea of a home-grown fiscal programme; however, the Fund kept postponing it, he revealed.
He then sought His Majesty’s intervention which did the magic in no time.
“One day during a visit to Kumasi, I enquired from Otumfuo whether he could get his friend, the President of the World Bank at the time, James D. Wolfensohn, for him to work on the IMF programme for the government and the Asantehene readily accepted the request.
“Because of that programme, Otumfuo flew to Washington to have talks with Mr Wolfensohn, who together with Otumfuo went and spoke with the IMF Director, Madam Christine Lagarde and within a short period of time, we had the Extended Credit Facility. That was the programme that turned the economy around because under that programme, in 2016, almost for the first time in our history, we did not overspend the budget.”
On April 3, 2015, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $918 million three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Ghana to support the Mahama government’s medium-term economic reform programme.
As part of their daily celebration of the achievements of Otumfuo, E ON 3 Group, a business and investment solutions company in Ghana, and its key partners today reflect on the statement of Mr Mahama.
The Otumfuo Gold Coin Project is aimed at celebrating the legacies and achievements of Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Overlord of the Ashanti Kingdom, especially in the areas of peace and stability, as evidenced in his success of restoring peace in Dagbon following 17 years of chieftaincy dispute.
