Chronicle: How Anane Caved In

Finally, the mighty Richard Anane, Transportation Minister, and Superintendent Minister over Ghana Airways’ collapse has given in to the calls for his resignation after his indictment by the constitutionally established Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

The road to his ultimate resignation, according our sources within the presidency, started with a marathon meeting with President John Agyekum Kufuor last week Tuesday, during which meeting the president made it clear that given the political ramifications of CHRAJ’s findings, there was no way he could act against the recommendations.

The same institution had earlier cleared the President himself of any wrongdoing regarding the Hotel Kufuor affair after its preliminary hearings.

The first meeting was swiftly followed by another the next day in the President’s house, since the embattled Minister was said not to have been happy with the determination of the President to carry out the recommendations of CHRAJ.

During the second meeting, the 52-year-old Anane, a darling boy of the President’s, headed a delegation of party kingpins from his Nhyiaeso constituency, ostensibly to influence the President to stand down on his decision to implement the CHRAJ recommendation. This time too, the Minister’s plea was not taken.

According to our sources, at the said second meeting on Wednesday, President Kufuor came to a compromise with Dr. Anane and his delegation.

On the day, the agreement reached was that the Minister should voluntarily resign so as to avoid the humiliation of being sacked by the President.

The President/government was also to do the Minister the favour of accepting his resignation as was demonstrated in a government statement that was made public on Tuesday.

After the two parties came to the gentleman’s agreement last Wednesday, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Joe Ghartey, as we reported in last Friday’s edition, was expected to announce the resignation of the Minister and government’s acceptance of it at the meeting with the press last Friday, during which the Interior Minister, Mr. Albert Kan-Dapaah, disclosed the findings of the Georgina Woode Committee.

In what is believed to be a calculated strategy to avoid doing exactly what The Chronicle had preempted in its Friday’s edition, the meeting between the press and the Ministers of Interior and Justice came to pass, but the Anane issue was dropped from the items on the agenda only for it to be done later.

True to the paper’s story, the Minister, under whose supervision the once viable Ghana Airways collapsed before the aviation sector was taken from under his ambit, is still touted as one of the super-performing Ministers.

Dr. Anane who was subsequently grounded to handle road transportation only, tendered in his resignation and the government, in a way akin to the resignation of Alhaji Moctar Bamba after the ‘Bambagate Scandal’, accepted Anane’s resignation with regrets.