President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the award ceremony held on Tuesday, 14 March 2023, to honour some men and women was purely a national event.

The president stressed that the ceremony was devoid of partisan, ethnic or religious considerations.

In a Facebook post following the awards, the president noted: “It is important to state that today’s 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.”

According to President Akufo-Addo, the politics of the men and women who were awarded is of no significance to him but rather their exploits are. 

“I, as the President of the Republic, the Fount of Honour, act as the Head of State, and not as Head of Government, in the distribution of awards. 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,” he noted.

The state on Tuesday, 14th March 2023, honoured the men and women who were entrusted with the responsibility of keeping Ghanaians safe at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ghana’s foreign friends and partners who aided the country in that enterprise, as well as the men and women who made sure that the maritime boundary dispute with Cote d’Ivoire ended favourably for the Republic of Ghana, thereby, ensuring that the country’s western maritime resources, including its oil and gas potential, rightfully remained in Ghana’s possession, were also honoured at a national event.

President Akufo-Addo presented the awards to the awardees.

Apart from these two main categories of awardees, that is the COVID and ITLOS awardees, there was also a third category of awardees of a few individuals whose work deserved the plaudits of the nation.

They were the late great philosopher, Prof. Johnson Kwame Wiredu, who was posthumously awarded the Order of the Volta – Companion.

The rest were Ms. Margaret Sophia Darkwah, the first female Commissioner of Police; Prof. Akwasi Osei, former Chief Executive of the Mental Health Authority; and Dr. Veronica Agartha Martinson, former Executive Director of the Cocoa Research Institute, Ghana