Ghana is a unitary presidential constitutional democracy with a parliamentary multi party system.
Ghana alternated between civilian and military governments until January 1993, when the military government gave way to the Fourth Republic of Ghana after presidential and parliamentary elections in late 1992.
The 1992 constitution of Ghana divides powers among a Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces (President of Ghana), parliament (Parliament of Ghana), cabinet (Ministers of the Ghanaian Government), council of state (Ghanaian Council of State), and an independent judiciary (Judiciary of Ghana). The Government of Ghana is elected by universal suffrage after every four years.
The Electoral Commission of Ghana announced that former Vice President of Ghana John Dramani Mahama had won the Ghana presidential election, 2012 on 7 December 2012 and John Dramani Mahama was sworn in, amidst announcement of electoral fraud, as the reigning President of Ghana on 7 January 2013 to serve a four-year term that expired on Saturday, 7 January 2017.
The 2012 Fragile States Index indicated that Ghana is ranked the 67th least fragile state in the world and the 5th least fragile state in Africa after Mauritius, 2nd Seychelles, 3rd Botswana, and 4th South Africa.
Ghana ranked 112th out of 177 countries on the index. Ghana ranked as the 64th least corrupt and politically corrupt country in the world out of all 174 countries ranked and Ghana ranked as the 5th least corrupt and politically corrupt country in Africa out of 53 countries in the 2012 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index.
Ghana was ranked 7th in Africa out of 53 countries in the 2012 Ibrahim Index of African Governance.
The Ibrahim Index is a comprehensive measure of African government, based on a number of different variables which reflect the success with which governments deliver essential political goods to its citizens. Nkrumah was a Ghanaian nationalist leader who led the country from 1957 to 1966.
Nkrumah’s political journey started when he entered Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1935. He graduated with master’s degrees from Lincoln University and the University of Pennsylvania.
He formed the Convention Peoples’ Party. The party initiated a “positive action” campaign involving non-violent protests, strikes and non-cooperation with the British authorities. Nkrumah was arrested and sentenced to one year imprisonment during this time.
In the Gold Coast’s February 1951 general election, he was elected to Parliament and released from prison to become leader of government business.
He became Prime Minister of the Gold Coast in 1952s leadership was authoritarian but he improved the infrastructure of the country and his Africanisation policies created better career opportunities for Ghanaians. He was deposed in a coup in 1966.
