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As the saying goes, �An unexamined life is not worth living�. Naturally, as we welcome a new year, it is just in order that we reflect over the past, recount with nostalgia our achievements and try to make amends regarding where we faulted over the period. The year 2009, by all accounts, was quite eventful. It had its historical moments, its fair share of events which we wished would forever remain in our memory and the others we wished never happened. The year could not be ushered in with the pomp and pageantry usually associated with the welcome party for the New Year. This was because the nation had an unfinished business, which was the spillover of Election 2008 to pick a new person to replace Mr J. A. Kufuor as the President of the Republic. That business finally came to a dramatic end on Sunday, January 3, 2009, when Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, the Electoral Commissioner, announced the final results and declared Professor John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) the winner of the presidential contest. It was a make-or-break affair. Call it a cliffhanger and you would not be far from right. One of the most keenly contested elections in the country�s political history ended with one of the closest electoral results. Official results indicated that the difference between Prof. Mills and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), his opponent in the run-off, was 43,000 votes. Both parties contested some figures though, that was not Dr Afari Gyan�s cup of tea. It ended, arguably, as the most acrimonious political campaign witnessed in the Fourth Republic. On Tuesday, January 7, 2009, a new government of the Fourth Republic was ushered into office when Prof. Mills followed his predecessors by swearing before thousands of Ghanaians at the Independence Square and watched by millions others in their homes, to uphold and defend the good name of Ghana, so may God help him. Earlier in the morning, Mrs Joyce Bamford-Addo, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, was elected the first female Speaker of our Parliament. There was already a female Chief Justice in the person of Mrs Theodora Georgina Wood, to be joined later by Mrs Mills-Robertson, who acted for some time as the Inspector General of Police. Any hope that with the elections being over and a new government being in place, the parties were going to bury the hatchet and allow the nation to move on with its development agenda was short-lived. At the trail of the Transitional Team which was hailed at its formation was a dust of suspicion, hatred, accusations and counter-accusations. The new government managed to put its team in place after those nominated for ministerial appointments went through the vetting process. It must, however, be placed on record that things were not easy for some of the nominees, especially Mr Fiifi Kwetey, whose approval before the full House was characterised by a walkout by the Minority. Relations between the NDC and the NPP have always been rough. Officers of the previous NPP government were very loud, claiming that agents of the NDC government were harassing them and seizing their vehicles, some of which were legitimately acquired through the due process. The NDC officers, on the other hand, were profuse in explaining their actions, claiming that some ministers and other public office holders in the old regime failed to do what was expected of them by handing over state property in their custody. The former Speaker of Parliament was alleged to have stripped his official residence bare when vacating the place. In spite of the turbulent political atmosphere, the determination of Ghanaians to pursue the democratic path prevailed and Prof. Mills�s government plodded on, taking flacks from all angles, including members of his own party. One issue which is yet to find a final resting place is the ex gratia payments recommended by the Chinnery-Hesse Report for public office holders covered by Article 71 of the 1992 Constitution. While members of the legislature were alleged to have collected theirs, members of the previous Council of State and former President J.A. Kufuor are still waiting for their turn. The two main political parties, the NDC and the NPP, dominated the political landscape either at each other�s throat or fighting among themselves. Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, who contested the presidential primary with Prof. Mills, stirred up a hornet�s nest when he criticised President Mills�s administration in an article carried by the Daily Graphic, the nation�s most popular and biggest selling newspaper. The dust is just settling, but the bubbles will resurface when the party goes to congress to elect its national officers. Some new terms have appeared on the political scene. You either belong to the Team A, warming the bench or the Team B actively playing on the field. Some are also doing something quite different. You are either pissing in from outside or pissing out from inside. Whichever is better depends upon whoever is doing the assessment. Just as the opposition NPP went into frenzy enjoying the NDC tearing itself apart, one of its own, Dr Arthur Kennedy, also a failure in his party�s presidential primaries, launched a book: Chasing the Elephant into the bush with serious ramifications. The publication drew blood and like sharks, the NPP turned against itself with voracious venom. The fight is still raging and may take the party to its congress to pick the next presidential candidate for the 2012 elections. Politics apart, life went on as usual with its joys and tribulations. The first major glow came when the 44th President of the United States of America, Mr Barack Obama and his family, paid a two-day state visit to the country from July 10 to 11, 2009. President Obama�s visit was a political triumph for Ghana, having overlooked Nigeria, the sub-regional superpower and chosen Ghana, citing Ghana�s democratic credentials. The country enjoyed relative peace, even though Bawku in the Upper East Region and a few other places have remained on the radar of National Security. Bawku in particular has virtually remained a military garrison with police/military teams stationed there. Armed robbery has also remained a national menace until in the latter part of the year when the police stepped up their operations and gunned down many suspects to the chagrin of some human rights activists. But to members of the general public, the police did well to bring the menace under control. A Presidential Commission to probe the Ghana@50 celebration of Ghana�s Golden Jubilee has presented its report and the President has pledged to apply the recommendations without fear or favour. The month of October was not good for the country. On October 19, 2009, there was disaster on the Volta Lake, during which over 20 people were feared dead. On Wednesday, October 21, 2009, fire gutted the multi-storey Foreign Affairs Ministry building in Accra. From a committee�s report, the building has to go down because the cost of repairs could equally raise a new one. The Chinese government has already responded positively by promising to give the country a new Foreign Affairs ministerial building. Incidentally, October brought the smiles back on the faces of Ghanaians, when the Black Satellites won the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in far away Egypt. November could have passed as disaster-free but for a galamsey operation, which went tragic. More than 20 persons, including women, perished when a pit, in which they were mining at Wassa Dompoase in the Western Region collapsed on them on November 12, 2009. It is rather unfortunate that politics has continued to dominate discussions on television, radio and in the newspapers in the past year. Even though one cannot run away from politics in our private and official lives, we hope this year will be more development-focussed to address the many problems confronting the country.