EIGHT students of the Accra High School who participated in a programme of civic consciousness of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) have won national and international acclaim.
Emmanuela Akoto, Comfort Ayaw Nunoo, Maame Efua Agyriba Debrah, Clara Aku Bonsu, Isaac Berko Agyarko, Ebenezer Shamo Abbey, Francis Obuoba Kwesi Ampadu and Alex Omari topped the national competitions in the programme and represented Ghana in an international showcase in the USA last year.
They were the only group among other groups from 32 countries to win an award for Superior Achievement with Special Recognition.
Their award came with a plaque and a citation for being young achievers.
Project Citizen is a portfolio-based interdisciplinary civic education curriculum for students and the youth and was introduced in Ghana in 2006 by the NCCE in partnership with the Centre for Civic Education of the United States of America and the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
The programme helps in developing support for democratic values, principles, tolerance and feelings of democratic political processes and systems and sensitises the youth to identifying problems in their communities, gathering information on alternative solutions and formulating an action plan in solving the problem.
Twenty junior and senior high schools of the Northern and Greater Accra regions, with a total of 574 youth, participated in the pilot programme. The eight students emerged as the best group.
The eight students selected a topic on child labour.
The students told the Daily Graphic that the choice of the topic was to help express some challenges faced by their peers.
In their portfolio, they recommended more punitive sanctions against those caught indulging in child labour and identified that as one of the reasons for the persistent nature of the problem in the country.
“We need a lot more sensitisation on the issues as some labour can be called child labour but are shrouded in our cultural practices,” Ms Clara Aku Bonsu, the Spokesperson of the group, said.
Maame Efua Agyriba Debrah said securing the future of the country rested with the youth, hence the choice of the topic to bring to light some challenges faced by them.
Isaac Berko Agyarko, the leader of the group, said the group had the support of the NCCE but needed public support to enable them to sensitise their communities.
The eight also won the international showcase with their topic on child labour and their outstanding performance attracted the Voice of America (VOA) to interview them.
In Ghana, they have also appeared on the programme Gems of Our Time on Uniq FM, an Accra-based radio station.
The Co-ordinator of the project, Mrs Fanny Kumah, said the eight would be ambassadors to other schools that were being included in the programme after the pilot project.
She said it would be easier for their peers to learn from them, hence the group would be touring the selected schools in the Northern, Greater Accra, Central, Eastern and Upper East regions to share their experiences.
Mrs Kumah said the Centre for Civic Education of the USA and the Hanns Siedel Foundation had supported the programme; however, there was the need for more support to get the programme nation-wide, and entrenched.
She said teachers of selected schools in the Volta Region were going to be trained from January 29 to 31, 2008 to start the curricula in schools there.
Mrs Kumah expressed her gratitude to Ghana Commercial Bank and Kingdom Books, who sponsored the international showcase of the group.
Other sponsors of the NCCE have been AGG, Ghana Limited, EPP books, Japan Motors, Design House and Architectural Spring.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
CASH TRANSFER POLICY NOT FOR VOTE BUYING-AHIADZI
A social policy analyst at the Centre for Social Policy Studies (CSPS) of the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr William Ahiadzie, has refuted claims that the government's cash transfer policy for the extremely poor is a handout and a ploy for vote buying in the upcoming December elections.
He said the policy, which would involve very poor households getting a minimum of about GH¢8.00 every two months, was a necessary and logical follow-up in the pursuit of macro-economic stability in the country.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra, Dr Ahiadzie said the cash transfer was just a component of the government's broader National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS) policy and a follow up to the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS).
The NSPS is the framework for governments and civil society organisations to support the extremely poor in fulfilment of their basic human rights enshrined in international and national legislative instruments, such as the right to education, health, economic and social well-being.
The framework has several components, including the cash transfer policy to extremely poor households, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) and other social protection initiatives that seek to cushion the most vulnerable against certain adverse effects of macro-economic policy formulation and implementation.
Explaining the rationale for the policy, Dr Ahiadzie said all well intentioned policies for economic development came with some social costs to certain groups of people.
He said the policy was one of the several components of the NSPS that aimed at getting the extremely poor to productively participate in economic activities and improve on their livelihoods.
He said the policy had been thought of as far back as 2004, after an impact assessment of the GPRS that showed that the country's macro-economic stability efforts had some good outcomes, as well as some negative impact on some groups in the society.
These included orphans, women, persons living with disability, some unemployed and the aged and they had been targeted to benefit under the cash transfer policy.
He said the programme would be implemented over a five-year period with an estimated GH¢8 million for about 15,000 initial beneficiaries in the first year, while the total estimated cost of the policy for the five-year period was GH¢26.1 million.
The cash transfer, Dr Ahiadzie added, was directed at poor households and not individuals, saying that individuals of a targeted household would receive GH¢8.
However, GH¢2 would be added to the GH¢8 for any additional person in the targeted household, he said.
Moreover, those targeted would also be linked up to other complementary programmes such as micro-finance schemes, nutrition and food schemes and other schemes to enhance their productive capacities, such as the acquisition of seeds and tools, particularly for farmers.
Dr Ahiadzie said a rigorous targeting, verification and monitoring process, based on social scientific software, would minimise the opportunity of manipulation and the use of the scheme as a political vote-buying mechanism.
He said like all other schemes, human intervention and influence could not be discounted. However, the initiators had thought about them and had laid down processes and systems to minimise or completely prevent them.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2008
He said the policy, which would involve very poor households getting a minimum of about GH¢8.00 every two months, was a necessary and logical follow-up in the pursuit of macro-economic stability in the country.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra, Dr Ahiadzie said the cash transfer was just a component of the government's broader National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS) policy and a follow up to the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS).
The NSPS is the framework for governments and civil society organisations to support the extremely poor in fulfilment of their basic human rights enshrined in international and national legislative instruments, such as the right to education, health, economic and social well-being.
The framework has several components, including the cash transfer policy to extremely poor households, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) and other social protection initiatives that seek to cushion the most vulnerable against certain adverse effects of macro-economic policy formulation and implementation.
Explaining the rationale for the policy, Dr Ahiadzie said all well intentioned policies for economic development came with some social costs to certain groups of people.
He said the policy was one of the several components of the NSPS that aimed at getting the extremely poor to productively participate in economic activities and improve on their livelihoods.
He said the policy had been thought of as far back as 2004, after an impact assessment of the GPRS that showed that the country's macro-economic stability efforts had some good outcomes, as well as some negative impact on some groups in the society.
These included orphans, women, persons living with disability, some unemployed and the aged and they had been targeted to benefit under the cash transfer policy.
He said the programme would be implemented over a five-year period with an estimated GH¢8 million for about 15,000 initial beneficiaries in the first year, while the total estimated cost of the policy for the five-year period was GH¢26.1 million.
The cash transfer, Dr Ahiadzie added, was directed at poor households and not individuals, saying that individuals of a targeted household would receive GH¢8.
However, GH¢2 would be added to the GH¢8 for any additional person in the targeted household, he said.
Moreover, those targeted would also be linked up to other complementary programmes such as micro-finance schemes, nutrition and food schemes and other schemes to enhance their productive capacities, such as the acquisition of seeds and tools, particularly for farmers.
Dr Ahiadzie said a rigorous targeting, verification and monitoring process, based on social scientific software, would minimise the opportunity of manipulation and the use of the scheme as a political vote-buying mechanism.
He said like all other schemes, human intervention and influence could not be discounted. However, the initiators had thought about them and had laid down processes and systems to minimise or completely prevent them.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2008
DASEBRE SUPPORTS SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE
THE Omanhene of New Juaben, Daasebre Professor (Emeritus) Oti Boateng has encouraged Ghanaians and the Black Stars to stay focused in the Ghana 2008 tournament.
A statement issued by him in Accra said the most compelling aspect of the game of football was its sheer unpredictability.
“That is why the game continues to captivate the minds of several millions world-wide,” he said.
He pointed out that if there was absolute certainty and precision, the game would have lost much of its appeal.
He said all the 16 teams were in the competition with the supreme purpose of winning the trophy but at the end of the competition, only one would be crowned the “Champion of African Football.”
Daasebre Boateng said that was why currently at a crucial stage in the tournament, when the Black Stars had been able to get the maximum six points out of two matches played so far, no Ghanaian had to be disappointed but rather give their unflinching support to the Stars.
He added that the Black Stars needed the crucial spiritual contemplation to stay focused and rise to the challenge and encouraged all to support them to win the trophy for the country.
Daasebre Boateng recalled his appeal to all chiefs at a Festival of Arts and Culture in Kumasi, to support the Stars, telling them that “Football is not only a game, it is also tradition”.
The festival was also used to showcase and formally present the real trophy of the tournament to the chiefs.
Daasebre Boateng, who represented the traditional leaders of the Eastern Region at the Festival, said President J. A. Kufuor’s directive for the trophy to be presented to the chiefs at the festival, showed the President’s recognition of the importance of the chieftaincy institution in the development of sports, particularly football in the country.
He said the gesture of the President redefined the support base of football in the country to include chiefs and all the people of the country, contrary to what hitherto had been vaguely defined as “fans”.
Daasebre Boateng expressed the hope that the new concept would be an “important moral booster” and “an essential psychological prerequisite” for a winning team such as the Black Stars of Ghana.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2008
A statement issued by him in Accra said the most compelling aspect of the game of football was its sheer unpredictability.
“That is why the game continues to captivate the minds of several millions world-wide,” he said.
He pointed out that if there was absolute certainty and precision, the game would have lost much of its appeal.
He said all the 16 teams were in the competition with the supreme purpose of winning the trophy but at the end of the competition, only one would be crowned the “Champion of African Football.”
Daasebre Boateng said that was why currently at a crucial stage in the tournament, when the Black Stars had been able to get the maximum six points out of two matches played so far, no Ghanaian had to be disappointed but rather give their unflinching support to the Stars.
He added that the Black Stars needed the crucial spiritual contemplation to stay focused and rise to the challenge and encouraged all to support them to win the trophy for the country.
Daasebre Boateng recalled his appeal to all chiefs at a Festival of Arts and Culture in Kumasi, to support the Stars, telling them that “Football is not only a game, it is also tradition”.
The festival was also used to showcase and formally present the real trophy of the tournament to the chiefs.
Daasebre Boateng, who represented the traditional leaders of the Eastern Region at the Festival, said President J. A. Kufuor’s directive for the trophy to be presented to the chiefs at the festival, showed the President’s recognition of the importance of the chieftaincy institution in the development of sports, particularly football in the country.
He said the gesture of the President redefined the support base of football in the country to include chiefs and all the people of the country, contrary to what hitherto had been vaguely defined as “fans”.
Daasebre Boateng expressed the hope that the new concept would be an “important moral booster” and “an essential psychological prerequisite” for a winning team such as the Black Stars of Ghana.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2008
NO FINANCIAL IMPEDIMENTS, TOWARDS DEC GENERAL ELECTIONS-EC ASSURES
THE Electoral Commission (EC) has given the strongest assurance yet that its resolve to ensure clean and incident-free elections this year will not be impeded by any financial hold backs.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Deputy Chairman of the commission in charge of Finance and Administration, Mr David Kangah, based the assurance on the fact that the commission had not encountered any problems in accessing funds for the conduct of the 2008 elections.
He was reacting to an earlier newspaper publication which claimed that the EC was being compelled to cut down on its budget by 20 per cent, a development which the article suggested could compromise the conduct of the December polls.
Debunking that suggestion, Mr Kangah said the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning was working on a request from the EC to access some funds for its operations.
Speaking on the status of the EC’s budget, Mr Kangah added that discussions were going on for finalising its requirements.
He reiterated the constitutional mandate on the government to provide the EC with all its resources and affirmed that the government was “doing exactly that”, adding, however, that in fulfilling that constitutional mandate, the government needed to ensure a “realistic budget” for the EC.
“In fact, we have, ourselves, done some introspection and seen some issues in our budget that escaped our attention and we are attending to it,” he added.
He further pointed out that the government could not refuse to provide the required resources of the EC or force anyone there to change anything.
Mr Kangah also disclosed that the EC was making its ICT systems functional by replacing some ICT equipment and upgrading others.
That, he said, would include a replacement of broken down faxes in all the districts and wireless communication systems.
He said in some instances the more sophisticated wireless telephones with Internet and fax components would be available.
Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev Fred Deegbe, has said the council, in keeping with its role as a partner in the election process, is asking the EC to clearly come out with its resource needs and challenges.
He was reiterating issues raised in a pastoral letter issued on August 16, 2007 that called for openness, dialogue and the commitment of the government to the election process.
Rev Deegbe said the council was advocating not just the provision of resources but also a partnership with all Ghanaians to dialogue on any challenges and solutions before the polls in December 2008.
He said if the EC came out clearly with its needs and dialogue began, the commission would not be hard-pressed during the elections with the late supply of materials and other provisions.
Mr Kangah, in response to that, said the EC would soon begin consultations with all partners nation-wide.
He said the practice of the commission to meet with religious leaders, civil society organisations and others for deliberations and the sharing of ideas would soon start and all those issues would come up for discussion.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2008
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Deputy Chairman of the commission in charge of Finance and Administration, Mr David Kangah, based the assurance on the fact that the commission had not encountered any problems in accessing funds for the conduct of the 2008 elections.
He was reacting to an earlier newspaper publication which claimed that the EC was being compelled to cut down on its budget by 20 per cent, a development which the article suggested could compromise the conduct of the December polls.
Debunking that suggestion, Mr Kangah said the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning was working on a request from the EC to access some funds for its operations.
Speaking on the status of the EC’s budget, Mr Kangah added that discussions were going on for finalising its requirements.
He reiterated the constitutional mandate on the government to provide the EC with all its resources and affirmed that the government was “doing exactly that”, adding, however, that in fulfilling that constitutional mandate, the government needed to ensure a “realistic budget” for the EC.
“In fact, we have, ourselves, done some introspection and seen some issues in our budget that escaped our attention and we are attending to it,” he added.
He further pointed out that the government could not refuse to provide the required resources of the EC or force anyone there to change anything.
Mr Kangah also disclosed that the EC was making its ICT systems functional by replacing some ICT equipment and upgrading others.
That, he said, would include a replacement of broken down faxes in all the districts and wireless communication systems.
He said in some instances the more sophisticated wireless telephones with Internet and fax components would be available.
Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev Fred Deegbe, has said the council, in keeping with its role as a partner in the election process, is asking the EC to clearly come out with its resource needs and challenges.
He was reiterating issues raised in a pastoral letter issued on August 16, 2007 that called for openness, dialogue and the commitment of the government to the election process.
Rev Deegbe said the council was advocating not just the provision of resources but also a partnership with all Ghanaians to dialogue on any challenges and solutions before the polls in December 2008.
He said if the EC came out clearly with its needs and dialogue began, the commission would not be hard-pressed during the elections with the late supply of materials and other provisions.
Mr Kangah, in response to that, said the EC would soon begin consultations with all partners nation-wide.
He said the practice of the commission to meet with religious leaders, civil society organisations and others for deliberations and the sharing of ideas would soon start and all those issues would come up for discussion.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2008
FRENCH EMBASSY INTRODUCES NEW ACQUISITION PROCEDURE
THE Fench Embassy in Accra has introduced a new procedure in the acquisition of visas.
The new procedure, which includes bio metric data, that is a digital thumbprint and photograph of the applicant was introduced in December last year.
Information from the press office of the French Embassy indicated that the procedure required the compulsory appearance of the applicant before a visa official for his or her digital thumbprint and photograph to be taken.
After the processing, it becomes easier for the person who already applied to apply a second time.
Furthermore, this new processing will facilitates tracking of information on applicants when they lose their travelling documents, as the identification of the person becomes easier.
All types of passports and visas are affected by this new system.
The change to the biometrics visa is in conformity with the European Union requirements for visa applicants to Europe.
It is also to help in the establishment of a common database called VIS (Visa Information System) that will contain the picture and thumbprint of all prospective applicants to European Union countries, to check fraud and other visa malpractice.
Each country of the European Union that make up the Schengen area, an area under special border control agreements, is in charge of their national data that is part of the European database and takes all measures to develop it.
France is one of the first to go ahead with this, and other Schengen States will do it progressively.
In Accra, the French embassy is the first to institute the process in visa applications to Schengen countries.
The United Kingdom is also doing it but does not offer biometrics visa services to states of the Shengen.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 2008
The new procedure, which includes bio metric data, that is a digital thumbprint and photograph of the applicant was introduced in December last year.
Information from the press office of the French Embassy indicated that the procedure required the compulsory appearance of the applicant before a visa official for his or her digital thumbprint and photograph to be taken.
After the processing, it becomes easier for the person who already applied to apply a second time.
Furthermore, this new processing will facilitates tracking of information on applicants when they lose their travelling documents, as the identification of the person becomes easier.
All types of passports and visas are affected by this new system.
The change to the biometrics visa is in conformity with the European Union requirements for visa applicants to Europe.
It is also to help in the establishment of a common database called VIS (Visa Information System) that will contain the picture and thumbprint of all prospective applicants to European Union countries, to check fraud and other visa malpractice.
Each country of the European Union that make up the Schengen area, an area under special border control agreements, is in charge of their national data that is part of the European database and takes all measures to develop it.
France is one of the first to go ahead with this, and other Schengen States will do it progressively.
In Accra, the French embassy is the first to institute the process in visa applications to Schengen countries.
The United Kingdom is also doing it but does not offer biometrics visa services to states of the Shengen.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 2008
NEW YEAR SCHOOL ENDS
NEXT year, marks 20 years of decentralisation in the country and 60 years of the consistent organisation of the New Year Schools by the Institute of Adult Education (IAE).
To commemorate the milestone, the IAE will be devoting the year’s New Year school to the discussion of the decentralisation process.
The Acting Director of the School, Dr Daniel Oduro-Mensah, who announced this at the closing ceremony of the 59th New Year School, moreover, promised the organisation of “the greatest of all New Year Schools,” while participants were assured of “the best of all they expect from a New Year School.”
He said the programme for the school would be modified to include educational tours and exhibitions, with the full complementation of ICT techniques in the programming to improve delivery.
Dr Oduro-Mensah said upon consultations the theme chosen for the 60th New Year School would be “Twenty years of decentralisation in Ghana: Prospects and Challenges,” and asked prospective participants to start saving towards the event.
He expressed appreciation to all the speakers, resource persons and participants at the 59th New Year School, particularly the Vice President, Alhaji Alui Mahama, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Prof Emmanuel Adow-Obeng and the chairman of the University Council, Mr Anthony Oteng-Gyasi.
He said the IAE had taken note of the challenges that a human gathering of such proportions could pose and would improve on them in subsequent schools.
In a summary of the activities of the New Year School, the raporteur general, Mr Francis Adjei said 360 participants had been registered for the year’s school, a drop in figure compared with 500 for the 2006 year.
He said generally the school had been organised with no major hitches, while participants had participated actively and fully.
Two participants, the headmaster of Prempeh College, Mr A Owusu-Achiaw and the manager of the Presbyterian Educational Unit, Accra, Ms Beatrice Boateng, shared their experiences at the school.
While Mr Owusu-Achiaw asked for shorter periods in programming to help in assimilation and take the stress of long hours of deliberations from older participants, Ms Boateng asked for special tours to be conducted for participants on campus in subsequent schools.
The Registrar of the UG, Mr A. T. Konu, who chaired the function, said it was time for the organisers of the New Year Schools to review the programme and improve on the success.
Prior to the closing session, participants presented their conclusions on discussions at two plenary sessions.
The eight study groups that were set up discussed the main theme of the school, that is “Tertiary education and national development,” in relation to other sub themes on ICT, decentralisation, governance and the relevance of tertiary educational programmes to industry and commerce.
While participants were generally in agreement over the key submissions of presenters at the school, such as, reducing the national financial demands on the Ghana Educational Trust Fund (GETFund), as well as synchronising tertiary programmes to industry demands and governmental policy, they made some suggestions themselves.
Key among them was the suggestion for study centres in all regions to enhance distance educational programmers, for standards of assessment at the tertiary level to be competency based rather than mere scores and for constitutional bodies such as the National Commission for Civic Education to work out a contingency plan on how citizens can resist a disruption of the current democratic culture.
DAILY GRAPHIC, FRIDAY JANUARY II, 2008
To commemorate the milestone, the IAE will be devoting the year’s New Year school to the discussion of the decentralisation process.
The Acting Director of the School, Dr Daniel Oduro-Mensah, who announced this at the closing ceremony of the 59th New Year School, moreover, promised the organisation of “the greatest of all New Year Schools,” while participants were assured of “the best of all they expect from a New Year School.”
He said the programme for the school would be modified to include educational tours and exhibitions, with the full complementation of ICT techniques in the programming to improve delivery.
Dr Oduro-Mensah said upon consultations the theme chosen for the 60th New Year School would be “Twenty years of decentralisation in Ghana: Prospects and Challenges,” and asked prospective participants to start saving towards the event.
He expressed appreciation to all the speakers, resource persons and participants at the 59th New Year School, particularly the Vice President, Alhaji Alui Mahama, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Prof Emmanuel Adow-Obeng and the chairman of the University Council, Mr Anthony Oteng-Gyasi.
He said the IAE had taken note of the challenges that a human gathering of such proportions could pose and would improve on them in subsequent schools.
In a summary of the activities of the New Year School, the raporteur general, Mr Francis Adjei said 360 participants had been registered for the year’s school, a drop in figure compared with 500 for the 2006 year.
He said generally the school had been organised with no major hitches, while participants had participated actively and fully.
Two participants, the headmaster of Prempeh College, Mr A Owusu-Achiaw and the manager of the Presbyterian Educational Unit, Accra, Ms Beatrice Boateng, shared their experiences at the school.
While Mr Owusu-Achiaw asked for shorter periods in programming to help in assimilation and take the stress of long hours of deliberations from older participants, Ms Boateng asked for special tours to be conducted for participants on campus in subsequent schools.
The Registrar of the UG, Mr A. T. Konu, who chaired the function, said it was time for the organisers of the New Year Schools to review the programme and improve on the success.
Prior to the closing session, participants presented their conclusions on discussions at two plenary sessions.
The eight study groups that were set up discussed the main theme of the school, that is “Tertiary education and national development,” in relation to other sub themes on ICT, decentralisation, governance and the relevance of tertiary educational programmes to industry and commerce.
While participants were generally in agreement over the key submissions of presenters at the school, such as, reducing the national financial demands on the Ghana Educational Trust Fund (GETFund), as well as synchronising tertiary programmes to industry demands and governmental policy, they made some suggestions themselves.
Key among them was the suggestion for study centres in all regions to enhance distance educational programmers, for standards of assessment at the tertiary level to be competency based rather than mere scores and for constitutional bodies such as the National Commission for Civic Education to work out a contingency plan on how citizens can resist a disruption of the current democratic culture.
DAILY GRAPHIC, FRIDAY JANUARY II, 2008
PRINCIPAL ADVOCATES NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY
THE Principal of the Ghana Telecom University College, Dr Osei Darkwa, on Tuesday made a strong case for the establishment of an open and distance learning (ODL) tertiary educational institution in the country where students and lecturers would interact through information, communication and technology.
He said the time had come for the immediate establishment of a National Open University of Ghana (NOUG) that would make tertiary education accessible to the teeming number of people, without any pressure on physical educational infrastructure.
“These features of the world's open universities aim to open the world of higher education to all, irrespective of age, sex, place of residence or occupation, in order to enable every individual to realise his or her academic ability,” he said.
Speaking at a symposium on “Increasing the Utilisation of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) in Tertiary Education,” at the 59th New Year School of the Institute of Adult Education (IAE) of the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr Darkwa said the justification for the establishment of NOUG was clear.
Primarily, he pointed out that the Educational Reform Committee that was chaired by Prof. Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, in its report, made a strong recommendation for the establishment of the Ghana Open University.
Coupled with that, the President, Mr J.A. Kufuor endorsed suggestions for the expansion of tertiary education and the proposed Open University in the report.
Giving the advantages of such a tertiary institution in the country, Dr Darkwa said the current university system could accommodate only about 30 per cent of all qualified applicants.
Linked to that was the fact that those from remote towns and villages had to leave their communities for cities where tertiary institutions were situated.
With the Open University, the consolidation of student population at a given place or time would not be necessary, he pointed out.
Dr Darkwa said money for physical infrastructural development could be spent on improving and expanding Internet infrastructure to enable students anywhere in the country access rich educational resources.
The Director of the ICT Directorate of the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, Mr Emmanuel Owusu-Oware, in his presentation, advocated an ICT leadership at national and educational institutions to move the technology from a notion to practicality.
He proposed an ICT committee with top level management making up its membership in all governmental and educational institutions.
Among other things, he pointed out that such a committee would help bridge the existing gap in the mainstream of the technology, educators and policy directives.
He said there was the need for educational institutions to have the basic capacity to access, exchange and use basic information, and that required an increase in the computer student ration, which now stood at a computer to every 30 students at the UG compared with a computer to four students in Singapore.
The Chairperson for the symposium, Ms Dorothy K. Gordon, said education was an important dimension of capacity building, as human resources were a nation's true wealth in driving economic and social development.
In line with that, she said the country needed to reorganise its tertiary education so that innovative and cross-disciplinary teaching and learning would be promoted to enable graduates think “in terms of solutions rather than how best they can explain the problem”.
DAILY GRAPHIC, JANUARY 11, 2008
He said the time had come for the immediate establishment of a National Open University of Ghana (NOUG) that would make tertiary education accessible to the teeming number of people, without any pressure on physical educational infrastructure.
“These features of the world's open universities aim to open the world of higher education to all, irrespective of age, sex, place of residence or occupation, in order to enable every individual to realise his or her academic ability,” he said.
Speaking at a symposium on “Increasing the Utilisation of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) in Tertiary Education,” at the 59th New Year School of the Institute of Adult Education (IAE) of the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr Darkwa said the justification for the establishment of NOUG was clear.
Primarily, he pointed out that the Educational Reform Committee that was chaired by Prof. Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, in its report, made a strong recommendation for the establishment of the Ghana Open University.
Coupled with that, the President, Mr J.A. Kufuor endorsed suggestions for the expansion of tertiary education and the proposed Open University in the report.
Giving the advantages of such a tertiary institution in the country, Dr Darkwa said the current university system could accommodate only about 30 per cent of all qualified applicants.
Linked to that was the fact that those from remote towns and villages had to leave their communities for cities where tertiary institutions were situated.
With the Open University, the consolidation of student population at a given place or time would not be necessary, he pointed out.
Dr Darkwa said money for physical infrastructural development could be spent on improving and expanding Internet infrastructure to enable students anywhere in the country access rich educational resources.
The Director of the ICT Directorate of the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, Mr Emmanuel Owusu-Oware, in his presentation, advocated an ICT leadership at national and educational institutions to move the technology from a notion to practicality.
He proposed an ICT committee with top level management making up its membership in all governmental and educational institutions.
Among other things, he pointed out that such a committee would help bridge the existing gap in the mainstream of the technology, educators and policy directives.
He said there was the need for educational institutions to have the basic capacity to access, exchange and use basic information, and that required an increase in the computer student ration, which now stood at a computer to every 30 students at the UG compared with a computer to four students in Singapore.
The Chairperson for the symposium, Ms Dorothy K. Gordon, said education was an important dimension of capacity building, as human resources were a nation's true wealth in driving economic and social development.
In line with that, she said the country needed to reorganise its tertiary education so that innovative and cross-disciplinary teaching and learning would be promoted to enable graduates think “in terms of solutions rather than how best they can explain the problem”.
DAILY GRAPHIC, JANUARY 11, 2008
GHANA FREE FROM POLIO
FOR the second year running, Ghana recorded no polio infection. Consequently, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) is going ahead for a polio-free certificate for the country.
Other strides have been made in communicable diseases such as whooping cough and TB, with drastic decreases in their incidence.
The Deputy Director-General of the GHS, Dr George Amofah, who gave these indicators about the health sector, said improvement in the incidence of those diseases had caused a dearth of cases for study by medical students.
He was speaking at a panel discussion on, “Promoting Health for All: The Challenge”, at the 59th New Year School in Accra over the weekend.
Another positive indicator about the sector, he said, was the regenerative health and nutrition programme as an overall policy and strategy for the promotion of health.
He explained the focus of the programme as promoting healthy lifestyles through adequate nutrition, increased water intake and the promotion of other life-enhancing practices.
On challenges, Dr Amofa cited the location of the country in the tropics, a location that was conducive for the reproduction of all types of vectors and disease, and also its location right in the centre of the world as some of the general factors that posed challenges in the health sector.
He said Ghana’s location right at the centre of the world, and within six hours’ flight from most countries of the world, made it easy for diseases found elsewhere to be transmitted quickly, posing a surveillance challenge.
That was why the country had put in place a surveillance system for epidemic preparedness that included community-surveillance preparedness.
Dr Amofa said improving health depended on all — individuals, all ministries, non-governmental and all governmental agencies.
The General-Secretary of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association, Mr Kweku Asante-Krobea, giving a nurse’s perspective on the challenges of promoting health for all, said poverty, social and behavioural factors, high levels of illiteracy and ignorance impeded optimum health in the country.
In particular reference to nursing, he said its strategic position in the continuum of care was not recognised.
Mr Asante-Krobea pointed out that in a healthcare setting, nurses usually provided the majority of care, up to about 80 per cent, but said recognition of professional excellence eluded them.
That was because instead of blending knowledge and innovation to achieve professional excellence, nurses’ work was defined for them by traditionally dominant groups in the healthcare system.
He said some nurses themselves perpetuated that system, impeding professional development, also at the expense of the client’s interest.
He also mentioned the lack of adequate compensation, few opportunities for career advancement in the country, unfavourable working conditions and the lack of a policy to give nurses control over their practice as challenges.
Mr Asante-Krobea proposed a collaborative effort among all health professionals in their inter-disciplinary approach to patient care and policies to address the education, upgrading, adequate recognition and compensation of nurses.
An interesting question raised during the discussions was the linkage between auxiliary health workers, under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) of the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, and the GHS.
Dr Amofa commended the programme, saying that the GHS saw it as a good one that would ensure the services of the youth for basic duties in healthcare facilities but said those employed under the scheme had to be properly integrated into the healthcare service.
However, Mr Asante-Krobea said information reaching the nurses showed that auxiliary health workers under the NYEP had been employed to replace nurses if they agitated on their conditions of service and embarked on strike.
He said that would have dire implications for the country’s health service.
Some participants, who did not agree with Mr Asante-Krobea, protested, shouting, “No, no, no!”
Prof Aaron N. L. Lawson, the Provost of the College of Health Sciences of the University of Ghana, Legon, who chaired the function, said the country had to work hard to overcome the challenges but commended the strides made so far.
DAILY GRAPHIC, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2008
Other strides have been made in communicable diseases such as whooping cough and TB, with drastic decreases in their incidence.
The Deputy Director-General of the GHS, Dr George Amofah, who gave these indicators about the health sector, said improvement in the incidence of those diseases had caused a dearth of cases for study by medical students.
He was speaking at a panel discussion on, “Promoting Health for All: The Challenge”, at the 59th New Year School in Accra over the weekend.
Another positive indicator about the sector, he said, was the regenerative health and nutrition programme as an overall policy and strategy for the promotion of health.
He explained the focus of the programme as promoting healthy lifestyles through adequate nutrition, increased water intake and the promotion of other life-enhancing practices.
On challenges, Dr Amofa cited the location of the country in the tropics, a location that was conducive for the reproduction of all types of vectors and disease, and also its location right in the centre of the world as some of the general factors that posed challenges in the health sector.
He said Ghana’s location right at the centre of the world, and within six hours’ flight from most countries of the world, made it easy for diseases found elsewhere to be transmitted quickly, posing a surveillance challenge.
That was why the country had put in place a surveillance system for epidemic preparedness that included community-surveillance preparedness.
Dr Amofa said improving health depended on all — individuals, all ministries, non-governmental and all governmental agencies.
The General-Secretary of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association, Mr Kweku Asante-Krobea, giving a nurse’s perspective on the challenges of promoting health for all, said poverty, social and behavioural factors, high levels of illiteracy and ignorance impeded optimum health in the country.
In particular reference to nursing, he said its strategic position in the continuum of care was not recognised.
Mr Asante-Krobea pointed out that in a healthcare setting, nurses usually provided the majority of care, up to about 80 per cent, but said recognition of professional excellence eluded them.
That was because instead of blending knowledge and innovation to achieve professional excellence, nurses’ work was defined for them by traditionally dominant groups in the healthcare system.
He said some nurses themselves perpetuated that system, impeding professional development, also at the expense of the client’s interest.
He also mentioned the lack of adequate compensation, few opportunities for career advancement in the country, unfavourable working conditions and the lack of a policy to give nurses control over their practice as challenges.
Mr Asante-Krobea proposed a collaborative effort among all health professionals in their inter-disciplinary approach to patient care and policies to address the education, upgrading, adequate recognition and compensation of nurses.
An interesting question raised during the discussions was the linkage between auxiliary health workers, under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) of the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, and the GHS.
Dr Amofa commended the programme, saying that the GHS saw it as a good one that would ensure the services of the youth for basic duties in healthcare facilities but said those employed under the scheme had to be properly integrated into the healthcare service.
However, Mr Asante-Krobea said information reaching the nurses showed that auxiliary health workers under the NYEP had been employed to replace nurses if they agitated on their conditions of service and embarked on strike.
He said that would have dire implications for the country’s health service.
Some participants, who did not agree with Mr Asante-Krobea, protested, shouting, “No, no, no!”
Prof Aaron N. L. Lawson, the Provost of the College of Health Sciences of the University of Ghana, Legon, who chaired the function, said the country had to work hard to overcome the challenges but commended the strides made so far.
DAILY GRAPHIC, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2008
A Senior Lecturer of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Mr Kwamina Ahwoi, has proposed the scraping of Members of Parliament’s (MPs) share of the District Assembly’s Common Fund (DACF).
He has instead asked for its replacement a separate fund that would be captured in the budget.
These proposals, he said, were some of the measures that would devolve governance from the centre to local areas and make everyone part of the management of, and sharing in the systems and resources of development.
He made the proposal at a symposium on “Resourcing District Assemblies for Effective Local Governance” at the 59th New Year School in Accra.
Mr Ahwoi stressed the need for this in response to an earlier submission by Mr Maxwell K. Jumah, a Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, that MPs’ interest in their share of the DACF determined their participation in approving the formula for the distribution of funds for development purposes, as prescribed by the 1992 Constitution .
According to the minister, it was a political reality that if the MPs’ share of the DACF was tampered with, they could use tactics, such as absenting themselves from parliament so that no quorum could be obtained for discussions on the formula and subsequent legislation.
This submission prompted the Chairman of the Local Government Council, Nana Boakye-Danquah, to sternly tell the minister: “you are blackmailing us”. There were general exclamations of agreement to this by the participants.
Nana Boakye-Danquah went on to tell the minister that parliamentarians were not development agents, hence, the development of districts was not part of their jurisdiction and they, therefore, had no right to hold the country to ransom because of their share of the funds.
Developing his idea further, Mr Ahwoi, said the creation of a separate fund for MPs under the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs or the Parliamentary Services would help stop the power struggle between district chief executives and MPs.
He questioned the constitutionality of the allocation of a percentage of the funds to MPs, saying “the Constitution only requires Parliament to approve the formula for disbursement; the disbursement themselves are to go to the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs). By dictating the beneficiaries of the disbursement other than the MMDAs, Parliament has gone beyond approval to disbursement.”
Mr Ahwoi also challenged the constitutionality of disbursement to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment (MLGRDE), the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCC) and the Common Fund Administrator, describing the action as “doubtful.”
Other doubtful ways in which the DACF was being operated, according to him, were the calculation of the constitutional minimum of five per cent of the total national revenue as the DACF, the timeliness of the release of the funds and the central government guidelines on the utilisation of the DACF.
He pointed out that the constitutional prescription of the quantum of the DACF being at least five per cent of the country’s revenue had normally hovered around four per cent.
“Unfortunately the allocations have never been challenged and, therefore, the Minister of Finance has never had to defend the amount allocated in the budget to the DACF,” he said.
In addition, Mr Ahwoi said the constitutional charge made it mandatory for payments of the funds to supersede all other payments, including statutory and discretionary payments.
On the central government guidelines on the DACF, he conceded that the guidelines at the inception of the decentralisation process in 1988 were supposed to be a transitional mechanism in devolving power to the local level to ensure continuity in some projects of the central government at that level.
He said that had not been clearly stated and the guidelines had remained and was now one of the sore points in effective decentralisation.
He said it was time to also scrap the guidelines of the use of the DACF from the law and make local constituents the decision-making factor in the use of the funds.
On the recent increase of the DACF from five per cent to 7.5 per cent, Mr Ahwoi wanted to know whether the decision was based on the simultaneous transfer of functions.
He pointed out that a fundamental principle in fiscal decentralisation was for “finances to follow functions,” explaining this to mean that whenever a function was transferred to MMDAs, the finances with which that function was being performed when it was a central activity had to be transferred with it.
He, therefore, suggested a national revenue generation and sharing study that would enable a more scientifically-based decision to be taken on the appropriate central-local government revenue sharing system.
When he took his turn, Nana Boakye-Danquah proposed the use of the 20th year of the decentralisation process in Ghana that would fall in June, next year, as a time for the review of the process.
He said resourcing district assemblies that were the highest political, legislative, executive and rating authorities in their areas of jurisdiction was at the core of an effective decentralisation process.
He added that the legislation on the decentralisation process showed without doubt that district assemblies were established on the concept of devolution of power, resources and also the enabling environment; however, power relations were still skewed in favour of central level institutions.
Nana Boakye-Danquah was of the view that too many central directives and instructions to district assemblies arose out of this unequal and unaligned power relation.
He said this unequal power relation had to be confronted and dealt with by cutting the umbilical cords of district assemblies linked to central systems, the professionalisation of local government training, and the resourcing of the Local Government Service Council which is charged with all human resource issues of the Local Government Service, among other things.
Mr Jumah, in his submissions, said the establishment of the Local Government Service by Act 656 had far reaching implications in resourcing district assemblies, as challenges of staffing would be redressed, retaining the requisite human resource for the effective functioning of the assemblies.
DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2008
He has instead asked for its replacement a separate fund that would be captured in the budget.
These proposals, he said, were some of the measures that would devolve governance from the centre to local areas and make everyone part of the management of, and sharing in the systems and resources of development.
He made the proposal at a symposium on “Resourcing District Assemblies for Effective Local Governance” at the 59th New Year School in Accra.
Mr Ahwoi stressed the need for this in response to an earlier submission by Mr Maxwell K. Jumah, a Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, that MPs’ interest in their share of the DACF determined their participation in approving the formula for the distribution of funds for development purposes, as prescribed by the 1992 Constitution .
According to the minister, it was a political reality that if the MPs’ share of the DACF was tampered with, they could use tactics, such as absenting themselves from parliament so that no quorum could be obtained for discussions on the formula and subsequent legislation.
This submission prompted the Chairman of the Local Government Council, Nana Boakye-Danquah, to sternly tell the minister: “you are blackmailing us”. There were general exclamations of agreement to this by the participants.
Nana Boakye-Danquah went on to tell the minister that parliamentarians were not development agents, hence, the development of districts was not part of their jurisdiction and they, therefore, had no right to hold the country to ransom because of their share of the funds.
Developing his idea further, Mr Ahwoi, said the creation of a separate fund for MPs under the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs or the Parliamentary Services would help stop the power struggle between district chief executives and MPs.
He questioned the constitutionality of the allocation of a percentage of the funds to MPs, saying “the Constitution only requires Parliament to approve the formula for disbursement; the disbursement themselves are to go to the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs). By dictating the beneficiaries of the disbursement other than the MMDAs, Parliament has gone beyond approval to disbursement.”
Mr Ahwoi also challenged the constitutionality of disbursement to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment (MLGRDE), the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCC) and the Common Fund Administrator, describing the action as “doubtful.”
Other doubtful ways in which the DACF was being operated, according to him, were the calculation of the constitutional minimum of five per cent of the total national revenue as the DACF, the timeliness of the release of the funds and the central government guidelines on the utilisation of the DACF.
He pointed out that the constitutional prescription of the quantum of the DACF being at least five per cent of the country’s revenue had normally hovered around four per cent.
“Unfortunately the allocations have never been challenged and, therefore, the Minister of Finance has never had to defend the amount allocated in the budget to the DACF,” he said.
In addition, Mr Ahwoi said the constitutional charge made it mandatory for payments of the funds to supersede all other payments, including statutory and discretionary payments.
On the central government guidelines on the DACF, he conceded that the guidelines at the inception of the decentralisation process in 1988 were supposed to be a transitional mechanism in devolving power to the local level to ensure continuity in some projects of the central government at that level.
He said that had not been clearly stated and the guidelines had remained and was now one of the sore points in effective decentralisation.
He said it was time to also scrap the guidelines of the use of the DACF from the law and make local constituents the decision-making factor in the use of the funds.
On the recent increase of the DACF from five per cent to 7.5 per cent, Mr Ahwoi wanted to know whether the decision was based on the simultaneous transfer of functions.
He pointed out that a fundamental principle in fiscal decentralisation was for “finances to follow functions,” explaining this to mean that whenever a function was transferred to MMDAs, the finances with which that function was being performed when it was a central activity had to be transferred with it.
He, therefore, suggested a national revenue generation and sharing study that would enable a more scientifically-based decision to be taken on the appropriate central-local government revenue sharing system.
When he took his turn, Nana Boakye-Danquah proposed the use of the 20th year of the decentralisation process in Ghana that would fall in June, next year, as a time for the review of the process.
He said resourcing district assemblies that were the highest political, legislative, executive and rating authorities in their areas of jurisdiction was at the core of an effective decentralisation process.
He added that the legislation on the decentralisation process showed without doubt that district assemblies were established on the concept of devolution of power, resources and also the enabling environment; however, power relations were still skewed in favour of central level institutions.
Nana Boakye-Danquah was of the view that too many central directives and instructions to district assemblies arose out of this unequal and unaligned power relation.
He said this unequal power relation had to be confronted and dealt with by cutting the umbilical cords of district assemblies linked to central systems, the professionalisation of local government training, and the resourcing of the Local Government Service Council which is charged with all human resource issues of the Local Government Service, among other things.
Mr Jumah, in his submissions, said the establishment of the Local Government Service by Act 656 had far reaching implications in resourcing district assemblies, as challenges of staffing would be redressed, retaining the requisite human resource for the effective functioning of the assemblies.
DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2008
EXTEND COST-SHARING POLICY TO POLYTECHNICS-SAYS TAMALE POLY PRINCIPAL
The Principal of Tamale Polytechnic, Alhaji Dr Yakubu Seidu Peligah, has proposed an extension of the cost sharing policy in the country’s universities to cover polytechnic education.
He said taking into consideration the new financial demands imposed by the redesigning of the curriculum of polytechnics to train students in specific competencies under the educational reform programme, the country had to decide on other sources of funding or make the students take part in paying for their training.
Alhaji Peligah made the suggestions at a forum on “Voices of the Universities” on the second day of the 59th New Year School in Accra.
He explained that the change in curriculum to focus on each student and his/her area of competence, imposed extra teaching load on staff that run into billions of cedis.
“No polytechnic has that kind of money. This means that government must be committed in providing that kind of money, or we find it elsewhere”, he added.
He said a recent review of a pilot programme on the new curriculum that had been run in some polytechnics with funding from the Netherlands Government, showed that the country would have to commit to a huge financial outlay to sustain the technical and vocational education in the country.
“Practical education comes at a heavy cost”, he pointed out, stressing the role of polytechnics in providing a specific human resource of a technical character for national development.
On other challenges, Alhaji Peligah, said funding had ceased for non-tertiary programmes such as craft being run by the Tamale Polytechnic.
He said unlike regular polytechnic students offering the HND programmes who could access other sources of funds, students offering the non-tertiary programmes depended a lot on the institution for their feeding and, therefore, the cessation of funding was worrying.
Coupled with that, workshop equipment, facilities and other teaching materials were not available.
Alhaji Peligah called for discussions on practical solutions in the funding of tertiary education, as well as the synchronisation of government educational policy, industrial needs and polytechnic education in the country.
The Executive Secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education, Mr Paul Effah, stressed the importance of innovation and skills application of polytechnic graduates to national development, while stressing quality research, knowledge sharing and service for university graduates.
He pointed out, however, that the country currently had a lopsided educational system, with just a quarter of the student population at the country’s universities being found at the polytechnics.
For instance, he said that the normal practice was to have four practising technicians for every practising engineer, but that was not what pertained in the country.
Mr Effah was, however, optimistic about the new educational reforms and the focus on technical and vocational training.
He said the relevance of tertiary education to national development was evident in the quality of research, the development of skills of students and the ability to impart the skills and knowledge acquired to local constituents to solve challenges.
When he took his turn, the Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board (NAB), Mr Dattey, asked Ghanaians to be critical of all advertisements of educational opportunities and make enquiries at the board before committing themselves or their wards to such institutions.
He said the onus was on all Ghanaians to judge critically the institutions and their accreditation status.
Mr Dattey took participants through the various stages of the accreditation of educational institutions, adding that a minimum of two years and a maximum of five years were required for an institution to have the required accreditation.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, who answered some questions from the participants, said accreditation was for the public interest, to protect the public and maintain standards in education.
On polytechnic and university education, he explained that the two provided different lines of training, with polytechnic students being trained to provide middle-level skills, drive innovation and technology in the country.
Prof. Tagoe said the university had plans of providing tailor-made training for professional and other groups of people who might not possess the normal university entry requirements but needed training in their chosen field.
The chairperson for the function, Prof. Florence Dolphyne, said for the past 10 years it had become increasingly obvious that tertiary education was important to national development hence initiatives like the GETFund.
She said with policies that had led to increases in basic and secondary education training, there was the need for absorbing products into tertiary systems and added that funding and expansion in facilities at the tertiary level had to be looked at to address challenges.
After the presentations participants wanted to know, among other issues, the academic and professional lines of progressions for polytechnic students.
Those who contributed said the lack of employment opportunities for polytechnic graduates resulted in most of them backtracking for degree programmes at the universities.
DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2008
He said taking into consideration the new financial demands imposed by the redesigning of the curriculum of polytechnics to train students in specific competencies under the educational reform programme, the country had to decide on other sources of funding or make the students take part in paying for their training.
Alhaji Peligah made the suggestions at a forum on “Voices of the Universities” on the second day of the 59th New Year School in Accra.
He explained that the change in curriculum to focus on each student and his/her area of competence, imposed extra teaching load on staff that run into billions of cedis.
“No polytechnic has that kind of money. This means that government must be committed in providing that kind of money, or we find it elsewhere”, he added.
He said a recent review of a pilot programme on the new curriculum that had been run in some polytechnics with funding from the Netherlands Government, showed that the country would have to commit to a huge financial outlay to sustain the technical and vocational education in the country.
“Practical education comes at a heavy cost”, he pointed out, stressing the role of polytechnics in providing a specific human resource of a technical character for national development.
On other challenges, Alhaji Peligah, said funding had ceased for non-tertiary programmes such as craft being run by the Tamale Polytechnic.
He said unlike regular polytechnic students offering the HND programmes who could access other sources of funds, students offering the non-tertiary programmes depended a lot on the institution for their feeding and, therefore, the cessation of funding was worrying.
Coupled with that, workshop equipment, facilities and other teaching materials were not available.
Alhaji Peligah called for discussions on practical solutions in the funding of tertiary education, as well as the synchronisation of government educational policy, industrial needs and polytechnic education in the country.
The Executive Secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education, Mr Paul Effah, stressed the importance of innovation and skills application of polytechnic graduates to national development, while stressing quality research, knowledge sharing and service for university graduates.
He pointed out, however, that the country currently had a lopsided educational system, with just a quarter of the student population at the country’s universities being found at the polytechnics.
For instance, he said that the normal practice was to have four practising technicians for every practising engineer, but that was not what pertained in the country.
Mr Effah was, however, optimistic about the new educational reforms and the focus on technical and vocational training.
He said the relevance of tertiary education to national development was evident in the quality of research, the development of skills of students and the ability to impart the skills and knowledge acquired to local constituents to solve challenges.
When he took his turn, the Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board (NAB), Mr Dattey, asked Ghanaians to be critical of all advertisements of educational opportunities and make enquiries at the board before committing themselves or their wards to such institutions.
He said the onus was on all Ghanaians to judge critically the institutions and their accreditation status.
Mr Dattey took participants through the various stages of the accreditation of educational institutions, adding that a minimum of two years and a maximum of five years were required for an institution to have the required accreditation.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, who answered some questions from the participants, said accreditation was for the public interest, to protect the public and maintain standards in education.
On polytechnic and university education, he explained that the two provided different lines of training, with polytechnic students being trained to provide middle-level skills, drive innovation and technology in the country.
Prof. Tagoe said the university had plans of providing tailor-made training for professional and other groups of people who might not possess the normal university entry requirements but needed training in their chosen field.
The chairperson for the function, Prof. Florence Dolphyne, said for the past 10 years it had become increasingly obvious that tertiary education was important to national development hence initiatives like the GETFund.
She said with policies that had led to increases in basic and secondary education training, there was the need for absorbing products into tertiary systems and added that funding and expansion in facilities at the tertiary level had to be looked at to address challenges.
After the presentations participants wanted to know, among other issues, the academic and professional lines of progressions for polytechnic students.
Those who contributed said the lack of employment opportunities for polytechnic graduates resulted in most of them backtracking for degree programmes at the universities.
DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2008
16 TEAMS ASSIGNED AMBULANCES FOR GHANA 2008
THE National Ambulance Service (NAS) has assigned an ambulance to all the 16 teams that will be competing in the Ghana 2008 tournament.
The ambulance will be at the disposal of the teams, at their hotel, during training and days of the match, to convey any member to a medical facility in case of an emergency.
The Director of NAS, Dr Ahmed Nuhu Zakaria, told the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday that the action was to ensure that teams playing in the country were “fully covered” during their stay in the country.
While teams prepare to win the cup, NAS in collaboration with other agencies and the Local Organising Committee of Ghana 2008 (LOC), is endeavouring to ensure a disaster-free and enjoyable tournament.
In line with that, training and simulation exercises have been held for the security agencies, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), and the Fire Service.
NAS has also designated the Fire Service Training Academy at James Town as its Control Room.
Dr Zakaria said the geographical location of emergency situations would be ascertained from callers to the control room and the nearest ambulance to the emergency situation would then be dispatched.
NAS has six ambulance locations spread in the country — the Makola Fire Station in Accra, and others in Tema, Ada, Weija, Amasaman and the Airport.
“It depends on where the emergency occurs, but when we get to know at the control room, the nearest ambulance location is contacted. The response time to emergencies is, therefore, immediate,” he responded when asked how fast an ambulance could get to an emergency situation.
Dr Zakaria predicted no serious emergency situations during the tournament because of the country’s institutionalised emergency medical service and the collaboration of all other partners that had resulted in a better management of emergency situations.
He advised football fans not to panic during emergency situations and take instructions from officials mandated to do so.
“Panic worsens emergency situations: Have confidence in the security agencies and health service workers and listen to their advice. Do not take the law into your own hands and do not attempt things that you have not been trained to handle in emergencies,” he added.
Meanwhile, investigations at the NADMO show that the organisation has also already put its rapid response teams on standby.
Sources said NADMO would be playing an effective co-ordinating and supporting role.
DAILY GRAPHIC, FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 2008
The ambulance will be at the disposal of the teams, at their hotel, during training and days of the match, to convey any member to a medical facility in case of an emergency.
The Director of NAS, Dr Ahmed Nuhu Zakaria, told the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday that the action was to ensure that teams playing in the country were “fully covered” during their stay in the country.
While teams prepare to win the cup, NAS in collaboration with other agencies and the Local Organising Committee of Ghana 2008 (LOC), is endeavouring to ensure a disaster-free and enjoyable tournament.
In line with that, training and simulation exercises have been held for the security agencies, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), and the Fire Service.
NAS has also designated the Fire Service Training Academy at James Town as its Control Room.
Dr Zakaria said the geographical location of emergency situations would be ascertained from callers to the control room and the nearest ambulance to the emergency situation would then be dispatched.
NAS has six ambulance locations spread in the country — the Makola Fire Station in Accra, and others in Tema, Ada, Weija, Amasaman and the Airport.
“It depends on where the emergency occurs, but when we get to know at the control room, the nearest ambulance location is contacted. The response time to emergencies is, therefore, immediate,” he responded when asked how fast an ambulance could get to an emergency situation.
Dr Zakaria predicted no serious emergency situations during the tournament because of the country’s institutionalised emergency medical service and the collaboration of all other partners that had resulted in a better management of emergency situations.
He advised football fans not to panic during emergency situations and take instructions from officials mandated to do so.
“Panic worsens emergency situations: Have confidence in the security agencies and health service workers and listen to their advice. Do not take the law into your own hands and do not attempt things that you have not been trained to handle in emergencies,” he added.
Meanwhile, investigations at the NADMO show that the organisation has also already put its rapid response teams on standby.
Sources said NADMO would be playing an effective co-ordinating and supporting role.
DAILY GRAPHIC, FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 2008
FOOD RESEARCH INSTITUTE TO TEST FOOD PRODUCTS
The Food Research Institute (FRI) has been certified to carry out analytical and quality tests on industrial and manufactured food products.
The certification will enable the FRI to carry out 11 microbiological and four chemical laboratory methods in food analysis and quality tests, making it the first food testing laboratory to be granted that accreditation in West Africa.
The FRI is one of the 13 scientific and technological institutes under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and was in May this year accredited by the ISO 17025 by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS).
ISO 17025 is set by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the International Electro-Technical Commission (IEC) to define the global requirements for testing and calibration laboratories.
The accreditation means that manufacturers, importers, agricultural and industrial businesses, the health and educational sectors, among other sectors, can enhance their activities by receiving certification on the quality of goods produced that will be recognised internationally.
The Director General of the CSIR, Prof. Emmanuel Owusu-Bennoah, who announced the certification, listed some of the microbiological and chemical methods approved to be tested at FRI as the enumeration of yeasts, moulds, and E.coli, as well as the detection of salmonella, moisture and protein as a total nitrogen in foods and feeds.
He said the re-establishment of the CSIR by Act 521 in 1996, after it was first established in 1968, refocused the scope of its operations and activities for a more relevant council for the business and the industrial sectors of the country.
He added that with the accreditation, CSIR/FRI had been put in a position to better offer the needed services to these and other sectors, making it an effective player in national development.
Prof. Owusu-Bennoah stressed the importance of the accreditation to all stakeholders in the food industry, exporters, importers and manufacturers, saying that it was going to help with “analytical results” and “documented acceptable proof that products put on local and international markets are of acceptable quality and meet various standards”.
He also expressed his appreciation to the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) that had helped fund all activities for the accreditation.
The Chairman of Council of the CSIR, Prof. Edward Ayensu, warned that Ghana stood no chance of reaching its target of becoming a developed economy if science and technological institutions were not invested in to serve as catalysts for development.
He said governments had to put more emphasis on “repairing” science and technological institutions for them to become what they were supposed to be in the development process,
The Director of FRI, Dr Wisdom Plahar, said it was the vision of the institute to be a key player in the transformation of the food processing industry of the country while also being internationally competitive in product safety, quality and preservation.
He said apart from technology development and transfer for enhanced national food and nutrition security, and poverty reduction, FRI also rendered technical and analytical services to several food industries on regular basis.
Dr Plahar said the regular provision of such services had helped industries to monitor the quality of their products consistently.
DAILY GRAPHIC, JANUARY 1, 2008
The certification will enable the FRI to carry out 11 microbiological and four chemical laboratory methods in food analysis and quality tests, making it the first food testing laboratory to be granted that accreditation in West Africa.
The FRI is one of the 13 scientific and technological institutes under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and was in May this year accredited by the ISO 17025 by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS).
ISO 17025 is set by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the International Electro-Technical Commission (IEC) to define the global requirements for testing and calibration laboratories.
The accreditation means that manufacturers, importers, agricultural and industrial businesses, the health and educational sectors, among other sectors, can enhance their activities by receiving certification on the quality of goods produced that will be recognised internationally.
The Director General of the CSIR, Prof. Emmanuel Owusu-Bennoah, who announced the certification, listed some of the microbiological and chemical methods approved to be tested at FRI as the enumeration of yeasts, moulds, and E.coli, as well as the detection of salmonella, moisture and protein as a total nitrogen in foods and feeds.
He said the re-establishment of the CSIR by Act 521 in 1996, after it was first established in 1968, refocused the scope of its operations and activities for a more relevant council for the business and the industrial sectors of the country.
He added that with the accreditation, CSIR/FRI had been put in a position to better offer the needed services to these and other sectors, making it an effective player in national development.
Prof. Owusu-Bennoah stressed the importance of the accreditation to all stakeholders in the food industry, exporters, importers and manufacturers, saying that it was going to help with “analytical results” and “documented acceptable proof that products put on local and international markets are of acceptable quality and meet various standards”.
He also expressed his appreciation to the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) that had helped fund all activities for the accreditation.
The Chairman of Council of the CSIR, Prof. Edward Ayensu, warned that Ghana stood no chance of reaching its target of becoming a developed economy if science and technological institutions were not invested in to serve as catalysts for development.
He said governments had to put more emphasis on “repairing” science and technological institutions for them to become what they were supposed to be in the development process,
The Director of FRI, Dr Wisdom Plahar, said it was the vision of the institute to be a key player in the transformation of the food processing industry of the country while also being internationally competitive in product safety, quality and preservation.
He said apart from technology development and transfer for enhanced national food and nutrition security, and poverty reduction, FRI also rendered technical and analytical services to several food industries on regular basis.
Dr Plahar said the regular provision of such services had helped industries to monitor the quality of their products consistently.
DAILY GRAPHIC, JANUARY 1, 2008
2007 IN RETROSPECT
THE year 2007 was the golden jubilee year of the country with the celebration of 50 years of independence.
Two thousand and seven was a mix-bag of events, some good and some bad.
January 2007 began with the euphoria of the celebrating the golden jubilee year and a message from the President on New Year’s Day for unity and an expectation of the blessings of God in the course of the jubilee year.
The first month of the year saw the retirement of an illustrious son of the land, Mr Kofi Annan, from the United Nations after more than three decades of dedicated service to the organisation, 14 years of which he worked as the topmost official, that is, the Secretary General.
He joined the United Nations as a budget officer in 1962, and became the organisation's seventh secretary-general on 1 January, 1997.
Mr Kofi Annan was subsequently welcomed home on January 23, 2007, by an enthusiastic crowd at the Kotoka International Airport to begin his retirement.
The fourth day of January 2007 came with reports of disturbances in Yendi as a result of the burning down of a house at Zohi-Fong, a suburb of the town. No casualty was recorded, but several million cedis worth of property was lost. It led to the deployment of security forces to ensure calm.
What was planned to be a fitting burial for the first Ghanaian Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Michael A. Otu, turned bizarre when the helicopter which was carrying his mortal remains crashed and burst into flames at his hometown, Adukrom in the Eastern Region, on January 12, 2007.
The Ghana Air Force MI-17 helicopter crashed at about 1:00pm when family members, mourners and a cross-section of people from the Akuapem Ridge gathered at the Adukrom Methodist JSS Park to receive the body.
The late Ga Mantse, Boni Nii Amugi II, was laid to rest on January 27, 2007, with a rich display of Ga tradition and culture at the Ga Mantse Palace at North Kaneshie in Accra.
The funeral rites was witnessed by thousands of mourners from all walks of life including the Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama.
The jubilee year of the country saw President J. A. Kufuor assuming office as the Chairman of the African Union (AU).
He was elected unanimously by his peers at the Eighth Ordinary Summit of African leaders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on January 29, 2007.
It was the first such continental role for a Ghanaian leader since President Kwame Nkrumah was elected chairman of the then Organisation of African Union (OAU) in 1965.
Journalists woke up to the news of the assassination of a colleague in Kumasi on Friday, February 9, 2007.
Mr Samuel Ennin, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), was attacked by assailants at a drinking spot at Old Tafo, near the Pankrono Estate and shot in the abdomen.
The police in Kumasi intensified a search for two gunmen suspected of killing him.
Dr Sam Esson Jonah, who formerly headed Ashanti Goldfields Company, also announced his resignation from the AngloGold Ashanti Board with immediate effect on Tuesday, February 13, 2007.
Dr Jonah, KBE, was elected as the chairman of the AngloGold Ashanti Board of Directors in 2004.
In a show of reconciliation, President J. A. Kufuor on January 15, 2007 sent a delegation of nine, headed by the Chairman of the Council of State, Professor Daniel Adzei-Bekoe, with a special message for ex-President Jerry Rawlings to attend the celebrations marking the country’s Gold Jubilee.
The Ga Traditional Council on Monday, February 26, 2007, started rites to induct King Tackie Tawiah III, known in private life as Dr Jo Blankson, as the King of the Ga State.
The performance of the rites by the Nai Wulomo, Numo Tete III, opened the flood gates of disturbances in the Ga State for most part of the year.
A landmark chapter in the life of Ghana’s foremast news organisation, the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), opened on Tuesday, February 6, 2007, with the launch of a hard cover book of newspaper articles that defined key times during the country’s 50 year journey after independence.
The 498-page Jubilee Ghana-a 50-year news journey thro’ Graphic, recollected key events of the past 50 years.
The highlight of celebrations of the year, was the independence day celebrations on March 6, 2007, marked by a smart parade of security forces and school children, as well as musical concerts and gymnastics.
President J. A. Kufuor used the day to call for a clear-cut vision and rational steps for the country’s development in the next 50 years.
The ceremonial avenue in Accra linking the 37 Military Hospital Junction to the Dimples Inn Junction at Achimota, was also on that day named in honour of the Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo.
The honour followed an earlier ceremony during which President John Agyekum Kufuor conferred on the Nigerian leader, the highest national award of the Companion of the Order of the Star of Ghana at a State Banquet.
The historic visit of President J. A. Kufuor to Britain at the request of the British Monarch, Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, was reported with pomp in the Wednesday, March 14, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic.
The visit was reported as historic in many respects as it was the first by a Ghanaian Head of State and the 17th by any African (the first being President Bourguiba of Tunisia in October 1980 and Nelson Mandela of South Africa in 1995). The visit also came exactly a week after Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence from colonial rule with a colourful ceremony in Accra.
The death of two prominent Ghanaians shocked many, especially when the country was still in celebration over its jubilee year.
The Chief Justice, Mr Justice George Kingley Acquah died on Sunday, March 25, 2007, while Madam Hawa Yakubu, former Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, was reported dead in the Thursday, March 22, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic.
The country was plagued challenges in electricity generation and supplies for most part of the year that leading to a load management exercise in which customer groups enjoyed electricity at intermitent periods.
The Volta River Authority (VRA) managers of the Akosombo Dam, the main hydro-electric source of the country and the government announced the closure of a unit of the dam to save it from collapse on Tuesday, March 27, 2007.
The first case of bird flu was reported on Thursday, May 3, 2007, in the Daily Graphic. H5N1 strain of virus causing the deadly bird flu was discovered at a farm near Tema after a diagnosis by the Accra Veterinary Laboratory. Tests carried out by the NOGUCHI Memorial Institute for Medical Reserch (NMIMR) confirmed that. The Tema municipality was then declared an Avian influenza infected area with a freeze on the movement of live birds. Other cases of bird flu were reported in issues of the Daily Graphic, on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at Adjei Kojo in Ashiaman, Sunyani on May 22 and Aflao on June 21.
On Thursday, May 3, 2007, the Bank of Ghana unveiled the new Ghana Cedi and pesewas in line with the re-denomination policy of the government for better fiscal administration in the country. Samples of the notes were out-doored a month before the actual circulation.
Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, a Justice of the Supreme Court was nominated by President J. A. Kufuor as Chief Justice of the country on Friday, May 4, 2007. She was subsequently sworn in as the country’s first female and 24th chief justice with the pledges of support from gender groups and the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) on Monday, June 11, 2007.
A highway accident involving seven vehicles, in which forty people perished at Okyereko was reported in the Saturday, May 12, 2007 issue of the paper as the worst in the country’s history of road accidents. Twenty seven other people were injured. Thirty six of the passengers were aboard a SRIF Mercedes Benz bus travelling fron Cote d’Ivoire to Togo when the accident occurred on Friday, May 11, 2007.
A refurbished Juapong Textiles bounce back to life under a partnership between the government of Ghana and the Chinese government and with a new name, Volta Star Limited. With the refurbishment of the company with new machinery and technology, the cost of the production of Greybaft material was reported to have reduced from 96 per cent per yard to 54 per cent per yard in the Saturday, May 12, 2007, issue of the paper.
Danny Whyte, the Executive Director and founder of the DWIB Lukaemia Trust was reported to have died in London on Wednesday, May 23, 2007. He succumbed to Lukeamia, a diseases he had fought and dedicated his life in setting up the first one marrow register of the black race.
Ghana lost Madam Fathia Nkrumah, the widow of the first President, Kwame Nkrumah, who passed away at the Badrawy Hospital in Cairo on Thursday, May 31, 2007. She was interred beside her husband, Ghana’s first President, at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoluem after a state funeral on Tuesday, June 12, 2007.
Ibn Chambas, another illustrous son of Ghana, was sworn in as the first President of the ECOWAS Commission at an ECOWAS summit in Abuja, Nigeria, completing a process of transforming the ECOWAS Executive Secretariat to the ECOWAS Commission on Friday, June 15, 2007.
The Daily Graphic on Tuesday, June 19, 2007, reported huge oil finds at Cape Three Points in the Western Region after a 20 year search. A presentation of samples was made to the President by the Kosmos Energy of the USA in partnership with Anadarko, Tullow Ghana Ltd and the GNPC.
Talks for an African Unity government, christened the “grand debate”, begun prior to the summit of African Heads of State in the country was reported in the Thursday, June 28, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic.
On Sunday, July 1, 2007, the Ninth African Union Summit opened in Accra with an agenda for the start of a Union government. Although all leaders endorsed the proposal for a continental union government, there were divergent opinions on the nature and timing for such an agenda.
Seventy eight people given national awards for their meritorious and dedicated services to the nation as was reported by the paper on Saturday, July 7, 2007.
Three persons received the Member of the Order of the Star of Ghana award, 16 received the Companion o the order of the Volta, 35 received the Member of the order of the Volta, 21 received the grand medal.
The Daily Graphic, on Friday, July 13, 2007, reported the arrest of two British teenage girls with narcotics at the Kotoka International Airport on July 2, 2007.
In Parliament, an NDC Member of Parliament for Yagaba/kubori, Ibrahun Abdul-Rauf Tanko slapped colleague parliamentarian Sampson Ahi, NDC MP for Juaboso on the floor of Parliament on the 26th day of the same month.
The nation had its share of natural disasters, begining with lighting in June that killed six Ghanaians and their Ukranian captain of the Atlantic Coast of Benin aboard a 30,000 tonne tanker MR North Sea. Four days earlier, lightning struck and killed a six-year old pupil of the Mallam D/A Primary School and was reported in the Saturday, June 2, 2007 issue of the paper.
In August, the country woke up to the horrors of floods in the northern and western regions of country, that claimed life and property.
People living in the area witnessed unprecedented torrential rains on from Friday, August 24, 2007, to Sunday, August 26, 2007.
The death toll increased to 15 and 31 in the Northern and Upper East Regions respectively, with hundreds of thousands of people being rendered homeless
The last quarter of the year turned out to be full of controversies, conflicts, disasters and initiatives. One of the initiatives was the new education reforms, which began in the month. Addressing the 12th congregation of the University of Education, Winneba, on September 9, 2007, President Kufuor urged all Ghanaians to do away with pessimism and scepticism about the new reforms, expressing confidence that with singleness of purpose and perseverance by all Ghanaians in the implementation of the reforms, “we shall succeed”
In the middle of the month, the anti-corruption campaigner and Member of Parliament (MP) for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, Mr P. C. Appiah-Ofori, enjoyed enormous media prominence but for negative reasons. A matrimonial dispute between the MP and his wife, Rebecca, spilled into the open and onto the pages of the Saturday, September 15, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic when another woman appeared as his wife.
On the dark side of the month, the eruption of the protracted conflict between Konkombas and Bimobas in the Northern Region, which left three people dead and many others injured, was among the issues that gained prominence in the month in the Tuesday, September 18, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic.
The Energy Minister, Mr Kofi Adda, announced the end a 13-month-old energy crisis that hit the nation in the Daily Graphic of Monday, October 1, 2007.
The Golden Jubilee year Overall National Best Teacher was conferred on Ms Faustina Gyeketey, a 29-year-old English tutor of the Gomoa Obokrom D. A. junior high school (JHS) in the Central Region. For her prize, she received a GH¢40,000 four-bedroom house, a computer and its accessories, and a hand shake from President Kufuor at a colourful durbar held in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital on Friday, October 6, 2007.
One of the controversial moments that emerged in the course of the month of October was the alleged demotion and transfer of Ms Helena Abrokwa, the headteacher of Padmore Street Primary (1) School in Tema captured in the Daily Graphic of Monday, October 8, 2007.
With respect to the grieving moments during the month, the gas explosion at the Engas Filling Station at Asokwa in Kumasi, which resulted in the death of the owner and two other persons, as well as the destruction of property worth millions of cedis, was one event that grieved the nation on Tuesday, October 2, 2007.
Another dark moment was a road accident in which a Ford mini bus ran into an abandoned articulated truck in the night at Asuoko-Assaman, near Shama Junction in the Western Region, resulting in the death of 15 people on board the bus - Daily Graphic, Monday, October 8, 2007.
Tidal waves were reported on Saturday, October, 2007 to have pummelled homes at Glefe, a densely populated community at Dansoman in Accra, displacing scores of people and destroying property in the process. In another moment of sorrow, one of the most powerful praise singers in the country, Olla Williams, died at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra after a short illness.
The music industry was dealt another blow when another giant musician of international repute, South Africa’s reggae legend, Lucky Dube, was shot dead by unidentified assassins in South Africa on Friday, October 20, 2007.
Other major issues that came up during the month included the first ever public hearing of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on the Auditor-General’s Report for 2004/2005, which unearthed huge financial improprieties at the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and extensively carried by the Daily Graphic in the Wednesday, October 17, 2007 issue.
A collaboration between a Ghanaian journalist, Mr Anas Aremeyaw Anas, and the Ghana Police Service led to the arrest of two Ghanaians who allegedly trafficked women to Europe for prostitution. The incident was reported in the Daily Graphic of Friday, October 26, 2007.
In what was described as a ‘miraculous escape’, President Kufuor escaped unhurt in a horrific accident when a black Mercedes Benz saloon car, driven by Thomas Osei, a businessman, ran into the Presidential convoy causing the President’s car to somersault three times at the Silver Star Traffic Intersection near the Kotoka International Airport on Wedneday, November 14, 2007.
Another dark spot was the Anloga chieftaincy disturbance in the Volta Region where the attempted installation of Torgbui Sri III as the new Awoamefia sparked violent clashes in the town leading to the death of three persons on Thursday, November 2, 2007.
Just as traders in Accra were taking new stocks for the Christmas season, tragedy hit hundreds of them at the Makola Market as fire gutted their shops, destroying goods worth billions of cedis on Friday, November 9, 2007.
One major issue that generated controversy during the month was the Pastoral Letter issued by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference on the educational reforms calling for the re-introduction of Religious and Moral Education (RME) among other demands. Reacting to the demands of the Catholic Bishops, the Ghana Education Service (GES) damned the Bishops describing their stance on the appointment of teachers as unacceptable (Daily Graphic, Tuesday, November 20, 2007).
Other highlights of the month that attracted enormous attention included the trial of Kwabena Amaning, alias Tagor, and Alhaji Issa Abass. After 366 days of what could be described as one of the most sensational cocaine trials in the country, the Fast Track High Court in Accra sentenced the two persons to 15 years imprisonment each with hard labour, after they were found guilty on their self-confessed admissions of dealing in narcotic drugs at the residence of Assistance Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kofi Boakye in May 2006 (Daily Graphic, Thursday, November 29, 2007).
The month of December was awash with intense political activities as three prominent political parties - the NPP, the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the People’s National Convention (PNC) - elected their flag-bearers for the 2008 elections. The most intense of all the political activities was the NPP national delegates congress at the University of Ghana during which Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was elected the flag-bearer of the party ahead of 16 other aspirants in a keen contest - Daily Graphic, Monday, December 24, 2007.
Before then, the National Executive Committee of the party had disqualified one of the aspirants and MP for Berekum, Mr Nkrabea Effah-Darteh, on the grounds that he did not satisfy all the requirements of the national constitution, especially Articles 62 and 94 Clauses (2) (c) and (5) - Daily Graphic, Saturday, December 1, 2007.
Meanwhile, at Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital, delegates to the PNC national congress, renewed their mandate in Dr Edward Mahama for the fourth time as the party’s flag-bearer - Daily Graphic, Monday, December 3, 2007.
Just a couple of weeks after the PNC congress, the CPP also elected former Minister of State and MP for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, as its flag-bearer, beating Pathologist and former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Prof Agyeman Badu Akosa to second position. At the same congress, Dr Edmund Delle lost his chairmanship position to Mr Ladi Nylander - Daily Graphic, Tuesday, December 18, 2007.
Highlights of other prominent events during the month included the crowning of 54-year-old farmer at Manhyia in the Ashanti Region, Alhaji Abdul Salaam Akati, as the National Best Farmer for 2007. At the award ceremony held in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital, President Kufuor announced an agricultural revolution that would facilitate all-year-round production in the country (Daily Graphic, Saturday, December 8, 2007).
The perennial frustration associated with the organisation of the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca to perform the Hajj manifested once again this year as 2,700 pilgrims got stranded at the Aviation Social Centre near the Kotoka International Airport for many days before they were finally flown to Saudi Arabia at the 11th hour - Daily Graphic, Monday, December 10, 2007.
As the world prepared to bid good-bye to 2007 with all its ups and downs and usher in 2008 with all the challenges and prospects, it woke up last Thursday to the shocking news of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani Prime Minister. She was killed in a suicide bomb attack, together with 20 others, after she had addressed a rally at Rawalpindi (Daily Graphic, Friday, December 28, 2007).
COMPILED BY ALBERT SALIA, CAROLINE BOATENG AND EDMUND YEBOAH
DAILY GRAPHIC, DECEMBER 31, 2007
Two thousand and seven was a mix-bag of events, some good and some bad.
January 2007 began with the euphoria of the celebrating the golden jubilee year and a message from the President on New Year’s Day for unity and an expectation of the blessings of God in the course of the jubilee year.
The first month of the year saw the retirement of an illustrious son of the land, Mr Kofi Annan, from the United Nations after more than three decades of dedicated service to the organisation, 14 years of which he worked as the topmost official, that is, the Secretary General.
He joined the United Nations as a budget officer in 1962, and became the organisation's seventh secretary-general on 1 January, 1997.
Mr Kofi Annan was subsequently welcomed home on January 23, 2007, by an enthusiastic crowd at the Kotoka International Airport to begin his retirement.
The fourth day of January 2007 came with reports of disturbances in Yendi as a result of the burning down of a house at Zohi-Fong, a suburb of the town. No casualty was recorded, but several million cedis worth of property was lost. It led to the deployment of security forces to ensure calm.
What was planned to be a fitting burial for the first Ghanaian Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Michael A. Otu, turned bizarre when the helicopter which was carrying his mortal remains crashed and burst into flames at his hometown, Adukrom in the Eastern Region, on January 12, 2007.
The Ghana Air Force MI-17 helicopter crashed at about 1:00pm when family members, mourners and a cross-section of people from the Akuapem Ridge gathered at the Adukrom Methodist JSS Park to receive the body.
The late Ga Mantse, Boni Nii Amugi II, was laid to rest on January 27, 2007, with a rich display of Ga tradition and culture at the Ga Mantse Palace at North Kaneshie in Accra.
The funeral rites was witnessed by thousands of mourners from all walks of life including the Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama.
The jubilee year of the country saw President J. A. Kufuor assuming office as the Chairman of the African Union (AU).
He was elected unanimously by his peers at the Eighth Ordinary Summit of African leaders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on January 29, 2007.
It was the first such continental role for a Ghanaian leader since President Kwame Nkrumah was elected chairman of the then Organisation of African Union (OAU) in 1965.
Journalists woke up to the news of the assassination of a colleague in Kumasi on Friday, February 9, 2007.
Mr Samuel Ennin, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), was attacked by assailants at a drinking spot at Old Tafo, near the Pankrono Estate and shot in the abdomen.
The police in Kumasi intensified a search for two gunmen suspected of killing him.
Dr Sam Esson Jonah, who formerly headed Ashanti Goldfields Company, also announced his resignation from the AngloGold Ashanti Board with immediate effect on Tuesday, February 13, 2007.
Dr Jonah, KBE, was elected as the chairman of the AngloGold Ashanti Board of Directors in 2004.
In a show of reconciliation, President J. A. Kufuor on January 15, 2007 sent a delegation of nine, headed by the Chairman of the Council of State, Professor Daniel Adzei-Bekoe, with a special message for ex-President Jerry Rawlings to attend the celebrations marking the country’s Gold Jubilee.
The Ga Traditional Council on Monday, February 26, 2007, started rites to induct King Tackie Tawiah III, known in private life as Dr Jo Blankson, as the King of the Ga State.
The performance of the rites by the Nai Wulomo, Numo Tete III, opened the flood gates of disturbances in the Ga State for most part of the year.
A landmark chapter in the life of Ghana’s foremast news organisation, the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), opened on Tuesday, February 6, 2007, with the launch of a hard cover book of newspaper articles that defined key times during the country’s 50 year journey after independence.
The 498-page Jubilee Ghana-a 50-year news journey thro’ Graphic, recollected key events of the past 50 years.
The highlight of celebrations of the year, was the independence day celebrations on March 6, 2007, marked by a smart parade of security forces and school children, as well as musical concerts and gymnastics.
President J. A. Kufuor used the day to call for a clear-cut vision and rational steps for the country’s development in the next 50 years.
The ceremonial avenue in Accra linking the 37 Military Hospital Junction to the Dimples Inn Junction at Achimota, was also on that day named in honour of the Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo.
The honour followed an earlier ceremony during which President John Agyekum Kufuor conferred on the Nigerian leader, the highest national award of the Companion of the Order of the Star of Ghana at a State Banquet.
The historic visit of President J. A. Kufuor to Britain at the request of the British Monarch, Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, was reported with pomp in the Wednesday, March 14, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic.
The visit was reported as historic in many respects as it was the first by a Ghanaian Head of State and the 17th by any African (the first being President Bourguiba of Tunisia in October 1980 and Nelson Mandela of South Africa in 1995). The visit also came exactly a week after Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence from colonial rule with a colourful ceremony in Accra.
The death of two prominent Ghanaians shocked many, especially when the country was still in celebration over its jubilee year.
The Chief Justice, Mr Justice George Kingley Acquah died on Sunday, March 25, 2007, while Madam Hawa Yakubu, former Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, was reported dead in the Thursday, March 22, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic.
The country was plagued challenges in electricity generation and supplies for most part of the year that leading to a load management exercise in which customer groups enjoyed electricity at intermitent periods.
The Volta River Authority (VRA) managers of the Akosombo Dam, the main hydro-electric source of the country and the government announced the closure of a unit of the dam to save it from collapse on Tuesday, March 27, 2007.
The first case of bird flu was reported on Thursday, May 3, 2007, in the Daily Graphic. H5N1 strain of virus causing the deadly bird flu was discovered at a farm near Tema after a diagnosis by the Accra Veterinary Laboratory. Tests carried out by the NOGUCHI Memorial Institute for Medical Reserch (NMIMR) confirmed that. The Tema municipality was then declared an Avian influenza infected area with a freeze on the movement of live birds. Other cases of bird flu were reported in issues of the Daily Graphic, on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at Adjei Kojo in Ashiaman, Sunyani on May 22 and Aflao on June 21.
On Thursday, May 3, 2007, the Bank of Ghana unveiled the new Ghana Cedi and pesewas in line with the re-denomination policy of the government for better fiscal administration in the country. Samples of the notes were out-doored a month before the actual circulation.
Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, a Justice of the Supreme Court was nominated by President J. A. Kufuor as Chief Justice of the country on Friday, May 4, 2007. She was subsequently sworn in as the country’s first female and 24th chief justice with the pledges of support from gender groups and the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) on Monday, June 11, 2007.
A highway accident involving seven vehicles, in which forty people perished at Okyereko was reported in the Saturday, May 12, 2007 issue of the paper as the worst in the country’s history of road accidents. Twenty seven other people were injured. Thirty six of the passengers were aboard a SRIF Mercedes Benz bus travelling fron Cote d’Ivoire to Togo when the accident occurred on Friday, May 11, 2007.
A refurbished Juapong Textiles bounce back to life under a partnership between the government of Ghana and the Chinese government and with a new name, Volta Star Limited. With the refurbishment of the company with new machinery and technology, the cost of the production of Greybaft material was reported to have reduced from 96 per cent per yard to 54 per cent per yard in the Saturday, May 12, 2007, issue of the paper.
Danny Whyte, the Executive Director and founder of the DWIB Lukaemia Trust was reported to have died in London on Wednesday, May 23, 2007. He succumbed to Lukeamia, a diseases he had fought and dedicated his life in setting up the first one marrow register of the black race.
Ghana lost Madam Fathia Nkrumah, the widow of the first President, Kwame Nkrumah, who passed away at the Badrawy Hospital in Cairo on Thursday, May 31, 2007. She was interred beside her husband, Ghana’s first President, at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoluem after a state funeral on Tuesday, June 12, 2007.
Ibn Chambas, another illustrous son of Ghana, was sworn in as the first President of the ECOWAS Commission at an ECOWAS summit in Abuja, Nigeria, completing a process of transforming the ECOWAS Executive Secretariat to the ECOWAS Commission on Friday, June 15, 2007.
The Daily Graphic on Tuesday, June 19, 2007, reported huge oil finds at Cape Three Points in the Western Region after a 20 year search. A presentation of samples was made to the President by the Kosmos Energy of the USA in partnership with Anadarko, Tullow Ghana Ltd and the GNPC.
Talks for an African Unity government, christened the “grand debate”, begun prior to the summit of African Heads of State in the country was reported in the Thursday, June 28, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic.
On Sunday, July 1, 2007, the Ninth African Union Summit opened in Accra with an agenda for the start of a Union government. Although all leaders endorsed the proposal for a continental union government, there were divergent opinions on the nature and timing for such an agenda.
Seventy eight people given national awards for their meritorious and dedicated services to the nation as was reported by the paper on Saturday, July 7, 2007.
Three persons received the Member of the Order of the Star of Ghana award, 16 received the Companion o the order of the Volta, 35 received the Member of the order of the Volta, 21 received the grand medal.
The Daily Graphic, on Friday, July 13, 2007, reported the arrest of two British teenage girls with narcotics at the Kotoka International Airport on July 2, 2007.
In Parliament, an NDC Member of Parliament for Yagaba/kubori, Ibrahun Abdul-Rauf Tanko slapped colleague parliamentarian Sampson Ahi, NDC MP for Juaboso on the floor of Parliament on the 26th day of the same month.
The nation had its share of natural disasters, begining with lighting in June that killed six Ghanaians and their Ukranian captain of the Atlantic Coast of Benin aboard a 30,000 tonne tanker MR North Sea. Four days earlier, lightning struck and killed a six-year old pupil of the Mallam D/A Primary School and was reported in the Saturday, June 2, 2007 issue of the paper.
In August, the country woke up to the horrors of floods in the northern and western regions of country, that claimed life and property.
People living in the area witnessed unprecedented torrential rains on from Friday, August 24, 2007, to Sunday, August 26, 2007.
The death toll increased to 15 and 31 in the Northern and Upper East Regions respectively, with hundreds of thousands of people being rendered homeless
The last quarter of the year turned out to be full of controversies, conflicts, disasters and initiatives. One of the initiatives was the new education reforms, which began in the month. Addressing the 12th congregation of the University of Education, Winneba, on September 9, 2007, President Kufuor urged all Ghanaians to do away with pessimism and scepticism about the new reforms, expressing confidence that with singleness of purpose and perseverance by all Ghanaians in the implementation of the reforms, “we shall succeed”
In the middle of the month, the anti-corruption campaigner and Member of Parliament (MP) for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, Mr P. C. Appiah-Ofori, enjoyed enormous media prominence but for negative reasons. A matrimonial dispute between the MP and his wife, Rebecca, spilled into the open and onto the pages of the Saturday, September 15, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic when another woman appeared as his wife.
On the dark side of the month, the eruption of the protracted conflict between Konkombas and Bimobas in the Northern Region, which left three people dead and many others injured, was among the issues that gained prominence in the month in the Tuesday, September 18, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic.
The Energy Minister, Mr Kofi Adda, announced the end a 13-month-old energy crisis that hit the nation in the Daily Graphic of Monday, October 1, 2007.
The Golden Jubilee year Overall National Best Teacher was conferred on Ms Faustina Gyeketey, a 29-year-old English tutor of the Gomoa Obokrom D. A. junior high school (JHS) in the Central Region. For her prize, she received a GH¢40,000 four-bedroom house, a computer and its accessories, and a hand shake from President Kufuor at a colourful durbar held in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital on Friday, October 6, 2007.
One of the controversial moments that emerged in the course of the month of October was the alleged demotion and transfer of Ms Helena Abrokwa, the headteacher of Padmore Street Primary (1) School in Tema captured in the Daily Graphic of Monday, October 8, 2007.
With respect to the grieving moments during the month, the gas explosion at the Engas Filling Station at Asokwa in Kumasi, which resulted in the death of the owner and two other persons, as well as the destruction of property worth millions of cedis, was one event that grieved the nation on Tuesday, October 2, 2007.
Another dark moment was a road accident in which a Ford mini bus ran into an abandoned articulated truck in the night at Asuoko-Assaman, near Shama Junction in the Western Region, resulting in the death of 15 people on board the bus - Daily Graphic, Monday, October 8, 2007.
Tidal waves were reported on Saturday, October, 2007 to have pummelled homes at Glefe, a densely populated community at Dansoman in Accra, displacing scores of people and destroying property in the process. In another moment of sorrow, one of the most powerful praise singers in the country, Olla Williams, died at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra after a short illness.
The music industry was dealt another blow when another giant musician of international repute, South Africa’s reggae legend, Lucky Dube, was shot dead by unidentified assassins in South Africa on Friday, October 20, 2007.
Other major issues that came up during the month included the first ever public hearing of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on the Auditor-General’s Report for 2004/2005, which unearthed huge financial improprieties at the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and extensively carried by the Daily Graphic in the Wednesday, October 17, 2007 issue.
A collaboration between a Ghanaian journalist, Mr Anas Aremeyaw Anas, and the Ghana Police Service led to the arrest of two Ghanaians who allegedly trafficked women to Europe for prostitution. The incident was reported in the Daily Graphic of Friday, October 26, 2007.
In what was described as a ‘miraculous escape’, President Kufuor escaped unhurt in a horrific accident when a black Mercedes Benz saloon car, driven by Thomas Osei, a businessman, ran into the Presidential convoy causing the President’s car to somersault three times at the Silver Star Traffic Intersection near the Kotoka International Airport on Wedneday, November 14, 2007.
Another dark spot was the Anloga chieftaincy disturbance in the Volta Region where the attempted installation of Torgbui Sri III as the new Awoamefia sparked violent clashes in the town leading to the death of three persons on Thursday, November 2, 2007.
Just as traders in Accra were taking new stocks for the Christmas season, tragedy hit hundreds of them at the Makola Market as fire gutted their shops, destroying goods worth billions of cedis on Friday, November 9, 2007.
One major issue that generated controversy during the month was the Pastoral Letter issued by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference on the educational reforms calling for the re-introduction of Religious and Moral Education (RME) among other demands. Reacting to the demands of the Catholic Bishops, the Ghana Education Service (GES) damned the Bishops describing their stance on the appointment of teachers as unacceptable (Daily Graphic, Tuesday, November 20, 2007).
Other highlights of the month that attracted enormous attention included the trial of Kwabena Amaning, alias Tagor, and Alhaji Issa Abass. After 366 days of what could be described as one of the most sensational cocaine trials in the country, the Fast Track High Court in Accra sentenced the two persons to 15 years imprisonment each with hard labour, after they were found guilty on their self-confessed admissions of dealing in narcotic drugs at the residence of Assistance Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kofi Boakye in May 2006 (Daily Graphic, Thursday, November 29, 2007).
The month of December was awash with intense political activities as three prominent political parties - the NPP, the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the People’s National Convention (PNC) - elected their flag-bearers for the 2008 elections. The most intense of all the political activities was the NPP national delegates congress at the University of Ghana during which Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was elected the flag-bearer of the party ahead of 16 other aspirants in a keen contest - Daily Graphic, Monday, December 24, 2007.
Before then, the National Executive Committee of the party had disqualified one of the aspirants and MP for Berekum, Mr Nkrabea Effah-Darteh, on the grounds that he did not satisfy all the requirements of the national constitution, especially Articles 62 and 94 Clauses (2) (c) and (5) - Daily Graphic, Saturday, December 1, 2007.
Meanwhile, at Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital, delegates to the PNC national congress, renewed their mandate in Dr Edward Mahama for the fourth time as the party’s flag-bearer - Daily Graphic, Monday, December 3, 2007.
Just a couple of weeks after the PNC congress, the CPP also elected former Minister of State and MP for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, as its flag-bearer, beating Pathologist and former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Prof Agyeman Badu Akosa to second position. At the same congress, Dr Edmund Delle lost his chairmanship position to Mr Ladi Nylander - Daily Graphic, Tuesday, December 18, 2007.
Highlights of other prominent events during the month included the crowning of 54-year-old farmer at Manhyia in the Ashanti Region, Alhaji Abdul Salaam Akati, as the National Best Farmer for 2007. At the award ceremony held in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital, President Kufuor announced an agricultural revolution that would facilitate all-year-round production in the country (Daily Graphic, Saturday, December 8, 2007).
The perennial frustration associated with the organisation of the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca to perform the Hajj manifested once again this year as 2,700 pilgrims got stranded at the Aviation Social Centre near the Kotoka International Airport for many days before they were finally flown to Saudi Arabia at the 11th hour - Daily Graphic, Monday, December 10, 2007.
As the world prepared to bid good-bye to 2007 with all its ups and downs and usher in 2008 with all the challenges and prospects, it woke up last Thursday to the shocking news of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani Prime Minister. She was killed in a suicide bomb attack, together with 20 others, after she had addressed a rally at Rawalpindi (Daily Graphic, Friday, December 28, 2007).
COMPILED BY ALBERT SALIA, CAROLINE BOATENG AND EDMUND YEBOAH
DAILY GRAPHIC, DECEMBER 31, 2007
Ghana’s democracy irrational — Boakye Djan
Story: Caroline Boateng
GHANA’s political party democracy is irrational and needs a revolution of ideas to address the potential for instability that it could create for the country, the Head of Government of the erstwhile Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), Osahene Boakye Djan has said.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic after a long period of silence, during which the AFRC member, who also doubled as the spokesman took respite from public political activity and discourse, a dire prognosis of a country stumbling gradually into a state where majority participation in political party practice remained a myth, was made by him.
His views, he said, were based on a careful observation of developments of recent primaries of the country’s political parties and their implications for the political health of the country.
Explaining what he meant by an irrational political system, he said this was where political choices were limited to persuasion and enticement of voters with money, ethnic and religious sentiments, gender, age and personality attacks as well as other inducements that had been a characteristic of all the recent primaries of the major political parties in the country.
Buttressing that point, he said in settled democracies, political choices were restricted to issues, policies and principles that directly translated into future benefits to voters who were then expected to make informed decisions on them.
He said in the United Kingdom, the longest known multi-party democracy in the world, formal and rational systems of political negotiations based on rational decisions and choices from formal issues and policies offered by competing politicians within or outside political parties were in place which allowed for informed choices by voters.
The Labour Party on the broad left, the Liberal Democrats in the broad centre and the Conservative Party on the broad right are all occupying three distinctive boundaries and presenting three distinctive choices.
In Ghana, where do the four major political parties with representation in Parliament fit into this pattern? He asked.
Osahene identified the non-clarity in this area as the root cause of the problems of political party practice in Ghana today and most parts of Africa, evidenced by the electoral challenges currently in Kenya and South Africa.
Osahene said the “money persuasion” that had become a part of the Ghanaian political system was deeply offensive and dangerous for the future of democracy in the country.
“It is the basis of the corrosive corruption in the country today. Why would someone want to accept money from a politician in exchange for a vote? Practical competitive politics, as far as I am concerned, is the calculation, the estimate or the judgement of the future for the benefit of all of us and not for a monetary gain today. The man is supposed to go into a four-year term of office to create a condition to benefit you and me in the future and not today,” he pointed out.
He was of the view that politicians had been manipulating the situation to their own advantage.
To those aspiring for political leadership and the presidential slot, he stressed “politics is not about paying someone upfront to get you into power for you to make money for yourself and your family,” while warning the electorate, “accepting cash to vote for a politician is a short-term palliative and not a long-term solution; for if you go to the market and finish spending it, you may have to wait for another four years for another handout. That is not the practical politics that is meant to provide a long-term solution for you and your standard of life”.
On the ethnic factor, Osahene said the danger of the perception of the northern part of the country being marginalised and only having a chance for the vice-presidential slot of the country, as well as the perception that certain regions were permanent vote banks of the two dominant parties, the National Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Party (NDC), had the potential of causing division-related trouble in the country.
That was made worse by political leadership in the country who preferred using these factors to preserve the status quo and had, therefore, tended to use it to the optimum.
The result of all that was pervasive perception of sense of exclusion of some people from the political space and that was also a recipe for trouble in the country.
He said the same applied to gender and religious considerations that also influenced the way political systems were organised, with women not having the space to operate and religious sentiments being used for undue influence.
Osahene said the 1992 Constitution of the country, which should have been the framework to set the country on a course of an all-inclusive society with no divisions, had failed as it concentrated power in the Executive and had effectively established a one-party system of rule.
“The party that wins the elections in Ghana today will have concentrated on its hands the four levels of power in the country - the Executive, the Judiciary, the Legislature and local administration. This is because the Executive has the power and uses it to control and manipulate Parliament, in which it has a party-controlled majority. It has the constitutional mandate to appoint the head and members of the Judiciary, local governing officers, ambassadors and head of other para-statal organisations,” he said.
Only the right systems in place would ensure checks and balances against such temptations that came out of natural human nature, he added.
He said all the political parties of the country had missed the chance of setting the country on course for a better multi-party democratic system as most of the leaders of the parties preferred maintaining the status quo for the benefit of their personal and party followers, providing a good patronage system and benefit for their cronies.
Among the solutions proposed by Osahene was a four-year term moratorium on one-party rule in the country for the constitution to be amended to diffuse power away from the Executive.
Another solution was for journalists, politicians, industrialists and all other stakeholders to see it as a duty to work to give true meaning to the practice of multi-party democracy in the country in order to avert the looming danger ahead, he warned.
Osahene said another solution would be the “need for the emergence of a new movement, outside the traditional political parties’ status quo, with ideas and solutions that transcend all the ideas of all of the four major political parties, a conscious crop of people with an alternative platform and solutions to steer Ghana away from the brink and onto the right track”.
“I believe there is a room for such a group to emerge to participate in the 2008 elections,” he predicted.
DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2007
GHANA’s political party democracy is irrational and needs a revolution of ideas to address the potential for instability that it could create for the country, the Head of Government of the erstwhile Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), Osahene Boakye Djan has said.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic after a long period of silence, during which the AFRC member, who also doubled as the spokesman took respite from public political activity and discourse, a dire prognosis of a country stumbling gradually into a state where majority participation in political party practice remained a myth, was made by him.
His views, he said, were based on a careful observation of developments of recent primaries of the country’s political parties and their implications for the political health of the country.
Explaining what he meant by an irrational political system, he said this was where political choices were limited to persuasion and enticement of voters with money, ethnic and religious sentiments, gender, age and personality attacks as well as other inducements that had been a characteristic of all the recent primaries of the major political parties in the country.
Buttressing that point, he said in settled democracies, political choices were restricted to issues, policies and principles that directly translated into future benefits to voters who were then expected to make informed decisions on them.
He said in the United Kingdom, the longest known multi-party democracy in the world, formal and rational systems of political negotiations based on rational decisions and choices from formal issues and policies offered by competing politicians within or outside political parties were in place which allowed for informed choices by voters.
The Labour Party on the broad left, the Liberal Democrats in the broad centre and the Conservative Party on the broad right are all occupying three distinctive boundaries and presenting three distinctive choices.
In Ghana, where do the four major political parties with representation in Parliament fit into this pattern? He asked.
Osahene identified the non-clarity in this area as the root cause of the problems of political party practice in Ghana today and most parts of Africa, evidenced by the electoral challenges currently in Kenya and South Africa.
Osahene said the “money persuasion” that had become a part of the Ghanaian political system was deeply offensive and dangerous for the future of democracy in the country.
“It is the basis of the corrosive corruption in the country today. Why would someone want to accept money from a politician in exchange for a vote? Practical competitive politics, as far as I am concerned, is the calculation, the estimate or the judgement of the future for the benefit of all of us and not for a monetary gain today. The man is supposed to go into a four-year term of office to create a condition to benefit you and me in the future and not today,” he pointed out.
He was of the view that politicians had been manipulating the situation to their own advantage.
To those aspiring for political leadership and the presidential slot, he stressed “politics is not about paying someone upfront to get you into power for you to make money for yourself and your family,” while warning the electorate, “accepting cash to vote for a politician is a short-term palliative and not a long-term solution; for if you go to the market and finish spending it, you may have to wait for another four years for another handout. That is not the practical politics that is meant to provide a long-term solution for you and your standard of life”.
On the ethnic factor, Osahene said the danger of the perception of the northern part of the country being marginalised and only having a chance for the vice-presidential slot of the country, as well as the perception that certain regions were permanent vote banks of the two dominant parties, the National Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Party (NDC), had the potential of causing division-related trouble in the country.
That was made worse by political leadership in the country who preferred using these factors to preserve the status quo and had, therefore, tended to use it to the optimum.
The result of all that was pervasive perception of sense of exclusion of some people from the political space and that was also a recipe for trouble in the country.
He said the same applied to gender and religious considerations that also influenced the way political systems were organised, with women not having the space to operate and religious sentiments being used for undue influence.
Osahene said the 1992 Constitution of the country, which should have been the framework to set the country on a course of an all-inclusive society with no divisions, had failed as it concentrated power in the Executive and had effectively established a one-party system of rule.
“The party that wins the elections in Ghana today will have concentrated on its hands the four levels of power in the country - the Executive, the Judiciary, the Legislature and local administration. This is because the Executive has the power and uses it to control and manipulate Parliament, in which it has a party-controlled majority. It has the constitutional mandate to appoint the head and members of the Judiciary, local governing officers, ambassadors and head of other para-statal organisations,” he said.
Only the right systems in place would ensure checks and balances against such temptations that came out of natural human nature, he added.
He said all the political parties of the country had missed the chance of setting the country on course for a better multi-party democratic system as most of the leaders of the parties preferred maintaining the status quo for the benefit of their personal and party followers, providing a good patronage system and benefit for their cronies.
Among the solutions proposed by Osahene was a four-year term moratorium on one-party rule in the country for the constitution to be amended to diffuse power away from the Executive.
Another solution was for journalists, politicians, industrialists and all other stakeholders to see it as a duty to work to give true meaning to the practice of multi-party democracy in the country in order to avert the looming danger ahead, he warned.
Osahene said another solution would be the “need for the emergence of a new movement, outside the traditional political parties’ status quo, with ideas and solutions that transcend all the ideas of all of the four major political parties, a conscious crop of people with an alternative platform and solutions to steer Ghana away from the brink and onto the right track”.
“I believe there is a room for such a group to emerge to participate in the 2008 elections,” he predicted.
DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2007
TIMBER RIGHTS EVALUATION C'TTEE INAUGURATED
THE Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, Ms Esther Obeng Dapaah, yesterday inaugurated a seven-member Timber Rights Evaluation Committee (TREK) in Accra.
TREK was established by Section Five of the Timber Resources Management Act (Act 547) to among other functions ensure strict compliance of the Act in the productive exploitation of timber resources in the country.
The members of the committee include Prof. Nii Ashie Kotey, Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission (FC), as chairman; and the Manager of the Timber Rights Administration Unit (TRAU) of the FC, Mr Charles Dei-Amoah, as secretary of the committee.
Other members are the acting Executive Director of the Forestry Services Division, Mr M. O. Owusu Abebrese; the Chief Lands Officer of the Lands Commission, Mr J. O. Sarpong, and the National President of the Ghana Institute of Foresters, Dr Kwame Asamoah Adam.
Inaugurating the committee, Ms Dapaah outlined some duties of the committee under the Act, which included the evaluation of timber utilisation contracts, ensuring a competitive and transparent procedure for qualified bidders and the consideration of appeals.
She charged Prof. Kotey to make available to the committee logistics for the effective discharge of functions and urged the members to discharge their duties with a sense of transparency, particularly in the granting of timber harvesting rights, to restore the confidence of all parties in the forestry sector.
Prof. Kotey pledged that the committee would do its utmost best to discharge its functions under the law.
A Deputy Minister of the MLFM, Mr Andrew Adjei-Yeboah, repeated the call on the committee to be sincere and transparent in the granting of timber rights.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2007
TREK was established by Section Five of the Timber Resources Management Act (Act 547) to among other functions ensure strict compliance of the Act in the productive exploitation of timber resources in the country.
The members of the committee include Prof. Nii Ashie Kotey, Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission (FC), as chairman; and the Manager of the Timber Rights Administration Unit (TRAU) of the FC, Mr Charles Dei-Amoah, as secretary of the committee.
Other members are the acting Executive Director of the Forestry Services Division, Mr M. O. Owusu Abebrese; the Chief Lands Officer of the Lands Commission, Mr J. O. Sarpong, and the National President of the Ghana Institute of Foresters, Dr Kwame Asamoah Adam.
Inaugurating the committee, Ms Dapaah outlined some duties of the committee under the Act, which included the evaluation of timber utilisation contracts, ensuring a competitive and transparent procedure for qualified bidders and the consideration of appeals.
She charged Prof. Kotey to make available to the committee logistics for the effective discharge of functions and urged the members to discharge their duties with a sense of transparency, particularly in the granting of timber harvesting rights, to restore the confidence of all parties in the forestry sector.
Prof. Kotey pledged that the committee would do its utmost best to discharge its functions under the law.
A Deputy Minister of the MLFM, Mr Andrew Adjei-Yeboah, repeated the call on the committee to be sincere and transparent in the granting of timber rights.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2007
I'VE SUBMITTED LETTER OF RESIGNATION-KWAME PIANIM
THE Chairman of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Mr Kwame Pianim, has confirmed that he submitted a letter of resignation to the President in the afternoon of Thursday, December 6, 2007.
Other pieces of information gathered by the Daily Graphic indicated that his resignation was discussed by the President and some government officials before the President’s departure for the EU/AU meeting in Lisbon.
This is contrary to official government reports that the President is unaware of the resignation of the PURC boss.
Mr Pianim, an ardent believer in the independence of regulatory bodies such as the PURC, resigned on the principle that public confidence in the commission, as an independent institution for regulating the utilities sector for the benefit of consumers and providers alike, was being eroded.
The Ministry of Information, on Tuesday, December 11, 2007, issued a statement on the government’s decision to widen the lifeline threshold for residential consumers of electricity from 0-50 to 0-150.
The government’s decision is seen by some as ultra vires, since one of the PURC’s mandate is to protect consumers and ensure that they get value for their money.
The PURC proposed the provision of meters in all compound households when it announced electricity tariff increases last month.
That was to ensure the right determination of electricity consumed by such households that were generally known to be in the low income bracket. With that information, the PURC maintained that targeted concessions could then be given.
The PURC also championed the programme for the distribution of about six million compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) to Ghanaians, especially those in the low-income group.
The exclusive use of CFLs is known to halve the lighting component of electricity bills, which accounts for 60 to 80 per cent of what consumers pay for electricity.
Sources close to Mr Pianim, an economist thought to be forthright, said the chairman had ardently worked to build the confidence of the public in the PURC as an independent body, unlike other independent agencies in constitutional arrangements that have the executive overseeing their performance.
The act setting up the PURC, the Public Utilities and Regulatory Act, 1997, made it independent of executive influence.
However, the control of the commission to ensure its adherence to its functions lies in a democratic dispensation where information sharing, discussions and dialogue by all ensure due process.
It is on record that Mr Pianim, at a workshop organised by the Legal Resources Commission (LRC) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) last month, said the decision of the government about two years ago to absorb the PURC’s tariff increases showed “democratic maturity where the functions of the different entities are respected and accommodated”.
At that forum, he commended the government for not setting aside the PURC’s decision to increase tariffs but coming out to absorb part of the increases to help vulnerable Ghanaians.
Insiders believe that Mr Pianim saw that not as an interference but the government’s prerogative to cushion certain sections of the public, based on information known exclusively to itself and that was why he did not resign then.
However, the current directive of the government seemed to be a blow below the belt of the PURC, some stakeholders in the electricity sector who did not want to be named pointed out.
“It paints the PURC as insensitive to the plight of vulnerable groups in the country. But that is not possible because the commission has a wide representation of people from various groups in society who bring to bear on decisions taken the situation of vulnerable groups,” they told the Daily Graphic.
They conceded that the government also might have the interest of people at heart but was not using the proper channels to do that.THE Chairman of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Mr Kwame Pianim, has confirmed that he submitted a letter of resignation to the President in the afternoon of Thursday, December 6, 2007.
Other pieces of information gathered by the Daily Graphic indicated that his resignation was discussed by the President and some government officials before the President’s departure for the EU/AU meeting in Lisbon.
This is contrary to official government reports that the President is unaware of the resignation of the PURC boss.
Mr Pianim, an ardent believer in the independence of regulatory bodies such as the PURC, resigned on the principle that public confidence in the commission, as an independent institution for regulating the utilities sector for the benefit of consumers and providers alike, was being eroded.
The Ministry of Information, on Tuesday, December 11, 2007, issued a statement on the government’s decision to widen the lifeline threshold for residential consumers of electricity from 0-50 to 0-150.
The government’s decision is seen by some as ultra vires, since one of the PURC’s mandate is to protect consumers and ensure that they get value for their money.
The PURC proposed the provision of meters in all compound households when it announced electricity tariff increases last month.
That was to ensure the right determination of electricity consumed by such households that were generally known to be in the low income bracket. With that information, the PURC maintained that targeted concessions could then be given.
The PURC also championed the programme for the distribution of about six million compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) to Ghanaians, especially those in the low-income group.
The exclusive use of CFLs is known to halve the lighting component of electricity bills, which accounts for 60 to 80 per cent of what consumers pay for electricity.
Sources close to Mr Pianim, an economist thought to be forthright, said the chairman had ardently worked to build the confidence of the public in the PURC as an independent body, unlike other independent agencies in constitutional arrangements that have the executive overseeing their performance.
The act setting up the PURC, the Public Utilities and Regulatory Act, 1997, made it independent of executive influence.
However, the control of the commission to ensure its adherence to its functions lies in a democratic dispensation where information sharing, discussions and dialogue by all ensure due process.
It is on record that Mr Pianim, at a workshop organised by the Legal Resources Commission (LRC) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) last month, said the decision of the government about two years ago to absorb the PURC’s tariff increases showed “democratic maturity where the functions of the different entities are respected and accommodated”.
At that forum, he commended the government for not setting aside the PURC’s decision to increase tariffs but coming out to absorb part of the increases to help vulnerable Ghanaians.
Insiders believe that Mr Pianim saw that not as an interference but the government’s prerogative to cushion certain sections of the public, based on information known exclusively to itself and that was why he did not resign then.
However, the current directive of the government seemed to be a blow below the belt of the PURC, some stakeholders in the electricity sector who did not want to be named pointed out.
“It paints the PURC as insensitive to the plight of vulnerable groups in the country. But that is not possible because the commission has a wide representation of people from various groups in society who bring to bear on decisions taken the situation of vulnerable groups,” they told the Daily Graphic.
They conceded that the government also might have the interest of people at heart but was not using the proper channels to do that.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY DECEMBER 15, 2007
Other pieces of information gathered by the Daily Graphic indicated that his resignation was discussed by the President and some government officials before the President’s departure for the EU/AU meeting in Lisbon.
This is contrary to official government reports that the President is unaware of the resignation of the PURC boss.
Mr Pianim, an ardent believer in the independence of regulatory bodies such as the PURC, resigned on the principle that public confidence in the commission, as an independent institution for regulating the utilities sector for the benefit of consumers and providers alike, was being eroded.
The Ministry of Information, on Tuesday, December 11, 2007, issued a statement on the government’s decision to widen the lifeline threshold for residential consumers of electricity from 0-50 to 0-150.
The government’s decision is seen by some as ultra vires, since one of the PURC’s mandate is to protect consumers and ensure that they get value for their money.
The PURC proposed the provision of meters in all compound households when it announced electricity tariff increases last month.
That was to ensure the right determination of electricity consumed by such households that were generally known to be in the low income bracket. With that information, the PURC maintained that targeted concessions could then be given.
The PURC also championed the programme for the distribution of about six million compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) to Ghanaians, especially those in the low-income group.
The exclusive use of CFLs is known to halve the lighting component of electricity bills, which accounts for 60 to 80 per cent of what consumers pay for electricity.
Sources close to Mr Pianim, an economist thought to be forthright, said the chairman had ardently worked to build the confidence of the public in the PURC as an independent body, unlike other independent agencies in constitutional arrangements that have the executive overseeing their performance.
The act setting up the PURC, the Public Utilities and Regulatory Act, 1997, made it independent of executive influence.
However, the control of the commission to ensure its adherence to its functions lies in a democratic dispensation where information sharing, discussions and dialogue by all ensure due process.
It is on record that Mr Pianim, at a workshop organised by the Legal Resources Commission (LRC) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) last month, said the decision of the government about two years ago to absorb the PURC’s tariff increases showed “democratic maturity where the functions of the different entities are respected and accommodated”.
At that forum, he commended the government for not setting aside the PURC’s decision to increase tariffs but coming out to absorb part of the increases to help vulnerable Ghanaians.
Insiders believe that Mr Pianim saw that not as an interference but the government’s prerogative to cushion certain sections of the public, based on information known exclusively to itself and that was why he did not resign then.
However, the current directive of the government seemed to be a blow below the belt of the PURC, some stakeholders in the electricity sector who did not want to be named pointed out.
“It paints the PURC as insensitive to the plight of vulnerable groups in the country. But that is not possible because the commission has a wide representation of people from various groups in society who bring to bear on decisions taken the situation of vulnerable groups,” they told the Daily Graphic.
They conceded that the government also might have the interest of people at heart but was not using the proper channels to do that.THE Chairman of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Mr Kwame Pianim, has confirmed that he submitted a letter of resignation to the President in the afternoon of Thursday, December 6, 2007.
Other pieces of information gathered by the Daily Graphic indicated that his resignation was discussed by the President and some government officials before the President’s departure for the EU/AU meeting in Lisbon.
This is contrary to official government reports that the President is unaware of the resignation of the PURC boss.
Mr Pianim, an ardent believer in the independence of regulatory bodies such as the PURC, resigned on the principle that public confidence in the commission, as an independent institution for regulating the utilities sector for the benefit of consumers and providers alike, was being eroded.
The Ministry of Information, on Tuesday, December 11, 2007, issued a statement on the government’s decision to widen the lifeline threshold for residential consumers of electricity from 0-50 to 0-150.
The government’s decision is seen by some as ultra vires, since one of the PURC’s mandate is to protect consumers and ensure that they get value for their money.
The PURC proposed the provision of meters in all compound households when it announced electricity tariff increases last month.
That was to ensure the right determination of electricity consumed by such households that were generally known to be in the low income bracket. With that information, the PURC maintained that targeted concessions could then be given.
The PURC also championed the programme for the distribution of about six million compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) to Ghanaians, especially those in the low-income group.
The exclusive use of CFLs is known to halve the lighting component of electricity bills, which accounts for 60 to 80 per cent of what consumers pay for electricity.
Sources close to Mr Pianim, an economist thought to be forthright, said the chairman had ardently worked to build the confidence of the public in the PURC as an independent body, unlike other independent agencies in constitutional arrangements that have the executive overseeing their performance.
The act setting up the PURC, the Public Utilities and Regulatory Act, 1997, made it independent of executive influence.
However, the control of the commission to ensure its adherence to its functions lies in a democratic dispensation where information sharing, discussions and dialogue by all ensure due process.
It is on record that Mr Pianim, at a workshop organised by the Legal Resources Commission (LRC) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) last month, said the decision of the government about two years ago to absorb the PURC’s tariff increases showed “democratic maturity where the functions of the different entities are respected and accommodated”.
At that forum, he commended the government for not setting aside the PURC’s decision to increase tariffs but coming out to absorb part of the increases to help vulnerable Ghanaians.
Insiders believe that Mr Pianim saw that not as an interference but the government’s prerogative to cushion certain sections of the public, based on information known exclusively to itself and that was why he did not resign then.
However, the current directive of the government seemed to be a blow below the belt of the PURC, some stakeholders in the electricity sector who did not want to be named pointed out.
“It paints the PURC as insensitive to the plight of vulnerable groups in the country. But that is not possible because the commission has a wide representation of people from various groups in society who bring to bear on decisions taken the situation of vulnerable groups,” they told the Daily Graphic.
They conceded that the government also might have the interest of people at heart but was not using the proper channels to do that.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY DECEMBER 15, 2007
LOCAL INITIATIVE SAVES THE DAY
THE ingenuity employed by CERAMICA Tamakloe, a local manufacturing company, is helping to provide safe water to flood victims in the North.
The company produces CT Filtron, water filters from local materials. The filters have been tested by the Water Research Institute of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), as well as the Department of Microbiology of the University of Ghana Medical School, among other institutions.
Tests carried out have shown that CT Filtron is able to remove completely pathogenic and parasitic protozoa as well as other microscopic organisms and debris from water.
The versatile nature of the filters has made them products of obvious choice for international organisations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Pure Home Water based in the North and Enterprise Works, local subsidiary of Dieago, owners of Guinness International, when floodwaters contaminated sources of drinking water in the three northern regions of the country three months ago.
The CT Filtron comprises a locally manufactured rubber bucket, wood shavings and an earthenware bowl made from local clay.
When the clay is mixed with the wood shavings, moulded and baked in an oven, the wood shavings are burned off and small microscopic pores remain in place of the wood shavings.
The earthenware bowl is then immersed in colloidal silver solution, which is tested and known to act as a magnet on micro bacteria.
The earthenware bowl is then fixed on top of the rubber bucket, with a tap at the base. Water poured into the earthenware is filtered to the base of the bucket and ready to drink.
Filtered water from CT Filtron is totally safe to drink and does not need any boiling to kill gems.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at his factory, Mr Peter Tamakloe, the brain behind CT Filtron, related the genesis of CT Filtron by describing his passion for art at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) that had led him to establish a business in ceramics after school.
He continued that in the early 1980s, he met one Mr Ron Rivera, who hails from Honduras in Central America, and the latter introduced him to the filters.
According to Mr Tamakloe, his excitement knew no bounds and he decided there and then to introduce them onto the Ghanaian market.
Ghanaians at first were not enthusiastic about the filters, in spite of all the tests and glowing reports issued by agencies such as the Water Research Institute of the CSIR.
However, Mr Tamakloe persevered. This paid off with the filters now gaining recognition and even winning the World Bank GDMP Innovation award at local and international levels.
Currently, CT Filtron has been selected as one of the 25 final products for the BID Challenge International award. The ceremony is slated for November 29 to December 7, 2007.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2007
The company produces CT Filtron, water filters from local materials. The filters have been tested by the Water Research Institute of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), as well as the Department of Microbiology of the University of Ghana Medical School, among other institutions.
Tests carried out have shown that CT Filtron is able to remove completely pathogenic and parasitic protozoa as well as other microscopic organisms and debris from water.
The versatile nature of the filters has made them products of obvious choice for international organisations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Pure Home Water based in the North and Enterprise Works, local subsidiary of Dieago, owners of Guinness International, when floodwaters contaminated sources of drinking water in the three northern regions of the country three months ago.
The CT Filtron comprises a locally manufactured rubber bucket, wood shavings and an earthenware bowl made from local clay.
When the clay is mixed with the wood shavings, moulded and baked in an oven, the wood shavings are burned off and small microscopic pores remain in place of the wood shavings.
The earthenware bowl is then immersed in colloidal silver solution, which is tested and known to act as a magnet on micro bacteria.
The earthenware bowl is then fixed on top of the rubber bucket, with a tap at the base. Water poured into the earthenware is filtered to the base of the bucket and ready to drink.
Filtered water from CT Filtron is totally safe to drink and does not need any boiling to kill gems.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at his factory, Mr Peter Tamakloe, the brain behind CT Filtron, related the genesis of CT Filtron by describing his passion for art at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) that had led him to establish a business in ceramics after school.
He continued that in the early 1980s, he met one Mr Ron Rivera, who hails from Honduras in Central America, and the latter introduced him to the filters.
According to Mr Tamakloe, his excitement knew no bounds and he decided there and then to introduce them onto the Ghanaian market.
Ghanaians at first were not enthusiastic about the filters, in spite of all the tests and glowing reports issued by agencies such as the Water Research Institute of the CSIR.
However, Mr Tamakloe persevered. This paid off with the filters now gaining recognition and even winning the World Bank GDMP Innovation award at local and international levels.
Currently, CT Filtron has been selected as one of the 25 final products for the BID Challenge International award. The ceremony is slated for November 29 to December 7, 2007.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2007
NEW LEGON OBSERVER LAUNCHED
TWENTY-FIVE years after its “voluntary unofficial liquidation”, the Legon Observer has bounced back with the name “The New Legon Observer” and the promise of being the most pluralistic individual medium for informed national debate and thought.
At the launch of the journal in Accra on Thursday, both young and old recollected the renown of the Legon Observer of the 1960s that had single-handedly served as the independent mouthpiece on national issues as the country started its unstable journey after independence.
The launch of the New Legon Observer, however, was indicative of a the rebirth of a journal that was set to change the media with well-informed and researched materials to help in development dialogue.
Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, the Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Legon (UG), and the acting Editor of the New Legon Observer, on the rebirth of the paper, said since the beginning of the year, several people who had been associated with the paper in the 1960s or had known its reputation, came together under the Ghana Society for Development Dialogue (GSDD) to revive it.
He said the paper was going to be an independent instrument for public discourse and non-partisan, but with enough space to embrace differing political opinions.
A manager, with an editorial board, managed the quality of the paper to ensure adherence to the principles set out by the founding members, he added.
A special guest, Prof. Alex Kwapong, who was the first African Vice-Chancellor of the UG at the inception of the paper, said he was in no doubt that judging by the calibre of members initiating the journal, the New Legon Observer was going to live up to expectation.
He recounted how the paper, in the 1960s, challenged some policies which made the then government rather uncomfortable and thought that the paper was owned by the University of Ghana.
That also made him the object of the government’s questioning sometimes.
A retired Vice-Chancellor of the UG, Prof Ivan Iddae-Mensah, giving the history of the paper, said the paper was set up by the Legon Society for National Affairs (LSNA) in 1966.
He said the paper remained consistent to its principles of providing independent thought and informed discussions on issues of the day, till its involuntary liquidation in 1983.
He described the paper then as an independent, highly objective and committed to the principles of a democratic society.
Prof. Iddae-Mensah said the commitment of the paper to these principles landed the editorial staff in court for contempt of court charges after its editorial titled, “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied”.
He said the Legon Observer, “filled a much-needed void in the annals of the country’s history”, while staff were instrumental in the establishment of the School of Communication Studies in Legon.
An acting Director of the School of Communication Studies, Dr Audrey Gadzekpo, said the paper would set the right tone and benchmark for a new kind of journalism in Ghana.
She said the paper, in line with its founding principles, would be a sort of people’s parliament for all to contribute to national issues.
Launching the paper, the Deputy Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr George Agyekum, said any addition to the number of media outlets in the country was an indication of the deepening of democracy.
He pledged that the government would expand the frontiers of the freedoms of speech and association in the country.
Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, the Vice-Chancellor of the UG, who chaired the launch, said even though the media landscape was free, the level of discourse was not deep enough.
The New Legon Observer, he said, would therefore raise the level of discourse on national developmental issues.
A founding member of the GSDD, Dr Gobind Nankani, said the New Legon Observer would help shape national debate on development challenges.
The first three copies of the paper were auctioned for GH¢ 20 million .
DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY DECEMBER 3, 2007
At the launch of the journal in Accra on Thursday, both young and old recollected the renown of the Legon Observer of the 1960s that had single-handedly served as the independent mouthpiece on national issues as the country started its unstable journey after independence.
The launch of the New Legon Observer, however, was indicative of a the rebirth of a journal that was set to change the media with well-informed and researched materials to help in development dialogue.
Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, the Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Legon (UG), and the acting Editor of the New Legon Observer, on the rebirth of the paper, said since the beginning of the year, several people who had been associated with the paper in the 1960s or had known its reputation, came together under the Ghana Society for Development Dialogue (GSDD) to revive it.
He said the paper was going to be an independent instrument for public discourse and non-partisan, but with enough space to embrace differing political opinions.
A manager, with an editorial board, managed the quality of the paper to ensure adherence to the principles set out by the founding members, he added.
A special guest, Prof. Alex Kwapong, who was the first African Vice-Chancellor of the UG at the inception of the paper, said he was in no doubt that judging by the calibre of members initiating the journal, the New Legon Observer was going to live up to expectation.
He recounted how the paper, in the 1960s, challenged some policies which made the then government rather uncomfortable and thought that the paper was owned by the University of Ghana.
That also made him the object of the government’s questioning sometimes.
A retired Vice-Chancellor of the UG, Prof Ivan Iddae-Mensah, giving the history of the paper, said the paper was set up by the Legon Society for National Affairs (LSNA) in 1966.
He said the paper remained consistent to its principles of providing independent thought and informed discussions on issues of the day, till its involuntary liquidation in 1983.
He described the paper then as an independent, highly objective and committed to the principles of a democratic society.
Prof. Iddae-Mensah said the commitment of the paper to these principles landed the editorial staff in court for contempt of court charges after its editorial titled, “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied”.
He said the Legon Observer, “filled a much-needed void in the annals of the country’s history”, while staff were instrumental in the establishment of the School of Communication Studies in Legon.
An acting Director of the School of Communication Studies, Dr Audrey Gadzekpo, said the paper would set the right tone and benchmark for a new kind of journalism in Ghana.
She said the paper, in line with its founding principles, would be a sort of people’s parliament for all to contribute to national issues.
Launching the paper, the Deputy Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr George Agyekum, said any addition to the number of media outlets in the country was an indication of the deepening of democracy.
He pledged that the government would expand the frontiers of the freedoms of speech and association in the country.
Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, the Vice-Chancellor of the UG, who chaired the launch, said even though the media landscape was free, the level of discourse was not deep enough.
The New Legon Observer, he said, would therefore raise the level of discourse on national developmental issues.
A founding member of the GSDD, Dr Gobind Nankani, said the New Legon Observer would help shape national debate on development challenges.
The first three copies of the paper were auctioned for GH¢ 20 million .
DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY DECEMBER 3, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)