GRi Newsreel 17-04-2000
NPP wants
Northern unions to help unseat NDC
Speakers at NDC
conference call for unity
Ministry calls
for more efforts to protect the rights of children
Government
urged to ensure private identity of SSNIT
Regional
Minister calls for joint bye-laws
Osei
Amankwaah not a royal - Heads
Afrancho
youth demand resignation of assemblyman
Nsuta (Brong Ahafo Region) 17 April 2000
Prince Oduro-Mensah, parliamentary candidate of
the New Patriotic party (NPP) for Techiman South, has called on youth groups
from the North regions to help the party unseat the NDC government in the
coming general elections.
Addressing the annual general meeting of
Northern Unions at Nsuta, Prince Oduro-Mensah, a tutor at Kumasi T.I. Ahmadiyya
secondary school asked them to make a critical examination of the chaotic
situation of the country and kick out the NDC.
Prince Oduro-Mensah condemned the rampant
increases in fuel prices, with the resultant effect on transport fares, as
against the poor remuneration for workers and the cash and carry system in
hospitals.
"There is an urgent justification for a
change of government", he said, noting that the unprecedented high cost of
education has aggravated the plight of every Ghanaian.
"The administration of the late Dr Hilla Limann was
overthrown with a promise to improve education and the economy, but the
situation has rather worsened to the extent that cutlasses are even costly and
scarce," he said andfgave the assurance that when the NPP is voted into
power, the living standards of people in the rural areas will improve.
GRi…/
Ho (Volta Region) 17 April 2000
Speakers at a special Volta Regional conference
of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at Ho on Thursday warned party
members of serious consequences if internal differences over presidential
running mate and parliamentary candidates are over-stretched.
Prof Kofi Awoonor, a Presidential Aide, said
the party machinery should be allowed to resolve these issues and what ever
decisions were reached should be accepted by all to ensure party unity.
Prof Awoonor, who is also national vice-chairman
of the NDC, responsible for the Volta and Northern regions, said the opposition
are capitalising on the party's internal differences over these matters, to
make the NDC Members of Parliament unpopular.
He said the aim of the opposition is to obtain a
majority in the next Parliament to make it difficult for an NDC President to
govern the country and have targeted the Volta Region as part of their
strategies to dislodge the NDC adding that "they seem to be succeeding
because of the differences in our party".
Mr. John Nunyuie, Volta regional chairman of
the NDC, said resolutions and counter-resolutions from the constituencies over
parliamentary candidates are disturbing and warned that "infighting will
destroy us."
Dr Kwabena Adjei, Majority Leader in Parliament
said the sitting MPs would not be in Parliament forever and that there would be
opportunities for others also to be there.
Dr Adjei
who is also Minister for Parliamentary Affairs said parliamentary work is no
joke and, therefore, called on party members to criticise their MPs internally
instead of doing so in the press, adding that an MP is no different from a
public servant but his position puts severe pressure on him from the public.
He said, "the aim of NDC members should be
to work hard to disorganise the opposition parties and not our own party",
warning that "woe betides us if we lose the elections."
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Agbenaza (rtd), the
Volta Regional Minister, urged party members to start serious organisation in
the region because the NDC's success depends on unity, determination and
organisation.
The conference adopted a resolution endorsing
the candidacy of Vice-President John Atta Mills, as the NDC's Presidential
candidate for December polls
GRi…/
Cape Coast (Central Region) 17 April 2000
Mr J.H. Jehu-Appiah, the Deputy Central
regional Minister, on Thursday called for speedy but thorough investigation and
trial of cases involving the abuse of children to ensure that culprits face the
full rigours of the law.
Mr Jehu-Appiah made the call in an address read
on his behalf by Mr. Mi Afedzi, deputy regional coordinating director at the
inauguration of an association called Coalition on the Rights of the Child.
Made up of 20 NGOs from the Central Region, the
Coalition seeks, among others, to provide advocacy on issues concerning rights
and status of children in Ghana. It is also to act as an information bureau on
the rights of the child.
Mr Jehu-Appiah stressed that the time to
protect, defend and promote the rights of the child can no longer wait and
charged the media, religious bodies and children's organisations to mount
intensive public education on children's rights.
He expressed concern about increasing reports
on child abuse and called on the public to condemn such atrocities, meted out to even children of very tender
ages.
GRi…/
Government urged to ensure private identity of
SSNIT
Cape Coast (Central Region) 17 April 2000
The Central Regional executive of the Ghana
National Association of Teachers (GNAT) on Thursday, called on the government
to ensure strict adherence to the law establishing the Social Security and
National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) as a private institution.
It further called for the review of the present
composition of the Board of Directors of SSNIT to render its decision more
beneficial to workers, the regional executive said at a press briefing in Cape
Coast on issues affecting labour and teacher unionism.
The regional GNAT chairman, Mr Kobina Essiah-Donkor,
regretted that while SSNIT was established as a private institution under the
law, its Board of Directors are dominated by representative of government
agencies and its operations dictated by the government.
This, Mr Essiah-Donkor regretted, has led to
the situation where the implementation of projects and rate of returns on
investment are dubious and are made for the sole benefit of the government
without due consideration to the interest of workers.
He said while SSNIT gives loans to the
government to build military barracks, it requests workers occupying its rental
units to buy them outright or lose them to potential buyers, who may not even
be contributors to the SSNIT Pension Scheme.
He said the executive also need explanation as
to why SSNIT vehicles are given government registration numbers even though the
Trust is a private institution and blamed the Trust for incurring huge
administrative expenditure as against the amount of money it pays out to
retired workers as pension.
Producing figures to buttress his assertion, Mr.
Essiah-Donkor said a research conducted at the instance of GNAT revealed that
over the years, SSNIT has spent billions of cedis on administrative cost such
as payment of salaries, maintenance of vehicles and purchasing of equipment.
He said for example, in 1997, SSNIT spent
49.479 billion cedis on administrative cost from contributions totaling 211.371
billion cedis but paid out only 33.384 billion cedis to retired workers.
Mr. Essiah-Donkor said the disparities in
pension benefits between the SSNIT Pension Scheme and "CAP 30," were
issues of great discontent among workers and stressed the need to bring the two
schemes at par to provide adequate social security for all retired workers.
The Regional Chairman wondered whether the
SSNIT could not cut down on its administrative expenses and improve on its
services to workers.
He called on the SSNIT to stop the sale of its
rental units and suggested that the Trust should assist workers to own houses
through monthly rent payments and deductions from beneficiaries' end-of-service
gratuities.
He said at the appropriate time the regional
executive would call on its national leadership to explore the possibility of
breaking away from the SSNIT if it does not review its activities.
GRi…/
Regional Minister calls for joint bye-laws
Senya-Beraku (Central Region) 17 April
2000
Mr Jacob Arthur, the Central Regional Minister,
has called for the promulgation of joint bye-laws by district assemblies and
traditional councils in the region to prevent school children from attending
concert and video shows.
Under such bye-laws parents whose children are
found loitering on the streets after 7 p.m., or attending video film shows, should
be made to pay heavy fines, Mr. Arthur said when he interacted with the chiefs
and people of Senya Beraku in the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District, as part of a
familiarisation tour of the region.
He expressed concern about the continued
falling standards of education in the region in recent years, especially at the
basic level, and said something concrete must be done to arrest the situation.
Mr Arthur identified lack of effective parental
control as one of the major causes undermining educational development in the
region and called on all stakeholders in education to help reverse the poor
results of Basic Education Certificate Examinations in the region.
GRi…/
Osei Amankwaah not a royal - Heads
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 17 April
2000
Heads of the four royal houses with
legitimate title to the "Mposo and Ameyaw" stool of Effiduasi in the
Ashanti Region, have declared that Mr. David Osei Amankwaah is not a royal to
the stool.
In a press statement issued by the
four royal houses and signed by Nana Brogya Boateng for Ama Akyaa's House,
Opanin Owusu (Adu Ameyaw House), Opanin Kofi Fosuhene of Kwaku Hyia House and Madam
Akosua Mansa (Dua Awere), they maintained that Mr. Amankwaah is not from the
Duah Awere lineage as he claims, describing his assertion as a lie.
According to them, Mr Amankwaah
hails from the Ekuase Stool House and therefore could not ascend the 'Mposo and
Ameyaw' Stool.
The royal heads contended that
since the Mamponghene, Daasebre Osei Bonsu II, does not know who the true
royals of Effiduasi are, custom demands that it should be the Effiduasi
queenmother who should present to him a customarily enstooled Effiduasihene.
They appealed to the Asantehene,
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to stop the "outrageous crucifixion" of custom
by the Mamponghene as the only way to ensure peace and tranquillity in the
Effiduasi sub-traditional area, they added.
Daasebre Osei Bonsu on 4 April,
presiding over a meeting of the Mampong Traditional Council, declared Mr.
Amankwaah the legitimate chief of Effiduasi and directed the kingmakers of the
town to enstool him in order to enable him to swear the oath of allegiance to
him.
Last Monday, Mr Amankwaa under the
stool name of Nana Osei Worae II, swore the oath of allegiance to the
Mamponghene at Asante-Mampong.
GRi…/
Afrancho youth demand resignation
of assemblyman
Afrancho (Ashani Region) 17 April
2000
The youth of Afrancho in the Kwabre
District on Wednesday went on a peaceful demonstration in the township to
demand the immediate resignation of the assemblyman and the unit committee
chairman for inefficiency and abuse of offices.
The placards carrying youth chanted
war songs and slogans. Some of their placards read, "Nobody can destool
our chief, the assemblyman has set fire on Afrancho, DCE, save Afrancho from
danger and we want peace, Manwerehene".
A resolution presented to Mr Ernest
Opoku-Fofie, the District Chief Executive, accused the assemblyman, Mr Nicholas
Owusu Afriyie and the Unit committee chairman, Mr Osei Tutu, of instigating
chieftaincy disputes in the community and being behind the numerous land
litigations in the area.
They said by their behaviour, the
town is now experiencing disunity, thereby making it difficult to mobilise the
people for self-help projects.
The youth claimed that for the past
six months, the assemblyman and the unit committee chairman have not been able
to organise the people to undertake any communal work on any project.
In view of this, the youth said
they had decided to lead the community to initiate programmes to speed up
development in the town and deal directly with the district assembly.
GRi…/