GRi Press Review 17 – 04 - 2003

Kyerematen Meets New Jersey Commerce Boss

Battle rages over forged minutes

Embassy joins in remembering Dubois in US

An open letter to the ex-President Rawlings

Kumasi Metro Bus Service suffers setback

Victor Smith condemns Obed

 

 

Kyerematen Meets New Jersey Commerce Boss

 

Trenton (USA) 17 April 2003 - Ghana’s Out-going ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Alan Kyerematen has held discussions with the Chief Executive Officer and Secretary of New Jersey Commerce and Economic growth commission, Dr. William D. Watley in Trenton, New Jersey.

 

The discussions centred on the Commission’s inaugural trade and investment mission to Ghana and South Africa between 10 – 20 May 2003.

 

The Ambassador who was in Trenton as part of a three-day official visit to the State to fine-tune pre-departure events to be co-coordinated by the Ghana Embassy also met some senior officials of the commission and assured them that the mission would not be disappointed since it should be of mutual benefit to the businesses in New Jersey and the people of Ghana.

 

“This is a potential working relationship. You are on the right track by working with the Embassy. Since investment enhances trade, it is always useful to take stock of potentials elsewhere. Our job is to open the doors and we will do that, he said.

 

According to Ambassador Kyerematen, people want joint business ventures but sometimes there are difficulties with where to look for funding and cited OPIC and the US EXIM Bank as entities that are already looking at American companies interested in investing in Africa.

 

According to the Economic Commission, Ghana and South Africa are particularly appealing, not simply for their free market economies and successful democratic reforms, but also since their economic needs match many of New Jersey’s economic strength with pharmaceuticals, telecommunication, information technology, transportation and infrastructure, construction, medical equipment among others.

 

Dr. William Watley expressed his gratitude to the Ambassador for the Embassy’s participation and contribution in its January’s conference on Africa in Trenton. The Economic Commission’s believe in the two selected countries, is due to the fact that business opportunities in Ghana and South Africa are surprising. Democracy and free enterprise are providing foundation for economic growth unmatched in the past century.

 

The Commission will be in Ghana from 10 – 14 May 2003 and expect that over thirty companies from New Jersey, some mayors and senators to join the trip.

 

As part of the three-day official visit, Ambassador Kyerematen also had a town hall meeting with Ghanaians resident in Newark. He repeated that the Government was gradually fulfilling its programs and that in the public assessment of the two-year old regime, they should take into consideration what the Government inherited, $6 billion external debt, an inflation rate of over 45 percent, high interest rate of 50 percent, high unemployment rate and a situation where over 40 percent of Ghanaians were living below the poverty line. Ambassador Kyerematen was accompanied by his Minister Counselor for Information Ivor Agyeman-Duah. - Public Affairs Department, Ghana Embassy, Washington

 

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

 

Return to top

 

Battle rages over forged minutes

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 17 April 2003 – Latest information gathered by “The Crusading Guide” indicates that the former Presiding Member for Mfantseman District Assembly, John Kingsley Arhin has written a to remind the Deputy District Co-ordinating Director for Mfantseman, Atta-Ullah Dason to withdraw the entire contents of the 10 July 2002 District Tender Board minutes or face legal action.

 

A source close to the Assembly last week intimated to this paper that Atta-Ullah Dason had received the letter which was dated 11 March 2003 and copied to the Regional and District Co-ordinating Directors of Cape Coast and Mfantseman. The letter began by saying, “please refer to my letter dated 15 November 2002 captioned “Forged Minutes of 10 July 2002”.

 

Arhin, the author of the letter continued: “to date, you have failed to respond to my letter asking you to retract your forged minutes purported to have been recorded by you.” “You are once again reminded without any equivocation to withdraw the minutes of which you were quoted as the recorder and meant to cover up t he fraudulent award of some contracts in the District”, he underscored.

 

He warned further that failure to respond to the letter within two weeks shall compel him (Arhin) to address the issue at the law courts to expose him (Attah-Ullah) for his insincerity and to let the public know the type of civil servant he (Attah-Ullah) is. Meanwhile, the two weeks ultimatum has already elapsed.

 

When this paper reporter contacted Arhin, he confirmed being the author of the said letter. Pressed further to know whether there had been any reply to his letter, he (Arhin) answered in the negative, adding “I have given him another grace period.

 

Asked whether he (Arhin) would still pursue the case in the courts of Atta-Ullah apologised publicly to him, Arhin laughed for a while and said, “my brother, truth is light so it can never be hidden. I only want to establish the truth for the whole world to know that those minutes were forged to cover up some misdeeds”. – The Crusading Guide

 

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

 

Return to top

 

Embassy joins in remembering Dubois in US

 

Washington (USA) 17 April 2003 - The Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience (IECME) of the Rutgers University, New Jersey has rounded its conference in observance of Black History Month with the 23rd annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture. The distinguished American historian and biographer David Levering Lewis on the general theme delivered this year’s lecture: W.E.B DuBois on Africa and in Africa.

 

The occasion was also an affirmation of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah’s star role in the promotion of Pan-Africanism as well as Nkurmah’s invitation to DuBois to live in Ghana where he died in August 1963.

 

Ghana’s out-going Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Alan Kyerematen who was one of the special guests joined representatives of the Governor of New Jersey, the President of Rutgers University and the Mayor to salute the memory of the icon often referred to as the father of Pan-Africanism.

 

As a first gesture, Ambassador Kyerematen was given the symbolic key to the city of Newark and after another symbolic gesture was the playing of the Negro national anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing and that of Ghana, Hail the name of Ghana. The Ambassador reminded the over four hundred audience which included academicians, writers and civil rights activists at the Paul Robeson Hall that African-Americans in America and Africans on the continent share the same challenges and that American’s policies in Africa could be measured relative to the treatment melted to African-Americans in America.

 

‘You are not a minority since you have over 800 million Africans behind you’, he said to applause. He however advised that like W.E.B. DuBois, African-American should visit mainland Africa for spiritual and also bilateral concerns. Hundred years after the publication of his most outstanding book – The souls of Black Folk and Forty years since his passing away in Accra, Ghana, DuBois is one of the most revered and prolific black writers and intellectuals.

 

Professor David Levering Lewis who is also the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor at Rutgers and Pulitzer prize winning scholar treated his subject’s first visit to Africa, his ultimate citizenship in Ghana (partly to work on Kwame Nkrumah’s other dream – Encyclopedia Africana), with some solemnity and great respect quoting (with a mimicry DuBois voice) from The Souls of Black Folk, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860 – 1880 and Of the Dawn of Freedom.

 

An Afternoon session was a forum for further reflection on DuBois in Africa and on Africa. Dr. Y. DuBois Williams, a granddaughter of DuBois who teaches at Xavier University spoke about the quality time she had with her grandfather and the lessons taught. Rosamond S. King, Geraldine R. Dodge, Post-doctoral Fellow at the IECME spoke about slavery and ongoing research into the number of people who might have perished crossing the Atlantic Ocean into the Americas.

 

Ivor Agyeman-Duah, Head of Public Affairs, Embassy of Ghana, Washington DC, Spoke on the intellectual capacity of DuBois and Kwame Nkrumah’s pan-African vision. After the lecture the local Ghanaian business and cultural community in the tradition of the lecture series provided soul food, Ghanaian dishes, to the over 400 participants at the Paul Robeson Campus centre.

 

The Director of IECME Prof. Clement Alexander Price, himself a historian and expert on black history and culture expressed satisfaction with the conference for the diversity of opinion and the momentum. The Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience is a community-oriented interdisciplinary academic program that furthers public intellectual work and informed civic discourse in the Greater Newark area.

 

Since its inception 23 years ago, the Institute has mounted scores of public programs that place distinguished scholars, artists and civic leaders in settings that foster intercultural discourse, literacy and discovery. - Public Affairs Department, Ghana Embassy, Washington  

 

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

 

Return to top

 

An open letter to the ex-President Rawlings

 

By: Philip Akwasi Opoku

 

Mr. Ex-President,

 

Democracy has come to stay in Ghana forever

 

The economic woes and low level of development in Ghana can be attributed mainly to the military interruptions of constitutionally elected governments.

 

Due to what I term as insufficient educational background of all the coup plotters and usurpers of political authorities in Ghana including you, Ghana has suffered from serious economic disaster.

 

Examine the real educational backgrounds of Generals Kotoka, Afrifa, Akyeampong, Akuffu and you and compare them with those of Dr. Nkrumah, Dr. Busia, Dr.Limann and President Kuffour (MA), no one would tell you that they were and are more politically qualified to rule. I say this based on the kind of legacy all the usurpers left for Ghanaians.

 

Mr. Ex-President, Ghanaians accommodated you for almost twenty years, because we want peace, and hate civil war and anarchy; by the grace of God, the government seat of Ghana has forever said good-bye to you and all military opportunists, because democracy has come to thrive in Ghana henceforth. Some of your utterances ever since your exit from the castle are apparently meant to incite the good people of Ghana to spark off anarchy for you to mount the political seat again. God forbid!

 

Mr. Ex-President, we are wise enough to interpret the reason why almost all your daughters are now living in Scotland. Please, leave Ghanaians alone. When you were winning elections as incumbent, were you rigging?

 

I wish to remind you that, your profession is to fight and defend the people of Ghana against external aggression

 

If you do not know, then let me reveal to you that, the clergy in Ghana fasted and prayed for national peace during your oppressive regimes. Now real freedom is free in Ghana.

 

If I were you, I would examine the life of ex-presidents of UK and USA and emulate them. My peace of advice to you is this: Democracy has come to thrive permanently in Ghana

 

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

 

Return to top

 

Kumasi Metro Bus Service suffers setback

 

Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 17 April 2003 - The Metro Mass Transit (MMT) system in Kumasi has suffered a major setback, with six of the buses being grounded following an accident involving six buses. This happened when a 35-year-old car washer, Amidu Iddrisu, allegedly moved one of the buses without authority and crashed it into five others on the premises of the Omnibus Services Authority (OSA) where the buses are parked.

 

Amidu has been remanded in prison custody by a Kumasi Circuit Court, presided over by Ernest Yao Obimpeh, to re-appear on 14 April 2003, pending further investigations into the case. He pleaded guilty to two counts of driving without authority and careless driving when he appeared before the court on Tuesday.

 

An Operations Officer of the MMT, Peter Afful, who witnessed the accident, noted that Amidu is among a group of car washers of the OSA whose services had earlier been terminated owing to unsatisfactory conduct. Briefing newsmen on the incident, Afful said that last Sunday, at about 7 p.m., Idrisu illegally jumped into one of the buses unnoticed.

 

He said he started the engine and, before people could know what was happening, he had run it into five other buses, causing extensive damage to them. He said when security personnel at the OSA yard heard the sound of the engine, they became alarmed, because as far as they were concerned, none of the drivers was around.

 

He said they quickly rushed to the scene and when Amidu saw them, he tried to move the bus again but the engine went off, giving them an advantage to pull him out from the bus.

 

He said the security personnel arrested Idrisu and handed him over to the police. Afful could not provide estimates for the damaged buses but said enquiries have established that each of the DAF buses built locally by Neoplan Ghana Limited cost about ¢1.6billion.

 

The incident, which occurred at the bus terminal shared by OSA and the MMT, has raised public concern about the security arrangements at the terminal. Afful dismissed rumours that the buses are not covered by insurance, describing such false information as subversive. Just a week after the service began operating in Kumasi, two conductors were sacked for drunkenness and ticket fraud. – Graphic

 

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

 

Return to top

 

Victor Smith condemns Obed

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 17 April 2003 - Special Assistant to the former Head of State, Victor Smith is livid with anger. He has accused Dr Obed Asamoah, National Chairman of the NDC of deliberately sabotaging his own party.

 

''I can’t understand why Dr Asamoah is always and openly attacking the Founder of the party and has refrained from commenting on the ineptitude of the Kufuor administration. Many party faithfuls are beginning to wonder where Dr Asamoah’s loyalty lies'', he said in an interview with the Insight newspaper.

 

Asked if there were personal problems between his boss and Dr Asamoah, he said, ''no there is no personal problem. I suspect that Dr Asamoah has his own agenda and that agenda cannot be in the interest of the NDC''.

 

According to Smith, ''many party loyalists have been coming to us to complain about the openly subversive activities of Dr Asamoah''. Relations between ex-President Rawlings, founder of the NDC and Dr Asamoah has never been cordial.

 

Last week, Dr Asamoah in a press statement, called for the redefinition of Jerry Rawlings’ role in the party. He explained that the activities of the Founder are overshadowing that of the flagbearer and could affect the party’s chances in the 2004 elections if not addressed. – Insight

 

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

 

Return to top