He said:
"A meeting in an atmosphere of love and brotherliness would send the right
signals to political fanatics that politics in a democracy does not mean war.''
The Chief Justice said these in a keynote address at the 54th annual
New Year school underway at the
The school
was organised by the
Wiredu
appealed to politicians to be tolerant and patient since according to him they
were expected to ensure peace, stability and national development. He said:
"Our politicians and indeed all of us as Ghanaians must know that our acts
go a long way to promote peace and stability of this country. Most coup de'
tats were as a result of civil disobedience including disaffection towards
government."
Wiredu
said for social, economic, political and cultural polices to be meaningful and acceptable, they should be based on the 1992 Constitution.
He hinted that a task force was streamlining proposals for an alternative
dispute resolution mechanism to reduce resources spent on litigation in courts.
Wiredu
stated that the Danish Development Agency would assist in establishing
commercial courts in the country next year to reduce time spent by business
people on disputes.
He said: “We
want to give meaning to the 'time-is-money' slogan.” Justice Wiredu quoted
extensively from the Bible to emphasise his call on
Ghanaians to seek divine intervention in the country development efforts.
"Why
do we therefore, spent much energy and time on our
problems, when we could just be obedient and turned to God for peace, stability
and national development?" he asked." The Chief Justice said God
could save the nation from its present despair adding that: "Apostle Paul
advised us in Romans 13:8 to owe no man anything but love. Can we be fighting
and killing one another if we love one another."
Professor
Joseph Roland, Dean of the faculty of Social Studies,
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Ho (Volta
Region) 31 December 2002 – The Volta Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic
Party (NPP), Kwame Atta, last Tuesday said the President would consider
credible evaluation of the work any District Chief Executive (DCE) and not on
the whims of party members before deciding to dismiss him or her.
He said
DCEs, as district political heads, represented the interests of everybody and were not supposed to seek the interests of party members
alone. Attah was speaking to the Ghana News Agency
(GNA) on alleged agitations by some members of the NPP for the removal of some
DCEs in the region.
He denied
that there had been any such moves, adding that there was no documented
evidence in the party office of such developments.
On how the
party had fared in the region so far, Atta said the outcome of measures to aimed at wooing people into the party held a lot of promise
for the NPP. He said about 50,000 people had already registered as members of
the party in the region after the national launch of the new membership card in
Kpando in October, this year.
According
to Attah, the impact of the NPP on the Volta Region,
perceived to be the 'world bank' of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), was
slow but steady. He said the government had sufficiently demonstrated that it
would develop the region just as it would do for other regions.
He
mentioned the Ho town roads, the Sokode-Bame and Sokode-Abutia road to link the Ho-Accra highway as well as
major road works in the northern parts of the region as evidences of the
goodwill of the government towards the region.
Atta
however, conceded that the popularity of the NDC in the region posed a big
challenge to the NPP but said it was doing everything to erase the accolade
that the region was "an opposition domain."
Asked if
the up-beat stance of the NPP regarding its acceptability in the region was not
based on pretensions of people, Attah said
opportunism was a fact of life, and that as the party in power, many people
would want to associate themselves with NPP for some benefits.
He said
every party had such people, "they are even in the Churches and our homes,
in fact in every facet of life, you would find opportunists." Atta said
though the recent NDC Congress had enhanced the country's democracy, the party
would not win power in 2004.
He denied
that there was a policy of "Job for the Boys", an organised measure
to give party supporters employment. Attah also
dismissed allegations that special consideration was being given to NPP sympathisers in the allocation of credit facilities under
the various Poverty Alleviation Schemes, saying an NPP supporter who met the
requirements and was given a loan would face sanctions if he defaulted just as
any other beneficiary.
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Tepa (Ashanti Region)
The newly
elected officers are Philip Kpodo, chairman, Martin
Owusu Asante, first Vice-chairman, Okyere Darko, second vice-chairman, Kenneth Adu Poku, secretary and Emmanuel Boadu, assistant secretary.
The rest
are Kofi Agyeman, organiser, Johnson Ofori, treasurer, Miss Charity Annor
Frimpong, women's organiser and Musa
Mohammed, youth organiser. The outgoing executive,
led by Nana Kofi Mprah, congratulated their successors
and assured them of their support and co-operation.
Fredrick Fredua Antoh, Ashanti Regional
Chairman of the party, advised both the new and the outgoing executives to see
the elections as a victory for democracy. He asked the party members to bury their
differences and work together to ensure resounding victory in the 2004 general
elections.
Kwasi Adu Poku,
the DCE and Kwame Owusu Frimpong, the MP for the constituency in separate
speeches, re-echoed the regional chairman's advice and urged the party members
to work hard for positive results. They praised the delegates for their
maturity, which resulted in the success of the elections.
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Amasaman (Greater Accra) 30 December 2002 - The First Lady, Mrs Theresah Kufuour,
on Sunday cut a tape for the laying of a foundation stone for a ˘135m early
Childhood Development Centre at Amasaman.
Kufuor
said the development of the nation depends on children's ability to have a
sound education from their infancy in order to become good leaders in future.
Samuel Nii Aryeetey Attoh,
the Ga District Chief executive, who assisted the
first lady to cut the tape, said the European Union (EU) has given out ˘60m for
the project initiated by 'Mother Childhood,' an NGO.
Nii Amasah Oseiku
II, chief of Amasaman, congratulated both the first
lady and the DCE for facilitating the project and promised to give out land for
other meaningful development projects.
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Nyinahin (Ashanti Region)
He asked
them to hand over any criminal they arrest to the police immediately since the
police were mandated by law to deal with criminals in view of the fact that
they had been trained to handle all cases.
ASP Berko gave the advice when he inaugurated a 70-member Nyinahin neighbourhood watch committee at Nyinahin. He said it was the responsibility of the police
to prosecute criminals in court and, as such, it would be wrong for any watch
committee to try criminals they arrest.
Berko also advised them not to involve themselves in
chieftaincy matters adding that it did not form part of their duties. He,
however, called on chiefs in the area to give maximum support to the watch
committees to help clamp down on criminals, especially armed robbers in the
area.
Madam
Theresa Mensah, the Assemblywoman for Nyinahin, later
introduced members of the unit committee in the town to Berko,
who asked them to team up with their chiefs and the people to develop the town.
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Nkawie (Ashanti Region) 31 December 2002 - The Atwima District Assembly has improved upon its revenue
generation this year, collecting ˘877.2m out of its projected revenue of
˘1.05bn as at the end of November.
Charles
Yeboah, the District Chief Executive, attributed the improved performance in
the collection of stool lands revenue and property rates. Addressing the third
meeting of the Assembly at Nkawie, Yeboah said the
assembly projected ˘250m from stool lands but collected ˘294m.
He said
out of the ˘2.7bn projected property rates, the assembly collected ˘1.6bn. The
DCE announced that the district will benefit from the sinking of 50 boreholes
under the Rural Water Supply Project and said the drilling and laying of pipes
and the erection of an overhead tank for the Nyinahin
water project had been completed.
Yeboah
said the assembly had spent ˘500m out of its share of the HIPC fund on the
construction of 13-seater vault chamber toilets and classroom blocks at Nagoole, Pasro, Mpasatia, Barekese and Adankwame.
The DCE
expressed dissatisfaction with the poor patronage of the national health
insurance scheme in the district and called on the people to shirk their apathetic
attitude towards the scheme since it was introduced in their own interest.
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Kpeve (Volta Region) 31 December 2002- The Member of
Parliament (MP) for South-Dayi, Dr Kwame Ampofo on
Saturday said his main preoccupation is to raise the standard of education and
development in deprived communities in his constituency.
Speaking
to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on his vision for the constituency, the MP said
his goal was to reach close to the achievement of Peki
in terms of education adding that such a shift in focus was necessary towards
forging closer affinity and understanding with their neighbours.
"Peki has demonstrated its capability of taking care of
itself on account of the personalities it has produced and their network of
connections," he explained. He said the same could however not be said of
the other communities, which tended to view Peki with
suspicion on account of the several disadvantages they faced in their
relationship with her.
The MP
said contrary to the notion among the other communities that Peki had short-circuited resources meant for their
development, much of the development at Peki were
through the initiatives of its citizens.
"It
is the bare truth which must be faced and remedied," if the constituency
is to act in unison in projecting its common interests. He said even though his
initiative would take some time to bear fruits, its commencement would be a
positive signal for the future.
Dr Ampofo
said some traditional arrangements, which also tended to affect the
relationship between the Pekis and some of its neighbours in the constituency were essentially for
"administrative convenience" and that calls for paramountcy
by some people, if granted, would remove any misconceptions.
He called
on the people of Kaira and Tongor-Ahor
to seek the path of reconciliation in order to pave the way towards addressing
the numerous developmental problems in the area.
He said
the current atmosphere of suspicion and intolerance between them tended to
undermine initiatives aimed at ameliorating the harsh conditions facing them.
Dr Ampofo regretted that the two communities have allowed trivial issues to
undermine their cohesion for so long and called on opinion leaders in the two
communities to solve the problem.
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Yendi (Northern Region)
Sulemana Imoro, President of the Yendi
District Barbers and Hair Dressers Association made the appeal at a day's forum
organised by the District HIV/AIDS Committee for members of the association at Yendi on Sunday.
The forum
was to sensitise the members on the need for
sterilizing their tools to prevent the spread of infection among their
customers. Imoro said it was difficult for them to
identify people living with the disease and the only way to ensure the safety
of their customers was through the sterilisation of
their tools.
Jacob Konlaa, District Response Initiative Coordinator on
HIV/AIDS, said unlike other sexually transmitted diseases, which were spread
only through sex, HIV/AIDS could also be spread through blood transfusion,
injections by using one syringe for more than one person, and the use of one
blade for barbering more than one person.
He said
HIV/AIDS was not within a group of people but that it was within every society
worldwide and therefore urged members of the association to treat their tools
well. Mr Konlaa appealed to the members to educate
their customers to abstain from indiscriminate sex because thousands of people
were dying through HIV/AIDS daily.
Mrs Maria Ayichuru, a Public
Health Nurse at the
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