Improve facilities with proceeds from fund – Addae-Mensah
Forces vow to defend democratic process
Judges’ murder trial…Tribunal members were threatened
Jerry’s moment of candour…why I bought the jet
Mills must be ware
Don’t set clock of progress backwards – J.J.
Improve facilities with proceeds from fund – Addae-Mensah
The Daily Graphic reports the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Ivan Addae-Mensah, as suggesting that the greater part of proceeds from the proposed Educational Trust Fund, to be used to improve facilities and infrastructure at all levels of education. In a front-age story, He is said to have also suggested that a greater percentage should go to the primary and secondary levels.
Prof. Addae-Mensah is quoted as suggesting further that a fraction of the fund should be set aside to provide financial assistance to primary and secondary schools, based on equity and needs of the educational sector and not entirely on good performance.
The Vice-Chancellor made the suggestions when he spoke on “Social status and equitability in accessibility”, in the last in the series of the “J.B. Danquah Memorial Lectures”, in Accra. The Graphic says that the three-day lectures, which was organized by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, was attended by the academia, Members of Parliament, students and members of the general public.
Prof. Addae-Mensah called for an urgent review and implementation of the Ministry of Education’s policy where u to 30 per cent of places in senior secondary schools are reserved for pupils of communities in which the schools are located.
According to him, the move will serve as motivation for children in such communities to work harder to get into those schools, as well as save parents the cost of transportation and other expenses as a result of having to take their wards to schools outside their communities
GRi./
Forces vow to defend democratic process
The Ghanaian Times reports in a center spread story that personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces are prepared to defend Ghana’s democratic process by resisting subversive activities among their ranks to undermine the Constitution.
The Times quotes Colonel John Anane-Brobbey, Director of Legal Affairs of the Army Headquarters as stating this when he addressed a special troops education programme at the Tamale Airborne Force at Tamale.
The paper says that the programme, instituted by the Army Command in 1996, is designed to educate personnel of the armed forces, their spouses and civilian employees, on topical issues.
Col Anane-Brobbey is said to have told personnel of the Airborne, Air Force and Sixth Battalion of Infantry that coup d’etats were out of vogue and as soldiers, the would maintain the status quo by helping to ensure that governments are changed through the ballot box. He is said to have explained that the educational programme was to sensitize soldiers on their constitutional rights and responsibilities to enable them to defend the constitution and democracy, particularly against external aggression.
GRi../
Judges’ murder trial…Tribunal members were threatened
In a front-age banner headline story, the Dispatch quotes Mr George Agyekum, who for 12 years, was closely associated with the public tribunal system, as saying, “we were criticized, vilified, denied, hounded and made to go through one of the most tortuous moments one could be subjected to in a life time.
Whereas we were supposed to be close to government, the same government thwarted all our efforts at developing the alternative judicial system, especially when they realized that we could not be controlled”.
The paper says that these revelations are contained in the current fast-selling book, “The Judges Murder Trial of 1983”, written by Mr Agyekum, one-time chairman of the pubic tribunals. The 295-page book s a compilation of the proceedings, judgment and miscellaneous in the trial of Joachim Amartey Quaye, Johnny Dzandu, Tony Tekpor and Lance/Corporal Samuel Kwaku Amedeka.
The Dispatch says that the four were accused of abducting and murdering Justices F.P Sarkodee, K.A. Agyepong, and Mrs Cecilia Koranteng-Addow (all High Court judges) and a retired army officer, Major Sam Acquah.
Mr Agyekum is reported as saying that two of the five tribunal panel members were “picked up around by a caller and sent t a place, the call was to find out what decision had been arrived at”. When the tribunal members politely explained that it was a court decision, which was to remain a secret until delivered, the caller went into a tirade, warning of power in the hands of the Executive and not Agyekum’s, and that if anything went wrong, Agyekum would see”.
GRi../
Jerry’s moment of candour…why I bought the jet
The Ghanaian Chronicle in its lead story says that President Jerry Rawlings has expressed bitter sentiments about the barrage of criticisms over the acquisition of the controversial presidential jet and sought to show the rationale behind the acquisition. The Chronicle says that the President speaking at an NDC rally at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, is quoted as saying, “there is supposed to be a so-called Presidential Jet, Rawlings’Jet. We have a F28 aircraft, which is over 26 years old. It can only travel like a ‘tro’ ‘tro’, stopping every three hours”.
“When I was going to Japan to thank them for assisting us, we had to stop eight times, taking us two days to reach Japan, when there are aircraft that can make the journey in less than one day”, he is reported as saying.
The paper says that when the crowd sighed in sympathy, President Rawlings continued, “The aircraft is always developing problems. I didn’t take the country’s money to go and buy a brand new aircraft.
We went and bought a third-hand aircraft, which does not even take half the number of people that the F28 takes. He is reported as saying that what has just been acquired has room for only about 12 people, adding that he should, perhaps, have bought a bigger one that has room for delegates on accompanying trips abroad. In any case, the plane belongs to the state not him, and subsequent Presidents could also use it.
GRi../
Mills must be ware
The Ghanaian Voice notes that as matters stand now Prof. John Atta Mills’ endorsement at the NDC’s upcoming congress at Ho in the Volta Region, is a mere formality.
The paper says that it is obvious that a lot of negotiations, manoeuvres and intrigues might have gone on behind the scenes to assure his being declared unopposed.
The Voice, sounding a note of caution, says that the bigger battle now is ahead and not behind him. It says that there are many in the NDC who don’t accept his authority. They see him as a political upstart and novice, who has not been fathered adequately in the best traditions of the NDC, which has certain set of objectives as its ‘sine qua non’.
The Voice says that some of the tired hands and conservatives in the arty see him as the cause of the formation of the National Reform Party, which is doing political and numerical damage to the fortunes of the NDC in the Volta Region. The paper quotes sources as saying the Vice-President does not know the system in which he is operating.
GRi../
Don’t set clock of progress backwards – J.J.
In its top story, the Ghanaian Democrat reports President J.J. Rawlings as urging Ghanaians to continue to move the country forward and never allow it to sink into the sad past.
The Democrat quotes the President as saying that Ghana has reached its present destination because the people have had the power to put the country on the right path to progress and called n Ghanaians not to allow the power to slip through their hands.
President Rawlings is said to have made the exhortations at an NDC rally at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region. He is reported to have cautioned NDC supporters not to toy with the power the currently have in their grips. “If you do, you’ll set the clock of progress backwards”, he is quoted as warning. According to the Democrat, the President, therefore, called on the people never to underrate power.
GRi../