Omanhene of Acherensua rearrested for murder
Sam Jonah calls for creative ways in education management
Rawlings, Nkrumah equal but opposite - Mazrui
NPP members hold organiser hostage
Chief Executive of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital resigns
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 12 March 2002 - Police on Monday re-arrested
Professor Agyewodin Adu Gyamfi Ampem II, Omanhene of Acherensua Traditional
Area in Sunyani to stand trial for murder.
A police source said he has since been detained in prison custody. Last
week, a Sunyani High Court presided by Mr Justice Baffoe Bonnie ordered the
re-arrest of the Omanhene.
The order followed the granting of an application filed at the court by
Chief State Attorney, Mr B. Cab-Bayuo, for the withdrawal of the bail granted
to the accused by the Sunyani Community Tribunal.
Mr Cab-Bayuo stated that by virtue of law, a person indicted for murder
pending a trial should be remanded in lawful custody to facilitate the work of
the investigator so as to speed up proceedings in court.
After arguments by both Defence Counsel and the Chief State Attorney,
the court ruled that the bail granted by the Community Tribunal having been
found to be not supported in law be revoked. The Judge then issued a bench
warrant for the arrest of the Omanhene, who failed to appear in court.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 12 March 2002 - The President has directed the
Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to suspend any further action on the
prosecution of Mr. Tsatu Tsikata pending the presentation on 20th March of the
reasons for the Supreme Court's decision on the matter of the Fast Track Court
and possible review of that decision.
A statement signed by Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, Minister for Information
and Presidential Affairs, said on Monday.
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Cape Coast (Central Region) 12 March 2002 - The Chief Executive of
Ashanti Goldfields Limited, Dr Sam Jonah, on Saturday stated that unless
creative strategies were evolved to meet the serious challenges facing
education, the political, social and economic future of the nation would be
seriously, undermined.
He said the current scarce and dwindling resources had made it
impossible for the government to invest enough in education to enable the
country to keep pace with the demands of today's competitive world.
Speaking after his induction into office as the Third Chancellor of the
University of Cape Coast, Dr Jonah said the time had come for stakeholders such
as the business communities to invest in education and not to see its funding
as the sole business of the government.
He said universities could only make their reputation on quality
teaching and research if real investment were made to create the enabling
environment for true scholarship.
The state would continue to play a major role in education, he said, and
stressed that business must appreciate that scarce resources breed mediocrity
and that well trained graduates have immediate impact on the profitability of a
firm.
The occasion also formed part of the 32nd Congregation of the
University where 2,300 graduates made up of 1,646 males and 654 females were
awarded with degrees and diplomas.
The Chief Executive noted that the government could also seek funding
for education if they encouraged investment in education by granting tax relief
to businesses adding; "financial institutions could be encouraged with tax
incentives to provide alternative student loans schemes to complement
SSNIT".
Dr Jonah said the managing of universities should be like running a
business and stressed the need for university heads to have a vision and sell
the vision to all stakeholders. He charged the universities to aggressively
market their programmes and continually upgrade their courses to attract the
support of funding agencies and industries.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 12 March 2002 - Professor Ali Mazrui, Director of
the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University in New York,
USA, on Monday described former presidents Jerry John Rawlings and Dr. Kwame
Nkrumah as equal but opposite in their political ideals.
Nkrumah, first president of Ghana, begun his political carrier as a
democrat and ended as a dictator, whilst immediate past president Rawlings
begun as a military dictator and ended as a democrat, Prof. Mazrui observed in
the first of a series of three lectures in memory of Aggrey, Fraser and Guggisberg,
organised by the University of Ghana, Legon to commemorate the immense
contribution of the three great men to the development of education in Ghana.
The theme for the lectures were: Nkrumah's Legacy and Africa 's Triple
Heritage: The Shadow of Globalisation and Counter-Terrorism, and the sub-topic
for the first lecture was; Nkrumahism and triple heritage in the shadow of
globalisation.
Prof. Mazrui recalled that his first lecture on Nkrumah's legacy in
Ghana, in the 1960s was cancelled by the then Vice-Chancellor of the University
of Ghana, Legon due to perceived controversy and political divisiveness at
home. "I can now see that the atmosphere is freer for an open minded and
critical discussion of Nkrumah's legacy in Ghana without fear of division,"
he said.
Prof. Mazrui noted that Dr. Nkrumah's contribution to globalisation,
manifested positively and negatively in religion, governance, culture and
technology, adding that his concepts came at a time when they were perceived as
being over-ambitious and ahead of history.
"Nkrumah's hydro-electric dam at Akosombo, his marriage to Fathia
having an Arabic and Islamic background as against his western training and
claim to Christianity among others, were concepts which were perceived with suspicion
at the time."
Prof. Mazrui noted that Dr. Nkrumah stood for African unity when he
proposed a single state concept for Africa as the ultimate goal of his
Pan-Africanism vision, whilst in Ghana he pursued a one party system.
"It was an irony for Nkrumah to have pushed for a single African
state which would have reduced the sovereignty of individual African states,
and yet maintained that in his country, Ghana multi-partism was a foul and out
of place," he said.
This he said, made him very popular as an African and very unpopular as
a Ghanaian, adding that: "Nkrumah was a great son of Africa but not a very
good servant of Ghana."
Prof. Mazrui said the famous Preventive Detention Act (PDA) and the
dismissal of a Chief Justice in Nkrumah's era were "dubious
precedents", which have made his name go into history as the pioneer of
black authoritarianism in post independence Africa.
He said Kwame Nkrumah projected himself so well on the African
continent that he was a potential candidate for president of the proposed
single African state, adding, other African leaders looked up to him for
direction and for mortal inspiration without him asking for it.
"This Monarchical tendencies of Nkrumah made Ghana look larger
than life in the eyes of other Africans and Nkrumah looked larger than destiny
in the 1950s," he said. "Most African leaders took after Nkrumah to
pursue similar policies in their individual countries."
Professor Mazrui cited former President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania who
described multi-partism as obscene, artificial and unhealthy for the progress
of Tanzania at the time, whilst Robert Mugabe has in recent times proved that
he still holds on to lessons he learnt from Nkrumah.
"Mugabe must understand that such dictatorial tendencies helped
Nkrumah in the eyes of the international community at the time, owing to the
ideological conflict between the eastern socialists and the western
capitalists, but now such dictatorial tendencies are frowned upon by both
sides," he said.
Nkrumah had his training and culture from the west but was very
anti-western in his policies, Prof. Mazrui noted, saying that his neo-colonial
concept was designed to castigate western imperialism, which was the last of
the attempts by the capitalists to rob Africa of its sovereignty.
"It is unfortunate that Mugabe seem to follow the same route at a
time when the world is fast getting globalised and it is obvious that one
nation can not survive under an exclusive ideology to the total detriment of
other opinions," he said.
Prof. Mazrui noted that Nkrumah led the way in criticising terrorism
when he spoke against Israeli attack on Palestine long before Israel finally
took the lands from the Palestinians in the Middle East.
"It is also on record that the Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat
publicly criticised apartheid several times before Nelson Mandela was finally
released and apartheid crumbled," he said. "It is unfortunate that
African leaders can not follow the good example of Nkrumah but have rather
remained quiet over the Middle-east affair."
He urged African leaders to comment on conflicts in other parts of the
world as they expected leaders of the developed world to comment and contribute
to conflict resolution in Africa.
He said the good examples and policies of Kwame Nkrumah should be
considered as the future of Ghana and Africa and his bad examples considered as
the past, "if present African leaders are to chart the right path for
African development."
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Accra (Greater Accra) 12 March 2002 - The following is the brief
biography of Professor Ali A. Mazrui, a gem of African Cultural Historian and
Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University,
New York, USA, born in Mombassa, Kenya on February 24, 1933.
Prof Mazrui obtained B. A. with distinction from Manchester University,
England, M. A. from Columbia University, New York, and his doctorate degree
from Oxford University, England.
Before he launched his
professorial career, he served as the Head of Political Science Department of
Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda for ten years and also the Dean of the
Faculty of Social Science.
Prof. Mazrui has served on numerous international bodies, in various
capacities: Vice President of the International Political Science Association,
between 1974-1991, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre
for Afro-American and African Studies, University of Michigan, USA and Special
Adviser to the World Bank.
He has also served on a number of institutions in Washington, which
included: the Board of Directors of the American Muslim Council, Chairman of
the Board of the Centre for the Study of Islam and Democracy, the Board of the
Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding and also as a Fellow of the Institute
of Governance and Social Research, Jos in Nigeria.
The president of the African Studies Association of the United States
from November, 1978 to November 1979, Vice-Presidents of the International
Congress of African Studies 1979-1991, and the Royal African Society in London.
Prof. Mazrui has been elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Ghana
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and member of the College of Fellows of the
International Association of Middle Eastern Studies; as an Icon of the
Twentieth Century by Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, USA; and President of
the Crescent University Foundation.
Prof. Mazrui has also been a visiting scholar at Stanford, Chicago,
Colgate, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Oxford, Harvard, Bridgewater, Cairo,
Leeds, Nairobi, Teheran, Denver, London, Ohio State, Baghdad, and Pennsylvania
and became the Academic Associate of the Atlantic Council at Binghamton
University in 1998.
Currently, Prof Mazrui is the Albert Schweitzer Professor in the
Humanities and Director of the institute of Global Cultural Studies at
Binghamton, University, USA. He has, however, been an Albert Luthuli
Professor-at-Large in the Humanities and Development Studies, University of
Jos, Nigeria; Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large Emeritus and Senior Scholar in
African Studies at Cornel University.
Prof Mazrui was also the Ibn Khaldun Professor-at-Large, Graduate
School of Islamic and Social Sciences, Leesburg, Virginia, 1997 - 2000, Walter
Rodney Professor, University of Guyana, 1997-1998.
He has over 20 books to his credit and published numerous novels, and
written for magazines and newspapers, which include the London Times, New York
Times, Sunday Nation of Nairobi, the Guardian of London and Lagos, and the
Economist also of London.
The Gem of African Cultural Historian has worn a number international
awards including, the Distinguished Service honour from the National University
of Lesotho, Doctor of Letters from Nkumba University in Uganda, and
Dubois-Garvey Award for Pan-African Unity by Morgan State University in
Baltimore, Maryland.
Others are Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award of the University of
Michigan, Distinguished Africanist Award of the African Studies Association of
the USA, a member of the royal Commonwealth Trust and the Athenaeum Club London
and United Kenyan Club Nairobi and service to the Organisation of African
Unity.
Prof Mazrui is widely consulted on many issues including constitutional
change and educational reform, which ranges from political engineering in
Nigeria, Uganda and Sudan to syllabus review for schools in the State of New
York.
He has also been involved in a number of United Nation's Projects on
matters, which ranges from human rights to nuclear proliferations, an
international consultant on Islamic culture and Muslim history.
Prof. Mazrui served as Expert Advisor to the United Nations Commission
of Transactional Corporations and on editorial boards of more than 20
international scholarly journals.
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Nvelenu (Western Region) 12 March 2002 - Over 50 members of the New
Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Jomoro Constituency held their Regional Organiser
hostage to demand their transport allowance when they attended a party congress
at Nvelenu, near Aiyinase in the Western Region on Saturday.
At the end of the congress attended by 149 delegates to elect executive
members for the constituency, 50 delegates and their supporters from the
Half-Assini area rushed on the Regional Executives to demand immediate refund
of their transport allowances for the three occasions they had travelled for
the congress, two of which became abortive.
They did not accept promises from the Regional Executives that the
allowance would be paid to them later. They defied the presence of Policemen
and formed a human barricade around the Western Region Organiser, Mr Kodjo
Acquah and held him hostage for more than one hour.
They used sticks, cement blocks and a car to prevent Mr Acquah's car
from leaving. The Nzema East District Chief Executive (DCE) Mr. Kodjo Armah and
some top members of the party had to intervene before he was allowed to go.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 12 March 2002 - The Chief Executive of the
Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Henry Holdbrook-Smith on Monday resigned from
his post for personal reasons. Dr Holdbrook-Smith, who was appointed on
November 4, 1997, would, however, continue to serve the hospital as orthopaedic
surgeon consultant.
Dr Holdbrook-Smith is currently on his accumulated leave and would
officially hand over in July. Dr Ben Annan, Director of Medical Affairs of the
hospital would be acting in his absence until a substantive chief executive is
appointed.
The Minister of Health, Dr Kwaku Afriyie has accepted the resignation,
which was dated January 25, 2002 and expressed President John Agyekum Kufuor's
appreciation for his loyalty, dedication and sense of duty exhibited during his
tenure of office.
Dr Holdbrook-Smith was the first alumnus of the University of Ghana to
be appointed Chief Executive to the nation's premier hospital. During his
tenure of office, Dr Holdbrook-Smith saw to a number of development projects
from the Internally Generated Funds (IGF), which included the re-introduction
of the "adoption drive" of various wards of the hospital by
companies, the 24-hour departmental pharmacy services and the computerisation
of the hospital administration.
Others were the establishment of drug manufacturing unit, sponsoring of
post-graduate students of the University of Ghana Medical School, an
ultra-modern laboratory that is near completion and the purchase of SSNIT flats
for staff at Adenta and Dansoman.
It was during his tenure of office that the government also initiated
and completed the surgical and medical emergency units, surgical theatre
complex, and rehabilitation of the accident centre, dialysis unit, offices for
surgeons and anaesthetics and the provision of new telecommunication equipment.
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Juaso (Ashanti Region) 12 March 2002 - A woman, who squeezed the testicles
of her former husband until they popped out of the scrotum, was on Friday
remanded in prison custody by the Juaso Circuit Court.
Hawa Abdulai, the woman, pleaded guilty to a charge of causing unlawful
harm to Mohammed Kadiri, who was rushed to the Holy Family Hospital at Nkawkaw,
where he was admitted for three months. Hawa would re-appear on March 15, for
sentence.
The court presided over by Mr Nathaniel E. K. Osam that, Hawa and Kadiri lived at Adansi, near Juaso in the Asante Akim South District and were married for seven years without a child so they divorced.
On November 13, 2001, at about 7am, a misunderstanding arose between
them because Hawa could not render satisfactory accounts on 26 mini bags of
oranges she sent to Accra for sale.
Mohammed accused Hawa, who is a chain smoker, of having used the money
to buy cigarettes. Hawa became offended pounced on Mohammed, held his
testicles, squeezed them very hard and took to her heels when she realised that
the man was bleeding. When the Police arrested her she claimed Kadiri bit her.
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