Britain
to review yearly grant to Ghana
Africa
should demand reparation from the West
IFC negotiators
must resign - Mills
Botchwey undertakes second campaign tour
AIDS:
Now food security is at risk
Graduate
teachers warn Education Service
Only
40 per cent in senior secondary
Assemblies
told to use funds appropriately
Apologise for Parliamentary boycott
Accra (Greater Accra)
29 November 2002 - The Department for International development of Britain is
to review its yearly grant of $100m to Ghana, Suma Chakrabarti, Permanent
Secretary of the DFID said in Accra on Thursday.
He said, "after a
series of meetings with some of the Ministers of State and the way forward,
there is a lot of positive things that could be done and it is feasible to
increase the yearly grant of $100m offered to Ghana". Chakrabati who is on
a two-day visit to Ghana, made the remarks when he paid a courtesy call on
President John Kufuor at the Castle, Osu.
President Kufuor said,
"he was hopeful the meetings Chakrabati had with some Ministers of State
would provide positive response to government policies and programmes". The
Permanent Secretary's visit to Ghana was to check on the organisation's
HIV/AIDS awareness programme for truck drivers. He also held meetings with
Ministers of State, development partners and the business community
The DFID provided
assistance to promote activities in the private sector and on good governance,
health, education and rural development. The High Commission in Accra, in a
statement said Suma Chakrabarti became Permanent Secretary of the Department
for International Development on February 18, this year.
After spending two
years in Botswana on an Overseas Development Institute Fellowship, Suma
Chakrabarti joined the Overseas Development Administration in 1984 as a senior
economic assistant, providing advice on macro-economic issues and UK Aid
Projects.
In the late 1980s, he
went as part of the UK Delegation to the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank in Washington as the Executive Director's Assistant. Suma then
returned to England and the Overseas Development Agency (ODA) holding various
roles, including Private Secretary to Lady Chalker and later Head of Aid Policy
and Resources Department. He moved to the Treasury in 1996, where he held a
number of key posts.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
29 November 2002 - Professor John Evans Attah Mills, Former Vice President on Wednesday
noted that the failure of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to deliver on its
campaign promises has vindicated the National Democratic Congress (NDC)
position that governance was not based on wishful thinking.
He said "the
electorate have expressed disappointment about the many unfulfilled promises by
the government and are waiting patiently for the next general elections to
demonstrate the power of the thumb. I only pray that what is happening with the
rule of the NPP will not make the people of Ghana lose faith in
politicians."
Prof Mills who is
contesting the primaries of the NDC for election as a presidential candidate
said at a press soiree in Accra that the Ghanaian media should be lauded for
their contributions to the deepening of democracy in the country.
He mentioned in
particular the publicity given to the other contestant, Dr Kwesi Botcheway and
him over the last three months and for highlighting the visions, ideas and aims
of the NDC. Prof Mills said his vision was to promote unity among the rank and
file of the party and to prepare it adequately to take back power in 2004.
The former Vice
President said he has been close to the party and has played a key role in
mobilizing funds to run the party during the 1996 and year 2000 elections. He
added that he had personally stood against continued harassment of NDC
supporters by the government.
He reiterated his
determination to unite and reconcile the party, saying, "I will do
everything to unite the party, I will forgive people who smile at me and
immediately stab me at the back."
"It is necessary
that at the end of it all the party remained united. We should treat one
another with the greatest respect. The NDC started its own re-organisation just
after we lost the 2000 elections. Nobody prompted us to do so. The NDC will
never turn its back to stability and accountability."
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Africa
should demand reparation from the West
Kumasi (Greater Accra)
29 November 2002 - An African-American lecturer and author, Dr Gyasi A. Foluke,
has called on Africans to step up their campaign for reparation from the
industrial western countries and the United States for the rape of the
continent's human resources.
“The slave trade
largely contributed to the under-development of the continent and the
impoverished state most Africans find themselves. The time has now come for us
to be compensated for all the losses". Dr Foluke made the call when he
delivered a lecture on "The real holocaust: African-American
experience" at the University College of Education Winneba (UCEW) Kumasi
Campus in Kumasi.
He said Africa lost as
many as about 300 million souls to the slave trade and more than 14 million
Africans were lost during the period in Congo. Dr Foluke was at a loss as to
why the Jewish holocaust that claimed "only six million souls were being
given due attention while that of Africa which far out-numbered that of the
Jews was being down-played and ignored. ''If Africa continues to allow itself
to be divided by communal conflicts and wars their mission of seeking
reparation may become difficult.''
He said it was
important for African countries to forge a united front, avoid the struggle for
supremacy among themselves and rather focus more on the issue of reparation
since that would help Africans restore their cherished dignity.
Dr Foluke appealed to
African-Americans to desist from perceiving themselves as different groups of
people residing in USA and come together as one group to complement efforts at
bailing Africa from its doldrums.
"The tendency for
some African-Americans to see themselves as Negroes while others regard
themselves either as black or Afro-Americans does not augur well for the people
of African descent and must therefore cease."
Dr Foluke inaugurated
a club known as "The Sankofa" committed to the spiritual, cultural
and economic development of Africa and the unification of African families in
the diaspora.
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IFC
negotiators must resign - Mills
Accra (Greater Accra)
29 November 2002 - Professor John Attah Mills, former Vice President, has waded
into the debate over the controversial International Financial Consortium (IFC)
loan and said the key negotiators should resign.
Prof Mills,
campaigning to be elected NDC's candidate for the 2004 elections, said in
statement that Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, Senior Minister and Head of the
government's Economic Management Team, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Finance Minister and
Dr Paul Acquah Governor of Bank of Ghana should resign honourably.
"The gentlemen
have displayed gross incompetence and lack of candour in their dealings with
the people of Ghana. Their credibility is zero and their continued stay in office
will hold back the progress of the economy."
Prof Mills who was
reacting to the Government's decision to withdraw from negotiations with the
IFC described the government's failure to obtain the one billion dollar loan
from ''mysterious sources" as constituting "a disgrace and
humiliation to the nation."
Osafo-Maafo, Minister
of Finance on Tuesday told Parliament that the government had come to the
conclusion that it would be in the national interest not to pursue further
discussions and negotiations in respect of the IFC loan approved by Parliament
on 12 July 2002.
Prof Mills said:
"Anywhere else in the world, especially in a parliamentary system, the
whole government would have had to resign but under our presidential system
where it is difficult for the President and the government to resign and leave
a total political vacuum, some heads must certainly roll."
He said the IFC
disaster was the result of the government's failure to listen to sound advice
and consult people with the relevant experiences in international financial
transactions.
On the sovereign
guarantee that the Finance Minister said had not been issued to the consortium
or to any member of the consortium, the former Vice President said the
government was being less than candid.
Prof Mills challenged
the negotiators to explain the basis on which the government nominated people
to the join the company to manage the projects and the many trips officials
made abroad to process the loan. "If no guarantee had been issued what was
the need for all those steps since the sovereign guarantee was a pre-requisite
to loan disbursement?"
Prof Mills questioned
the rationale for rushing the loan through parliament last July "if it was
not to beat a deadline imposed by the IFC for receiving the guarantee." He
said the government needed funding for its capital projects but stressed
"the fact that you need money does not mean you should go just anywhere to
try to obtain it".
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Accra (Greater Accra) 29 November 2002 - Dr Kwesi Botchwey, vying for the flagbearership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has started the second phase of his nationwide tour.
He would highlight his new and creative ways of financing the party structure and activities, a statement issued in Accra on Thursday said. The tour, which would take him to all the ten regions, preceded by a meeting with the delegates and party members of the Ayawaso West, East and Central constituencies, Dadekotopn, Okaikoi North and South, Ablekuma North, South and central constituencies of the Greater Accra Region.
Dr Botchwey's focus would be on building party structures from the branches through to the national level. He would also unite the party around shared social democratic principles and values with a link to the network of international social democratic Movement.
The statement said his message would throw light on re-affirming the NDC's values of democracy, openness, tolerance, mutual respect, ensuring justice, equity and fair play. He would also ensure that the party created a forum for discussing policies and to create study clubs in all constituencies to facilitate such deliberation.
Dr Botchwey would bring to bear his message of hope for the youth and particularly how to empower women and place them in the mainstream of the party's structure through a systematic programme of training, education and resource under his administration.
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AIDS:
Now food security is at risk
Accra (Greater Accra)
29 November 2002 - The Executive Director of UNAIDS, Dr Peter Piot has
elaborated that in Southern Africa, famine and AIDS are directly related, thus
several countries in the region facing famine.
"It is no
coincidence that the six southern African nations that now face the prospect of
mass famine - Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe -
also have substantial and still growing HIV epidemics, with between one-sixth
and one-third of their populations infected," he said in a statement
released in Accra on Friday.
Dr Piot said
addressing the links between hunger, disease, lack of education and war is
vital to long-term solutions to humanitarian emergencies. "The world's
most serious health problems, including HIV/AIDS, are deeply connected to the
violence and poverty that shackle hundreds of millions of people around the
world," he said.
In observance of this
week's commemoration of World AIDS Day, UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations
programme on HIV/AIDS) has released new data showing that 3.1m people died of
AIDS this year. Five million people were infected with HIV over the course of
the year, and 42m men, women, and children are now living with the virus.
"But what do
these numbers mean? What happens when
42m people in the prime of their lives become ill, the great majority of them
unable to access any kind of treatment?" he asked.
Dr Piot said AIDS is
combining with other factors - including droughts, floods and in some cases
short-sighted national and international policies - to cause a steady fall in
agricultural production in Africa.
"An AIDS-related
death in a farm household causes crop output to plummet - often by up to 60 per
cent. Household incomes also shrink,
leaving people with less money to buy food. Multiply that by millions, and
famine is not far behind."
Dr Piot said according
to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 7m agricultural
workers in 25 severely affected African countries have died from AIDS since
1985. A 2002 study in central Malawi has shown that about 70 per cent of
surveyed households had suffered labour losses due to sickness.
He said women in
agricultural societies, who perform the bulk of duties related to household
food production and care, have been particularly hard hit.
"When caring for
a sick husband, the amount of time a wife has available for tasks such as
planting, harvesting and marketing drop up to 60 percent.
"When the male
head of household dies, she may find herself denied access to necessities such
as credit, distribution networks, or land rights. When she becomes ill or dies, the household often collapses completely-leaving
orphans to fend for themselves, without schooling or the skills to carry on
food production."
More than 11m African
children have now lost one or both parents to AIDS. Dr Piot said United Nations
agencies are mobilizing to address the famine in Southern Africa, and have
launched a joint appeal for more than $600m in assistance, including more than
$500m in food aid.
He said perhaps for
the first time, southern Africa's famine brings the world face-to-face with the
true scale of the consequences of AIDS. Dr Piot said with 5m new HIV infections
globally this year alone, "if we do not dramatically increase action
against AIDS, we will be sowing the seeds of future humanitarian disasters -
and not only in southern Africa".
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Graduate
teachers warn Education Service
Accra (Greater Accra)
29 November 2002 - The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), on
Thursday said if the Ghana Education Service (GES) did not give it official
recognition by the end of December, this year, it would ensure that the Acting
Director-General (DG) of the GES was removed from office for the right thing to
be done.
Lucas K. Alagbo,
President of NAGRAT has therefore, appealed to Parliament, the Cabinet,
Ministry of Education (MOE), GES Council and Management to ensure that NAGRAT
was well captured in the newly drafted GES Bill to pave the way for the
official recognition of NAGRAT to forestall any industrial action.
Speaking at a press
conference in Accra, Alagbo accused John Budu-Smith, Acting Director-General
(DG) of GES and its management of not having the interest of NAGRAT at heart,
thereby denying the Association its constitutional right of freedom of
association.
Alagbo said despite
the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney-General's office and the Ministry of
Education directives to the GES to recognise NAGRAT as an association the
Acting Director General had failed to comply.
He said, "NAGRAT
has had enough of the contempt, blackmail and snobbishness of the GES heirachy
and we are at the verge of passing a vote of no confidence in the Acting
Director-General," he said.
"We can assure
the public that with our current membership of 6,000 and with 3,000 more
waiting to get on our pay roll; we have what it takes to make the Ag. D-G get
out of office."
Alagbo said several
efforts by NAGRAT to get the GES to officially recognise NAGRAT as a legitimate
independent teachers' association has proved futile due to a deliberate and
sustained marginalization and open biased towards NAGRAT.
He said, since the Ag.
D-G and the present management took office from February, this year, they have
refused to meet with NAGRAT and have refused to respond to a series of
correspondence NAGRAT sent to them on pertinent issues.
"NAGRAT
petitioned the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General in December 2001 to
help amend the GES Act 506 of 1995 to recognise NAGRAT in addition to Ghana
National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and Tertiary Education Workers Union
(TEWU)."
Alagbo said following
the petition, the Minister of Justice, in a letter dated February 7, 2002,
instructed the GES management to accord NAGRAT the due official recognition as
the amendment of the ACT 506 needed not to be a precondition for the
recognition of NAGRAT under the 1992 Constitution, which guaranteed freedom of
association.
He said additionally,
at a meeting on 11 June this year that was held between executives of NAGRAT,
GES management and the Deputy Minister of Education Rashid Bawa, reprimanded
the Ag. D-G for not heeding to the instruction of the Minister of Justice and
further ordered him to do the right thing.
All these instructions
from the superiors have gone unheeded and NAGRAT continues to be a victim of
discrimination, deliberate and sustained marginalisation, hostility and open
bias from the GES management led by the Acting Director General, he said.
Alagbo said the
discrimination against NAGRAT by the GES was further evident in the non-representation
of NAGRAT on the committee, which recently completed the draft of a new GES Act
in Sogakope.
In Sogakope,
recommendation to replace GNAT and TEWU with several Teacher Associations to
recognise NAGRAT and other education workers, was vetoed out by a GES official
on grounds that NAGRAT was not known to the GES.
"We wish to
inform the GES top officials that they are out of tune with reality and out of
order thinking that NAGRAT is not a legitimate body," he said.
"Members of NAGRAT have the constitutional right to belong to any
association of their choice or none at all, besides the GES cannot decide who
should belong to which association."
He said early this
year, the GES Council was reconstituted to include representatives from various
institutions both within and outside the education sector, but NAGRAT was
conspicuously left out.
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Only
40 per cent in senior secondary
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo)
29 November 2002 - The Minister of Education has said that about 40 per cent of
Junior Secondary School (JSS) graduates through out the country gained
admission into Senior Secondary Schools (SSS) this year.
He stated that out of
about 265,000 students who sat for the Basic Examination Certificate
Examination only 157,000 got aggregates between six and 30 to enable them to
gain admission into the senior secondary level.
He expressed regret
that the remaining 60 per cent of graduates were struggling to survive on the
streets without any bright future. Prof Akumfi-Akumfi was speaking at the
commissioning of a $20m Vocational Technical Resource Centre (VOTEC) at Twene
Amanfo Secondary Technical School in Sunyani.
"The centre was
established under the Ghana-Netherlands VOTEC Resource Centres Project, which
involved the supply and installation of training equipment and materials,
technical assistance, including consultancy and staff development.
The minister said the
project was a major component of the education reform programme to strengthen
20 existing technical and vocational institutions including five secondary
schools.
The programme is aimed
at improving the delivery of technical and learning education in technical
institutions to produce skilled personnel for national development.
Prof Ameyaw-Akumfi
noted that VOTEC centres were established to solve the endemic problems
confronting technical and vocational schools and to strengthen capacity to
enable the institutions to perform the vital role they were expected to play to
increase enrolment levels.
The establishment of
the resource centres, two in each region, was to improve facilities and
capacities of technical institutions and to enhance orientation of school
leavers, mostly JSS graduates, towards self-employment by impacting
entrepreneurial skills to them, he added.
Prof Ameyaw-Akumfi
called on persons in the industrial sector to utilise the resource centres and
other programmes offered at technical and vocational institutions.
"The Ministry of
Education would like to see the emergence of a strong linkage and fruitful
co-operation between industrial establishments and the institutions.''
"In this way,
industry can influence the curricula of these institutions for the mutual
benefit of industry and the institutions, which would produce the requisite
skilled manpower for the survival of the former."
Prof Ameyaw-Akumfi
urged beneficiaries to maintain the building and training facilities and
entreated district assemblies to ensure the early completion of the
rehabilitation and construction of the centres.
Mrs Akuah Debrah,
acting Brong Ahafo Regional Director of Education, advised parents and students
to discard the idea that VOTEC training was for the "never-do-well"
students, saying the area needed highly intelligent people with initiative and
drive.
She said the project
would enable the youth to acquire the requisite skills to become employable,
"since many young men and women parading the streets are unemployed
because they lacked employable skills."
Mrs Debrah said drug
abuse; armed robbery and other deviant behaviours mostly by the youth
undermined the growth and security of the nation. The acting Regional Director
advised women to move from traditional female vocations to auto-engineering,
building technology, welding.
She said out of the
133 students enrolled for the VOTEC programmes this year, only 25 students were
girls. Mrs Debrah, therefore, urged parents to encourage their girls to rub
shoulders with the boys for sustained national development.
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Assemblies
told to use funds appropriately
Kenyasi (Brong Ahafo)
29 November 2002 Nov. 28, GNA - Assembly Members have been urged to take full
advantage of the Highly Indebted and Poor Countries (HIPC) and Social
Investment (SIF) Funds to accelerate development of their communities.
Michael
Nsiah-Agyapong, Asutifi District Chief Executive, gave the advice at the
opening of a five-day training workshop for 31 assembly members in Kenyasi.
He reminded the
members that the number of development projects they execute in their areas
would be the base for assessing their stewardship at the end of their four-year
term.
The workshop, which
was being held in two batches for the 61 Members of the assembly, was under the
auspices of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and
sponsored by the European Union.
It is aimed at
exposing members to the practical work of in the district assembly system.
Topics to be treated included the legislative provisions for Ghana's
decentralisation, standing orders for district assemblies and roles and
responsibilities of key actors at the district assembly.
Nsiah-Agyapong noted
that the members were assuming office at a time when the HIPC relief fund of
one billion cedis and the Social Investment Fund, comprising three projects
estimated at ¢504.0m among others were in place in the district.
Nsiah-Agyapong explained
that the district assembly concept, which begun through the decentralization
policy under PNDC Law 207, had complex internal and external relationships. He,
therefore, urged members to take their deliberative, legislative and executive
functions seriously so that they could make informed decisions during their
sittings.
Nsiah-Agyapong
enjoined the assembly members to keep close contact with the electorates to
ensure a fair representation of their decisions. He identified poor revenue
generation as the district's major bane and appealed to the members to salvage
the district's sinking revenue base.
A former Brong-Ahafo
Regional Administrative Officer, K.G. Asimenu advised the assembly Members to
encourage the sampling of views for consensus building.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
29 November 2002 - The Ayawaso East Constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP)
on Thursday asked the Minority National Democratic Congress in Parliament to
apologise to the electorate for their recent boycott of Parliamentary
proceedings for three days.
The Constituency said
there was the need for such an apology because the timing of the boycott was
untimely and the reasons given by the Minority leader were not justifiable.
Speaking at a press
Conference in Accra, Felix Amoah Akrurugu, Secretary of the Constituency, said,
"for the fifth time in two years, members of the NDC side abdicated the
responsibilities assigned them by those who voted for them by walking out of
issues that concerned these ordinary people".
Akrurugu said the
explanation given by Alban Bagbin, Minority Leader that the boycott was to
express, "their highest disapproval of the actions of the Executive and to
back their demands for privileges and immunity from prosecution was frivolous
and vexatious".
Akrurugu said Ghana's
Constitution clearly shows that Members of Parliament have no immunity from
arrest and prosecution except the President and the Vice President. "Parliamentary
privileges are mainly about protection against interference from outside,
freedom from interference in the work of the Parliamentarian and parliament.
"Unfortunately,
the NDC group seems bent on misconstruing the privileges accorded Parliamentarians
into a situation where Parliament will be a haven for criminals," Akrurugu
added.
The Constituency also
called on the government to go into Ghana's immediate history, line up all
those who abused trust and mandate of the people and prepare them for the Fast
Track Court.
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