Sunday, September 13, 2009

Legon demolish houses

Many houses at various stages of construction located on farmlands belonging to the University of Ghana at Nungua, were demolished in a special exercise at dawn yesterday.
The exercise, executed by the authorities of the University of Ghana, under heavy police and military security, was to protect the land from encroachment by private individuals and other developers.
The houses affected included a 15-unit two storey building, a senior high school classroom block, some companies, a warehouse, a church and a block factory. Other structures demolished were several walls and wooden structures.
The exercise, which began at 5 am, took the occupants of the houses by surprise as many of them were still in bed at the time.
Most of the occupants who were caretakers quickly called their landlords on phone to inform them of the demolition exercise.
The farmland, covering 2570 acres, was acquired by the University of Ghana from the Nungua Stool in 1940 for agricultural research.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor N. B. Tagoe, said the action to demolish the structures became necessary because several appeals to the developers to stop the encroachment did not yield any positive results.
Apparently worried that several portions of the university's farmlands were being taken over by illegal developers, Professor Tagoe explained that the 2570 acres belonging to the university were acquired for agricultural research purposes and must be used for the intended purpose .
He, therefore, cautioned persons who had acquired parcels of land in that area to stop further development otherwise the university would use every available means to protect its property.
“If you have bought land within the area from any group or individual go back and take your money,” he advised.
The Head of the Agriculture Research Centre of the University of Ghana, Dr Augustine Naazi, explained that the land was given to the university for a lease period of 200 years, we are only about 50 years into the lease period,” he said.
Dr Naazi said the land at the moment was being used by the research centre for grazing purposes. “This land is not even enough for the grazing of our animals,” he added.
Last July, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Collins Dauda, ordered the immediate demolition of all illegal structures on the land to pave way for the university to use the land for its intended purpose.
The minister also instructed all groups and individuals who had built structures on the land located within the Nungua Farms off the Tema Motorway to stop work and vacate the land immediately or risk being ejected with force without any compensation.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Ghana does not use child labourers

Vice-PresidenT John Dramani Mahama has dismissed suggestions that Ghana uses children or forced labour in her cocoa industry, saying minors who accompany their parents to farms is part of social integration and not child labour.
He said minors who accompanied their parents to farms was part of their social integration and not as child labourers as being peddled about in some parts of the United States of America (USA).
Launching the “Good Taste of Ghana”, a new cocoa milk drink by Cargill Ghana Limited, in Tema yesterday, the Vice-President said recent attempts to list Ghana as a country that used child labour or forced labour on her cocoa farms was designed to tarnish the image of the country in the international community especially in the eyes of countries that patronised the country’s cocoa.
“Ghana as a signatory to various conventions on child labour would not allow any infractions such as child labour to happen in the country, especially in a prime sector like cocoa,” he emphasised.
Mr Mahama said the country’s cocoa had found its way into food products consumed all over the world, thereby making the crop Ghana’s topmost export commodity and the mainstay of the economy.
He said in spite of that remarkable achievement, “we have never been able to realise full value of our cocoa because of inadequate capacity to fully process Ghana’s cocoa beans”.
The Vice-President said as a result, about 80 per cent of the value of cocoa from the country was constantly shipped to developed countries for value addition, saying that the situation denied the country revenue, value addition, foreign earnings, technology, job creation and skilled development.
Mr Mahama said the entry of Cargill into the cocoa industry was a manifestation of President Mills’s vision to reclaim the full value of the country’s cocoa.
He said the government had initiated programmes to process at least 60 per cent of cocoa production.
That, he explained, was intended to provide a ready market for the projected increase in the annual crop yield from 700,000 metric tonnes to 1,000,000 metric tonnes within the next three years.
The Vice-President was impressed at Cargill’s capacity to transform Ghana’s cocoa beans into a wide range of products that would be sold on the global market, thereby providing the country with the highest level of value addition in cocoa.
The Managing Director of Cargill Ghana Limited, Mr Leo Winters, said Cargill had been associated with Ghana’s cocoa over the last 40 years and was happy to note that the relationship between Cargill and Ghana had improved tremendously over the years.
Mr Winters said the $100,000,000 investment by Cargill in the processing of cocoa beans in the country would help bring the good taste of Ghana’s cocoa to the world.
The MD said as part of the company’s commitment to cocoa-growing areas, it was working closely with CARE International to provide 70 cocoa-growing areas in the Ashanti Region with some education opportunities for children in an effort to increase school attendance by 17.5 per cent.
The Director of Cocoa powder Sales of Cargill, Mr Piet Van Amelrooij, said Ghana’s reputation as the leading producer of high-quality cocoa beans was well established in the world of cocoa and in the cocoa processing industry.
Mr Amelrooij commended cocoa farmers in the country for their dedication and professionalism in pre-harvesting and post-harvesting work that made cocoa from Ghana the best in the world.
He called for the continuous collaboration among Cargill, cocoa farmers and the government to maintain the very high demand of the country’s cocoa on the international market.

Justify investment in your education— Finatrade scholarship beneficiaries told

THE Director of Corporate Affairs of the Finatrade Group, Mr John Awuni, has advised students on Finatrade scholarship to justify the company's investment in their education by studying hard.
That, he said, would encourage other corporate organisations to commit their resources to help improve education in the country.
Mr Awuni gave the advice when he presented a cheque for GH¢300 to each of 15 students from the School of Agriculture of the University of Ghana, Legon.
The amount covers payment of bursary for the first semester of the 2009/2010 academic year.
Mr Awuni, who is also the Executive Secretary of Finatrade Foundation, said similar amounts would be presented to beneficiaries of the Finatrade scholarship scheme in other universities including the University for Development Studies (UDS), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University of Cape Coast (UCC).
He said the scheme, which started in 2004, was the company's contribution towards the development of education in the country.
In addition to the bursary, Mr Awuni said the company also offered internship to a number of students from those institutions in order to integrate them into the corporate world before graduating.
He urged the students not to focus their attention on making money alone but also making good name for themselves.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, said funding of tertiary education had been a challenge to many stakeholders in education all over the world.
The situation, he said, continued to deprive a number of brilliant needy students from having access to quality education.
He, therefore, called on corporate organisations to channel more of their resources into the educational sector by providing scholarships and teaching and learning facilities in the schools and by building infrastructure.
Prof. Tagoe said the university on her part had initiated a student financial aid scheme to help needy students who could not pay their fees to do so.
He advised the students to work hard to commit Finatrade to increase the number of beneficiaries of its scholarship scheme.
The Vice Chancellor also commended Finatrade for the long-standing relationship between the organisation and the universities.
The Dean of the School of Agriculture, Prof. Kwame Offei, expressed worry about the number of students who could not gain admission to the universities because they did not have the wherewithal to do so.
Prof. Offei said the Finatrade Group’s contribution to the education of needy students in the school was, therefore, in the right direction and advised the students to maintain their current academic performance to remain on the scheme.
The Provost of the College of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences, Prof. Ben K. Ahunu, was grateful for the gesture and asked the students not to go abroad to seek greener pastures but should "remain in the country and contribute towards it development.

‘Emulate life style of Dr Kwame Nkrumah’

THE Synod Clerk of the Global Evangelical Church, Rev Prince Y. Tefe, has urged politicians and the youth to emulate the life style of Dr Kwame Nkrumah as Ghanaians prepare to celebrate his birthday.
Rev Tefe said that the policies and programmes of Dr Nkrumah, the First President of the Republic of Ghana, were geared towards the interest of the country first before any other consideration.
The Synod Clerk was speaking at the annual youth forum of the Ebenezer Chapel of the Global Evangelical Church at Ashaiman on the theme, “From Success to Significance”.
Rev Tefe explained that many personalities across the political divide and Africa had attributed the independence of Ghana to the man who was declared the man of the century as a result of his selfless dedication towards the attainment of freedom, particularly for Ghana and Africa at large.
“If our politicians and the youth of today, would follow the standards set by the First President, Ghana would have made some remarkable achievement in all areas of our economy,” he said.
Rev Tefe was worried politicians would always want to seek their own interest and that of their families first before seeking the national interest.
This attitude, he said, continued to thwart the economic, social, political and development efforts made by Dr Kwame Nkrumah during his life time.
He commended the government for its efforts in honouring the First President of the republic of Ghana, and called on the government to educate the youth on the selfless and hardworking life style of Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
Rev Tefe urged the youth not to lose hope in the system they found themselves in inspite of the challenges the government was facing, “the most relevant thing to do now is to concentrate on your education and seek the will of God in your life.”
He asked the youth not to measure success only by the number of houses and posh cars they see people drive about, “just as Dr Nkrumah did your success in life is measured by your contribution towards society long after you are dead” he added.
For his part, the Director of the Youth Ministry of the church, Rev H.A.K. Agbesinyale, said success and significance in life was the result of ones contribution to the life of others. He therefore urged the youth to endeavour to contribute in their small ways to the life of others.
As Christian youth, you have the opportunity to affect the life of other people around you, “you are not holding that office or that opportunity for nothing, but God has placed you there so you can glorify God through what you do”.
Rev Agbesinyale challenged the youth not to be limited by their current circumstances, rather, he urged them to be challenged by it to achieve greater things in life for the nation.

Ashaiman Municipal Assembly Ashaiman Municipal Assembly

THE Ashaiman Municipal Assembly (ASHMA) has initiated three more modules under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) aimed at creating jobs for the youth in the municipality.
The three modules are Youth in Trade and Vocation, Agriculture and ICT.
Already, three other modules, Youth in Community Policing, Nursing Assistance and Sanitation, which are under the management of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, are in operation.
Mr Addinortey Numo, the Municipal Chief Executive, said this when he addressed the youth of Ashaiman at the Ebenezer Chapel of the Global Evangelical Church and assured them of the government’s commitment to addressing the challenges facing the youth in the municipality.
He said the government acknowledged the immense potential of the youth and the need to use them for national development.
“The youth of our nation constitute a great asset. Therefore, there is the need for us to harness their energies for productive activities for their development,” he added.
Mr Addinortey lamented that though funds for the development of various projects in the municipality were ready, “we are faced with the problem of the unavailability of land in the Ashaiman Municipality to execute the projects”.
He added that this situation was driving away potential investors from the area and cited the case of two developers from the United States who had expressed their interest to construct a training facility in that area.
Mr Addinortey said the project was intended to facilitate the training of the youth in various vocations in the area.
The Municipal Chief Executive, therefore, used the opportunity to appeal to the various stakeholders, including Tema Traditional Council, Tema Development Corporation, churches, groups and individuals to come to the aid of the assembly by making land available for the execution of various projects within the assembly.
Additionally, Mr Addinortey urged the youth to eschew any form of misconduct that would disrupt the peace and stability in the area, and also avoid the use of drugs, which usually induced them to misconduct themselves.
He mentioned teenage pregnancy and a very high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the area as the two major challenges facing the municipality.
To address these issues, the Assembly had intensified its education on adolescence reproductive health and on causes and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Resource Ghana Broadcasting Corporation-GJA

THE Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has called on the Government to restructure and resource the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) to enable it to play a more effective public service broadcasting role in the country.
The call was contained in a document submitted by the GJA to the Minister of Information , Mrs Zita Okaikoi, on transforming GBC into a true public service broadcaster in the country in Accra yesterday.
The document was compiled by the GJA with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and KAB Governance Consult after conducting a series of consultation with the public from the middle of 2007 to May 2009.
It recommended, among other things, the need for the Government to transform GBC as the only state-owned broadcasting organisation, especially in the areas of its legal mandate, funding and philosophical outlook.
It also called on the Ministry of Information, which has responsibility over GBC, to actively support the corporation to secure the financial resources towards the restructuring process.
The document requires the state to put in place measures that would mandate all broadcasting stations in the country to undertake a minimum transmission of public service broadcasting.
It asked the Ministry of Information to link up with the National Media Commission (NMC) to provide the required leadership and impetus to transform GBC into a true public service broadcaster for the advancement of the country’s democracy and socio-economic development.
The document further called for the establishment of a public service broadcasting fund to support public service broadcasting in the country.
The sources of the fund should include direct allocation from the Consolidated Fund, a percentage of talk time tax imposed on mobile phone users and a percentage of licence fees paid by prospective radio and television stations for the acquisition of frequencies.
Such a fund, the document indicated, must be insulated from political and commercial interests and should be managed by the NMC.
The President of GJA, Mr Ransford Tetteh, who gave a brief presentation on the document, said the GJA recognised the effective role public service broadcasting played in the consolidation of the country’s democratic culture, hence the need to resource GBC to perform better.
“Public service broadcasting plays an imperative role in the dissemination of information and the provision of a medium for all sections of the society to express their opinion,” he noted.
Mrs Okaikoi, receiving the document, commended the GJA, Friedrich Ebert Foundation and KAB Governance Consult for the initiative, which she said was in line with the Government’s policy of transforming GBC.
She expressed worry that although her ministry spent about 75 per cent of its budgetary allocation on GBC, it was not making the needed impact on the media landscape.
Mrs Okaikoi gave the assurance that as part of the initiative by the Government to transform GBC, the current TV licence fee would soon be increased from 30Gp per annum to GH¢5 per annum.
That, she said, would help mobilise resource towards the restructuring process and called on the management of GBC to clean up the place because “we cannot achieve any result if the current state of work environment is not changed”.
She also called on the members of the public who had not been paying their TV licence fee to do so.

Help stem attack on media practitioners — GJA President calls on civil society organisations

THE President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Ransford Tetteh, has called on civil society organisations to help in the crusade against the consistent assault on journalists in the line of duty.
Mr Tetteh said journalists played a pivotal role in the dissemination of information and advancing the country’s democracy and must, therefore, be allowed to do their work within the confines of the law without any form of intimidation, particularly from politicians.
Mr Tetteh said this when MTN, the major sponsors of the 2008 GJA media awards ceremony, presented prizes to the award winners. The Best Journalist of the Year was won by Mr Kofi Akordor of the Daily Graphic, who also won the Columnist of the Year.
Each award winner took home a Laptop, modem and MTN starter pack.
Additionally, the winner of the best ICT and Telecom Reporter, Mr Charles Benoni Okine, will attend an all-expense-paid trip to participate in the Highway Africa conference in South Africa, while the Best Sports Reporter, Mr Maurice Quansah, will attend the 2010 World Cup also in South Africa, both on the ticket of MTN.
Mr Tetteh cited the most recent assault on Afua Pokua, a female journalist with Adom FM, a Tema-based radio station, by the bodyguard of former President J.A. Kufuor at the recent special delegates conference of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) held at the Trade Fair Centre in Accra.
He also cited attacks on journalists in the Eastern Region by supporters of the NPP during the rerun of the parliamentary election in six polling stations in the Akwatia Constituency in the Eastern Region and said such attacks should be condemned in no uncertain terms.
Mr Tetteh described these attacks as unwarranted, intended to undermine and retard the achievements gained in the promotion of media freedom in the country.
He said the patience of journalists was being pushed to intolerable levels and indicated that journalists in the country would not abuse the law by adopting self-help approach to achieve redress and called on the police to deal with those who would want to trample on the rights of journalists in the country.
Mr Tetteh said journalists would not be deterred by those acts of cowardice by a section of the public and would continue to work hard to demand accountability and transparency from the public.
The acting Customer Service Executive, Ms Afua Falconer, said MTN would continue to partner the media to consistently improve standards and build capacity in the field of journalism while rewarding excellence in journalism.
Ms Falconer gave the assurance that MTN would continue to be innovative and creative for the benefit of its cherished subscribers. “We will not compromise on our can-do spirit which requires that we give our subscribers the best of service at all times,” she added.
She commended the MTN-media partnership in sharing information and providing constructive feedback from customers regarding the company’s operations in the country.
She also asked the public to participate in the SMS-based Text GO 2010 promotion which is intended to whip up interest towards the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Seed money for Nkrumah celebration

THE Government has released an amount of GH¢ two million as seed money towards the centenary celebration of the First President of the Republic of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
This, the Chairman of the Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Planning Committee, Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr, said was less than the GH¢18,000,000 draft budget presented to the Government in the early part of July this year.
Prof. Sawyerr said this when he addressed the first press briefing on the committee's plans towards the celebration which is slated for September 2009 to May 2009.
He has therefore, called for public and corporate support for the celebration which is on the theme, "A life of Struggle, A Vision of Africa Unbound."
Prof. Swayerr said programmes towards the celebration had been planned in such a manner that would reflect the true national and international character of Dr Nkrumah.
He explained further that the committee had put in measures to ensured that not only did they have an effective programmes, but also meet all sections of Ghanaian society in its geographic and generational spread.
The chairman said the celebrations would be build around three clusters of activities and event, with each cluster reflecting the particular character of its climatic event.
The first clusters is the birthday of Dr Kwame Nkrumah which falls on September 21, 2009, the second will be the Independence Day celebration on March 6, 2010, and finally the Africa Liberation Day on May 25, 2010.
In addition, a series of activities and events reflecting all the various aspects of the celebrations, and spread over the country would be undertaken.
The committee also outlined four main blocks within which it would operate, the elements within the block include, the rehabilitating all centres of attraction relating to Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
There would also be public lectures and quiz competitions on the political and intellectual life of the First President.
The other element would be the re-enactment of various activities and events of Dr Nkrumah, prominent among them would be the commemoration of the 28 February crossroad shooting in Accra and in the regions.
The special feature of this event is the inclusion of the youth.The day had over the years been celebrated mostly by elderly persons in the country.
"What happens if these persons are no more with us ?" the Chairman asked.
Another member of the committee, Prof. Agyeman Badu-Akosa said members of the Nkrumah Foundation had begun the process of preserving all the legacies of Dr Kwame Nkrumah and called on the public to help retrieve these legacies.

Take us to court-prison inmates declare

ONE Thousand five hundred and fifty four remand inmates at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons have demanded their immediate trial since their continuous stay in prison without trial is an abuse of their fundamental human rights.
The inmates, some of whom have been in prison for between three months and 20 years, alleged that police investigators demanded as high as GH¢1,200 from them and their families before taking them to court.
The inmates made the appeal when the Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Mr Emile Short, toured the Nsawam Prisons yesterday to assess the conditions of the inmates.
The 1,554 prisoners form about 57 per cent of the about 3000 inmates currently been kept at the Nsawam prison. The prison was initially built for 717 inmates.
They said they had not had any legal representation since they were taken to the prison.
A second-hand clothes dealer who gave his name only as Kojo said he was returning from Nsawam to Accra in a hired taxi-cab with some goods on board when the police arrested him.
He said two days later, the police charged him with robbing a total filling station at Legon and “since 1998 I have been here with three other friends".
“I have been taken to court only once, which was last year,” he said.
Dan, another remand inmate aged 65, said he was arrested for a name same as his written in a pair of sandals found at robbery scene some 20 years ago at Sogakope.
, “I have been here for 20 years and now all I want is to be taken to court. If I am found guilty, so be it but I know I have no idea about that case for which I am being kept here,” he emphasised.
Other inmates chased mediamen to narrate the horrible conditions under which they were being kept and the deplorable state of facilities at the prison.
They claimed that their continued stay on remand at the prison could be attributed to negative attitude of police investigators.
They alleged that the remand warrant for most of the inmates had expired long ago and that police investigators went to renew their remand warrants without taking them to court.
Others also said investigators handling their cases at the initial stage had been transferred, hence their inability to deal with such cases.
The Daily Graphic, during the tour, came across disabled and blind 91-year-old woman who said she was arrested along with her husband, who was in possession of wee at the time of the arrest.
She said the husband was currently being kept at the Kumasi prison.
Mr Emile Short, in response to the demands and complaints of the inmates, assured them of the commission’s preparedness to help them, particularly those who had been on remand for as long as 20 years.
The Deputy Commissioner, Ms Anna Bossman, told the Daily Graphic the commission had initiated a programme with the Judicial Service and the Ghana Prison Service to decongest the prisons and also provide legal aid to the inmates.
She said though there had been some improvement in the conditions of the inmates over the last one year, there was still the need to do more in terms of the abuse of their rights.
Ms Bossman said the commission was also in contact with lawyers in the country to see how to solve some of the challenges confronting the inmates.
She said the commission would do all it could to better the conditions in prisons and also provide the inmates with the hope for an appeal.
The Commander in charge of the Nsawam Prison, DDP?????? A. K. Ansong Agyepong, who earlier briefed the Commissioner and his entourage on the conditions of the inmates and staff, appealed for support to run the place.
Mr Agyepong said the number of cars at the disposal of the prison was not adequate for the smooth administration of the place. He, therefore, appealed to the public for support, particularly an ambulance for the clinic at the prison.
He said in order to integrate the convicts into the society upon their release, the prison service had initiated a number of programmes, including various form of vocational training.
“Additionally, we are running a Junior High School (JHS), a Senior High School (SHS) and computer training for those who are interested," Mr Agyepong said.