Yagbon-Wura
cautions Gonjas over provocative utterances
Cabinet seeks advice on Ada Salt project
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 April 2002 - Cabinet has referred a
memorandum on the ownership of the Ada Songhor Salt Project to the Economic
Management Team for advice. The Minister of Mines, Mr K. Adjei-Darko, announced
this at the inaugural ceremony of Nene Sogbodjor Obuade I, the Manoyam Mantse
of the Ada Traditional Area, at the weekend.
He, therefore, assured the people of the Ada Traditional Area that the
government is committed to resolving the issue amicably to enable the parties
involved to benefit from their heritage. He, however, did not disclose the
content of the memorandum.
Nene Sogbodjor, known in private life as Wing Commander P.N. Sogbodjor, was
honoured as the developmental chief due to his immense contributions to the
growth of the area. He was inaugurated by Nene Abordonu II, Kabiawe Tsu Wetsoyi
of the Ada Traditional Area, at a colourful durbar at Ada.
Nene Sogbodjor had his secondary education at Achimota School and later joined
the Ghana Air-Force, where he rose to the rank of Wing Commander. Those present
at the ceremony were the Air Force Commander, Air Marshall Adu Mantey, the
former Army Commander, Lt. Gen. J.H. Smith, district chief executives, MPs,
traditional rulers, fetish priests and priestesses, among others.
Mr Adjei-Darko recalled the appeal by a section of the citizens of the area to
the government to repeal PNDC Law 287 of 1992, which vests the authority of the
Songhor lands in the state. Mr Darko made it clear that it is not the
government’s intention to run the project.
“What the government seeks to do is to lay the foundation for its growth in
line with its policy of promoting the private sector,” he said. He thanked the
Ada Traditional Council and the people of Ada for their patience so far and
said, “salt is the white gold of the country and government is putting the
necessary measures in place to bring prosperity to salt producing areas.” He,
however, expressed regret at the producers’ inability to refine the salt in
spite of the ready market for it.
On chieftaincy, he said, “it is not the government’s policy
to interfere in chieftaincy matters.” Mr Adjei-Darko explained that government
would only intervene in them when there is a threat to peace and harmony in the
area. “But if anyone takes the law into their own hands in the name of
chieftaincy, the government would not tolerate that and they would be dealt
with according to the law,” Mr Adjei-Darko warned. According to him, the
government recognises traditional rulers as development partners and said the
government will collaborate with chiefs to improve the well-being of the
people.
He expressed concern about the level of indiscipline, immorality and lack of
respect among the youth and called on the chiefs to join in the campaign to
inculcate good behaviour in the youth. The minister congratulated Nene
Sogbodjor on his elevation and expressed the hope that the people of the area
will give him their full support.
The various divisional chiefs of the Ada Traditional Area, in separate
speeches, unanimously pledged their unflinching support for Nene Sorgbojor. The
Dangme East District Chief Executive, Mr Kofi Plahar, praised the people of Ada
for choosing Nene Sorgbojor to lead them in the development of the area and
pledged the assembly’s support for him. – Daily Graphic.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
15 April 2002 - The once thriving textile and garment industry which the
country had will once again be given a boost with the coming into force of the
Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). With the certification of the
country’s textile and garment industry, Ghana will be joining 11 other Africa
countries to export textiles and garments to the US market under the
Generalised System of Preferences.
This means that textiles and apparel export from qualified countries will be
accorded duty-free access into the US market. Over the years, exports have been
made on a very small scale and at a very high duty. The country, in the past,
had a booming textile and garment industry. But with time, the activities of
this industry grounded to a halt due to many political, economic and social
problems.
Fortunately for this country, it has entered into an era where the private
sector is once again being given the necessary attention and priority. The
focus is now on small-scale industries, manufacturers and entrepreneurs.
The certification of the country’s textiles and garment industry is, therefore,
a major boost to the President’s Special Initiative to develop the capacity of
these small-scale industries. Fidele Couture, Salma Garments Limited and
Charisma Fashion Ltd are three fashion-designing enterprises, which over the
years, have quietly worked to create a name for themselves.
Through the Trade and Investment Reform Programme executed by Amex
International and sponsored by the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID), the three have managed to improve their lot and produced
acceptable products of international quality and standard.
All three have featured in respectable fashion catalogues and brochures in the
United States. Fidele Couture, which is managed by Ms Stella Quaye, has been in
business for the past 14 years and her products featured in Essence by mail
fashion catalogue.
The company has managed to make an impression on the buyers of clothes in the
US through its participation in fashion events, including International Black
Buyers and Manufacturer Expo, the Africa Day and American Business Women’s
Conference and the International Women’s Summit of the Global Women’s
Leadership Institute.
Mrs Salma Salifu of
Salma Garments is another fashion designer who has been in the industry for the
past 15 years. Also with the assistance of the Trade and Investment Programme,
Mrs Salifu has improved her lot to a level where she provides clothing to the
US market. Her participation in other top events such as the Africa Forum of
the World Bank, the International Women’s Summit of the Global Women’s
Leadership Institute and the International Black Buyers and Manufacturers Exp
and Conference as well as the Africa and America Business Women’s Conference
has provided her with the platform for exposing her creations to the outside
world and all sections of the US fashion market.
In 1997, Salma
Garments won a contract to provide one of her outfits for the E-Style Catalogue
of SPIEGEL Inc. Salma and Stella are working hard to produce under one label.
The two have already been sub-contracting to each other. For instance, in 1996,
Salma Garments was sub-contracted by Fidele Couture to produce choir robes for
Calvary Baptist Church. Again in 1996, Salma received another sub-contract by
Fidele Couture, which won a contract with Essence by Mail Fashions Catalogue in
the United States.
In 2001, Salma Garments won another contract with Essence by Mail Catalogue to
produce one of her outfits. Charisma Fashions Ltd, being run by Mrs Faustina
Ansong, also specialises in Afro-centric designs and fashions. Last year, she
won a contract by Essence by Mail to produce one of her outfits for the US
market. She produced nearly 500 pieces of that design for the catalogue. Her
design was catalogued in spring 2001 and sold so well that a re-order was made.
Voted as the best Innovator at the First Ghana International Handicrafts in
1997, Charisma Fashions has equally taken part in many international fairs and
exhibitions in Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States. The company
has also participated in training programmes organised by Empretec and Amex.
Without exporting
under the AGOA, the total annual turnover of these three fashion designers is
over $1.2 million. Most of their exports are made through regular supplies to
boutiques in the US and other African countries such as South Africa, Zambia,
Swaziland, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
With the coming into force of the AGOA certification, the chances are that
these three will register a steep rise in their annual turnover. It is
estimated that African textiles export to the US totals about $350 million a
year and this has the potential to grow to $4.2 billion over the next eight
years. The country should, therefore, position itself to bring other fashion
designers to the standard of Fidele, Couture, Salma Garments and Charisma
Fashions in order to take a greater percentage of the estimated $ 4.2 billion.
– Daily Graphic.
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Paga (Upper East Region) 15 April 2002 - Personnel of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) at the Paga Border Entry point in the Upper East Region have been placed on red alert to check the possible entry of armed robbers who may be fleeing Nigeria through Burkina Faso into the country as a result of the relentless war being waged against them by the government.
The acting Collector-In-Charge, Mr Kwame Asumani, who disclosed this to the ‘Times’ at Paga said the decision by the personnel to be on the red alert followed the directive by the Inspector-General of Police to all security agencies in the country, especially those manning the country’s borders, to close their ranks and work in collaboration with the police to combat the heinous activities of arm robbers.
Mr Asumani said he and his team had already intensified their operations by making sure that all vehicles plying through the border from Burkina Faso were properly checked to ensure that no weapons were smuggled either into or out of the country.
He said with the support of the Immigration Service, they were leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the nefarious activities of arm robbers, cattle rustlers and members of motorcycle stealing syndicates as well as currency traffickers were nipped in the bud. – The Ghanaian Times.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 April 2002 - SCANCOM Ltd, operators of Ghana’s Premier GSM network has embarked on measures to improve its network capacity to enable it to give its valued customers better, uninterrupted services always.
As a first step the company this year is mounting 50 new sites throughout the country. This will bring the total number of sites to 120. A statement issued by the company said that all subscriptions that remain inactive three months after the expiry of the last recharge will automatically be cancelled.
This means that subscribers now have three months within which to recharge their accounts when their subscription expires. It said that Spacefon is committed to offering its customers the best in wireless telecommunication and as a result, is initiating programmes and projects to actualise this vision. – The Ghanaian Times.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 April 2002 - Wonders they say shall never cease. In spite of the appeal by the government for all to avoid politicising the tragedy what has befallen our brothers and sisters in Yendi, it appears that subtle attempts are being made by the powers that be to link the former President to this unfortunate but avoidable crisis.
Information reaching The Ghanaian Voice indicates that a top official (name withheld for security reasons) of the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) last Friday (05 – 04 – 2002) had a call from the CID Headquarters of the Ghana Police Service. The message was that he was to call at the CID Headquarters the following Monday.
On the appointed day this top NDC man in the company of his lawyer Dr Kumbour who incidentally is the MP for Lawra Nandom and another friend went to the CID Headquarters. After sometime on arrival at the CID Headquarters, an officer asked the two men who accompanied the top NDC man to leave for him to have a chat with their friend.
It was then that he was told that information had reached them that when the top official and the former President went to campaign in connection with the Bimbilla by-election they trained people at where they were accommodated to go and cause commotion in the area.
Of course this top NDC man described the allegations as not only false but childish since where they lodged was a public place where no such activity could have been undertaken. He wondered why the people were behaving in such a childish manner.
Of course the reaction of the CID officer was that it was their duty to investigate any allegations that are made against individuals. The Ghanaian Voice is rather puzzled about this position since there is nothing to show that any of the names which have been mentioned by the Dagbon Traditional Council and others have been invited, for questioning especially the likes of the National Security Adviser Mr Joshua Hamidu, Hon Malik Yakubu Alhassan, former Minister of Interior, and Major (rtd) Abubakari Sulemana.
It is being alleged that it was because of the advice, which the former President gave to the late Ya-Na that he allegedly refused Police protection. What most people do not know is that the late Ya-Na was not enskinned during the PNDC/NDC era.
The truth is that the assassinated Ya-Na Yakubu Andani was the young 33-year old regent of Dagbon in 1969 when the government of the Progress Party under Dr K. A. Busia sent in troops under the command of the then Captain F.W.K. Akuffo to dislodge him from the Yendi palace since he was thought to be a supporter of the then CPP, Indeed, sixty-nine (69) of his followers were murdered in cold blood in the ensuing confrontation.
The young Regent himself was seriously wounded. He was eventually driven out of the place and Ya-Na Mahamadu Abdullai was installed as the new Ya-Na. Following the NRC overthrow of the Progress Party government in 1972, the Ollennu commission upheld the legitimacy of the rotational system of the Ya-Na – an action which was confirmed by a supreme court decision in 1987. It is clear therefore that the late Ya-Na Yakubu Andani could not have been a special friend of the former President or a progides of the PNDC/NDC. – Ghanaian Voice
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 15 April 2002 - Oxfam, a British NGO operating in rural
communities in many parts of the world has challenged the International
Monetary Fund, the World Bank and developed countries to stop paying lip
service to the worsening poverty situation in the developing world.
Instead,
the two Bretton Woods institutions and the shylock-developed countries should
demonstrate their commitment to poverty reduction by opening their markets to
primary products from the Third World.
Oxfam is of
the view that the problem of low and unsustainable commodity prices, which
consign millions of poor farmers to poverty, has not been fairly tackled by the
international community. “While rich countries keep their markets closed, poor
countries have been pressurized by the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank to open their markets at breakneck speed, often with damaging
consequences for the poor communities.
Oxfam, which
has launched a campaign to advocate for fair trade terms for developing
countries, says world trade has the potential to act as catalyst for poverty
reduction and economic growth. “Yet the same Western governments use their
trade policy to conduct what amounts to high-way robbery against the world’s
poor,” Oxfam said in a policy statement.
Among other
aims, Oxfam wants to see an end to the stringent conditions attached to
IMF-World Bank sponsored programmes, which force poor countries to open up
their markets; the creation of a new international institution to stabilise
prices for primary commodities at levels consistent with reasonable standard of
living for producers, the prohibition of rules that force governments to
liberalise or privatise basic services that are vital for poverty reduction and
establishing new-intellectual-property rules to ensure that poor countries are
able to afford new technologies and basic machines.
Oxfam
points out that the current unfair trade practices are indefensible and
unsustainable in as far as they are marginalising large parts of the world’s
poor. According to Oxfam the World Trade Organisation is another part of the
unfair world trade that is holding the poor down because WTO rules on
intellectual-property, investment and the services only serve the interests of
rich countries and powerful Transnational Corporations, while imposing huge
costs on developing countries.
“When rich
countries lock poor people out of their markets, they close the door to an
escape route from poverty,” Oxfam points out. The statement notes that changes
in trade patterns could have an increasing influence on patterns of income
distribution and reduce poverty.
It says if
developing countries are allowed to increase their share of world exports by
just five percent, it could generate $350 billion, seven times as much as the
developing countries receive in aid. “The $70 billion Africa would generate
through a one per cent increase in its share of world exports is approximately
five times the amount provided the region through aid and debt relief.”
But will
the Western World go by the rules of the game? Oxfam says they ignore the
developing countries at their own risk. This is because as Oxfam puts it, “the
anger, despair and social tensions that accompany vast inequalities in wealth
and opportunity will not respect national bodies. The instability that they
will generate threatens us all. In today’s globalised world, our lives are more
inextricably linked than ever before.”
Ghana’s
vice-President Alhaji Aliu Mahama echoed the same sentiments held by Oxfam. In
a speech at a dinner in honour of President Kufuor, Aliu said globalisation has
not the desired benefits to many people, especially and as he put it “those of
us in the developing countries.”
“Conflict,
unacceptable levels of poverty, illiteracy, disease, and insecurity blight the
lives of millions in the developing countries whiles the developed world live
in prosperity and progress,” Aliu told the gathering which included members of
the diplomatic corps. Oxfam reinforces the fact that if the West fails to act,
public action could force the interests of the poor on to the international
agenda as demonstrated by the international campaign against globalisation.
Already,
many people from developing countries have given up hope of ever making it in
their own countries. The result is the large army of young men and women
queuing up at the embassies of Western countries in search of visas. Some have
gone to the extent of using unapproved routes to enter Europe in a bid to
escape poverty in Africa. Ghana and other African countries have lost large
numbers of professionals to Western countries because of depressing economic
situation at home. – Public Agenda.
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Sekondi
(Western Region) 15 April 2002 - The Nzema Maanle Council, a grouping of seven
paramount chiefs in the Nzema land, has stated that though it would have been
happy if the body of the late President Dr Kwame Nkrumah was still lying at
Nkroful, his hometown, the group does not support the claim that the body was
removed to Accra fro permanent internment by the then government on political
grounds.
According
to the group, the late President, who also won independence for Ghana, was one
of the political kingpins in Africa, therefore, the removal of his body from
the tomb of Nkroful to Accra fro permanent burial was in a way to show
appreciation of what he had achieved for the country and Africa as a whole.
Awulae
Annor Adjaye IV, the Omanhene of Western Nzema Traditional area who stated this
at a news conference in Sekondi last Thursday also debunked a claim that Dr
Nkrumah was a Liberian because of his middle name Nwea. According to him, Nwea
means eighth born in the Nzema language and therefore cannot be said to be a
Liberian name.
The news
conference itself was called by the Council, which included Jomoro, Nsein,
Lower and Upper Axim, Eastern and Western Nzema and Gwira traditional areas to
announce their decision to institute a ¢10 billion Kwame Nkrumah Education
Fund, which is expected to be launched in December, this year to sponsor
brilliant but needy children in the area to pursue their education.
According
to Annor Adjaye, the naming of the proposed fund after Dr Nkrumah by the
council was to show appreciation for the role he played in the development of
the country, including the free education that he offered the deprived Northern
Regions. He said to ensure a sound take-off, the Nzema Maanle has proposed an
amount of ¢546 million as a seed money to start the fund.
He said a
delegation would also be sent to the USA and some of the European countries to
appeal to the Nzema citizens there to also contribute to the fund to help raise
the standard of education in the area. Awulae Annor Adjaye also hinted that
since the council does not get any revenue accruing from the mausoleum where
their illustrious son was buried in Accra, the council intends sending a
petition to the government to allow them to open an office at the mausoleum to
solicit funds from those who would be visiting there to ensure the sustainability
of the proposed education fund.
Awulae
Agyefi Kwame II, the president of the council, on his part, said the aim and
objective of the institution of the Kwame Nkrumah Education Fund for a
scholarship scheme in the name of Nkrumah to immortalise the man he described
as “a gem of Africa personality who was adjudged the most outstanding
personality of the millennium 30 years after his exit from the African
political scene.”
Awulae
Agyefi, who is also Omanhene of Nsein traditional area, further said the fund
is also meant to help educate capable people both from Nkrumah’s ethnic origin,
Nzemaland, Ghana and Africa generally to take their rightful places among the
comity of nations. “It is also to complement government efforts of making
education affordable and accessible to majority of disadvantaged but brilliant
students,” he added. Present at the press conference were the remaining
paramount chiefs who constitute the Nzema Maanle Councle. – The Ghanaian
Chronicle.
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Sunyani
(Brong Ahafo Region) 15 April 2002 - Yagbon-Wura Bawa Doshi II, the Paramount
Chief of the Gonja traditional area, has advised all Gonjas to be mindful of
their utterances that could lead to more clashes within the Dagbon traditional
area, or among Dagombas in other parts of the Northern Region.
The Gonja
king, who is one of the eminent kings mediating in the Dagbon crisis, told his
people to help rebuild and unite the Dagombas more than ever before. “Dagombas
are our brothers and if we cannot do something to heal their wounds, we should
not do something to open their wounds,” he cautioned.
The
Yagbon-Wura gave the advise in an address read on his behalf at the annual
Easter Conference organised by the Gonjaland Youth Association (GYA) at Salaga
in the Northern Region. The Gonja king appealed to his sub-chiefs to nominate
intellectuals to “small skins” as chiefs within their area of jurisdiction.
He was of
the view that this could help salvage the downward trend of education
characteristic of the Gonja traditional area. High on the agenda at the
three-day conference was the creation of a new region in the Northern Region.
According to the GYA, the Northern Region is the largest region with a vast
stretch of land which needs development but which the government finds
difficult to develop due to its size. The participants therefore, suggested to
the government to divide the region into two. - The Ghanaian Chronicle.
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