We must respect all tribes
NDC achievement laudable – Asaga
Nigeria shows the way-No pension for coup makers
African debt crisis a moral issue
Kufuor attends K’si Akwasidae Festival
Old Jobs to go on
De-confiscation of Assets – Kufuor hand tied
GNPC to go
Double Agony of jailed fake lawyer
Every Ghanaian owes 2 million cedis
Kufuor has stolen our plans – NDC
Why Kufuor would not fly.. in Presidential Jet
Siaw, B.A. Mensah, “Sardine” to get properties back
No NPP colours
Kufuor storms Kumasi
Teacher seduces 7 primary 5 girls
We must respect all tribes
President J.A. Kufuor has called on Ghanaians, especially Asantes, to respect and recognise each other’s tribe to foster unity and national integration reports the Daily Graphic.
This is needed to ensure national reconciliation and accelerated growth, he told a durbar organised as part of the Akwasidae Festival at the forecourt of the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi on Sunday.
President Kufuor specifically urged Asantes to treat all tribes as equals and give them the needed respect and recognition.
He said some Asantes use words that are often too strong and sometimes offend the sensibilities of other tribes in the country.
President Kufuor noted that Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, is the melting pot of all ethnic groups in the country and emphasised the need for Asantes to therefore set the pace in the nation’s quest for national reconciliation and total unity.
He said it is not only those who are born Asantes who are Asantes but all those who identify themselves with some of the virtues of Asantes.
The President, therefore, told the gathering that Asantes in particular should be sobered by his presidency and work together with other tribes in the country for the rapid socio-economic development and unity of the nation.
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NDC achievement laudable – Asaga
The Graphic in another story reports the Minority Spokesman on Finance, Mr Moses Asaga, as saying that the 3.7 per cent growth rate recorded in the last fiscal year by the previous government is laudable in the face of prevailing international economic difficulties.
That growth rate, he said, represented 74 per cent of the projected five per cent.
In a statement issued on behalf of the NDC in reaction to the President’s Sessional Address, he said the assertion of President Kufuor that the growth was “far lower” than projected is not true.
He pointed out that considering the rather difficult international environment at the time, the former government’s performance ought to be commended and not condemned.
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Nigeria shows the way-No pension for coup makers
Nigeria’s Senate last Thursday overwhelmingly voted that former military heads of state should not receive any pension, writes The Independent.
By the same decisive vote, coup makers cannot serve on the country’s National Council of State.
According to the paper, by this vote, former military heads of state, General Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babaginda and Muhammed Buhari who had been recommended for pension cannot enjoy any remuneration from the state.
By their historic vote, the Nigerian Senate has ruled that only elected past presidents and vice-presidents would be entitled to upkeep allowance and other allowances.
“the Senate’s decision followed debate on the report of the Senate Committee on Judiciary headed by Senator Mike Ajaegbo, to which the original draft of the bill was sent for legal opinion.
The Senate had on October 25, 2000 referred the “Bill to Amend the Remuneration of Former Presidents and Heads of State” to the Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters.
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African debt crisis a moral issue
The Nigerian leader, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has said that Africa’s search for good governance can only be achieved if it is rooted on poverty alleviation.
“Our people who have placed their faith in democracy will find democracy meaningless, if democracy does not eliminate poverty”, The Independent quotes the Nigerian leader as saying.
In this regard President Obasanjo says creditor nations of the world have a moral duty to cancel the debts of African countries.
President Obasanjo made these remarks when he hosted delegates at the 6th Conference of the Commonwealth Association in Aso Rock, the seat of government in Abuja last Friday.
In an address laced with his usual humour and wit, President Obasanjo said the debt question was a political and moral one. According to him, Africa cannot develop without debt cancellation.
The paradox of the African debt crisis, he said was that debtor countries like Nigeria are overburdened with debts that they have repaid many times.
“We cannot talk about poverty alleviation with the awesome debt burden we face”, he said and urged the creditor countries of the West to help entrench good governance in Africa with debt cancellation.
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Kufuor attends K’si Akwasidae Festival
The President, Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, on Sunday attended a grand durbar of the chiefs and people of Ashanti to climax this year’s ‘Akwasidae’ festival.
He was accompanied by Vice-President Aliu Mahama, the First Lady, Theresa, the Vice President’s wife, Ramatu, Ministers of State, and Members of Parliament from the Ashanti Region.
Addressing the large gathering at the Manhyia Palace, President Kufuor stressed the need for Ashantis to live in harmony with all the other tribes living among them.
He said that Ashantis had the responsibility, as the hosts, to preserve the peace and not to do anything contrary that would disturb the prevailing cordial relationship between them and the other tribes.
“Ashanti is not a tribe of people but encompasses many other tribes of the country, especially Kumasi,” he said and cited Anloga, Fanti New Town, Moshie Zongo, Accra Town and Aboabo as some of the suburbs that derive their names from tribal settlements.
President Kufuor, according to the Ghanaian Times, said that such suburbs should strengthen unity and foster harmonious relations between them and the other tribes.
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Old Jobs to go on
The Times in another story says unlike what obtained in the past, the NPP government will continue all on-going projects initiated by the previous ones.
To enhance co-ordinated development, the government has decided to complete the projects before taking on news ones.
To this end, the Ministry of Works and Housing is studying the profiles of all ongoing or abandoned projects with a view of completing them for the benefit of the people.
The sector Minister, Mr Kwamena Bartels, said this when he visited the Assin District to assess an abandoned water treatment plant at Assin Dawumako.
He disclosed that 18 million dollars would be needed to complete the project.
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De-confiscation of Assets – Kufuor hand tied
President John Agyekum Kufuor is likely to face his first constitutional crises in his bid to right the wrongs that were committed by the Rawlings regimes of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), writes the Guide.
The two regimes witnessed the most brutal abuses of human rights ever recorded in the history of this country, according to the paper.
Not only were former heads of state and top military officers tied to the stake and shot dead, but many Ghanaian business men and women were subjected to public opprobrium, reminiscent of the jungle era.
Additionally many of them lost their businesses under very dubious and shady circumstances that smacked more of envy on the part of Rawlings and his followers than an actual breach of the laws of the land by those who lost those assets.
It is these wrongs that President Kufuor in his sessional address, pledged to right when he said ‘to this end, I shall accelerate the process of restoring confiscated assets to their owners. It is time to bring this whole sorry chapter of confiscation to an end’.
Considering the fact that these assets were confiscated during the AFRC, PNDC eras, and provisions were made in the 1992 Constitution to make the reversal of those awful decisions constitutionally problematic, President Kufuor’s good intentions are likely to be met with constitutional challenges.
The first salvo that the constitution throws to Kufuor is in article 299 which states; ‘The transitional provisions specified in the First Schedule to this constitution shall have effect notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this constitution.
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GNPC to go
Mr Osafo Marfo, the minister for Finance has indicated the intention of the government to scrap the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and place it in a department under the Energy Ministry.
He said the corporation has persistently been a source of drain on the national economy, therefore the need to stop it from operating as it is today.
Speaking on an Accra radio station, Joy FM, the Finance Minister thought that the company should not exist, “because oil exploration is a departmental work, we ourselves are not exploring oil, we are just arranging for people, multi nationals to come and explore oil”, he said.
He alleged that Dr. Kwesi Botchway, a former finance Minister in the (P)NDC government, resigned because of a GNPC debt. Osafo Marfo further disclosed that he talked to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana who revealed to him that the type of GNPC’s debts, which pass through the bank, is not healthy for the economy.
Asked if he would have closed GNPC, the finance Minister stated that if he were the President, he would have closed it and certainly he will soon propose the closure to President Kufuor.
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Double Agony of jailed fake lawyer
The 35-year-old impostor, whose real name is Boampong but adopted the name of a prominent lawyer, Ramseyer Hayform Awuku, to deceive the public that he is associated with that lawyer, will go to prison for 12 months in default of the payment.
Boampong, alias Eric yaw Asiedu, who at his first appearance pleaded not guilty to the charges, changed his plea and the tribunal, chaired by Mrs. Elizabeth Anderson Yebuah sentenced him accordingly.
The impostor who had earlier been remanded in custody and later granted bail in the sum of 10 million cedis with a surety, was also ordered to refund all monies he had collected from unsuspecting clients.
The prosecution said, Boampong, who was convicted for the offence and whose educational background is doubtful, has since 7 years ago, posed as a lawyer and has been practising in the law courts and the tribunals at Nsawam, Suhum, Asamankese, Nkawkaw, Kumasi and Accra, reports The Free Press.
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Every Ghanaian owes 2 million cedis
One of the shocking revelations of last Thursday’s Sessional Address by President John Agyekum Kufuor, his first, was Ghana’s total debt stock which stood at 41.1 trillion as at the end of December 2000, states the Dispatch.
If Ghana’s population is currently estimated at 19 million, it means every Ghanaian has a debt of 2,163,157 cedis (Editor’s note: - one trillion has twelve zeros).
Of the total debt, 31.7 billion cedis was external. The domestic debt was 9.4 billion cedis. The President said provisional figures indicated that “the growth of real gross domestic product, which gives an indication of the performance of the economy, in the year 2000, was 3.7%, which is far lower than the projected 5% in last year’s Budget Statement”.
President Kufuor described the depth of Ghana’s financial crisis as “shocking” and “sobering”.
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Kufuor has stolen our plans – NDC
The Public Agenda reports that NDC Parliamentarian were unanimous that President John Kufuor has stolen their plans and repackaged them as his.
In their reaction to Kufuor’s first sessional address to Parliament, NDC MP after MP, attacked the new President’s speech. They described it as a mere rehash of the former government’s agenda.
Speaking on Joy FM, Moses Asaga, ex-deputy Finance Minister and MP for Nabdam pointedly accused the NPP of stealing their plans and repackaging them last Friday.
At the same time, a member of NDC parliamentarians said they were not satisfied with Kufuor’s speech.
“I am not surprised at the NDC’s reaction,” Nana Akufo Addo, the new Minister of Justice and Attorney General said, “Kufuor’s speech offered a very clear vision for the country”.
Not at all, said Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, ex-Minister of Employment, “Kufuor failed to offer anything new except for a few areas.”
Ken Dzirasah, the second deputy Speaker, Alban Bagbin, Minority Leader and Doe Adjaho, Minority Chief Whip echoed Mumini’s views.
“I am disappointed, very disappointed because the address is too casual. Several key areas like mining, housing were left out and on those mentioned he was not definite.”
Alhaji Mumuni and Mike Hammah, an ex-deputy Minister of Roads and Transport landed more heavily; “The Address lacks both vision and inspiration. The President unfortunately failed to point at the policy direction of his presidency,” Mumuni said.
But Kwadwo Adjei Darko, the new Minister of Roads and Transport disagreed with the new minority - the address is only an outline of the new administration’s policy and detailed policy direction will be outlined as the government settles down, he said.
So what is the real situation? Are the politicians only at their usual game? Asks the Agenda.
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Why Kufuor would not fly.. in Presidential Jet
President J.A. Kufuor has finally directed that the much-talked about two executive jets in the presidential fleet, the Gulf Stream and the Fokker 28, should be disposed of as quickly as possible and a decision made on the best mode of travel for him.
This decision, the Ghanaian Democrat says has long been expected and only the uninitiated would have believed that President Kufuor would after a while start using the presidential jets on any of his trips within and outside the country.
Coming events, they say, cast their shadows, and so it would have been morally unwise and politically suicidal if the executive had decided otherwise because of the noise the then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) made on the presidential jets.
First, when the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) announced that the Fokker 28 had become a flying coffin they challenged the validity of that statement.
They cried out that because former President Jerry John Rawlings loved travelling he was infatuated with the sight of new planes and that was why he wanted another presidential jet.
Not even the fact that the Fokker 28 was more than 20 years old and the company that manufactured it had folded up would convince the NPP Members of Parliament to see reason and agree to the purchase of a new jet which would not be for the exclusive use of then President Rawlings but would be a state property to be enjoyed by future presidents just as the Fokker 28 had served several heads of state from the time of late General I.K. Acheampong.
Naturally, if they have found out that nobody deceived them about the Fokker 28 what moral right has President Kufuor to fly in the Gulf Stream?
Nothing but shame is preventing him to apologise for all the noise the NPP made over the Presidential jets.
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Siaw, B.A. Mensah, “Sardine” to get properties back
This is the time for reconciliation. Revival time is here and very soon those who suffered confiscation through the incidence of a “so called” corruption, house cleaning and all that will have their properties restored to them, states the Voice.
The papre says the prayer of certain people like B.A. Mensah who had his International Tobacco company confiscated by a phoney court which was held behind the screen will soon collect the keys to the properties he sweated and toiled for. In the same league will be the families of late J.K. Siaw who will go after not only Siaw’s properties but also Tata Brewery now christened A.B.C. Brewery company. Following this acknowledgement, the Fattal Brothers who owned Fattal Bros. Ltd., which transformed itself from Ghamot company Ltd. to Toyota (GH) Ltd. Kojo Sardine’s children who should have been the proud owners of Labone Weavers Enterprise, Industrial and Commercial and pharmaceuticals (ICAP) will all have their own back.
Hints to this change of heart of a government was given by President JAK when he gave his state of the nation address to parliament on Thursday February 15.
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No NPP colours
President Kufuor’s maiden Sessional Address on television had moments when it seemed like GTV’s equipment, especially lights, were failing.
The Accra Mails says besides the irritating spells of very dark pictures, the sound presentation was of uneven quality and at some points one could not hear anything at all.
According to the paper, this was one of the few minor incidents that almost marred the event for television viewers at home. The inability of GTV to bring to viewers the president’s interactions in the lobby of Parliament House after his address was sheer punishment.
This is one incident that calls for an internal inquiry at GTV. Due to the occasion, the presentation should have been properly choreographed.
In spite of all that the images that got to viewers in their homes and offices provided some interesting insights.
Outside the House, in a scene reminiscent of the Queen of England about to engage herself in the business of trooping the colours, a motorcade approached. The president himself was sandwiched between the motorcade and a detachment of riders from the Ghana Police Mounted Squadron in a Mercedes Benz car.
A touch of tradition was visible as groups of dancers from the Ghana Dance Ensemble treated guests to Ghanaian dances on the steps leading up in to Parliament House. It is conceivable that the many Ghanaians who for so many years used to shut off their television sets on such occasions could not afford to do so this time around and GTV must have enjoyed prime viewing.
Conspicuously and refreshingly absent were party colours – the ruling party’s or any other. The only colours were the buntings and flags bearing Ghanaians tricolour of Red, Gold and Green.
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Kufuor storms Kumasi
The ratings of the President, Mr J.A. Kufuor continues to soar, with millions of Ghanaians over the weekend manifesting their approval of his style and conduct so far, the NPP News reports.
Forty days after being sworn in as the President of the Republic, this extra-ordinary rating was clearly demonstrated from the capital, Accra where he met the chiefs and people of Ga Adangbe last Thursday, to Kumasi where he met the chiefs and people of Ashanti.
Hours after his sessional address to Parliament, the President paid a courtesy call on the Ga Traditional council which organised a very well attended durbar in his honour. He received an enthusiastic welcome as hundreds gathered to welcome him and cheer him with shouts of Asee ho.
On Friday, the President undertook his first trip to the countryside since he became President, with a motorcade to Kumasi.
All the way from Accra, millions of people lined up along the streets to cheer him with shouts of the still popular Asee ho, Kukrudu, President Papa etc. Such was the level of the enthusiasm of these crowds that the President was forced on several occasions to stand in his open roof vehicle to acknowledge them.
In towns like Nsawam, Anyinam and Nkawkaw, the milling crowds were so excited that the security personnel accompanying his excellency had a tough time controlling them as they surged forward not only to catch a glimpse of him, but also to touch and possibly, shake hands with him.
At Dadieso, the entry point of the Ashanti Region, a big crowd, complete with flag-waving school children welcomed the President, who was ushered into a durbar of chiefs and people to accord him the traditional welcome.
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Teacher seduces 7 primary 5 girls
It was like a roll call, when a 32 year old class five teacher at Bogoso Methodist Primary School in the Western region lined up seven of his class girls whose ages ranged between 13-14 years and had carnal knowledge of them in turns, reports the Ghanaian Times.
According to the girls who confessed to some of the female teachers of the school, the teacher Mr. John Kofi Bimpong, who is a budding priest lured them to watch a pornographic film in his room and convinced them that if they had sex, they would become fat and beautiful like the ‘big and bad girls’ they watched in the film.
As fate would have it, 14 year old Ms X (name withheld to protect her identity), who was among the seven girls became pregnant shortly after the incident, but the wife of the teacher, Adwoa Felicia who did not want the little girl to become her rival smuggled the girl out of the town to Tarkwa, a nearby town and aborted the pregnancy.
On the day of the abortion, Ms X could not attend classes and was late for home. The Chronicle says it learnt that after receiving some slaps from her father who wanted to know where she had been, the poor girl confessed and told her father the truth she had hidden from everybody except her friends.
The parents reported the incident to the Bogoso police and Mr. Bimpong was subsequent arrested.
Twenty-two hours after Mr Bimpong was arrested, leaders of the Bogoso Methodist Church, led by Rev. A.A. Gordon and Mr S.K. Amoako, who doubles as the Chairman of the Parents Teacher Association (PTA) went to his rescue and bailed him.
The leaders and the entire congregation of the Bogoso Methodist Church kept the scandal a secret and managed to remove the case from the police because they did not want the image of the church as well as the school to be tarnished.
But the wife of the Reverend Minister, Mrs Angelina Amankwa who is also a teacher at the mission school, objected to the decision of her husband and the entire congregation to remove the case from the police because she was of the view that the law should have been allowed to take its course considering the grievous nature of the offence. She paid dearly for this as she has become a target for retribution and now a transfer.
The teacher and the church elders secretly arranged the settlement of the case and a compensation package of about 1.5 million cedis was paid to the girl’s parents to cover the cost of medical expenses. It is also alleged that an amount of 300,000 cedis was paid to the Bogoso police for their “cooperation”.
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