11 more names out
Mass looting spreads
Live in your own houses! – Nyaho-Tamakloe urges new ministers
Kufuor frees Ghanaians – He is the ‘Man of the Year’
We will not celebrate June 4, 31st
TEWU agrees to call of planned strike
Fake cedis used in campaigns?
Apraku doubts data on the economy
11 more names out
The President, Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, on Wednesday made 11 more Ministerial appointments to his Cabinet, reports the state-owned Daily Graphic.
A statement issued from the office of the President, signed by the Presidential spokesperson, Ms Elizabeth Ohene named J.H. Mensah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Sunyani East as the Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs; Mr Yaw Osafo Marfo, MP for Akyem Oda as Minister of Finance; Mrs Gladys Asmah, MP for Takoradi as Minister for Women’s Affairs and Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, MP for Offinso North as Minister of Trade and Industry.
Others are Nana Akfuo-Addo, MP for Abuakwa Central as Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Hackman Owusu Agyeman, MP for New Juaben North, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Dominic Fobih, MP for Assin South, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology and Dr Kweku Afriyie, Third National Vice-Chairman of the NPP as Minister of Lands and Forestry.
The rest are Alhaji Malik Yakubu Alhassan, MP for Yendi, Minister of the Interior; Major Courage Quarshigah, National Organiser of NPP as Minister of Agriculture and Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor, MP for Bantama as Minister of Defence.
The appointment brings to 12 the total number of Ministerial appointments made by the President to his Cabinet this week.
Earlier in the week, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wieredu, MP for Asante Akim North, was appointed the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development.
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Time to shed negative image of Castle - Kufuor
The Graphic reports President John Agyekum Kufuor as having urged workers at the Osu Castle to make conscious efforts to shed the negative image of excessive use of power unjustifiably associated with the place.
“We want to shed that image of the Castle as a place where all kinds of negative acts, such as the cruel shaving of people and throwing them into cells unjustifiably, were committed,” he said.
President Kufuor who was interacting with top civil servants at the Castle, asked all parties to work to shed the mystery and give it a 21st Century image, adding that the new symbol of the Castle should be a true reflection of a government of the people and by the people.
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Mass looting spreads
The Chronicle reports of mass looting at Government institutions by former ‘big men’ who are leaving office as the NDC administration’s term ended.
“From old saloon cars, to buses, from land cruisers to plush Mercedes Benz vehicles, from louver blades to ceiling fans, from television sets to unbelievable levels of kleptocracy, particularly at the Ministry of Energy.
“Even the main Castle and its annex were not spared as ‘big men’ connected with the NDC took off with cars after paying peanuts for them,” the paper said.
Mitsubishi Gallant, a Peugeot pick-up and a Toyota saloon cars were sold between 200,000 and one million cedis while a new red VW Golf car was sold for 8 million to an Army major who was in the thick of distribution of logistics for the NDC campaigns.
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Women’s coalition want IGP removed
Sisters Keepers, a coalition of groups and individuals concerned about the killings of women, have called on President J.A. Kufuor to replace the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Peter Nanfuri, on grounds of incompetence.
Aware that the IGP would not resign voluntarily, after his statement last year that until he resolves the murders it would be an act of cowardice on his part, to do so, the organisation asked that President Kufuor should replace him.
Mrs Elizabeth Akpalu, a member of the body, at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, disclosed that if the IGP, a crack intelligence man could not do anything to stop the gruesome murders of over 30 women in the Accra metropolis, within the past years, then he does not deserve to be there, the Chronicle said.
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Live in your own houses! – Nyaho-Tamakloe urges new ministers
A leading member of the NPP, Dr Nyaho Tamakloe, is reported by The Crusading Guide to have proposed that Ministers of State must reside in their own houses.
“I will prefer a situation where Cabinet Ministers or Ministers will stay in their own houses and pay promptly their utility bills,” Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe told the paper in an interview.
He stressed that the practice of running with vehicles must stop so that there won’t be a strain on the economy.
He said that he was sure that if the government cuts down the use of vehicles especially, at the weekends for funerals, a lot of money would be saved and suggested for official drivers to take Ministers to their various offices in the mornings and then go for them after close of work.
He called on the government to declare the state of the economy so that the people would understand and know that things are being started afresh.
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Kufuor frees Ghanaians – He is the ‘Man of the Year’
The Independent says President John Agyekum Kufuor has been voted by its numerous readers and editorial team as ‘Man of the Year 2000’. He is the fourth personality to win the title.
President Kufuor beat a strong field of other short-listed candidates for the title including ex-President Rawlings, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission and Mr Harry Zakkour, Executive Chairman of the historic Africa Cup winning Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club, with a nearly 90 per cent score from over 200 calls, letters and faxes that the paper received.
“For many, Kufuor represents the best in perseverance, having fought all these years, his courage and other assets often ignored by some leading members of his party who never gave him a dog’s chance to reach the top of his career,” the Independent stated.
One nominator said that Mr Kufuor’s long journey throughout the length and breadth of the country had resulted in the massive rejection of the NDC, for which reason he deserves the title as Man of the Year more than any other person.
“He symbolises the democratic revolution”, another caller reportedly, had said.
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We will not celebrate June 4, 31st
The majority NPP in Parliament has declared that it will not celebrate June 4 and 31st December at the least not on official basis.
Some NPP MPs that the paper talked to including Hon. Alhaji Yakubu Malik Alhassan, Papa Owusu-Ankomah and Mr J.H. Mensah, said it was the duty of Parliament to protect, but not to undermine the Constitution and since the two events do not fall within the confines of the Constitution, they cannot celebrate them.
They further said that the NPP has made its position clear on the celebrations of these days clear over the years.
Alhaji Malik Alhassan told the Guide that anything that conflicts with the spirit and letter of the constitution must not be promoted.
Mr J.H. Mensah said ex-President Jerry John Rawlings as a citizen of the country has every right to harbour and exercise his ideas on the calendar of the national holiday, however, the executive authority and initiative in recommending or celebrating national holidays now belong solely to President Kufuor and to whatever Parliament legislate.
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TEWU agrees to call of planned strike
The Ghana Education Service (GES) and the National Executive Council of the Teachers and Educational Workers' Union (TEWU) have entered into an agreement that TEWU should suspend an intended industrial action in order to give more time to the government to solve their problems.
The two entered into the agreement after the GES met the Council to brief it on a number of TEWU's grievances, which were being addressed by management.
A memorandum of understanding that was subsequently signed by representatives of the bodies said that the Director-General had indicated that major issues had been tackled and were waiting the final approval by the Ministries of Education, Finance and Employment and Social Welfare.
The two institutions also agreed that all outstanding matters that were purely administrative should be tackled by the end of January.
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Fake cedis used in campaigns?
The Evening News reports the use of thousands of fake currencies to run party campaign in the December 7 and 28 general elections in certain areas of the country.
Notable among the regions are Ga rural, parts of Western, Central and Eastern Regions where the money, mainly in five thousand notes were freely dished out to unsuspecting party faithfuls and undecided voters.
The story said since most party agents were doing footwork in the nights from door to and sometimes at drinking joints, it was very easy for the poor illiterate voters to be bribed with them to vote for a particular party.
The scheme, the paper said, did however not produce the desired effect as some of the few enlightened ones among the rural folk saw through the sham and blurted it out as fast as they could, thereby unmasking it.
"The notes which carried the same serial numbers R 3623318 and represents the handiwork of a clever mind soon drove people to switch their votes after realizing that they had been taken for fools," the Evening News said.
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Apraku doubts data on the economy
An inside-page story of the Accra Mail said Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, the re-elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Offinso North Constituency and Shadow Finance Minister in the past Parliament has expressed apprehension on the data that was provided in the handover notes from ministers of the past government.
Dr Apraku observed during a radio discussion programme on Choice FM, an Accra Radio Station, that there were variations in some of the economic statistics that were contained in the handover notes compared to the official position of the past Rawlings administration.
In a particular case, handover notes from the Ministry of Finance stated that inflation was at 39.51 percent, he pointed out, saying “ just a few months ago anybody would have disputed it I was saying the same thing that the rate of inflation was between 45%-50% long ago” the paper quotes him as saying.
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