Sam Jonah inducted as new Capevars Chancellor
Accra (Greater Accra) 11 March 2002 - The Electoral Commission (EC) on Friday announced that the voters' register would be opened from Friday March 22 to Sunday, March 31 to receive applications from prospective voters.
The exercise would also be used to clean the register, a statement signed by Mr Henry W. Okine, Director, Public Affairs of EC, said in Accra. It said the exercise, which would be from 7am to 6pm daily, including weekends, would be undertaken in designated centres in each of the 5,000 electoral areas throughout the country.
"During the period, Ghanaian citizens, who have attained the age of 18 since the last registration exercise have the opportunity to register now. Older Ghanaians who, for one reason or the other, have not registered since 1995 can also do so now."
The statement said in order to have a reliable, accurate and dependable register, Ghanaian citizens, family heads, traditional rulers, assembly members, unit committee members as well as opinion leaders in the communities, political parties and religious leaders are entreated to report the death of their registered relatives and friends to enable the Commission to remove the names of the dead from the register.
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Cape Coast (Central region) 11 March 2002 - Senior Minister, Mr J.H. Mensah on Saturday warned that the government would no longer intervene for students of tertiary institutions who are punished by their authorities for various misconducts. "Neither the President nor the government would make it a habit to be pleading time and again with school authorities on behalf of erring students".
Mr Mensah, who gave the warning when he addressed the 32 congregation of the University of Cape Coast, advised students to make themselves conversant with the rules and regulations of the various institutions into which they have been enrolled and abide by them at all times.
The Senior Minister said the President's plea to the UCC last year to pardon the nine students who were found to have played culpable role in the disruption of the 31st Congregation should not be misinterpreted as an interference in the affairs of the University, nor support for indiscipline among students.
He explained that the plea arose out of a strong desire to ensure peace and effective teaching and learning on the campus, and advised students not to regard it as a victory over the university authority but a challenge to them to be of good behaviour and to respect the authority.
"This is an era of rule of law and students must therefore, be law abiding in institutions of higher learning". In all, 2300 graduates made up of 1646 males and 654 females were awarded with degrees and diplomats. They include 141 diplomats, 1966 first degree holders, 193 post graduates, including two PhD holders.
A total of 23 graduates, made of 18 males and five females received first class honours. The Senior Minister was representing the President who was out of the country.
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Ho (Volta Region) 11 March 2002 - Mr Kofi Asamoah, Deputy Secretary-General (Operations) the Trades Union Congress (TUC), on Friday declared workers' disappointment at the government's delay in determining the minimum wage and the restoration of the End of Service Benefits (ESB).
''The delay brings into question whether the government attaches any importance to the plight of workers who have contributed to the economic gains it has so far made''.
Addressing the Volta Region Executive Council Meeting at Ho, Mr Asamoah called on the government to give equal attention to workers, who have contributed to the stability of the cedi and other economic strides of the government.
"For purposes of equity government should not merely call for national debate on incomes of workers but ensure that agreements reached were respected". On the ESB, Mr Asamoah said the negotiations for its restoration had reached the Tripartite Committee level and wondered why some people should be enjoying it and the mass of the people should not.
He also called on the workers to take interest in all aspects of democratic governance of the country to enable public office holders live up to expectation. Mr Asamoah advised workers to involve themselves in the activities of their communities and to contest the district assembly elections.
He announced that the TUC was considering the establishment of Trade Union Schools in the regions to step up the education of the workers in leadership and communication skills. Mr Asamoah advised employers to draw-up pre-retirement programmes to prepare their workers well before they started their retirement.
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Sunyani (Brong Ahahfo) 11 March 2002 - Dr Isaac Kofi Asare, Brong Ahafo Regional Director of Health Services, said on Thursday that unpaid accumulated medical bills of prisoners at the Sunyani Government Hospital over the years run into several millions of cedis.
He said health care services for the prisoners are a great cost to the hospital because sick prisoners "are oftentimes brought there without money to pay for the services rendered them".
Dr Asare was reacting to a question about the National Health Insurance Scheme and the fate of prisoners at a day's consultative seminar for stakeholders in Sunyani. The seminar, organised by the Sunyani District Assembly, was also aimed at preparing the minds of the people to understand the scheme to ensure its smooth takeoff.
Dr Asare expressed regret that the situation at times generates misunderstandings between the para-medical staff and the prison officers who accompany the sick prisoners to the hospital.
He, however, noted that the inability of the prison authorities to pay for the medical bills might emanate from insufficient budget to cater for such cases and therefore, appealed to the prison authorities to put their case across to the sector ministry for sufficient funds to pay for "such vital expenditures" as it is a big drain on the income-generation efforts of the hospital.
Mr Ishmael Khan Aborabora Baidoo-Ahmad, Brong Ahafo Regional Director of Prisons, later in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, confirmed Dr. Asare's complaint but blamed the situation on the police.
Mr Baidoo-Ahmad said the problem had arisen because the health authorities sometimes confused the status of convicted prisoners with that of remand prisoners, explaining that the care for convicted prisoners as well as remand prisoners contributed to the problem. "The two are not the same because the Prison Service is in full charge of convicted prisoners whilst the Police Service is supposed to take care of those on remand."
The Regional Prisons Director claimed that the service was not obliged to take responsibility for the health needs of remand prisoners. "The police authorities in Sunyani, either by commission or omission, have neglected their responsibility for that and we are bearing the brunt of it," he added.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 11 March 2002 - An improved version of the Tourism Award Scheme was on Friday launched in Accra with a call on the government to establish trade and tourism promotion units in all Ghanaian diplomatic missions.
There should also be special tourism promotion offices in countries where Ghana expects potential tourists, Nana Asante Frempong, NPP Member of Parliament for Asante Kwaabre, said, arguing that such offices had the potential to increase visits of tourists to Ghana.
He noted that President John Agyekum Kufuor acknowledged the importance of tourism to national development when he placed it second to exports as the key to the survival of this country. Saying that it was time for government to put its money where its mouth was.
The 15 billion cedis budgetary allocation for the sector in this year's budget was an all time high, Nana Frempong observed, saying it was an indication of the government's commitment to the development of tourism in the country.
Mr Martin Mireku, Acting Executive Director of Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), who launched the award scheme, said with the anticipated growth in tourism in the 21st Century, comparative advantage would be a critical pre-requisite for increased benefits.
"To be a winner in the competitive global tourism terrain, we must apply state-of-the-art technology and other modern day mechanisms to ensure the comfort of the guest," he said.
"The award scheme is designed to motivate players in the industry to strive for higher standards in the sector." The award scheme, which seeks to reward excellence, quality service delivery and sustainability is in two categories - competition and honorary.
The competitive awards would be given to tourism facilities and core industry players while honorary awards go to corporate bodies, regions, districts and communities and individual whose activities and special programmes impact positively on tourism development.
The award would essentially focus not only on service delivery but also on the level of quality assurance, sensitivity to environmental integrity, responsiveness to welfare and concern for host communities and identification with the national programme of corporate marketing of Ghana, among other things. The national awards night is slated for October 5, 2002, to be preceded by regional awards.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 11 March 2002 - Despite the ratification of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and other international human rights instruments by member states of the Organisation of African Unity and their declared commitment to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women in Africa, women continued to be victims of discrimination and harmful practices, a law professor said on Friday.
Mrs Akua Kuenyehia, Dean of the Law Faculty, University of Ghana, said the promotion of women's right were unsatisfactory in Africa since many people continued to use cultural and traditional practices to justify violence against women.
Mrs Kuenyehia was speaking at a day's seminar to throw more light on the Protocol to the Africa Charter on Human and Peoples' Right on the Rights of Women in Africa organised by Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), Ghana, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) to commemorate International Women's Day in Accra.
The protocol, drafted by various NGOs and regional groups such as the Economic Commission for Africa, Africa Centre for Women and Interafrica Union for Human Rights in November, last year, is to serve as an addition to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
The seminar, attended by women rights activists and groups, offered a platform to discuss the protocol, which would be adopted by Heads of State of the 53-member states of the OAU in July this year in Pretoria, South Africa.
Many women's rights groups have raised concerns that the Charter adopted by the then OAU, does not address the rights of women as individuals but as married women with children.
Mrs Kuenyehia, throwing more light on some of the proposals under the protocol, said it states that all member states shall combat all forms of discrimination against women through appropriate legislative measures.
She said the state shall enact and effectively implement appropriate national legislative instruments to prohibit all forms of harmful practices, which would endanger the health and general well-being of women and girls.
Mrs Kuenyehia said the protocol demands that state parties shall modify education, with a view to achieving the elimination of harmful cultural and traditional practices and all other practices, which are based on the idea of inferiority or superiority of either sexes, or on stereotyped roles for men and women.
Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, Chief State Attorney, International Law Division of the Ministry of Justice, who delivered a paper on the Processes for the finalisation and adoption of the protocol, said women had for too long been left out in the process of lawmaking especially when laws being negotiated were designed to specifically protect or enhance the right of women.
She noted that the fact still remained that laws provided the framework in which the advancement of women's right might be achieved. "Thus even though we lawyers are aware that the legislature is not a complete remedy in itself for advancing women's rights, law reform is the cornerstone on which women's equality must be built." She re-affirmed the total support of the Attorney- General and Minister for Justice for the ratification of the protocol in July, this year.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 11 March 2002 - Mr Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General is among several world leaders and Presidents that are the latest to congratulate the government and Ghanaians on the 45th independence anniversary, which fell last Wednesday.
A statement signed by Mr Kojo Acquah, Acting Director of Information, Culture and Linguistic Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, named the others as Mr Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, Mr Sam Nujoma of Namibia, Mr Festus G. Mogae of Botswana, and Mr Charles Ghankay Taylor of Liberia and Senior General Than Shwi, Chairman of the State of Peace and Development Council of the Union of Myanmar.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 11 March 2002 - A six member British parliamentary delegation on Saturday ended a seven-day duty tour of some parts of the country to assess the impact of their development support in the country.
The delegation led by Hon. Tony Baldry, Chairman of the International Development Steering Committee that toured some parts of the Western and Northern Regions said the team was impressed with the use of British support to alleviate poverty.
During interaction with the media, the delegation expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of agro-processing industries in the country to add value to raw products, which they said was "an affront to wealth creation among the people."
The team leader said it was unfortunate that iron was shipped at very low prices to Belgium only for it to be processed into cables and resold to Ghana at high cost. The importation of canned tomatoes from Italy even though the country had the capability of processing for the domestic market and export was another area of concern for the team.
Mr Baldry urged the government to concentrate on wealth creation among the people to reduce poverty by empowering them to expand their horizon in marketing. "You have to help community local groups to link up to the bigger world."
He urged the government to invest more in education as the key to development in every society. Mr Baldry commended the improvement in the delivery of basic health services, which they described as very encouraging, adding that other social development programmes seem to be on track.
On the Northern region, the delegation called for support for civil groups working in that part of the country to reduce poverty. The delegation was impressed about measures instituted by the Wassa West District Assembly to check environmental pollution as a result of mining in the area. The other members of the group were, Tony Worthington, Tony Cocman, John Battle, Andrew Robathan and Hugh Baycey.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 11 March 2002 - Residents of Teshie-Nungua were without telephone communications throughout the weekend since the stand-by generator of the Ghana Telecom Exchange has broken down and there was also power outage in the area.
Several people were disappointed as they moved from one telephone booth to another, only to be greeted with the expression, "technical fault, replace handset". They were even more disappointed when they turned to communication centres. Many of the centres were closed, and those that were opened were also having the same technical problem.
The GNA reports a source close to the Teshie-Nungua Exchange as attributing the problem to a breakdown of a stand-by generator that supplied electricity to the exchange when power from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was disrupted.
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Cape Coast (Central Region) 11 March 2002 - Dr Sam Jonah, Chief Executive of Ashanti Goldfields Limited, was inducted into office, on Saturday, as the Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast.
Until his appointment last year the position had been vacant since 1982. His five-year appointment is renewable for a second term. Speaking at the ceremony, the Chairman of the University Council, Dr Charles Mensah, urged the new Chancellor to seek resources for the improvement of infrastructure in the University.
He should also negotiate for better remuneration for workers of the institution to improve teaching and learning and to retain lecturers. The Vice Chancellor, Reverend Professor Emmanuel Addo Obeng, asked him to work closely with the University Council and other officers to maintain the position of UCC as an institution of excellence in the sub-region.
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