GRi Press Review 02 - 05

The Crusading Guide in a front-page story reports that Mr Ekow Nyamekye Awoonor, a Non-Executive Director of Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) Limited has informed the Company that due to “personal reasons”, he is resigning as director of the company with immediate effect.

The report says, Mr Awoonor communicated his decision to resign from the AGC Board to the company on 28 April 2000.

The report quotes Mr Awoonor, who joined the company on 22 March 2000, to have said he was withdrawing his name from being put forward for election at the forth- coming Annual General Meeting and consequently resigned.

According to the report, though Mr Awoonor gave ‘personal reasons’ as the basis for his resignation from the Board, AGC watchers believe the media exposure on his past conviction in America for possession of almost five kilograms of marijuana, may be a more credible reason for his decision to give up his job as a non-Executive Director of AGC.

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name=bThe Daily Graphic/ The Ghanaian Times

Workers cry for better deal

We haven't abandoned you - President assures Ghanaian workers

The Daily Graphic reporting on the May Day celebrations says Ghanaian workers on Monday used the occasion to call on the government to give them a better deal in the new millennium.

The paper says the workers demonstrated their frustrations about the low remuneration given them, using various inscriptions on placards they paraded during the celebrations throughout the country.

About 50 workers groups from the17 national unions of the Trades Union Congress who defied a downpour and thronged the Accra Independence Square wore red armbands and carried placards spelling out their grievances, deprivations and the hardships they are enduring.

"We no go sit down", "We are tired of lies", " Take home pay can't take us home", "Mr. President, don't assent to the 12.5 per cent of VAT", "Restore ESB", "The pay is only pittance", "Save the cedi from total collapse", "Workers rights are human rights" and "House rents and school fees are unaffordable" are some of the workers messages carried by the Graphic.

Mr. Frank Appiah Agyei, TUC General Secretary, is reported to have recounted workers contribution to the independence struggle and to the socio-political and economic development of the country and expressed regret that after almost half a century of Independence, Ghanaian workers are still facing humiliating working conditions that existed during the colonial period.

The Ghanaian Times, also focusing on the workers rally, reports on its front page that President Rawlings assured them that the government has not abandoned them.

The President, according to the Times, called for unity among workers to meet the immense challenges of the future.

"You were the ones who gave birth to this government; this is your government; this is the government that belongs to you; this government, I can assure you, has not abandoned the workers and ordinary people of our country", President Rawlings was quoted as saying.

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Boycott foreign goods

The Ghanaian Times in another story says Rt. Rev. Joseph K. Tekyi-Ansah, Methodist Bishop of the Northern Ghana Diocese, has suggested the formation of consumer clubs to lead a campaign to boycott foreign goods, which are of “no economic value to the nation in these hard times”.

The Bishop, who is reported to have said this at the 39^thSynod of the Church, spoke to the gathering on the need to cut down on “our taste for foreign goods and services and patronise 'Made-in-Ghana' goods.

Rev. Tekyi-Ansah said since the economic fortunes of the country affect the development and expansion of the work of the church, church members and Ghanaians should do nothing to undermine efforts of the government.

The Bishop, according to the Times urged Ghanaians to turn their backs on unimportant imported consummates in favour of substitutes produced locally to save the country its scarce foreign exchange.

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name=cThe Ghanaian Chronicle

Jerry shuts down Obed, Gbeho, etc.

The Ghanaian Chronicle in a front-page story says President Rawlings poured cold water on the cutthroat horse-trading that has gripped the top echelon of the NDC and stars some of the most senior members of the party.

The Chronicle says the President in an outrage on Sunday commented on the intense lobbying for positions in the government and the party which he said is threatening its unity and ordered a halt to those intrigues and back-stabbing, especially that of those who are presently occupying privileged ministerial positions.

"I expect the halt to the intrigue and back-stabbing, especially those of us in privileged positions or find ourselves in ministerial posts", the Chronicle quotes him as saying.

The paper says although President Rawlings did not mention names, "it was clear that the barbs were directed at top names like 'seat stealer' Victor Gbeho, the Foreign Minister who is trying to shove off Squadron Leader Clend Sowu for his parliamentary seat.

The brutal lobbyist is Obed Asmoah, who is in a death-grip with Mahama Iddrisu for the position of Veep, which is now likely to elude them both", says the paper.

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I beg, spare my man

In another story on the front-page of the Ghanaian Chronicle, the paper reports President Rawlings as making a passionate appeal to the private press to spare Prof. Mills of what he described as the Rawlings/NDC bashing because, unlike him, Mills may have difficulty adjusting to the style and stand of the private press.

It says, the President, concluding his address at the Ho congress, asked the private press to criticise Mills, if warranted, but their presentation should be dignified and decent.

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name=dThe Independent

NDC Congress cost 600million cedis

The Independent says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) spent about 600million cedis on its Extraordinary Delegates Congress held at Ho on Saturday.

The paper says the figure, a record for any political party in the country, is the conservative estimate that it established from investigations conducted before, during and after the Ho Congress.

According to the story, the New Patriotic Party at its Sunyani congress last year spent 120 million cedis while the Convention Party, now the Convention People's Party used 70million cedis to finance its congress at Legon in the same year.

The paper says the NDC spent about 240million cedis in rehabilitating and completing the 1894 built Dela Cathedral Hall of the E.P. Church of Ghana, the Congress grounds. An NDC source reportedly dismissed the figure as ridiculous but however admitted the injection of some considerable amount.

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Volta Region still World Bank for NDC

The Independent carries another story on its front-page that says the people of the Volta Region have denied that the NDC has neglected them in terms of development projects and infrastructure.

The story has it that 28 of the 30 people the paper interviewed at Ho during the extraordinary Congress told the Independent that the region was not neglected and that at the appropriate time it will get its fair share of the national cake.

According to the paper, the position adopted by the respondents contrasts that of the Volta Region MPs who last year came together and unanimously cried foul that their region had been neglected.

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name=eThe High Street Journal

Exceptional costs force US$183.6m loss for Ashanti Goldfields in 1999

The High Street Journal says a host of exceptional items, turned what would otherwise have been a US$66.4m pre-tax profit for Ashanti Goldfields in 1999 into a US$183.6m loss.

According to the paper, exceptional items altogether took away US$250m from total revenue of US$582.1m which itself represents a three per cent decline on the 1998 figure of US$600.3m.

The fall in turnover, the paper reports, was principally due to a reduction in gold price from US$385 per ounce in 1998 to US$372 per ounce in 1999.

The story says tighter control of operating costs and increased productivity however did offset the effects of the US$13 per ounce drop in revenue.

"Ashanti's management expects that with its immediate liquidity problems now behind it, and the Geita Mine in Tanzania scheduled to commence operations this year, the company would return to profitability very quickly", says the paper.

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Barclays to introduce prestige banking in Ghana

The High Street Journal reports in another front-page story that Barclays Bank Ghana Ltd., last week followed their 1999 success results with the introduction of a series of products and services, topmost among them being prestige banking.

The product, described as 'a facility under which customers who pay a special monthly subscription fee, receive first class services at a specially designed centre', is reported to be currently operative in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya and Botswana.

Shola Safo-Duodu, the Marketing Manager of the Bank is reported to have explained that one great advantage of the product is that it will help to ease congestion at banking halls.

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name=fThe Ghana Palaver

Mills endorsed

The NDC flagbearer, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills has assured the teaming followers of the Progressive Alliance that he will give more support to women and continue where President Rawlings will end, says the Ghana Palaver.

The paper says the NDC presidential candidate, in an acceptance speech after his endorsement to lead the party, made it clear that when he wins the December elections he will give equal opportunities to all to exhibit their talent and end the marginalisation of women in national affairs.

According to the Palaver, the aspiring President also declared that there would be no pre-arrangement for political positions adding that he will have no personal agreements neither as to how positions could be shared in the likely event of electoral victory.

Prof. Mills reportedly called for national reconciliation to move the nation forward, with a special appeal to NDC members who have left the party to come back into the fold.

The Palaver says Prof. Mills expressed a vision to unify the public and private sectors of the economy to quicken the pace of national development.

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name=gThe Guide

Konadu to be Atta-Mills’ vice

The Guide in its banner story says a female candidate is likely to be chosen by the NDC as the vice presidential candidate to contest with Prof. Atta-Mills, for the December 2000 Elections, adding that Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings’ ambition to be at the top level of government come January 2001, seems to be very close to reality.

According to the paper, if hints and utterances given at the extra ordinary congress and mammoth rally of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at Ho over the weekend were anything to go by, it would not be a surprise if the First Lady emerges as the Vice Presidential Candidate.

The paper says President Rawlings set the tone for such speculation when he said in his opening address that the women must be recognised for their sacrifices and the burden they have carried all these years on behalf of the party.

The paper quotes President Rawlings as saying “the party will take urgent steps to implement the recent decision of the consultative assembly of the Progressive Alliance to end the marginalisation of women in the party.

He is said to have further declared that he will personally ensure that the voices of the women are heard and their views respected, “and that they take positions at all levels of the party and government”.

According to the paper, though names have not been mentioned, the hints and utterances give more possibility to the likelihood of a leading member of the 31^st December movements mounting the platform with Prof. Atta-Mills.

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