GRi Press Review - 11-3-99
<FontFamily><param>Times New Roman</param><bigger>GRi's Paul Osei-Tutu in =
Accra, reviews the Ghanaian
press. The stories have not been verified and therefore
we cannot vouch for their accuracy.
Daily Graphic
**********
=93The Sierra Leone Crises .......ECOMOG dares Rebels =93 is the
Lead story in the Graphic. The report says President Rawlings
has warned rebels in Sierra Leone that if they push ECOMOG
to the wall, the peace -keepers will push them out of the country.
=93We have the capacity to deal decisively with them, if they take
any chances this time, they will be pushed out of the country=94,
cautioned Rawlings at the Kotoka International Airport
yesterday where he held a joint news conference with the visiting
Sierra Leonean Head of State, Amhad Tejan Kabbah.
The report says he urged the rebel commanders to obey the
cease -fire call by their leader, Forday Sankoh. Should anyone
disobey him the consequence will be swift and decisive=94
President Rawlings also promised that Ghana will do all she can
to serve as a catalyst to the peace effort. He said =93A lot of
lessons have been learnt from the past military encounters=94
adding that he was hopeful that Forday Sankoh who has
ordered a temporary cease-fire within 72 hours from
Wednesday will supplement peace efforts being made by
President Tejan Kabbah.
Meanwhile Sankoh is reported as having been sentenced to
death for treason. President Kabbah has said the rebel leader
could either be freed on an appeal he filed or benefit from a
presidential clemency depending on the circumstances. Asked
whether he regretted the execution of 25 other people convicted
of treason, President Kabbah replied that he is convinced that he
did the right thing.
=93Government won=92t Rescue any Wrong Doer=94 Is another story
on the front page of the Graphic.
The report has it that Mr. James Victor Gbeho, Ghana=92s
Minister of Foreign Affairs, says government will not use any
funds to transport into the country Ghanaians sentenced to jail in
foreign countries for hard drug offences to enable them serve
their jail- terms at home.
According to the report, Mr. Gbeho=92s remarks were prompted
by sentiments raised by some members of the Minority in
parliament who wanted to know if it was possible to transfer
Ghanaian prisoners convicted for drug offences in other
countries to local prisons. Claiming this is to emulate what the
U.S and Britain do with their prisoners serving sentences abroad.
The Minister is however reported to have disagreed stating that
conditions in developing countries are different from developed
countries. He is also reported to have said that the petitions
received from prisoners serving jail terms in Thailand for
example had been forwarded to the Ministry of Interior under
whose jurisdiction the Ghana Prisons Service as well as the
Narcotics Control Board falls for it=92s comments.
Among other things Mr. Gbeho was asked what the Ministry is
doing to unravel the mystery surrounding the Gruesome murder
of Captain Abu Parker in Miami, U.S on July 16,1997.
He answered the enquiry by saying that the ship on which the
captain was travelling was involved in drug trafficking, a fact
allegedly unknown to the deceased. The Captain died in an
ensuing shoot-out but Mr. Gbeho assured the members that
Ghana=92s mission in Washington is awaiting the outcome of an
investigation and will submit a full report to parliament once it
has been received.
Finally the Graphic reports that Mr. Robin Cook; the British
Foreign Secretary arrived in the country yesterday to begin a
two-day symbolic visit.
Mr. Cook, was expected to be joined by Mr. Hubert Vedrine,
the French Foreign Minister, to begin a landmark visit which
includes a dinner hosted by Ghana=92s Foreign Minister, Mr.
Victor Gbeho and a call on President J.J Rawlings today.
This is supposedly the first time Foreign Ministers from Britain
and France have paid a joint visit to an African country;
something propounded to be =93a significant step in the
commitment of the two governments to work together on issues
affecting the African continent.
The visit follows the joint declaration and Co-operation in Africa
agreed upon by Prime Minister Tony Blair and President
Jacques Chirac at the British -French summit in St. Malo, in
December last year.
The two dignitaries are expected to discuss issues related to the
crises in Sierra Leone, Nigeria=92s transition to democracy and the
debt crises.
People and Places
******************_
The P and P a Tabloid, carries a hilarious yet sad account of a
bank lady whose love for Charles Fosu=92s (Daddy Lumba) song
=93Aben Wo Ha=94 has landed her in big trouble.
Headlined =93ABEN WO HA, gets Bank lady IN Big Trouble=94
the story has it that a light skinned well-married lady identified
only as sister Ernestina who works with a top international
commercial bank in Accra, love for the song made the discovery
of her extra love nest easy.
According to the P and P, Sister Ernerstina whose husband is a
legal officer vanished from her matrimonial home only days after
her husband left for a conference in a South African country.
She is reported as having left her two children in the care of their
13 year old house-help and left a note explaining that she was
attending the funeral of a close buddy.
The husband who as it were took the =91story with a pinch of salt=92
went to her work place and was informed by a surprised staff
that there was no funeral.
The story continues that the lawyer went upon a tip off to a joint
at Adenta in Accra where his enquiries at a bar yielded fruit.
One waitress is reported to have said, =93 I know the lady who
always comes with her husband and requests that we play her
favourite tune Aben Wo Ha. She lives in the next flat.=94
The real husband described as being shocked as well as
infuriated went to the said apartment and asked if they knew a
woman who fitted the tall light skinned description. =94Yes=94 was
the reply upon which they led the fuming husband to a door on
which they beat a heavy tattoo all the time shouting =93Sister Aben
Wo Ha=94.
The P and P say Sister Ernestina appeared at the door with only
a huge towel around her torso. Her scream of surprise brought
her lover, who the lawyer husband recognised as one of the
departmental managers of the bank, to the door.
The incensed husband is said to have dragged his wife
downstairs to his car with only the towel still around her. The
report continues that he drove her straight to her family house to
lodge a complaint. The paper promises to update the story in
later editions.
The Crusading Guide
********************_
The Battle For Succession to the Golden Stool Intensifies....
Who Becomes Asantehene? is the lead story in the edition of the
Crusading Guide. The story says the death and burial
arrangements of Otumfuo Opoku Ware having been settled the
Ashanti nation now turns it=92s energies to finding the 16th
occupant of the golden stool.
The paper states that, though it might seem hasty and
disrespectful to the memory of the late King, the fact is that the
process of choosing a new Asantehene has to follow a very
strict time table that requires that a new Asantehene is enstooled
within forty days of the death of the reigning one.
Highly placed sources at the Manhyia palace have indicated that
unlike the smooth and unanimous choice of Otumfou Ware the
second to succeed his uncle Otumfuo Osei Agyemang Prempeh
the second in 1970, things are being up to a hotly contested
battle this time round.
The Crusading Guide says according to their grapevine there are
as many as seven eligible candidates jostling for the position. It
adds that the successor will be announced only after a long
series of nominations and deliberations have been made by the
Kingmakers of Ashanti.
The paper concludes that most of the current paramount chiefs
are all educated. It predicts that if the recent trend of giving due
academic consideration and professional experience is to be
taken as a guide, the odds are that the next Asantehene will
neither be the best known or the one inside the track.
The nomination might fall on a quiet highly qualified medical
doctor who sojourned long in the diaspora in order to prepare
himself for the onerous task of leading a people deeply steeped
in their traditions and customs into technological modernism of
the 21st century.
The Graphic Showbiz
******************_
One of Ghana=92s most read entertainment newspaper reports that
Daddy Lumba=92s latest hit, Aben Wo Ha =93 is making major sales.
The paper has it that an Accra taxi driver=92s narration of how he
came to buy a copy of the cassette speaks volumes about
people=92s morbid affection for the song. According to the
=91cabbie=92 three men hired, his taxi for six hours in the middle of
February .He claimed that the moment they took off they asked
him if he had Lumba=92s song.
When he replied in the negative, the three men are reported to
have threatened to get down to find another car with the
cassette. According to the report he pleaded with them to
allow him, buy one. This was said to have satisfied them and he
says =93At the end of it all I made big money. Now I play Aben
Wo Ha everyday in my car.=94
The cassette is said to have hit an all time level in London. All
high life discs in the British Capital are alleged to sell for =A310 per
copy, but =93Aben Wo Ha=94 costs =A330.
Meanwhile, the management of Despite Music Productions,
distributors of Daddy Lumba=92s hit album are styled as having
presented a quantity of compact discs of the album to the
victorious Black Satellites team and their Nigerian counter parts
Flying Eagles.
The tune became the unofficial song of the Ghanaian team the
Satellites at the just ended Under-20 African Cup Tournament
held in Accra.
The Graphic Show biz also reports that the Miss Lux Universe
pageant that has already been postponed once because the
public claimed they were undecided, about who deserved it=92s
nomination, will be held at an Accra venue tomorrow.
The report says the winner of the competition, the first of it=92s
kind as a joint pageant between Lux Beauty Pageant and Miss
Universe, will pick up two tickets =96a Ghana Airways ticket to
the U.S.A and an American Airlines ticket to participate in the
48th Miss Universe pageant to be held in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Guide
***********_
=93Surprise! Surprise from U.S.A. Rawlings Owns Private Plane=94
the fall out of President Rawling=92s visit to the U.SA. is a
revealation that he owns a 10- seater private jet. The Guide
newspaper, which filed the report, says the jet has been long
purchased and that Steve Wonder, the blind American singer
once piloted it with the President.
The revealation are said to have been made when President Bill
Clinton asked the Ghanaian President about a rumour that Steve
Wonder, had flown his plane. To everyone=92s amazement,
President Rawlings confessed it was true and reportedly
proceeded to give an account of how he only had to tell the
blind star directions.
The former Airforce Pilot now President says, =93I would say
right, left bank =93 This sensitivity with his hands was unbelievable
Rawlings is said to have marvelled to his US counterpart.
Steve Wonders flying ability is said to have been captured by a
French TV crew on Board who are said to have been refused
permission to show the footage because Wonder worries that
people might not believe he really is blind.
The Ghanaian Times
******************_
The Times reports that =93120 million cedis Poverty fund Vanishes
from Bank.=94 The core of the story is that 120m cedis of the
district Assembly common fund meant for poverty alleviation in
the Tamale Municipality is said to have disappeared from the
special account of the municipal assembly at the Agricultural
development Bank.
A source at the Assembly said the Common Fund and Poverty
Alleviation files, as well as some office equipment, could not be
located when the new Municipal Chief Executive, Mr
Mohammed Alhassan took office on March 1.
Mr. Alhassan is reported to have rejected a verbal handing over
by his predecessor, Alhaji A.Y.M.B Ibrahimah and insisted on
handing over notes duly signed by both of them.
The assembly member for Salamba Electoral area, Mr. Bashars
Alhassan Daballi, attributed such problems to the practice of
nominating new chief executives, while the incumbents were still
in power.
He alleged that most of the assembly=92s funds were depleted
between the periods of the nomination of the new chief executive
and the day before the handing over.
Mr. Daballi called on the Regional Minister to institute a probe
into all assemblies where new district chief executives have been
appointed.