GRi Press Review 31-03-99

Paul Osei-Tutu in Accra, reviews the Ghanaian press. The stories have not been verified and therefore we cannot vouch for their accuracy.

 The paper carries on its back page a story headed "US Embassy's warning on Visa Lottery". The paper states that the US Embassy has cautioned Ghanaians to be wary of a number of organisations claiming that the 2001 Visa Lottery have been announced, and demanding various sums of money from applicants to help them win.

The warning was given by the United States Embassy's Information Officer, Mr. Bruce Lohof in reaction to a Radio Gold programme which exposed the falsity of a scheme being operated by Vision 2000 Associates which purports ensure applicants who pay a fee of US$20 or 254,000 cedis will win the lottery. According to the story, Mr. Lohof stated that, the Lottery for 2001 has not yet been announced and hoped it will be announced by August 1999.

The paper carries on its centre spread "Vice Chancellor laments government's inertia". According to the story, the vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ivan Addae Mensah, has revealed that lack of co-ordination between the government and the university is the cause of the country's manpower needs.

The government, has for instance, not communicated to the University its manpower requirements for the next few years, Prof Addae-Mensah, said on GTV's 'Talking Point' programme.

"The National Development Planning Commission has not been able to produce for the University the number of economists, administrators etc, that the country would need for the Vision 2020," the Dispatch quotes Prof Addae-Mensah as saying.

The paper continues that Prof. Alex Kwapong, first Ghanaian vice-chancellor of the University, who was also on the programme, said the university has been able to remain focused on its mission of ensuring that its products attain academic excellence.

Prof Kwapong said the quality of the products of the university is comparable to the best known universities in the world and attributed this to the collaboration in research and other fields between it and others abroad.

The paper has on its front page a story headed "You do business with them at your own risk " The accompanying story says that the National Insurance Commission (NIC) has warned the general public not to do business with six insurance companies whose licenses were not renewed by the commission last year.

It named the affected companies as, The Great African Insurance Company, Continental Assurance, Trans-Universal Assurance, Universal Assurance, Nation-Wide Insurance, and Reliance Insurance.

According to the paper, reports reaching the NIC indicate that some branches of these companies are still doing business in the regions particularly, at Agona Swedru in the Central region and Nkawkaw in the Eastern region.

The NIC announced at a news conference in Accra last June that it had withdrawn the operational licences of six Insurance companies due to their inability to satisfy conditions it had set.

Under the insurance law, any insurance company whose licence is withheld for a year could be liquidated through court action. The paper concluded that, Mr. Samuel Appiah Ampofo, Commissioner of Insurance, said the NIC is prepared to issue licences to any insurance company that is financially and structurally sound to do business.

"We want the insurance business to grow, but we do not want insurance companies which cannot pay claims to their clients," the commissioner added.

The Ghanaian Times banner headline reads: "KTC accepts Kwaku Dua." The story says the nomination by the Asantehemaa of her son, Nana Kwaku Dua, as the new Asantehene has been accepted by the Kumasi Traditional Council (KTC).

It says Nana Kwaku Dua got the acceptance after he was introduced to the council by the Saamanhene, Nana Saaman Nantwi II, at an emergency meeting of the council. It says with his acceptance, a delegation would inform

Daasebre Osei Bonsu, the Mamponghene who will in turn, inform the 33 paramount chiefs who will fix a date to formally introduce Nana Dua to the Asanteman Council.

The paper reports that there was jubilation at Manhyia Palace as Barima Kwaku Dua was given a kingly ride into the palace for his introduction to the council.

In a related story, the 'Times' reports that the Supreme Court on Monday March 29, dismissed an appeal filed by the Aduana Royal Family, of Sekyedumasi in Ashanti against the decision of the one-time Kumasi Divisional Council (KDC) which in 1946, declared the Oyoko Royal Family as real occupants of the traditional stool.

It says the court, presided over by Mr. Justice E.K. Wiredu, awarded three million cedis cost against the appellants.

On the front page of the paper has a story headed "HELP, AN NKRUMAIST IS DYING". According to the story, a very prominent Nkrumaist, whose name is being withheld, has been very ill for over nine months and is slowly dying because of his inability to raise 25 million cedis to pay his medical bills.

According to the paper, the man risked his life in 1967 in an attempt to restore the Convention People's Party (CPP) to power. He is now suffering from a heart and kidney ailment at home because the hospital authorities have refused to continue his treatment on account of non-payment of his huge bills.

The paper stated that, the man fell out of job when the Rawlings regime dismissed him in 1984.

The paper added that, the man still maintains his ties with his old comrades in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) such as Mr. Kofi Totobi Quakyi, head of National Security and Mr. Sarpong Boateng, a presidential staffer.

"Order and Calm at Ablekuma By-election .. NPP Lauds Police for Vigilance" runs the Free Press banner headline in which the accompanying story says that Mr. Opoku Agyeman, one of the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) chief patrons at Ablekuma, has lauded the Ghana Police for its "extra vigilance" during the just ended bye-election in the Ablekuma Central area.

Mr. Agyeman is reported to have said he was "completely overwhelmed by the vigilance of the police on the voting day. If given the logistics and the right atmosphere to operate the police will be able to live up to the expectation of the general public," he said, adding that "the police effectively held in check, the intimidating machomen from the NDC".

Speaking about the low turn out of voters, the NPP chief patron attributed it to a number of factors including the fact that most of the youth were still jobless after their hopes had been raised in the 1992 and 1996 ballots.

"Tony Aidoo's Rudeness to Speaker" is another of the front page headlines in this edition of the Free Press.

The paper declares that "Parliament was last Monday thrown into a state of shock when it was disclosed that the speaker Hon. Justice D.F. Annan once fell victim of the foul tongue of Dr. Tony Aidoo Deputy Minister of Defence.

The incident is reported to have occurred at the Castle, Osu, during the days when speaker was a member of the defunct Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).

Dropping the bombshell during the debate on a motion to have the 21st report on ministerial nominations approved by Parliament, Hon. Kwamena Bartels is said to have pointed out that the vulgar expressions and un-printable words rained on the Speaker by Dr. Tony Aidoo could be found in the Francios report published a year after "the foul mouthed man" had left the university of Cape Coast. Dr. Aidoo was also accused of demanding that his fees as lecturer at the University of Cape Coast be paid in dollars demanding such things as an allowance and a return ticket to the United Kingdom.

In an attempt to save Dr. Tony Aidoo from further embarrassment, the first deputy speaker and the chairman of the Appointments Committee Mr Kenneth Dzirasah, interrupted saying "it is late in the day for the honourable member to raise this issue."

After a couple more protests from the minority leader J.H. Mensah and others the nomination of Dr. Aidoo was finalised.

Accra (Greater Accra) 31 March

Mr Alex Ntiforo, Acting Director of the Ghana Standards Board (GSB), on Wednesday cautioned users of treated wood poles for overhead power supply and telecommunication lines to be on the look out for poor quality poles on the market. Poor quality poles deteriorate fast and fall within very short periods, posing danger to the public, he said.

At the opening of a seminar organised by GSB in Accra for producers of treated wood poles, he said this also results in disruption of the country's rural electrification programme. The seminar aims at educating individuals involved in the rural electrification project and to address problems associated with treated wood poles.

The 24 participants are from Ghana Telecom, Electricity Company of Ghana, Dupaul Wood Treatment Plant, Volta River Authority (VRA) and Sawen Ghana Limited.

Topics discussed included, Ghanaian standard for treated wood poles, certifying treated wood poles and documentation on sales of the poles. Mr William Nimako, scientific officer of GSB, said following a complaint by the Minister of Trade and Industry about the poor quality of treated wooden poles in the market a research was conducted, last year. The research, which involved all the four treatment plants in the country, found out that all the poles were of good quality.

"This gave us the impression that there are illegal companies producing the poor treated poles somewhere".

Mr Nimako said a standard code of practice for wood treatment would be enforced specifying requirements from the first stage of treatment to the final stage.

"This will help trace the illegal companies and the producers of the poor quality poles on the market."

Agona (Ashanti Region) 31 March

About 525 farmers in the Afigya-Sekyere district have since last year received a total of 422 million cedis as loans under the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) programme.

Mr E. Asare Ampofo, Project Officer of Sekyere Rural Bank, which disbursed the loans, said the beneficiary farmers were those in the production, processing and marketing sectors of agriculture.

Mr Ampofo, who was speaking at the opening of the Afigya-Sekyere district farmer's forum on the empowerment of the youth in agriculture at Agona on Monday, said the farmers were from 62 organised farming groups in the district. The Project Officer expressed the optimism that farmers would take full advantage of the package to expand their production levels.

He asked them to do well to re-pay the loans for others to benefit from the facility.

Mr Rexford Anokye, the District Chief Executive, suggested that, a mechanism should be adopted to guarantee prices for farm produce, as is the case with cocoa.

The absence of guaranteed prices and a central marketing system for produce had given middlemen undue advantage to dictate prices, he observed. The government has, on its part, instituted incentive packages under the Village Infrastructure Project (VIP) and other financial packages to induce the youth to go into farming, Mr Anokye said. The DCE said what was now left was for chiefs to complement the efforts of the government by making the acquisition of land for farming less cumbersome.