Story: Kofi Yeboah
HUNDREDS of people from across Africa, America, Europe, The Caribbean, Pacific and other parts of the world are trooping down to Ghana to celebrate the centenary birthday of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, which falls on Monday, September 21, 2009.
The centres of attraction will be Nkroful in the Western Region, the birthplace of Dr Nkrumah, and the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum in Accra, where his mortal remains are presently accommodated.
The day has been declared by President Mills as statutory public holiday in honour of Dr Nkrumah, one of the most revered black freedom fighters in the world.
Apart from the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and Nkroful, places and projects like the Akosombo Dam, the Peduase Lodge, Achimota School and the Volta Aluminium Company Limited (VALCO), which strike fond memories of Dr Nkrumah, are expected to attract enthusiastic crowds from far and near.
Last week Friday, the Vice President, Mr John Mahama, launched activities for the centenary celebration, which would be climaxed on African Union (AU) Day on May 25, 2010, when the whole of Africa is expected to celebrate him.
At the 13th AU Summit in Sirte, Libya, this year, African leaders unanimously voted to adopt the centenary birthday of Dr Nkrumah as an AU activity.
The decision followed an appeal made to that effect by President Mills when he addressed the summit.
Activities to commemorate the occasion, include lectures, symposia, exhibitions and cultural performances.
Acknowledged by the BBC as the African of the Millennium, Dr Nkrumah touched the lives of thousands of freedom-loving people in Africa and beyond after leading Ghana to attain political independence from British colonial rule in 1957 and, thereafter, taking a frontline role in the African liberation struggle.
A visionary leader, he was considered by many as peerless and decades ahead of his generation.
According to a former Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Dr Edmund N. Delle, the difference between Nkrumah and his peers was universality of his person and the manner his messages touched the lives of the suffering and oppressed throughout the world.
“The others also had messages but they (messages) were not drummed home into the souls of the people. Nkrumah could see his future in history,” he remarked.
Friday, September 18, 2009
NKRUMAH - The myth, his vision & mission (Front page) 18-09-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
SIXTY-THREE years may not be too long a life, but at that age, Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, leaves a bold footprint on the sands of time. His life is a cocktail of myth, vision and ambition.
Seven times he escapes assassination attempts; three times he is buried — once abroad and twice in Ghana; many times his effigy is burnt to ashes; for many years he is mocked and scorned by the very people he liberated from oppression; for a long time his books and everything about him are ordered for destruction in an attempt to wipe out his memory, at least from Ghanaian history; but he survives and remains the most celebrated person ever to grace the soils of Ghana and Africa.
Nkrumah, indeed, never dies! His memory remains indestructible, and with the celebration of his centenary birthday and the declaration of same as statutory public holiday, Osagyefo the President, as the media call him, has gained immortality. In the opinion of Dr Edmund N. Delle, a former Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Nkrumah has achieved Martyrdom. "There is only one Nkrumah; you will not get such a person again for the next thousand years," he believes.
From his birth on September 21, 1909 to his death in 1972, and even in his grave thereafter, the life of Nkrumah is extremely sensational. In spite of all his foibles, as human as he is, his admirers, critics and enemies alike unanimously acknowledge him as the greatest African of the second millennium.
Childhood and education
Born at Nkroful, a hitherto unknown village in the Western Region, Nkrumah shows signs of vision, academic intellect, leadership qualities and mythical disposition during childhood. The date and day of his birth, as well as his family background, particularly the identity of his father, are all shrouded in mystery. One profound mystery that Nkrumah himself recalls in his autobiography is a story her mother often tells, that one day, as his mother travels with little Nkrumah strapped to her back, they wade through a stream on the way and when they get to the middle of it, he cries out in excitement that he is standing on a fish, and his mother, to her utter surprise, realises that she has actually trapped a fish under her feet and catches it for a meal in the evening.
Growing up, Nkrumah attends elementary school at Half Assini and his academic prowess is made manifest even at a tender age. Instead of the normal 10 years of elementary education, he completes it in eight years, suggesting that he may have been "jumped" over some stages of elementary education. Somewhere in 1926, as the Principal of the Government Training College (later Achimota College) visits the school, he finds Nkrumah very impressive and offers him admission to become a pioneer student of the college.
After graduating as a teacher from Achimota in 1930, Nkrumah takes up teaching appointments at the Roman Catholic Junior School at Elmina and later at the Roman Catholic Seminary at Amissano. During this period, his popularity and charisma take shape, while his appetite for politics keeps whetting every day, as he interacts with some influential figures in society. His sense of nationalism is inspired more by Nnamdi Azikiwe, a Nigerian journalist who edits The African Morning Post. Nkrumah’s interest in politics is deepened following the deportation of Azikiwe by the colonial government for sedition.
Like Moses going to the Palace of Pharaoh to acquire training to liberate the people of Israel from bondage years later, Nkrumah has to travel to the United States of America and the United Kingdom for academic, political and leadership training to redeem his people from oppressors’ rule. In 1935, young Nkrumah, desirous of pursuing higher education, and with money raised from family relations, sets out on a journey from Accra to New York. He manages to enrol at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, to study Theology and Philosophy.
It is at Lincoln University, the oldest Black American university college, that Nkrumah develops the consciousness of the Black and African personality as he interacts with Black American intellectuals. Buoyed by this new worldview, he moves to London after World War II and helps to organise Pan-African congresses with other black activists, writers, artists, and well-wishers.
Nkrumah’s homecoming
Back in the Gold Coast, the political temperature for independence is rising to a boiling point. The triumph of India over British colonialism in 1947 is strengthening the resolve of other colonies to go for the Golden Fleece. As Nkrumah returns home to join the struggle on the invitation of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), the leading political grouping in the country, his mission is clearly defined — "We prefer self-government in danger to servitude in tranquillity." His vision for an independent Ghana is also well cut out — "If we get self-government, we'll transform the Gold Coast into a paradise in 10 years."
Yes, he succeeds in giving Ghana independence. But no, he fails to transform Ghana into paradise after nine years’ rule. Perhaps, his setback is because he fails to make milk flow through the taps in Ghanaian homes. Nkrumah later admits this failure, but it is too late in the day because his regime is already overthrown.
On his return home, Nkrumah is welcomed to a charged political atmosphere for self-government. As the newly appointed General Secretary of the UGCC on the recommendation of Ako Adjei, one of its members, Nkrumah immediately unfolds his sleeves and gets down to work. He and five other members of the UGCC, namely Ako Adjei, Obetsebi-Lamptey, J. B. Danquah, Akufo-Addo and William Ofori-Atta, are imprisoned by the colonial government for allegedly causing widespread agitation, protests and violence across the country. However, their incarceration rather makes them more popular by earning reverence as the "Big Six".
After his release from prison, and dissatisfied with the UGCC’s sluggish approach towards the cause of independence, Nkrumah falls apart with the group to form the CPP. Armed with charisma, eloquence and extraordinary organisational ability, Nkrumah makes an onslaught on independence. His slogan, "Self-government now!", provides a more potent arsenal for political freedom under the circumstances than the UGCC’s cautious approach of "Self-government within the shortest possible time".
Nkrumah manages to prevail over all forms of opposition, both internal and external, but not without paying the price of incarceration. However, the masses will pronounce judgement in his favour by overwhelmingly voting for him in local election while in prison, to become the Prime Minister of the Gold Coast in 1952.
With the promised land clearly in sight, Nkrumah keeps his foot on the accelerator and at the Old Polo Grounds in Accra on March 6, 1957, he stands before an enthusiastic crowd and proclaims, "At long last, the battle has ended, and Ghana, your beloved country, is free forever." The spontaneous applause that greets the proclamation reverberates in the heavens.
Nkrumah instantly becomes a national hero. The name "GHANA" is even explained as the acronym for "God Has Appointed Nkrumah Already". Many songs are composed in his honour. He has virtually become a deity.
Religion and culture
Nkrumah is a huge symbol of culture in the country. He projects the Ghanaian culture through the wearing of "batakari" (smock) and Kente cloth. Everyone desires to be an "Nkrumah look-alike" and so the wearing of "batakari" and Kente becomes very fashionable. Some people even try their best to mimic him in speech and gesture. It is even considered a blessing for one to have a forehead that looks like Nkrumah’s.
Nkrumah is very religious and while teaching at the Roman Catholic Seminary at Amissano, he writes, "I gained the religious fervour to such an extent that I seriously formed the idea of taking the vocation of priesthood myself." He takes this desire to a higher level by studying Theology at Lincoln University, but Nkrumah has his own worldview about religion. "I believe strongly that church-going should be a matter of conscience and should not be obligatory," he argues.
Nkrumah’s philosophy on religion does not rob off well with orthodox Christians. He makes matters worse after he is believed to be a faithful of African religion by worshiping "Kankan Nyame", an African deity.
Nkrumah and African liberation
Ghana’s independence, according to Nkrumah, is not an end to the fight against colonialism, but the beginning of the emancipation of Africa from foreign domination. "Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent," he declares at the Old Polo Grounds. In that regard, he devotes much attention and energy to the African liberation struggle, sometimes sacrificing the interest of Ghana and his own commitment to the country. He exhibits extreme passion for the unity of Africa and emphasises the point in his 1961 book, I speak of freedom, "Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world.”
Sadly, no one is listening to him and painfully, Africa is now paying the price of its deafness to the vision and wisdom of Nkrumah. It is for this reason that a renowned African scholar and historian, Prof. Ali Mazrui, observes at one of Ghana’s Golden Jubilee Lecture series in Accra in 2007 that Nkrumah is a great son of Africa but never a great son of Ghana.
In his zeal to protect the interest of Africa, Nkrumah marshals every force at his disposal, including positive action, to resist what he considers to be "neo-colonialism and imperialism". It is on the basis of this resolve that Nkrumah convenes the "Positive action conference for peace and security" in Accra on April 7, 1960, for a united Africa response to the testing of nuclear weapon in the Sahara by France earlier in February that year. "There is no force, however impregnable, that a united and determined people cannot overcome," he tells the conference.
Angered by what he describes as "France’s arrogance", Nkrumah responds swiftly by freezing all French assets until the extent of the damage to the lives of the people becomes known. After carrying out another nuclear test in the Sahara, Nkrumah takes further action by recalling Ghana’s Ambassador to France.
As a fearless character, Nkrumah takes the fight against neo-colonialism to the arena of a world heavyweight like the USA. On March 22, 1965, for instance, Nkrumah goes on a foray and verbally assaults the US in a public speech for causing political turmoil in Africa, citing alleged American interference in the Congo. His outburst against the US is also based on the conviction that America is behind the assassination attempts on him.
The US is extremely disturbed by the comments of Nkrumah. The US Ambassador to Ghana at the time, Mr William P. Mahoney, therefore, seeks audience with Osagyefo to register America’s protest. In a telegraph to the US Department of State, Mr Mahoney recounts, "I looked up and I saw he was crying. With difficulty he said I could not understand the ordeal he had been through during the last month. He recalled that there had been seven attempts on his life…". He suspects America is behind the assassination attempts.
A man of ambition
Dr Nkrumah is overly ambitious. That character initially lifts him to the heights of fame and reverence, but later plunges him into the depths of shame and malevolence. Through his ambition, he manages to fast-track Ghana’s liberation from British colonial rule. After independence, he undertakes many ambitious projects, including the Accra-Tema Motorway, the Tema Harbour, schools, hospitals, railway lines, and factories, using them as the foundation for making Ghana an industrialised nation. Indeed, Nkrumah’s legacies to Ghana are too numerous to recount. His ambitious Seven-Year Development Plan meant to establish factories and public institutions, however, fails to achieve results. Consequently, the country’s economy suffers and the popularity of Nkrumah wanes rather badly.
Nevertheless, one singular ambitious project that stands tall among his legacies is the Volta River Project, involving the construction of a hydroelectric dam and smelter. This is a project described as "the most complex since Queen Marie was selling Romanian bonds". After lengthy negotiations for its construction, Nkrumah proudly inaugurates the dam on January 22, 1966, just in good time before his overthrow a month later on February 24, 1966.
Dr Nkrumah’s ambitious character sometimes makes him wallow in fantasies, some people say. Otherwise, he would not believe that the President of a tiny and new independent country in West Africa can broker peace between a world superpower like America and Vietnam, engaged in war.
"The Vietnam issue is a world issue and the world should be grateful to anyone who would succeed in making contribution towards its speedy solution," he confidently tells a press conference in Cairo, Egypt, as he embarks on a 10,000 mile journey from Accra to Hanoi, Vietnam, to broker peace.
While on his way to China, CIA-backed military and police officers overthrow his government in a coup. Back in Accra and elsewhere in Ghana, Nkrumah is crucified by the very people who have been singing his praise. They destroy his effigy and insignia on the streets amid singing and chanting, denouncing the Osagyefo (liberator).
"The myth surrounding Kwame Nkrumah has been broken," an army officer declares in a radio announcement after the coup. Nkrumah does not seem shattered by developments back home, not even when his trusted stewards are deserting him. His ego has not been betrayed yet as he remarks, "If I were there, who will dare!"
Interestingly, Nkrumah liberates Ghana in 1957 and becomes the happiest man on earth, but at age 57, soldiers, known as the National Liberation Council (NLC), decide to liberate Ghanaians from "Nkrumah’s dictatorial rule" and makes him the most disappointed man on earth.
After his overthrow, Nkrumah finds favour with Guinean President Sekou Toure, who, in appreciation of Osagyefo’s benevolence to Guinea, makes him co-president of Guinea.
However, in keeping with the biblical injunction that, "Where a man’s treasure is, there his heart lies," Nkrumah keeps his eyes, ears, mind and heart on Ghana, despatching shortwave broadcasts across Conakry to Accra and writing voluminous letters, ideological treaties and books, all in the hope of winning back the hearts of the people he so much loves and for whose political freedom he has devoted greater part of his life.
After six years in exile, he succumbs to sickness, and later death in 1972. He does not live a little longer to see the end of the military regime that overthrew him and to witness the emergence of another military regime that will restore some of his lost dignity.
SIXTY-THREE years may not be too long a life, but at that age, Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, leaves a bold footprint on the sands of time. His life is a cocktail of myth, vision and ambition.
Seven times he escapes assassination attempts; three times he is buried — once abroad and twice in Ghana; many times his effigy is burnt to ashes; for many years he is mocked and scorned by the very people he liberated from oppression; for a long time his books and everything about him are ordered for destruction in an attempt to wipe out his memory, at least from Ghanaian history; but he survives and remains the most celebrated person ever to grace the soils of Ghana and Africa.
Nkrumah, indeed, never dies! His memory remains indestructible, and with the celebration of his centenary birthday and the declaration of same as statutory public holiday, Osagyefo the President, as the media call him, has gained immortality. In the opinion of Dr Edmund N. Delle, a former Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Nkrumah has achieved Martyrdom. "There is only one Nkrumah; you will not get such a person again for the next thousand years," he believes.
From his birth on September 21, 1909 to his death in 1972, and even in his grave thereafter, the life of Nkrumah is extremely sensational. In spite of all his foibles, as human as he is, his admirers, critics and enemies alike unanimously acknowledge him as the greatest African of the second millennium.
Childhood and education
Born at Nkroful, a hitherto unknown village in the Western Region, Nkrumah shows signs of vision, academic intellect, leadership qualities and mythical disposition during childhood. The date and day of his birth, as well as his family background, particularly the identity of his father, are all shrouded in mystery. One profound mystery that Nkrumah himself recalls in his autobiography is a story her mother often tells, that one day, as his mother travels with little Nkrumah strapped to her back, they wade through a stream on the way and when they get to the middle of it, he cries out in excitement that he is standing on a fish, and his mother, to her utter surprise, realises that she has actually trapped a fish under her feet and catches it for a meal in the evening.
Growing up, Nkrumah attends elementary school at Half Assini and his academic prowess is made manifest even at a tender age. Instead of the normal 10 years of elementary education, he completes it in eight years, suggesting that he may have been "jumped" over some stages of elementary education. Somewhere in 1926, as the Principal of the Government Training College (later Achimota College) visits the school, he finds Nkrumah very impressive and offers him admission to become a pioneer student of the college.
After graduating as a teacher from Achimota in 1930, Nkrumah takes up teaching appointments at the Roman Catholic Junior School at Elmina and later at the Roman Catholic Seminary at Amissano. During this period, his popularity and charisma take shape, while his appetite for politics keeps whetting every day, as he interacts with some influential figures in society. His sense of nationalism is inspired more by Nnamdi Azikiwe, a Nigerian journalist who edits The African Morning Post. Nkrumah’s interest in politics is deepened following the deportation of Azikiwe by the colonial government for sedition.
Like Moses going to the Palace of Pharaoh to acquire training to liberate the people of Israel from bondage years later, Nkrumah has to travel to the United States of America and the United Kingdom for academic, political and leadership training to redeem his people from oppressors’ rule. In 1935, young Nkrumah, desirous of pursuing higher education, and with money raised from family relations, sets out on a journey from Accra to New York. He manages to enrol at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, to study Theology and Philosophy.
It is at Lincoln University, the oldest Black American university college, that Nkrumah develops the consciousness of the Black and African personality as he interacts with Black American intellectuals. Buoyed by this new worldview, he moves to London after World War II and helps to organise Pan-African congresses with other black activists, writers, artists, and well-wishers.
Nkrumah’s homecoming
Back in the Gold Coast, the political temperature for independence is rising to a boiling point. The triumph of India over British colonialism in 1947 is strengthening the resolve of other colonies to go for the Golden Fleece. As Nkrumah returns home to join the struggle on the invitation of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), the leading political grouping in the country, his mission is clearly defined — "We prefer self-government in danger to servitude in tranquillity." His vision for an independent Ghana is also well cut out — "If we get self-government, we'll transform the Gold Coast into a paradise in 10 years."
Yes, he succeeds in giving Ghana independence. But no, he fails to transform Ghana into paradise after nine years’ rule. Perhaps, his setback is because he fails to make milk flow through the taps in Ghanaian homes. Nkrumah later admits this failure, but it is too late in the day because his regime is already overthrown.
On his return home, Nkrumah is welcomed to a charged political atmosphere for self-government. As the newly appointed General Secretary of the UGCC on the recommendation of Ako Adjei, one of its members, Nkrumah immediately unfolds his sleeves and gets down to work. He and five other members of the UGCC, namely Ako Adjei, Obetsebi-Lamptey, J. B. Danquah, Akufo-Addo and William Ofori-Atta, are imprisoned by the colonial government for allegedly causing widespread agitation, protests and violence across the country. However, their incarceration rather makes them more popular by earning reverence as the "Big Six".
After his release from prison, and dissatisfied with the UGCC’s sluggish approach towards the cause of independence, Nkrumah falls apart with the group to form the CPP. Armed with charisma, eloquence and extraordinary organisational ability, Nkrumah makes an onslaught on independence. His slogan, "Self-government now!", provides a more potent arsenal for political freedom under the circumstances than the UGCC’s cautious approach of "Self-government within the shortest possible time".
Nkrumah manages to prevail over all forms of opposition, both internal and external, but not without paying the price of incarceration. However, the masses will pronounce judgement in his favour by overwhelmingly voting for him in local election while in prison, to become the Prime Minister of the Gold Coast in 1952.
With the promised land clearly in sight, Nkrumah keeps his foot on the accelerator and at the Old Polo Grounds in Accra on March 6, 1957, he stands before an enthusiastic crowd and proclaims, "At long last, the battle has ended, and Ghana, your beloved country, is free forever." The spontaneous applause that greets the proclamation reverberates in the heavens.
Nkrumah instantly becomes a national hero. The name "GHANA" is even explained as the acronym for "God Has Appointed Nkrumah Already". Many songs are composed in his honour. He has virtually become a deity.
Religion and culture
Nkrumah is a huge symbol of culture in the country. He projects the Ghanaian culture through the wearing of "batakari" (smock) and Kente cloth. Everyone desires to be an "Nkrumah look-alike" and so the wearing of "batakari" and Kente becomes very fashionable. Some people even try their best to mimic him in speech and gesture. It is even considered a blessing for one to have a forehead that looks like Nkrumah’s.
Nkrumah is very religious and while teaching at the Roman Catholic Seminary at Amissano, he writes, "I gained the religious fervour to such an extent that I seriously formed the idea of taking the vocation of priesthood myself." He takes this desire to a higher level by studying Theology at Lincoln University, but Nkrumah has his own worldview about religion. "I believe strongly that church-going should be a matter of conscience and should not be obligatory," he argues.
Nkrumah’s philosophy on religion does not rob off well with orthodox Christians. He makes matters worse after he is believed to be a faithful of African religion by worshiping "Kankan Nyame", an African deity.
Nkrumah and African liberation
Ghana’s independence, according to Nkrumah, is not an end to the fight against colonialism, but the beginning of the emancipation of Africa from foreign domination. "Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent," he declares at the Old Polo Grounds. In that regard, he devotes much attention and energy to the African liberation struggle, sometimes sacrificing the interest of Ghana and his own commitment to the country. He exhibits extreme passion for the unity of Africa and emphasises the point in his 1961 book, I speak of freedom, "Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world.”
Sadly, no one is listening to him and painfully, Africa is now paying the price of its deafness to the vision and wisdom of Nkrumah. It is for this reason that a renowned African scholar and historian, Prof. Ali Mazrui, observes at one of Ghana’s Golden Jubilee Lecture series in Accra in 2007 that Nkrumah is a great son of Africa but never a great son of Ghana.
In his zeal to protect the interest of Africa, Nkrumah marshals every force at his disposal, including positive action, to resist what he considers to be "neo-colonialism and imperialism". It is on the basis of this resolve that Nkrumah convenes the "Positive action conference for peace and security" in Accra on April 7, 1960, for a united Africa response to the testing of nuclear weapon in the Sahara by France earlier in February that year. "There is no force, however impregnable, that a united and determined people cannot overcome," he tells the conference.
Angered by what he describes as "France’s arrogance", Nkrumah responds swiftly by freezing all French assets until the extent of the damage to the lives of the people becomes known. After carrying out another nuclear test in the Sahara, Nkrumah takes further action by recalling Ghana’s Ambassador to France.
As a fearless character, Nkrumah takes the fight against neo-colonialism to the arena of a world heavyweight like the USA. On March 22, 1965, for instance, Nkrumah goes on a foray and verbally assaults the US in a public speech for causing political turmoil in Africa, citing alleged American interference in the Congo. His outburst against the US is also based on the conviction that America is behind the assassination attempts on him.
The US is extremely disturbed by the comments of Nkrumah. The US Ambassador to Ghana at the time, Mr William P. Mahoney, therefore, seeks audience with Osagyefo to register America’s protest. In a telegraph to the US Department of State, Mr Mahoney recounts, "I looked up and I saw he was crying. With difficulty he said I could not understand the ordeal he had been through during the last month. He recalled that there had been seven attempts on his life…". He suspects America is behind the assassination attempts.
A man of ambition
Dr Nkrumah is overly ambitious. That character initially lifts him to the heights of fame and reverence, but later plunges him into the depths of shame and malevolence. Through his ambition, he manages to fast-track Ghana’s liberation from British colonial rule. After independence, he undertakes many ambitious projects, including the Accra-Tema Motorway, the Tema Harbour, schools, hospitals, railway lines, and factories, using them as the foundation for making Ghana an industrialised nation. Indeed, Nkrumah’s legacies to Ghana are too numerous to recount. His ambitious Seven-Year Development Plan meant to establish factories and public institutions, however, fails to achieve results. Consequently, the country’s economy suffers and the popularity of Nkrumah wanes rather badly.
Nevertheless, one singular ambitious project that stands tall among his legacies is the Volta River Project, involving the construction of a hydroelectric dam and smelter. This is a project described as "the most complex since Queen Marie was selling Romanian bonds". After lengthy negotiations for its construction, Nkrumah proudly inaugurates the dam on January 22, 1966, just in good time before his overthrow a month later on February 24, 1966.
Dr Nkrumah’s ambitious character sometimes makes him wallow in fantasies, some people say. Otherwise, he would not believe that the President of a tiny and new independent country in West Africa can broker peace between a world superpower like America and Vietnam, engaged in war.
"The Vietnam issue is a world issue and the world should be grateful to anyone who would succeed in making contribution towards its speedy solution," he confidently tells a press conference in Cairo, Egypt, as he embarks on a 10,000 mile journey from Accra to Hanoi, Vietnam, to broker peace.
While on his way to China, CIA-backed military and police officers overthrow his government in a coup. Back in Accra and elsewhere in Ghana, Nkrumah is crucified by the very people who have been singing his praise. They destroy his effigy and insignia on the streets amid singing and chanting, denouncing the Osagyefo (liberator).
"The myth surrounding Kwame Nkrumah has been broken," an army officer declares in a radio announcement after the coup. Nkrumah does not seem shattered by developments back home, not even when his trusted stewards are deserting him. His ego has not been betrayed yet as he remarks, "If I were there, who will dare!"
Interestingly, Nkrumah liberates Ghana in 1957 and becomes the happiest man on earth, but at age 57, soldiers, known as the National Liberation Council (NLC), decide to liberate Ghanaians from "Nkrumah’s dictatorial rule" and makes him the most disappointed man on earth.
After his overthrow, Nkrumah finds favour with Guinean President Sekou Toure, who, in appreciation of Osagyefo’s benevolence to Guinea, makes him co-president of Guinea.
However, in keeping with the biblical injunction that, "Where a man’s treasure is, there his heart lies," Nkrumah keeps his eyes, ears, mind and heart on Ghana, despatching shortwave broadcasts across Conakry to Accra and writing voluminous letters, ideological treaties and books, all in the hope of winning back the hearts of the people he so much loves and for whose political freedom he has devoted greater part of his life.
After six years in exile, he succumbs to sickness, and later death in 1972. He does not live a little longer to see the end of the military regime that overthrew him and to witness the emergence of another military regime that will restore some of his lost dignity.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
OVER-AGED VEHICLES TO BE BANNED (Back page) 10-06-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah & Francis Yaw Kyei
THE importation of vehicles aged more than 10 years is to be banned as part of government measures to reduce wastage in fuel consumption, a Deputy Minister of Energy, Dr Kwabena Donkor, has hinted.
According to him, 30 per cent of fuel imported into the country was wasted, and old vehicles, particularly in traffic situations, were responsible for a high chunk of the wastage.
Interacting with journalists in Accra on Monday, Dr Donkor said the nation could no longer afford to waste fuel of that magnitude vis-a-vis the substantial increase in petroleum prices.
Currently, the importation of vehicles aged more than 10 years attract a penalty, the essence of which is to discourage the importation of such vehicles.
Last weekend, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) announced a 30 per cent increment in petroleum products.
Dr Donkor explained that the 30 per cent increase in petroleum prices was the result of a huge debt inherited by his ministry.
He said that debt, in addition to the GH¢11.46 million debt of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), “has left the Energy Ministry in a very tight financial situation”.
Dr Donkor said the Government paid GH¢7 million to TOR as subsidies to maintain fuel prices in May, but that could last for only two weeks, adding that the Government could no longer pay for those subsidies due to lack of funds.
He denied assertions that President Mills promised to reduce fuel prices to GH¢2, and explained that the President rather promised to reduce fuel tax by 20 per cent.
Dr Donkor said the Energy Ministry had fulfilled that promise, pointing out that fuel prices would have increased further if fuel taxes had not been reduced.
He entreated Ghanaians to have confidence in the Government and gave the assurance that government would do its best to keep the current economic situation under control.
THE importation of vehicles aged more than 10 years is to be banned as part of government measures to reduce wastage in fuel consumption, a Deputy Minister of Energy, Dr Kwabena Donkor, has hinted.
According to him, 30 per cent of fuel imported into the country was wasted, and old vehicles, particularly in traffic situations, were responsible for a high chunk of the wastage.
Interacting with journalists in Accra on Monday, Dr Donkor said the nation could no longer afford to waste fuel of that magnitude vis-a-vis the substantial increase in petroleum prices.
Currently, the importation of vehicles aged more than 10 years attract a penalty, the essence of which is to discourage the importation of such vehicles.
Last weekend, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) announced a 30 per cent increment in petroleum products.
Dr Donkor explained that the 30 per cent increase in petroleum prices was the result of a huge debt inherited by his ministry.
He said that debt, in addition to the GH¢11.46 million debt of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), “has left the Energy Ministry in a very tight financial situation”.
Dr Donkor said the Government paid GH¢7 million to TOR as subsidies to maintain fuel prices in May, but that could last for only two weeks, adding that the Government could no longer pay for those subsidies due to lack of funds.
He denied assertions that President Mills promised to reduce fuel prices to GH¢2, and explained that the President rather promised to reduce fuel tax by 20 per cent.
Dr Donkor said the Energy Ministry had fulfilled that promise, pointing out that fuel prices would have increased further if fuel taxes had not been reduced.
He entreated Ghanaians to have confidence in the Government and gave the assurance that government would do its best to keep the current economic situation under control.
FUEL PRUCE INCREASES TO SAVE ECONOMY (Pg 31) 10-06-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
THE Minister of Energy, Dr Joe Oteng-Agyei, says the recent increases in the prices of petroleum products are to save the national economy from collapse.
He said although the National Democratic Congress (NDC), as a social democratic party, was concerned about the welfare of the people, the total national debt inherited by the Mills administration was so huge that subsidising the price of petroleum products would be disastrous for the national economy.
"We all have to bear with the government in the short term. In the long term, we will decide, as a social democratic party, on something to reduce the pressure," the minister told the Daily Graphic.
Without giving exact figures, Dr Oteng-Agyei said the national debt portfolio which the government inherited from its predecessor in January 2009 had enlarged as previously unknown debts trickled in from various sources.
He said his ministry, for instance, had a debt of about GH¢126 million, involving commitments to local contractors for work done on the extension of electricity to rural areas, some of which debts had been outstanding since 2003.
In addition, the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) had a debt of about GH¢114.6 million (¢1.146 trillion), all of which had to be offset by the government.
He said failure by the government to clear the TOR recovery debt or fulfil its financial commitments to oil marketing companies (OMCs) could lead to shortage in the supply of petroleum products, since the OMCs might not have the financial capacity to import crude.
Currently, TOR supplies about 60 per cent of the country’s petroleum consumption, while the OMCs make up for the remaining 40 per cent.
Recently, the government has come under intense pressure from sections of the public, particularly activists of the largest minority party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), a political pressure group, to reduce the prices of petroleum products in fulfilment of the NDC’s campaign promise, describing the recent price increases as a breach of faith.
The reduction in the prices of petroleum products was a major campaign promise made by the NDC in the run-up to the December 2008 elections but since assuming office last January the prices have increased intermittently, with the latest being last weekend’s 30 per cent increase in prices.
Dr Oteng-Agyei disagreed with the critics, contending that the NDC had, indeed, fulfilled its campaign promise by taking off various taxes on the petroleum price build-up soon after assuming office, which essentially reduced the ultimate price of petroleum products.
He said the NDC had been justified in calling on the then ruling NPP government to reduce the prices of petroleum products because at that time there was a slump in the price of crude oil on the world market.
Therefore, the minister argued, the critics of the government could only be justified in their assertion if the government did not reduce the prices of petroleum products to reflect a reduction in the price of crude oil on the world market.
On the current intermittent power cuts, Dr Oteng-Agyei said the problem was due to the fact that most of the sub-stations were old and cited the Achimota Sub-station, which was about 40 years old.
He said there was the need to change equipment at all the sub-stations but the problem was that anytime work was being done on one station, the weakness in other stations emerged, resulting in the power cuts.
Dr Oteng-Agyei urged the institutions responsible for electricity generation and supply to communicate the difficulties well to the public because "it is not acceptable to always wait for electricity to go off before coming out to say it’s a technical problem".
"We are really working to take the public out of this situation," he assured the nation, adding that the reinforcement programme on the sub-stations would be completed by the end of December 2009.
THE Minister of Energy, Dr Joe Oteng-Agyei, says the recent increases in the prices of petroleum products are to save the national economy from collapse.
He said although the National Democratic Congress (NDC), as a social democratic party, was concerned about the welfare of the people, the total national debt inherited by the Mills administration was so huge that subsidising the price of petroleum products would be disastrous for the national economy.
"We all have to bear with the government in the short term. In the long term, we will decide, as a social democratic party, on something to reduce the pressure," the minister told the Daily Graphic.
Without giving exact figures, Dr Oteng-Agyei said the national debt portfolio which the government inherited from its predecessor in January 2009 had enlarged as previously unknown debts trickled in from various sources.
He said his ministry, for instance, had a debt of about GH¢126 million, involving commitments to local contractors for work done on the extension of electricity to rural areas, some of which debts had been outstanding since 2003.
In addition, the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) had a debt of about GH¢114.6 million (¢1.146 trillion), all of which had to be offset by the government.
He said failure by the government to clear the TOR recovery debt or fulfil its financial commitments to oil marketing companies (OMCs) could lead to shortage in the supply of petroleum products, since the OMCs might not have the financial capacity to import crude.
Currently, TOR supplies about 60 per cent of the country’s petroleum consumption, while the OMCs make up for the remaining 40 per cent.
Recently, the government has come under intense pressure from sections of the public, particularly activists of the largest minority party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), a political pressure group, to reduce the prices of petroleum products in fulfilment of the NDC’s campaign promise, describing the recent price increases as a breach of faith.
The reduction in the prices of petroleum products was a major campaign promise made by the NDC in the run-up to the December 2008 elections but since assuming office last January the prices have increased intermittently, with the latest being last weekend’s 30 per cent increase in prices.
Dr Oteng-Agyei disagreed with the critics, contending that the NDC had, indeed, fulfilled its campaign promise by taking off various taxes on the petroleum price build-up soon after assuming office, which essentially reduced the ultimate price of petroleum products.
He said the NDC had been justified in calling on the then ruling NPP government to reduce the prices of petroleum products because at that time there was a slump in the price of crude oil on the world market.
Therefore, the minister argued, the critics of the government could only be justified in their assertion if the government did not reduce the prices of petroleum products to reflect a reduction in the price of crude oil on the world market.
On the current intermittent power cuts, Dr Oteng-Agyei said the problem was due to the fact that most of the sub-stations were old and cited the Achimota Sub-station, which was about 40 years old.
He said there was the need to change equipment at all the sub-stations but the problem was that anytime work was being done on one station, the weakness in other stations emerged, resulting in the power cuts.
Dr Oteng-Agyei urged the institutions responsible for electricity generation and supply to communicate the difficulties well to the public because "it is not acceptable to always wait for electricity to go off before coming out to say it’s a technical problem".
"We are really working to take the public out of this situation," he assured the nation, adding that the reinforcement programme on the sub-stations would be completed by the end of December 2009.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
MORE OIL EXIST IN EASTERN CORRIDOR (Pg31) 09-06-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
THE UN International Seabed Authority (ISA) has confirmed the existence of about eight billion barrels of crude reserves in the ultra-deep waters of the country's eastern corridor.
Ghana is, therefore, seeking the expansion of her continental shelf to help redeem that natural resource.
A Foreign Service Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Solomon Korbieh, told the Daily Graphic that Ghana had already made a submission to the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) for the expansion of the continental shelf, which has a lot of prospects for more oil discovery.
The submission, which was made to the CLCS on April 28, 2009, in accordance with Article 76, paragraph 8 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, seeks to expand Ghana's exclusive economic zone from the current 200 nautical miles to 350 nautical miles, thus widening the scope of the country's oil potential.
Information gathered indicates that in the absence of any objections, consideration of Ghana's submission is likely to be included in the agenda of the 24th session of the commission scheduled to be held in New York from August 10, 2009 to September 11, 2009.
Mr Korbieh, who confirmed the submission, said it was very certain that Ghana’s request would be approved by the UN commission.
Under laid down procedure, proposals submitted will be published on the website of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea to entertain criticisms and objections, after which a subcommittee will be set up by the commission to sit on the merits of individual proposals.
Ghana is among 50 countries worldwide, including Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and Kenya, who beat the May 13, 2009 deadline for UN member countries to seek expansion of their territorial waters.
Experts say the oceanographic work required to research and fine-tune submissions for extension is very costly.
The National Co-ordinator of the Ghana National Continental Shelf Delineation Project, Mr Lawrence Apaalse, said $8 million was budgeted for the preparation of the document.
He said if no objection was raised against the submission, the next step was for Ghana to make a presentation of the technical details to the commission for consideration.
Mr Apaalse, who is also a Lead Geologist at the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC), said but for issues of overlapping boundaries that might arise from submissions made by neighbouring countries, the success of Ghana's submission was not in doubt.
THE UN International Seabed Authority (ISA) has confirmed the existence of about eight billion barrels of crude reserves in the ultra-deep waters of the country's eastern corridor.
Ghana is, therefore, seeking the expansion of her continental shelf to help redeem that natural resource.
A Foreign Service Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Solomon Korbieh, told the Daily Graphic that Ghana had already made a submission to the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) for the expansion of the continental shelf, which has a lot of prospects for more oil discovery.
The submission, which was made to the CLCS on April 28, 2009, in accordance with Article 76, paragraph 8 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, seeks to expand Ghana's exclusive economic zone from the current 200 nautical miles to 350 nautical miles, thus widening the scope of the country's oil potential.
Information gathered indicates that in the absence of any objections, consideration of Ghana's submission is likely to be included in the agenda of the 24th session of the commission scheduled to be held in New York from August 10, 2009 to September 11, 2009.
Mr Korbieh, who confirmed the submission, said it was very certain that Ghana’s request would be approved by the UN commission.
Under laid down procedure, proposals submitted will be published on the website of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea to entertain criticisms and objections, after which a subcommittee will be set up by the commission to sit on the merits of individual proposals.
Ghana is among 50 countries worldwide, including Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and Kenya, who beat the May 13, 2009 deadline for UN member countries to seek expansion of their territorial waters.
Experts say the oceanographic work required to research and fine-tune submissions for extension is very costly.
The National Co-ordinator of the Ghana National Continental Shelf Delineation Project, Mr Lawrence Apaalse, said $8 million was budgeted for the preparation of the document.
He said if no objection was raised against the submission, the next step was for Ghana to make a presentation of the technical details to the commission for consideration.
Mr Apaalse, who is also a Lead Geologist at the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC), said but for issues of overlapping boundaries that might arise from submissions made by neighbouring countries, the success of Ghana's submission was not in doubt.
MINISTER CALLS FOR CLEAN-UP OF TOR (Pg 3) 09-06-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah & Francis Yaw Kyei
THE Minister of Energy, Dr Joe Oteng-Agyei, has called for a clean-up at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to eliminate inefficiencies that have plunged the company into huge debt.
He cited security lapses, over-employment and increased commercial activities on the premises of TOR as some of the factors contributing to the company’s inefficiencies.
Dr Oteng-Agyei expressed the concern at the inauguration of the board of directors of TOR in Accra yesterday after he had earlier inaugurated the board of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
Dr Oteng-Agyei charged the members to bring their expertise to bear on the job and ensure that the refinery became a strategic company in the West African sub-region.
As of 2008, the total TOR debt, according to government information, stood at GH¢11.46 million as of 2008 up from GH¢3.2 million as of 2000.
Pointing at some of the inefficiencies in the system to the Daily Graphic later, the minister said in spite of the acquisition of an equipment known as Residual Fuel Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) whose automated nature did not require so many hands at TOR, the number of the company’s employees was still very high.
Again, he said, despite the numerous close-circuit television (CCTV) equipment installed at TOR and the presence of security guards on the premises, “the system there is not full-proof”.
Dr Oteng-Agyei cited instances where about 18 tanks loaded from the premises of TOR but only three of them reached, describing the situation as “unacceptable”.
He expressed concern about what he considered to be too many commercial activities on the premises of TOR, pointing out that as a refinery, the premises of the company should not be engulfed in such activities but, instead, must be kept clean to reflect its image.
Dr Oteng-Agyei said TOR was a strategic asset to the nation and the government’s overriding objective was to redeem it from all inefficiencies and make it more viable and beneficial to the nation.
He said the government was committed to eliminating the huge under-recovery and debt burden of TOR.
The minister, who administered the oaths of office and secrecy to the nine-member TOR board, charged the members to approach their task with unity of purpose to achieve results.
He advised them to be guided by the tenets of transparency, probity, accountability and fairness as President Mills demands of all government appointees, cautioning that if anyone consciensciously or unconsciensciously, advertently or inadvertently did anything to undermine those tenets, “we will have no problem in offloading you from the board”.
Dr Oteng-Agyei announced plans by the ministry to collaborate with the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) to organise an orientation programme for all board members of institutions under the ministry in order to define their roles and avoid interference from any quarter.
Adding his voice to the minister’s admonition, a Deputy Minister of Energy, Dr Kwabena Donkor, said the problems of TOR “beat any business paradigm”, but he encouraged the board to appreciate the peculiar challenges of the company and run it as a business to ensure its vibrancy and survival “and leave the politics to us”.
On behalf of the TOR board, the chairman, Mr Eric Okai, a banker, said the members were very clear on the President’s admonition for transparency, probity, accountability and fairness and assured the minister that “We will do what it takes to make sure that we do not let you down.”
Other members of the board are Osabarima Kwesi Atta II, Omanhen of Oguaa Traditional Area; Mr Alfred Agbesi, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashaiman; Nana Mprah Besemuna III, Krachiwura; Mr E. M. Commodore-Mensah, an agriculturist and businessman; Ms Elisabeth Adjei-Mensah, a legal practitioner; Kazawura Yahaha; Alhaji A. A. Abubakar, a businessman, and Dr Kwame Ampofo, acting Managing Director of TOR.
Addressing the nine-member NPA board, Dr Oteng-Agyei reminded the members of the task they had accepted, for instance, the need to review the petroleum price formula to ensure a correlation between the price of crude oil and the finished product.
He urged the board to educate the public on the pricing concept to dispel the notion that the government was responsible for petroleum price fixing.
The Chairman of the board, Mr Kojo Fynn, a chartered accountant, said the members recognised the important role NPA played in the petroleum sector and the country’s development and promised to discharge their duties efficiently.
The other members of the board are Mr William Tewiah, a banker; Mrs Clothilde Agbernoto, a legal practitioner; Mr Ralph Roland, a chartered accountant; Dr Boni Yao Gerbeh, a lecturer at the Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA); Mr Alex Mould, the Executive Secretary of the NPA; Mr Emmanuel Armstrong; Mr Suleman Koney and Mrs Barbara Serwah Asamoah.
THE Minister of Energy, Dr Joe Oteng-Agyei, has called for a clean-up at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to eliminate inefficiencies that have plunged the company into huge debt.
He cited security lapses, over-employment and increased commercial activities on the premises of TOR as some of the factors contributing to the company’s inefficiencies.
Dr Oteng-Agyei expressed the concern at the inauguration of the board of directors of TOR in Accra yesterday after he had earlier inaugurated the board of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
Dr Oteng-Agyei charged the members to bring their expertise to bear on the job and ensure that the refinery became a strategic company in the West African sub-region.
As of 2008, the total TOR debt, according to government information, stood at GH¢11.46 million as of 2008 up from GH¢3.2 million as of 2000.
Pointing at some of the inefficiencies in the system to the Daily Graphic later, the minister said in spite of the acquisition of an equipment known as Residual Fuel Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) whose automated nature did not require so many hands at TOR, the number of the company’s employees was still very high.
Again, he said, despite the numerous close-circuit television (CCTV) equipment installed at TOR and the presence of security guards on the premises, “the system there is not full-proof”.
Dr Oteng-Agyei cited instances where about 18 tanks loaded from the premises of TOR but only three of them reached, describing the situation as “unacceptable”.
He expressed concern about what he considered to be too many commercial activities on the premises of TOR, pointing out that as a refinery, the premises of the company should not be engulfed in such activities but, instead, must be kept clean to reflect its image.
Dr Oteng-Agyei said TOR was a strategic asset to the nation and the government’s overriding objective was to redeem it from all inefficiencies and make it more viable and beneficial to the nation.
He said the government was committed to eliminating the huge under-recovery and debt burden of TOR.
The minister, who administered the oaths of office and secrecy to the nine-member TOR board, charged the members to approach their task with unity of purpose to achieve results.
He advised them to be guided by the tenets of transparency, probity, accountability and fairness as President Mills demands of all government appointees, cautioning that if anyone consciensciously or unconsciensciously, advertently or inadvertently did anything to undermine those tenets, “we will have no problem in offloading you from the board”.
Dr Oteng-Agyei announced plans by the ministry to collaborate with the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) to organise an orientation programme for all board members of institutions under the ministry in order to define their roles and avoid interference from any quarter.
Adding his voice to the minister’s admonition, a Deputy Minister of Energy, Dr Kwabena Donkor, said the problems of TOR “beat any business paradigm”, but he encouraged the board to appreciate the peculiar challenges of the company and run it as a business to ensure its vibrancy and survival “and leave the politics to us”.
On behalf of the TOR board, the chairman, Mr Eric Okai, a banker, said the members were very clear on the President’s admonition for transparency, probity, accountability and fairness and assured the minister that “We will do what it takes to make sure that we do not let you down.”
Other members of the board are Osabarima Kwesi Atta II, Omanhen of Oguaa Traditional Area; Mr Alfred Agbesi, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashaiman; Nana Mprah Besemuna III, Krachiwura; Mr E. M. Commodore-Mensah, an agriculturist and businessman; Ms Elisabeth Adjei-Mensah, a legal practitioner; Kazawura Yahaha; Alhaji A. A. Abubakar, a businessman, and Dr Kwame Ampofo, acting Managing Director of TOR.
Addressing the nine-member NPA board, Dr Oteng-Agyei reminded the members of the task they had accepted, for instance, the need to review the petroleum price formula to ensure a correlation between the price of crude oil and the finished product.
He urged the board to educate the public on the pricing concept to dispel the notion that the government was responsible for petroleum price fixing.
The Chairman of the board, Mr Kojo Fynn, a chartered accountant, said the members recognised the important role NPA played in the petroleum sector and the country’s development and promised to discharge their duties efficiently.
The other members of the board are Mr William Tewiah, a banker; Mrs Clothilde Agbernoto, a legal practitioner; Mr Ralph Roland, a chartered accountant; Dr Boni Yao Gerbeh, a lecturer at the Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA); Mr Alex Mould, the Executive Secretary of the NPA; Mr Emmanuel Armstrong; Mr Suleman Koney and Mrs Barbara Serwah Asamoah.
'SAKAWA' DEALS AND MONEY TRANSFERS (Front Page) 09-06-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
INTERNET fraudsters operating in the ‘sakawa’ underworld are said to have deeply penetrated some money transfer outlets with enticing offers to retrieve large sums of money sent to them by their victims abroad.
A case in point is a lady attendant at one of the transfer outlets in Accra alleged to have been compromised by ‘sakawa’ boys with huge sums of money in ‘kickbacks’ in lieu of the presentation of correct documents to collect their remittances.
The attendant (name withheld) allegedly collects 10 per cent of the amounts involved from ‘sakawa’ boys who present code numbers and their personal identity cards to collect money in the name of females and 20 per cent from those who do not present identity cards.
The system of money transfer requires the recipient to produce a code number from the sender and recipient’s national identification, such as passport, driving licence or voter ID card, in order to redeem the money sent.
Meanwhile, the ‘sakawa’ boys pose as females to deceive their victims and money is sent to them in the female names they present. In their bid to retrieve the money, they have struck a deal with the lady attendant to circumvent the requirement by not presenting the appropriate identity cards or presenting only the code numbers.
In a practice believed to be widespread, money transfer attendants allegedly demand big percentages before obliging the deal, sometimes to the displeasure of the ‘sakawa’ boys.
A source at Accra New Town, whose lead the Daily Graphic followed to ascertain the deal, said while transacting a business at one of the money transfer outlets at the Accra North Post Office recently, he eavesdropped on a bargain between a suspected ‘sakawa’ boy and a lady at one of the counters on the percentage to pay on the money he was to collect.
The source said he was confused initially because he thought it was the responsibility of the sender, not the receiver, to pay the transfer charges. It was curiosity that made him know that the ‘sakawa’ boy wanted to collect the money in the name of a female.
"The lady told the guy that since he did not bring any ID card the percentage will be higher. After taking my money, I decided to wait a while to watch what went on at that counter. I spent almost three hours there and can you imagine that about 10 boys who came there to pick money were all taking the money in female names? Mr Editor, this lady is making money over there," he wrote to the Daily Graphic.
On a verification mission to the transfer post at the Accra North Post Office, some clients who had gone there to transact business were observed giving money to some of the attendants but the purpose of the gesture was not clear.
Although the financial manager in charge of money transfer at the Accra North Post Office could not immediately confirm or deny the allegation, she indicated that in the past there had been reported misconduct on the part of some of the attendants, for which reason they had been reshuffled.
She said the matter would be investigated, after which appropriate action would be taken.
The particulars on the identity cards presented for collecting money are keyed into a database for purposes of record keeping, but sources at some money transfer outlets said it was difficult to track where a recipient was coming from because once he/she had the code number from the sender and a national identity card, he/she could collect the money at any of the money transfer outlets across the country.
Some of the ‘sakawa’ operatives have also targeted the Ghana Post Company (GPC) as another major conduit for sending messages to and receiving parcels from their victims abroad.
On a daily basis, ‘sakawa’ boys troop to the GPC Headquarters in Accra and other post offices elsewhere to collect large quantities of parcels.
Some workers at the GPC Headquarters confirmed to the Daily Graphic that the ‘sakawa’ boys were always lurking around the vicinity to collect parcels.
The difficulty facing the company, however, is that it cannot determine a fraudulent parcel unless it is based on a tip-off, a fact acknowledged by the Deputy Managing Director (Operations & Development) of the GPC, Mr Nicholas N.Y. Dery.
He said without a tip-off from a sending administration about the fraudulent nature of a parcel, “we will go ahead and deliver”.
Mr Dery cited two instances when the company had to return parcels to the sending units in the US and Canada because they were deemed to have been fraudulently sent.
In the early days of ‘sakawa’, the ‘Swedru boys’, who are widely acknowledged as the pioneers of cyber fraud in Ghana, used the post office as the main conduit for sending large volumes of letters and nude pictures of ladies, mostly scanned from magazines, to their victims abroad.
Some of the ‘sakawa’ boys managed to lure their victims to Ghana, put them in plush hotels, squeezed all the money on them and left them stranded in town.
Security sources at the GPC recalled instances when some of the foreign victims who could not buy air tickets back home had to wander along the corridors of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, hoping for salvation.
In one instance, according to the sources, a white lady who was lured into the country was dispossessed of every money, impregnated and abandoned in misery by ‘sakawa’ boys.
With the passage of time, the use of the post office for correspondence with their victims became unattractive for the ‘sakawa’ boys, as officials of the company began intercepting volumes of the correspondence and, with the collaboration of the police, succeeded in arresting some of the boys.
The Internet, thus, became a safer, faster and more preferred option for the ‘Swedru boys’ and in no time they infested all the major cities of the country with the cyber crime.
The proliferation of Internet cafes, their accessibility and affordability, as well as growing ICT literacy rate among the population and the potential wealth the Internet offers, have all conspired to make online crime a rather daunting task for an emerging ICT country such as Ghana.
While acknowledging the government’s plans to address the problem through the enactment of a Cyber Security Law and the establishment of a Cyber Emergency Response Team as steps in the right direction, an ICT consultant, Mr Kwami Ahiabenu, said, “We have a long way to go in our attempt at resolving this problem.”
He said the security agencies, for instance, lacked resources and capacity to deal with the complex nature of cyber crime in terms of policing online space, making arrests and prosecuting suspects.
He said as of now the situation clearly indicated that Ghana was not prepared for the ICT race, otherwise pre-emptive measures would have been taken, knowing very well that cyber crime was part of the ICT revolution.
The complicity of some policemen in the cyber crime, as exemplified by the recent arrest of a policeman for allegedly defrauding a Namibian of $7,900, and the admission by DSP Felix Mawusi of the CID that the police lacked the capacity and logistics to combat cyber crime underline the enormous security challenge facing the nation.
In their correspondence with victims, the Internet fraudsters also make extensive use of mobile phones, but with the proliferation in the mobile telecommunication industry, cheap mobile handsets and SIM cards, combating the cyber menace appears to be a Herculean task.
Vodafone, a leading telecommunication company in the country, has expressed its willingness to support any initiative that will help to protect juveniles against indulgence in ‘sakawa’.
The Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone, Mr David Venn, said the company had followed with keen interest the concerns raised by Ghanaians over the cyber fraud and promised to support any campaign to ensure that “juveniles who use the Internet to indulge in cyber fraud are exposed and punished in accordance with the law".
East Ayawaso, comprising Nima, parts of Maamobi and New Town, has become very notorious for ‘sakawa’, with children of all ages joining the fray of the ‘get-rich-quick’ syndrome.
INTERNET fraudsters operating in the ‘sakawa’ underworld are said to have deeply penetrated some money transfer outlets with enticing offers to retrieve large sums of money sent to them by their victims abroad.
A case in point is a lady attendant at one of the transfer outlets in Accra alleged to have been compromised by ‘sakawa’ boys with huge sums of money in ‘kickbacks’ in lieu of the presentation of correct documents to collect their remittances.
The attendant (name withheld) allegedly collects 10 per cent of the amounts involved from ‘sakawa’ boys who present code numbers and their personal identity cards to collect money in the name of females and 20 per cent from those who do not present identity cards.
The system of money transfer requires the recipient to produce a code number from the sender and recipient’s national identification, such as passport, driving licence or voter ID card, in order to redeem the money sent.
Meanwhile, the ‘sakawa’ boys pose as females to deceive their victims and money is sent to them in the female names they present. In their bid to retrieve the money, they have struck a deal with the lady attendant to circumvent the requirement by not presenting the appropriate identity cards or presenting only the code numbers.
In a practice believed to be widespread, money transfer attendants allegedly demand big percentages before obliging the deal, sometimes to the displeasure of the ‘sakawa’ boys.
A source at Accra New Town, whose lead the Daily Graphic followed to ascertain the deal, said while transacting a business at one of the money transfer outlets at the Accra North Post Office recently, he eavesdropped on a bargain between a suspected ‘sakawa’ boy and a lady at one of the counters on the percentage to pay on the money he was to collect.
The source said he was confused initially because he thought it was the responsibility of the sender, not the receiver, to pay the transfer charges. It was curiosity that made him know that the ‘sakawa’ boy wanted to collect the money in the name of a female.
"The lady told the guy that since he did not bring any ID card the percentage will be higher. After taking my money, I decided to wait a while to watch what went on at that counter. I spent almost three hours there and can you imagine that about 10 boys who came there to pick money were all taking the money in female names? Mr Editor, this lady is making money over there," he wrote to the Daily Graphic.
On a verification mission to the transfer post at the Accra North Post Office, some clients who had gone there to transact business were observed giving money to some of the attendants but the purpose of the gesture was not clear.
Although the financial manager in charge of money transfer at the Accra North Post Office could not immediately confirm or deny the allegation, she indicated that in the past there had been reported misconduct on the part of some of the attendants, for which reason they had been reshuffled.
She said the matter would be investigated, after which appropriate action would be taken.
The particulars on the identity cards presented for collecting money are keyed into a database for purposes of record keeping, but sources at some money transfer outlets said it was difficult to track where a recipient was coming from because once he/she had the code number from the sender and a national identity card, he/she could collect the money at any of the money transfer outlets across the country.
Some of the ‘sakawa’ operatives have also targeted the Ghana Post Company (GPC) as another major conduit for sending messages to and receiving parcels from their victims abroad.
On a daily basis, ‘sakawa’ boys troop to the GPC Headquarters in Accra and other post offices elsewhere to collect large quantities of parcels.
Some workers at the GPC Headquarters confirmed to the Daily Graphic that the ‘sakawa’ boys were always lurking around the vicinity to collect parcels.
The difficulty facing the company, however, is that it cannot determine a fraudulent parcel unless it is based on a tip-off, a fact acknowledged by the Deputy Managing Director (Operations & Development) of the GPC, Mr Nicholas N.Y. Dery.
He said without a tip-off from a sending administration about the fraudulent nature of a parcel, “we will go ahead and deliver”.
Mr Dery cited two instances when the company had to return parcels to the sending units in the US and Canada because they were deemed to have been fraudulently sent.
In the early days of ‘sakawa’, the ‘Swedru boys’, who are widely acknowledged as the pioneers of cyber fraud in Ghana, used the post office as the main conduit for sending large volumes of letters and nude pictures of ladies, mostly scanned from magazines, to their victims abroad.
Some of the ‘sakawa’ boys managed to lure their victims to Ghana, put them in plush hotels, squeezed all the money on them and left them stranded in town.
Security sources at the GPC recalled instances when some of the foreign victims who could not buy air tickets back home had to wander along the corridors of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, hoping for salvation.
In one instance, according to the sources, a white lady who was lured into the country was dispossessed of every money, impregnated and abandoned in misery by ‘sakawa’ boys.
With the passage of time, the use of the post office for correspondence with their victims became unattractive for the ‘sakawa’ boys, as officials of the company began intercepting volumes of the correspondence and, with the collaboration of the police, succeeded in arresting some of the boys.
The Internet, thus, became a safer, faster and more preferred option for the ‘Swedru boys’ and in no time they infested all the major cities of the country with the cyber crime.
The proliferation of Internet cafes, their accessibility and affordability, as well as growing ICT literacy rate among the population and the potential wealth the Internet offers, have all conspired to make online crime a rather daunting task for an emerging ICT country such as Ghana.
While acknowledging the government’s plans to address the problem through the enactment of a Cyber Security Law and the establishment of a Cyber Emergency Response Team as steps in the right direction, an ICT consultant, Mr Kwami Ahiabenu, said, “We have a long way to go in our attempt at resolving this problem.”
He said the security agencies, for instance, lacked resources and capacity to deal with the complex nature of cyber crime in terms of policing online space, making arrests and prosecuting suspects.
He said as of now the situation clearly indicated that Ghana was not prepared for the ICT race, otherwise pre-emptive measures would have been taken, knowing very well that cyber crime was part of the ICT revolution.
The complicity of some policemen in the cyber crime, as exemplified by the recent arrest of a policeman for allegedly defrauding a Namibian of $7,900, and the admission by DSP Felix Mawusi of the CID that the police lacked the capacity and logistics to combat cyber crime underline the enormous security challenge facing the nation.
In their correspondence with victims, the Internet fraudsters also make extensive use of mobile phones, but with the proliferation in the mobile telecommunication industry, cheap mobile handsets and SIM cards, combating the cyber menace appears to be a Herculean task.
Vodafone, a leading telecommunication company in the country, has expressed its willingness to support any initiative that will help to protect juveniles against indulgence in ‘sakawa’.
The Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone, Mr David Venn, said the company had followed with keen interest the concerns raised by Ghanaians over the cyber fraud and promised to support any campaign to ensure that “juveniles who use the Internet to indulge in cyber fraud are exposed and punished in accordance with the law".
East Ayawaso, comprising Nima, parts of Maamobi and New Town, has become very notorious for ‘sakawa’, with children of all ages joining the fray of the ‘get-rich-quick’ syndrome.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
'DEPOLITICISE WORK OF PARLIAMENT' (Pg 14) 04-06-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
SOME experts on security and human rights have called for the de-politicisation of the work of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) because it is not in the best interest of the nation.
They denounced the practice whereby political activists besiege the premises of the BNI whenever a high-ranking political figure of their party is invited for questioning by the national intelligence body.
One of the experts and former Director of BNI, Mr Kofi Bentum Quantson, who shared his thoughts with the Daily Graphic yesterday, described such actions by political activists as “barbaric”.
Other experts who expressed their opinions on the issue in separate interviews were the Head of Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution Department at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre, Dr Emmanuel Kwesi Aning, and a human rights lawyer who pleaded anonymity.
Last Tuesday, a large number of former Ministers of State in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, some Members of Parliament (MPs) and NPP loyalists besieged the premises of the BNI headquarters at Ridge, Accra, in a show of solidarity with a former Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, who was being questioned by BNI officials on "wide range of issues".
The situation was reminiscent of an incident in 2001 when some activists of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) stormed the premises of the BNI to also show solidarity with former President Rawlings and the MP for Ningo/Prampram, Mr E.T. Mensah, who were invited by the BNI for questioning.
"It's ridiculous for political parties to behave that way," Mr Quantson said, stating that the law establishing the BNI gave it the mandate to invite and interrogate anybody.
He said if some people had a problem with the law, they should seek a review in Parliament rather than engaging in actions that were not in tune with the law.
Mr Quantson said although Mr Mpiani was invited by the BNI last week, he responded to the invitation at his convenience on Tuesday.
He said it was normal for a new government, after assuming office, to change the leadership of the BNI, but the sanctity of the institution had to be maintained.
Mr Quantson, who is also a former Director of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, dismissed suggestions that the BNI was usurping the functions of the CID and advised those who made such suggestions to seek knowledge from the law.
He called on stakeholders such as the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and the media to educate the public on the mandate of the BNI set out in the National Security Act.
For his part, Dr Aning said people should not read political meaning into the work of the BNI, insisting that the national intelligence body had the right to interrogate anyone it deemed to have questions to answer in the interest of national security.
He said if the political colouring was taken off Mr Mpiani's case, "the BNI has not done anything wrong".
Dr Aning blamed the NDC and the NPP for exerting excessive political influence on the professional performance of the BNI, saying such attitude heightened tension and undermined the trust reposed in the organisation.
He dismissed assertions by some NPP activists that Mr Mpiani's long date with the BNI last Tuesday was tantamount to human rights violation, adding that in 2001 under the administration of the NPP, whose members professed to be adherents of human rights, Mr E.T. Mensah was not just interrogated, but was also detained overnight at the BNI.
Dr Aning said so long as the interrogation of Mr Mpiani did not go beyond 48 hours, it was baseless to raise issues of human rights abuse.
He expressed concern about what he described as the "tit-for-tat" manner the two major political parties, the NDC and the NPP, were applying, meaning, anytime one of them assumed political power, it had to descend on its opponents.
Dr Aning disagreed with the claim that the BNI mandate was too broad, but he said if that was the case, then it was necessary to call a national debate to discuss the issue and for Parliament to review it.
In the opinion of the anonymous human rights lawyer, anyone who disagreed with the work of the BNI should use institutions of state, such as the courts, to seek redress rather than besiege the premises of the BNI.
He, however, contended that the National Security Act gave too broad a mandate to the BNI, arguing that it was not good to vest enormous power in one institution.
The human rights lawyer said although there was nothing wrong with the BNI inviting anyone for interrogation, the process of interrogation could be abusive of a person's human rights.
He said it was not appropriate, for instance, to keep a person idle for a long time before interrogating him/her under conditions of exhaustion and hunger.
That, he said, was because under such conditions, the person would not be able to respond to questions in a manner he/she would normally have done.
SOME experts on security and human rights have called for the de-politicisation of the work of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) because it is not in the best interest of the nation.
They denounced the practice whereby political activists besiege the premises of the BNI whenever a high-ranking political figure of their party is invited for questioning by the national intelligence body.
One of the experts and former Director of BNI, Mr Kofi Bentum Quantson, who shared his thoughts with the Daily Graphic yesterday, described such actions by political activists as “barbaric”.
Other experts who expressed their opinions on the issue in separate interviews were the Head of Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution Department at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre, Dr Emmanuel Kwesi Aning, and a human rights lawyer who pleaded anonymity.
Last Tuesday, a large number of former Ministers of State in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, some Members of Parliament (MPs) and NPP loyalists besieged the premises of the BNI headquarters at Ridge, Accra, in a show of solidarity with a former Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, who was being questioned by BNI officials on "wide range of issues".
The situation was reminiscent of an incident in 2001 when some activists of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) stormed the premises of the BNI to also show solidarity with former President Rawlings and the MP for Ningo/Prampram, Mr E.T. Mensah, who were invited by the BNI for questioning.
"It's ridiculous for political parties to behave that way," Mr Quantson said, stating that the law establishing the BNI gave it the mandate to invite and interrogate anybody.
He said if some people had a problem with the law, they should seek a review in Parliament rather than engaging in actions that were not in tune with the law.
Mr Quantson said although Mr Mpiani was invited by the BNI last week, he responded to the invitation at his convenience on Tuesday.
He said it was normal for a new government, after assuming office, to change the leadership of the BNI, but the sanctity of the institution had to be maintained.
Mr Quantson, who is also a former Director of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, dismissed suggestions that the BNI was usurping the functions of the CID and advised those who made such suggestions to seek knowledge from the law.
He called on stakeholders such as the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and the media to educate the public on the mandate of the BNI set out in the National Security Act.
For his part, Dr Aning said people should not read political meaning into the work of the BNI, insisting that the national intelligence body had the right to interrogate anyone it deemed to have questions to answer in the interest of national security.
He said if the political colouring was taken off Mr Mpiani's case, "the BNI has not done anything wrong".
Dr Aning blamed the NDC and the NPP for exerting excessive political influence on the professional performance of the BNI, saying such attitude heightened tension and undermined the trust reposed in the organisation.
He dismissed assertions by some NPP activists that Mr Mpiani's long date with the BNI last Tuesday was tantamount to human rights violation, adding that in 2001 under the administration of the NPP, whose members professed to be adherents of human rights, Mr E.T. Mensah was not just interrogated, but was also detained overnight at the BNI.
Dr Aning said so long as the interrogation of Mr Mpiani did not go beyond 48 hours, it was baseless to raise issues of human rights abuse.
He expressed concern about what he described as the "tit-for-tat" manner the two major political parties, the NDC and the NPP, were applying, meaning, anytime one of them assumed political power, it had to descend on its opponents.
Dr Aning disagreed with the claim that the BNI mandate was too broad, but he said if that was the case, then it was necessary to call a national debate to discuss the issue and for Parliament to review it.
In the opinion of the anonymous human rights lawyer, anyone who disagreed with the work of the BNI should use institutions of state, such as the courts, to seek redress rather than besiege the premises of the BNI.
He, however, contended that the National Security Act gave too broad a mandate to the BNI, arguing that it was not good to vest enormous power in one institution.
The human rights lawyer said although there was nothing wrong with the BNI inviting anyone for interrogation, the process of interrogation could be abusive of a person's human rights.
He said it was not appropriate, for instance, to keep a person idle for a long time before interrogating him/her under conditions of exhaustion and hunger.
That, he said, was because under such conditions, the person would not be able to respond to questions in a manner he/she would normally have done.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
COUNCIL EMBARKS ON PEACE MISSION (Pg24/25) 03-06-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
THE National Peace Council (NPC) has embarked on a mission to engage the political leadership in the country in a peace and reconciliation process.
Personalities targeted in the mission are President J.E.A. Mills, former Presidents J.A. Kufuor and J.J. Rawlings and leaders of the various political parties.
In line with the peace and reconciliation mission, the council last Monday held discussions with former President Kufuor at his Airport residence in Accra to discuss pertinent issues of national concern.
Members of the council who attended the meeting were its Chairman and Catholic Bishop of Cape Coast, Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson; the Vice-Chairman and Ameer and Missionary in charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Ghana, Maulvi Wahab Adam, and a former General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Madam Georgina Baiden.
Also present were the Executive Secretary of the NPC, Mr P.K. Opoku-Mensah, and the Research Officer, Mr Emmanuel Sowatey.
In the run up to the 2008 general election, the NPC initiated moves to engage the country's political leaders in discussions towards promoting peace before, during and after the elections.
One of the highlights of those engagements was a meeting with former President Rawlings at his Ridge residence in Accra on Wednesday, November 17, 2008.
Cardinal Turkson told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the meeting between the council and former President Kufuor was a follow-up to the peace initiatives it had embarked upon before the elections.
"We don't want to wait for elections before promoting peace. We want to keep rapport and rapprochement among them," he indicated.
THE National Peace Council (NPC) has embarked on a mission to engage the political leadership in the country in a peace and reconciliation process.
Personalities targeted in the mission are President J.E.A. Mills, former Presidents J.A. Kufuor and J.J. Rawlings and leaders of the various political parties.
In line with the peace and reconciliation mission, the council last Monday held discussions with former President Kufuor at his Airport residence in Accra to discuss pertinent issues of national concern.
Members of the council who attended the meeting were its Chairman and Catholic Bishop of Cape Coast, Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson; the Vice-Chairman and Ameer and Missionary in charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Ghana, Maulvi Wahab Adam, and a former General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Madam Georgina Baiden.
Also present were the Executive Secretary of the NPC, Mr P.K. Opoku-Mensah, and the Research Officer, Mr Emmanuel Sowatey.
In the run up to the 2008 general election, the NPC initiated moves to engage the country's political leaders in discussions towards promoting peace before, during and after the elections.
One of the highlights of those engagements was a meeting with former President Rawlings at his Ridge residence in Accra on Wednesday, November 17, 2008.
Cardinal Turkson told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the meeting between the council and former President Kufuor was a follow-up to the peace initiatives it had embarked upon before the elections.
"We don't want to wait for elections before promoting peace. We want to keep rapport and rapprochement among them," he indicated.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
THE SEARCH FOR PEACE IN BAWKU - PRESIDENT'S ROLE SIGNIFICANT (Pg 31) 02-06-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
THE personal involvement of President John Evans Atta Mills in the search for peace in Bawku remains significant in spite of last Sunday’s sporadic shooting in the town that resulted in the reported killing of three persons.
The Executive Director of the West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), Mr Emmanuel Bombande, who made the point, said the President’s personal involvement, particularly by bringing together the leaders of the two factions, was crucial in resolving the conflict and incidents like last Sunday’s shooting should not be allowed to derail the initiative.
“We should not be distracted by this particular incident,” he told the Daily Graphic via telephone from Sweden, where he is a guest facilitator at a Peace Academy.
Mr Bombande said although the President’s intervention was laudable, it was not the end of the matter, and therefore called for a national stakeholders’ meeting involving the Bawku Municipal Assembly, National Security, National Peace Council (NPC), traditional leaders, opinion leaders, and women and youth groups in Bawku to find a lasting solution to the conflict.
He said there was a lot of hope for peace in Bawku but he was quick to add that a lot depended on the two factions to show commitment to the peace process.
At a meeting with the Paramount Chief of the Bawku Traditional Area, Naba Abugrago Asigri Azoka II, at Bolgatanga last Wednesday, during his two-day visit to the Upper East Region, President Atta Mills reiterated the government’s commitment to the maintenance of peace and stability in Bawku and its surrounding communities.
He appealed to opinion leaders in Bawku to lend their support to the government’s effort to secure peace and security in the area, particularly so because the recurrence of the conflict had adversely impacted on development projects in the area, apart from the huge sums of money the government was spending to maintain peace.
However, while the President’s footprints were still fresh after his departure from Bawku, shooting broke out in some parts of the town, resulting in the killing of three persons as confirmed by the police.
Mr Bombande said there was the need to separate such minor incidents from the President’s peace initiative, adding that, “It’s important to stay focused and ensure that what the President has started works”.
According to him, the masterminds of the violence were armed bandits who tended to exploit the psychology of fear in the people to facilitate their livestock trade.
Mr Bombande blamed the renewed clashes on security lapse, explaining that the similarity between last Sunday’s incident and another one that occurred earlier within the same area raised questions about whether or not the security personnel were on top of their job.
He stressed the need for the security to put their act together to flush out the armed bandits in order to have peace in Bawku.
Mr Bombande said the shooting incidents also confirmed the heavy circulation of small arms in Bawku, which he attributed to the fear generated by the December 2007 clashes.
THE personal involvement of President John Evans Atta Mills in the search for peace in Bawku remains significant in spite of last Sunday’s sporadic shooting in the town that resulted in the reported killing of three persons.
The Executive Director of the West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), Mr Emmanuel Bombande, who made the point, said the President’s personal involvement, particularly by bringing together the leaders of the two factions, was crucial in resolving the conflict and incidents like last Sunday’s shooting should not be allowed to derail the initiative.
“We should not be distracted by this particular incident,” he told the Daily Graphic via telephone from Sweden, where he is a guest facilitator at a Peace Academy.
Mr Bombande said although the President’s intervention was laudable, it was not the end of the matter, and therefore called for a national stakeholders’ meeting involving the Bawku Municipal Assembly, National Security, National Peace Council (NPC), traditional leaders, opinion leaders, and women and youth groups in Bawku to find a lasting solution to the conflict.
He said there was a lot of hope for peace in Bawku but he was quick to add that a lot depended on the two factions to show commitment to the peace process.
At a meeting with the Paramount Chief of the Bawku Traditional Area, Naba Abugrago Asigri Azoka II, at Bolgatanga last Wednesday, during his two-day visit to the Upper East Region, President Atta Mills reiterated the government’s commitment to the maintenance of peace and stability in Bawku and its surrounding communities.
He appealed to opinion leaders in Bawku to lend their support to the government’s effort to secure peace and security in the area, particularly so because the recurrence of the conflict had adversely impacted on development projects in the area, apart from the huge sums of money the government was spending to maintain peace.
However, while the President’s footprints were still fresh after his departure from Bawku, shooting broke out in some parts of the town, resulting in the killing of three persons as confirmed by the police.
Mr Bombande said there was the need to separate such minor incidents from the President’s peace initiative, adding that, “It’s important to stay focused and ensure that what the President has started works”.
According to him, the masterminds of the violence were armed bandits who tended to exploit the psychology of fear in the people to facilitate their livestock trade.
Mr Bombande blamed the renewed clashes on security lapse, explaining that the similarity between last Sunday’s incident and another one that occurred earlier within the same area raised questions about whether or not the security personnel were on top of their job.
He stressed the need for the security to put their act together to flush out the armed bandits in order to have peace in Bawku.
Mr Bombande said the shooting incidents also confirmed the heavy circulation of small arms in Bawku, which he attributed to the fear generated by the December 2007 clashes.
Monday, June 1, 2009
'SAKAWA' POLICEMAN IDENTIFIED (Pg 19) 30-05-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
A POLICEMAN in uniform and wielding an AK47 rifle was caught in the web of ‘sakawa’ last Wednesday when he and two civilians were arrested for allegedly defrauding a Namibian of $7,900.
The policeman and his civilian accomplices were in the process of collecting another $29,000 from the victim to be used to pay taxes on a so-called $30-million facility which they claimed he could access after the payment of the “taxes” when the police arrested them.
The three suspects managed to lure their victim to Ghana with the intention of defrauding him in a ‘sakawa’ scam that has become notorious in the country recently.
The victim possessed documents, including letterheads bearing the Ghana Coat of Arms, indicating correspondence between him and the suspects through the Internet.
After the victim had arrived in the country, the suspects collected the his passport from him but he declined a hotel accommodation offered by his hosts and arranged for an alternative accommodation.
Later at a meeting with the Namibian, the suspects succeeded in collecting $7,900 from him as part of the tax obligation needed to redeem the $30-million facility.
Subsequently, they attempted to relocate the victim to another hotel, while trying to collect another $29,000 from him, but he became worried when they refused to give his passport back to him.
The Namibian then discussed the issue with the hotel manager who, smelling something fraudulent, asked the victim to feign interest, while they contacted the police.
Following the discussion with the hotel manager, the Namibian informed his hosts that he would need his passport to enable him to check out of the hotel.
So on Wednesday, while the suspects had gone to the hotel to evacuate their guest, police officers in plain clothes swooped on them to effect their arrest.
At the time of their arrest, the policeman involved was waiting in a vehicle they had brought to convey the victim and, according to sources, there was a struggle between the plain cloth policemen and the police suspect as he attempted to resist arrest.
Sources at the CID Headquarters in Accra confirmed the arrest of the three suspects but would not give further details, particularly their identity.
A POLICEMAN in uniform and wielding an AK47 rifle was caught in the web of ‘sakawa’ last Wednesday when he and two civilians were arrested for allegedly defrauding a Namibian of $7,900.
The policeman and his civilian accomplices were in the process of collecting another $29,000 from the victim to be used to pay taxes on a so-called $30-million facility which they claimed he could access after the payment of the “taxes” when the police arrested them.
The three suspects managed to lure their victim to Ghana with the intention of defrauding him in a ‘sakawa’ scam that has become notorious in the country recently.
The victim possessed documents, including letterheads bearing the Ghana Coat of Arms, indicating correspondence between him and the suspects through the Internet.
After the victim had arrived in the country, the suspects collected the his passport from him but he declined a hotel accommodation offered by his hosts and arranged for an alternative accommodation.
Later at a meeting with the Namibian, the suspects succeeded in collecting $7,900 from him as part of the tax obligation needed to redeem the $30-million facility.
Subsequently, they attempted to relocate the victim to another hotel, while trying to collect another $29,000 from him, but he became worried when they refused to give his passport back to him.
The Namibian then discussed the issue with the hotel manager who, smelling something fraudulent, asked the victim to feign interest, while they contacted the police.
Following the discussion with the hotel manager, the Namibian informed his hosts that he would need his passport to enable him to check out of the hotel.
So on Wednesday, while the suspects had gone to the hotel to evacuate their guest, police officers in plain clothes swooped on them to effect their arrest.
At the time of their arrest, the policeman involved was waiting in a vehicle they had brought to convey the victim and, according to sources, there was a struggle between the plain cloth policemen and the police suspect as he attempted to resist arrest.
Sources at the CID Headquarters in Accra confirmed the arrest of the three suspects but would not give further details, particularly their identity.
FIRE SERVICE STRUGGLING (Front page) 01-06-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
THE Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has been rendered incapable of dealing with many of the fire outbreaks in the country due to the breakdown of most of its fire engines and the only turn-table ladder used by fire fighters to gain access to high structures for rescue operations.
The Deputy Public Relations Officer of the GNFS, Divisional Officer III Timothy Osafo-Affum, told this paper in Accra that ideally, every fire station ought to have at least two fire engines and a water tanker, “but as of now, some stations don’t have any fire engine because a lot of them have broken down”.
He said the Kumasi Metropolis, for instance, required about 10 fire engines but had only four and that accounted for the difficulty in fighting last Thursday’s inferno at the Kumasi Central Market.
According to him, fire engines had to be mobilised from Ejisu, Konongo and Obuasi.
Mr Osafo-Affum said there were only four fire engines serving eight fire stations in Accra” and so if there is any major fire outbreak in Accra, it will be difficult to fight it”.
Since 2003, when the GNFS took delivery of a fleet of fire engines, the service has been struggling to put its fire engines on the road, at least to give a signal of their presence in times of fire outbreaks.
At the moment, the GNFS is counting on a $50-million facility approved by Parliament last year for the acquisition of fire equipment, including fire engines.
Mr Osafo-Affum said an ideal situation would be to have two fire-fighting helicopters, one in the north and the other in the south, but he was quick to ask; “Even the Ghana Air Force, how many aeroplanes do they have?”
The Fire Precaution (Premises) Regulation, 2003 (LI 1724) makes it mandatory for all public buildings to have fire safety facilities, such as escape routes, fire detection systems and fire suppression systems.
Mr Osafo-Affum said logistical constraints, coupled with lack of access to fire spots, particularly markets, posed a major challenge to the service.
The GNFS has recorded six fire outbreaks at markets throughout the country this year with last Thursday’s Kumasi Central Market disaster being the most devastating.
The other infernos were recorded at Asafo Market and Moro Market, both in Kumasi, and Krofofrom Market, all in the Ashanti Region and the Kaneshie and Konkomba Markets in Accra.
In all those instances, one major difficulty fire fighters had to contend with was lack of access to the markets.
Mr Osafo-Affum said in the Kumasi Central Market fire outbreak, for instance, a bulldozer had to demolish some of the structures to enable fire fighters to get access to the seat of fire because there were no demarcated lanes to allow fire engines to gain access.
He said the GNFS had recommended the creation of alleys, decongestion and segregation at the markets to enhance easy access to fire engines in times of fire.
Mr Osafo-Affum said the segregation of the markets meant the grouping of traders who sold similar items in particular locations, pointing out that if the items were mixed up, it made the raging of fire very fierce.
He said five years ago, the GNFS recommended to district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies to provide fire wardens at marketplaces to ensure fire safety, but the assemblies had not done anything about it.
THE Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has been rendered incapable of dealing with many of the fire outbreaks in the country due to the breakdown of most of its fire engines and the only turn-table ladder used by fire fighters to gain access to high structures for rescue operations.
The Deputy Public Relations Officer of the GNFS, Divisional Officer III Timothy Osafo-Affum, told this paper in Accra that ideally, every fire station ought to have at least two fire engines and a water tanker, “but as of now, some stations don’t have any fire engine because a lot of them have broken down”.
He said the Kumasi Metropolis, for instance, required about 10 fire engines but had only four and that accounted for the difficulty in fighting last Thursday’s inferno at the Kumasi Central Market.
According to him, fire engines had to be mobilised from Ejisu, Konongo and Obuasi.
Mr Osafo-Affum said there were only four fire engines serving eight fire stations in Accra” and so if there is any major fire outbreak in Accra, it will be difficult to fight it”.
Since 2003, when the GNFS took delivery of a fleet of fire engines, the service has been struggling to put its fire engines on the road, at least to give a signal of their presence in times of fire outbreaks.
At the moment, the GNFS is counting on a $50-million facility approved by Parliament last year for the acquisition of fire equipment, including fire engines.
Mr Osafo-Affum said an ideal situation would be to have two fire-fighting helicopters, one in the north and the other in the south, but he was quick to ask; “Even the Ghana Air Force, how many aeroplanes do they have?”
The Fire Precaution (Premises) Regulation, 2003 (LI 1724) makes it mandatory for all public buildings to have fire safety facilities, such as escape routes, fire detection systems and fire suppression systems.
Mr Osafo-Affum said logistical constraints, coupled with lack of access to fire spots, particularly markets, posed a major challenge to the service.
The GNFS has recorded six fire outbreaks at markets throughout the country this year with last Thursday’s Kumasi Central Market disaster being the most devastating.
The other infernos were recorded at Asafo Market and Moro Market, both in Kumasi, and Krofofrom Market, all in the Ashanti Region and the Kaneshie and Konkomba Markets in Accra.
In all those instances, one major difficulty fire fighters had to contend with was lack of access to the markets.
Mr Osafo-Affum said in the Kumasi Central Market fire outbreak, for instance, a bulldozer had to demolish some of the structures to enable fire fighters to get access to the seat of fire because there were no demarcated lanes to allow fire engines to gain access.
He said the GNFS had recommended the creation of alleys, decongestion and segregation at the markets to enhance easy access to fire engines in times of fire.
Mr Osafo-Affum said the segregation of the markets meant the grouping of traders who sold similar items in particular locations, pointing out that if the items were mixed up, it made the raging of fire very fierce.
He said five years ago, the GNFS recommended to district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies to provide fire wardens at marketplaces to ensure fire safety, but the assemblies had not done anything about it.
Friday, May 29, 2009
COP CAUGHT IN 'SAKAWA' (Front page) 29-05-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
A POLICEMAN in uniform and wielding an AK47 rifle was caught in the web of ‘sakawa’ last Wednesday when he and two civilians were arrested for allegedly defrauding a Namibian of $7,900.
The policeman and his civilian accomplices were in the process of collecting another $29,000 from the victim to be used to pay taxes on a so-called $30-million facility which they claimed he could access after the payment of the “taxes” when the police arrested them.
The three suspects managed to lure their victim to Ghana with the intention of defrauding him in a ‘sakawa’ scam that has become notorious in the country recently.
The victim possessed documents, including letterheads bearing the Ghana Coat of Arms, indicating correspondence between him and the suspects through the Internet.
After the victim had arrived in the country, the suspects collected the his passport from him but he declined a hotel accommodation offered by his hosts and arranged for an alternative accommodation.
Later at a meeting with the Namibian, the suspects succeeded in collecting $7,900 from him as part of the tax obligation needed to redeem the $30-million facility.
Subsequently, they attempted to relocate the victim to another hotel, while trying to collect another $29,000 from him, but he became worried when they refused to give his passport back to him.
The Namibian then discussed the issue with the hotel manager who, smelling something fraudulent, asked the victim to feign interest, while they contacted the police.
Following the discussion with the hotel manager, the Namibian informed his hosts that he would need his passport to enable him to check out of the hotel.
So on Wednesday, while the suspects had gone to the hotel to evacuate their guest, police officers in plain clothes swooped on them to effect their arrest.
At the time of their arrest, the policeman involved was waiting in a vehicle they had brought to convey the victim and, according to sources, there was a struggle between the plain cloth policemen and the police suspect as he attempted to resist arrest.
Sources at the CID Headquarters in Accra confirmed the arrest of the three suspects but would not give further details, particularly their identity.
A POLICEMAN in uniform and wielding an AK47 rifle was caught in the web of ‘sakawa’ last Wednesday when he and two civilians were arrested for allegedly defrauding a Namibian of $7,900.
The policeman and his civilian accomplices were in the process of collecting another $29,000 from the victim to be used to pay taxes on a so-called $30-million facility which they claimed he could access after the payment of the “taxes” when the police arrested them.
The three suspects managed to lure their victim to Ghana with the intention of defrauding him in a ‘sakawa’ scam that has become notorious in the country recently.
The victim possessed documents, including letterheads bearing the Ghana Coat of Arms, indicating correspondence between him and the suspects through the Internet.
After the victim had arrived in the country, the suspects collected the his passport from him but he declined a hotel accommodation offered by his hosts and arranged for an alternative accommodation.
Later at a meeting with the Namibian, the suspects succeeded in collecting $7,900 from him as part of the tax obligation needed to redeem the $30-million facility.
Subsequently, they attempted to relocate the victim to another hotel, while trying to collect another $29,000 from him, but he became worried when they refused to give his passport back to him.
The Namibian then discussed the issue with the hotel manager who, smelling something fraudulent, asked the victim to feign interest, while they contacted the police.
Following the discussion with the hotel manager, the Namibian informed his hosts that he would need his passport to enable him to check out of the hotel.
So on Wednesday, while the suspects had gone to the hotel to evacuate their guest, police officers in plain clothes swooped on them to effect their arrest.
At the time of their arrest, the policeman involved was waiting in a vehicle they had brought to convey the victim and, according to sources, there was a struggle between the plain cloth policemen and the police suspect as he attempted to resist arrest.
Sources at the CID Headquarters in Accra confirmed the arrest of the three suspects but would not give further details, particularly their identity.
GHANA A SUSPICIOUS CYBER ZONE (Back page) 29-05-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
GHANA has been tagged a suspicious cyber zone in international business transactions as a result of the negative impact of cyber fraud in the country.
As a result, international business transactions involving Ghana are attracting close scrutiny because of the increasing incidents of cyber fraud, popularly called ‘sakawa’.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Felix Mawusi of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service made this known in Accra yesterday at a news conference organised by the Ghana Internet Service Providers Association (GISPA) to address some concerns in the industry.
Statistics indicate that cyber fraud in Ghana is becoming alarming, with the rate increasing from 1.2 per cent in 2005 to 2.4 per cent in 2008, compared to Nigeria, a country that gained notoriety with the phenomenon, where the rate of the crime has decreased from about eight per cent to about five per cent within the period.
DSP Mawusi, who is the second in command at the Commercial Crime Unit of the CID, said cyber crime was a challenge to the nation’s future in view of the involvement of the youth, who are the future leaders.
He said cyber criminals were now moving their operations away from Internet cafes to their personal Internet connectivity, thereby reducing the risk of arrest.
He said the police were trying to device new strategies to deal with the new modus operandi of cyber criminals.
While admitting that the police had a lot of challenges with respect to logistics in dealing with the menace, he said they were doing their best to combat the crime.
The President of GISPA, Mr Richard Hlomadhor, said the association had put in place a 90-day intervention plan to clean up the system of cyber crime.
He said it involved collaboration with the police to track people who used the Internet to engage in criminal activities by monitoring the transactions of suspects.
In line with the anti-cyber crime initiative, the GISPA intended to launch a special programme that would enable Internet cafe attendants to regulate the sites that Internet users could visit, he said.
A former President of GISPA, Mr Ato Sarpong, said the increasing rate of cyber crime posed a major threat to national security and the e-governance initiatives of the government.
He said if the situation was not addressed, the nation would gradually be witnessing what he described as cyber terrorism and a very corrupt society.
He called on the government, Internet service providers, the media and all individuals to wage a united crusade against the phenomenon.
He said the Ministry of Communications, Internet service providers and the police were preparing for a major stakeholders’ forum to address the issue but stressed the need for a proper legal framework to fight the crime.
Mr Sarpong said Internet service providers made a huge contribution to the nation’s economy in respect of the payment of income tax, corporate tax and customs duties, as well as job creation.
GHANA has been tagged a suspicious cyber zone in international business transactions as a result of the negative impact of cyber fraud in the country.
As a result, international business transactions involving Ghana are attracting close scrutiny because of the increasing incidents of cyber fraud, popularly called ‘sakawa’.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Felix Mawusi of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service made this known in Accra yesterday at a news conference organised by the Ghana Internet Service Providers Association (GISPA) to address some concerns in the industry.
Statistics indicate that cyber fraud in Ghana is becoming alarming, with the rate increasing from 1.2 per cent in 2005 to 2.4 per cent in 2008, compared to Nigeria, a country that gained notoriety with the phenomenon, where the rate of the crime has decreased from about eight per cent to about five per cent within the period.
DSP Mawusi, who is the second in command at the Commercial Crime Unit of the CID, said cyber crime was a challenge to the nation’s future in view of the involvement of the youth, who are the future leaders.
He said cyber criminals were now moving their operations away from Internet cafes to their personal Internet connectivity, thereby reducing the risk of arrest.
He said the police were trying to device new strategies to deal with the new modus operandi of cyber criminals.
While admitting that the police had a lot of challenges with respect to logistics in dealing with the menace, he said they were doing their best to combat the crime.
The President of GISPA, Mr Richard Hlomadhor, said the association had put in place a 90-day intervention plan to clean up the system of cyber crime.
He said it involved collaboration with the police to track people who used the Internet to engage in criminal activities by monitoring the transactions of suspects.
In line with the anti-cyber crime initiative, the GISPA intended to launch a special programme that would enable Internet cafe attendants to regulate the sites that Internet users could visit, he said.
A former President of GISPA, Mr Ato Sarpong, said the increasing rate of cyber crime posed a major threat to national security and the e-governance initiatives of the government.
He said if the situation was not addressed, the nation would gradually be witnessing what he described as cyber terrorism and a very corrupt society.
He called on the government, Internet service providers, the media and all individuals to wage a united crusade against the phenomenon.
He said the Ministry of Communications, Internet service providers and the police were preparing for a major stakeholders’ forum to address the issue but stressed the need for a proper legal framework to fight the crime.
Mr Sarpong said Internet service providers made a huge contribution to the nation’s economy in respect of the payment of income tax, corporate tax and customs duties, as well as job creation.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
EX-SPEAKER'S ORDEAL - BIG LESSON FOR ALL (Front page) 28-05-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah & Caroline Boateng
LEADING members of the clergy and anti-corruption campaigners in the country have called on Parliament to learn from the experience of the former Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, and have a policy on the entitlements of leaders of the House crafted.
They said this would help avoid the recurrence of such an incident.
They said the saga had brought the high office of Speaker of Parliament into disrepute and there was the need to redeem the image of the office, which is the third highest of the land after the President and the Vice President.
Those who shared their views with the Daily Graphic in separate interviews were the Catholic Bishop of Cape Coast, Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, the acting Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Anna Bossman, the General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev Dr Fred Deegbe, the Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, Mr Vitus Azeem, and a lecturer at the Department of Sociology of the University of Cape Coast, Mr Joseph Kingsley Adjei.
The Parliamentary Service Board (PSB) last Tuesday gave a week’s ultimatum to Mr Hughes to return all items he took away from his official residence upon leaving office.
The directive followed a meeting convened by the leadership of Parliament to consider his response to an earlier report by an ad hoc committee of Parliament that asked him to explain his action.
In his response, Mr Hughes asked the Board to go and retrieve the items from his private residence.
In a letter issued by his solicitors, Zoe, Akyea & Co, and addressed to the Secretary of the Board, he said he was “no longer interested in the items he took away from the Speaker’s official residence, bona fide”.
Cardinal Turkson said he was not happy about what was happening because they tended to distract the work of Parliament and the government.
He, therefore, stressed the need for laid-down rules and procedures in dealing with the entitlements of former Members of Parliament (MPs) and Ministers of State.
Cardinal Turkson said perhaps, there was the need to take a look at the Transitional Bill prepared by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and see how best it could help address some of the problems because without such a policy framework, everything appeared to be vendetta.
“Politics and governance are not about vengeance. We should move away from that. We should not toy with any conflict situation. It’s like opening a Pandora box; if you open it, you cannot close it,” he advised.
Ms Bossman, speaking on phone from Takoradi, where she is attending the annual conference of the Institute of Chattered Accountants, said former speaker’s issue was one which bothered on integrity, accountability, conflict of interest and the abuse of power.
She described these as ethical dilemas that affected the integrity of public servants in the course of duty.
The fact that the former speaker sat on a committee that superintended over the diposal of state assets to him at a negligible cost raised questions of conflict of interest.
Ms Bossman also pointed out that such state assets were acquired from tax payers, who had to have a say in their disposal.
She expressed disquiet over the fact that the issue portrayed how Ghanaians in general had no regard for state assets and allowed their dissipation without a care.
On suggestions to address such ethical dilemas, Ms Bossman suggested commitment to doing right by all Ghanaians, as well as the adherence to values cherished by society, such as, integrity or accountability.
She said ethics was all about doing things right, but reminded politicians and public servants that sometimes, what they thought was legal was not necesarily right.
For instance, she wondered how one could take away expensive state assets when the majority of the people were poor.
Ms Bossman said CHRAJ with other stakeholders were embarking on various initiatives, including advocacy, sensitisation of the public the elaboration of constitutional provisions on codes of conduct of public servants to prevent a recurrence such issues.
Sharing his thoughts from Lagos, Nigeria, via telephone, Rev Dr Deegbe said the saga should serve as a good lesson to the nation to make amends in the future because “to be forewarned is to be forearmed”.
He said the former Speaker’s experience should inform the building of institutions and practices to prevent the recurrence of such problems in the future, adding that the adoption of clear-cut guidelines would enable everyone to know the rules without subjecting them to anyone’s interpretation.
Rev Dr Deegbe, who is also the Deputy Chairman of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Campaign Coalition, said provisions of the Transitional Bill prepared by the IEA sought to address some of the challenges that Parliament had been bogged down with recently.
For his part, Mr Adjei said the controversy had pierced the aura surrounding the high office of the Speaker of Parliament, adding that it sent a negative signal to the international community that political leaders in Ghana were only interested in owning state property rather than improving the welfare of the people.
He said the decision of the former Speaker to return the items after four months was quite belated because “one would have thought that after the hullabaloo had been raised about him having taken the items, he would have returned them earlier”.
Mr Adjei said the issue bordered largely on morality and suggested that the return of the items should not preclude further investigation into the matter for its comprehensive resolution.
Mr Adjei said instead of giving money to Members of Parliament and Parliamentary Service workers to rent their own accommodation, it was better, as a long-term solution, to construct a Parliamentary village where all MPs and Parliamentary Service workers would be accommodated, and be required to vacate their apartments after leaving office.
Mr Azeem, for his part, proposed an independent body with representation from Parliament, the Judiciary and the Executive to further probe the matter and to send a signal to appease Ghanaians by showing that Parliament itself was endeavouring to keep its hands clean in the matter.
He was of the view that because the former Speaker was no longer in the employment of Parliament, the PSB had no business investigating the matter.
The proposed independent body could also propose policies for future adoption to prevent the repetition of the matter, Mr Azeem added.
LEADING members of the clergy and anti-corruption campaigners in the country have called on Parliament to learn from the experience of the former Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, and have a policy on the entitlements of leaders of the House crafted.
They said this would help avoid the recurrence of such an incident.
They said the saga had brought the high office of Speaker of Parliament into disrepute and there was the need to redeem the image of the office, which is the third highest of the land after the President and the Vice President.
Those who shared their views with the Daily Graphic in separate interviews were the Catholic Bishop of Cape Coast, Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, the acting Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Anna Bossman, the General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev Dr Fred Deegbe, the Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, Mr Vitus Azeem, and a lecturer at the Department of Sociology of the University of Cape Coast, Mr Joseph Kingsley Adjei.
The Parliamentary Service Board (PSB) last Tuesday gave a week’s ultimatum to Mr Hughes to return all items he took away from his official residence upon leaving office.
The directive followed a meeting convened by the leadership of Parliament to consider his response to an earlier report by an ad hoc committee of Parliament that asked him to explain his action.
In his response, Mr Hughes asked the Board to go and retrieve the items from his private residence.
In a letter issued by his solicitors, Zoe, Akyea & Co, and addressed to the Secretary of the Board, he said he was “no longer interested in the items he took away from the Speaker’s official residence, bona fide”.
Cardinal Turkson said he was not happy about what was happening because they tended to distract the work of Parliament and the government.
He, therefore, stressed the need for laid-down rules and procedures in dealing with the entitlements of former Members of Parliament (MPs) and Ministers of State.
Cardinal Turkson said perhaps, there was the need to take a look at the Transitional Bill prepared by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and see how best it could help address some of the problems because without such a policy framework, everything appeared to be vendetta.
“Politics and governance are not about vengeance. We should move away from that. We should not toy with any conflict situation. It’s like opening a Pandora box; if you open it, you cannot close it,” he advised.
Ms Bossman, speaking on phone from Takoradi, where she is attending the annual conference of the Institute of Chattered Accountants, said former speaker’s issue was one which bothered on integrity, accountability, conflict of interest and the abuse of power.
She described these as ethical dilemas that affected the integrity of public servants in the course of duty.
The fact that the former speaker sat on a committee that superintended over the diposal of state assets to him at a negligible cost raised questions of conflict of interest.
Ms Bossman also pointed out that such state assets were acquired from tax payers, who had to have a say in their disposal.
She expressed disquiet over the fact that the issue portrayed how Ghanaians in general had no regard for state assets and allowed their dissipation without a care.
On suggestions to address such ethical dilemas, Ms Bossman suggested commitment to doing right by all Ghanaians, as well as the adherence to values cherished by society, such as, integrity or accountability.
She said ethics was all about doing things right, but reminded politicians and public servants that sometimes, what they thought was legal was not necesarily right.
For instance, she wondered how one could take away expensive state assets when the majority of the people were poor.
Ms Bossman said CHRAJ with other stakeholders were embarking on various initiatives, including advocacy, sensitisation of the public the elaboration of constitutional provisions on codes of conduct of public servants to prevent a recurrence such issues.
Sharing his thoughts from Lagos, Nigeria, via telephone, Rev Dr Deegbe said the saga should serve as a good lesson to the nation to make amends in the future because “to be forewarned is to be forearmed”.
He said the former Speaker’s experience should inform the building of institutions and practices to prevent the recurrence of such problems in the future, adding that the adoption of clear-cut guidelines would enable everyone to know the rules without subjecting them to anyone’s interpretation.
Rev Dr Deegbe, who is also the Deputy Chairman of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Campaign Coalition, said provisions of the Transitional Bill prepared by the IEA sought to address some of the challenges that Parliament had been bogged down with recently.
For his part, Mr Adjei said the controversy had pierced the aura surrounding the high office of the Speaker of Parliament, adding that it sent a negative signal to the international community that political leaders in Ghana were only interested in owning state property rather than improving the welfare of the people.
He said the decision of the former Speaker to return the items after four months was quite belated because “one would have thought that after the hullabaloo had been raised about him having taken the items, he would have returned them earlier”.
Mr Adjei said the issue bordered largely on morality and suggested that the return of the items should not preclude further investigation into the matter for its comprehensive resolution.
Mr Adjei said instead of giving money to Members of Parliament and Parliamentary Service workers to rent their own accommodation, it was better, as a long-term solution, to construct a Parliamentary village where all MPs and Parliamentary Service workers would be accommodated, and be required to vacate their apartments after leaving office.
Mr Azeem, for his part, proposed an independent body with representation from Parliament, the Judiciary and the Executive to further probe the matter and to send a signal to appease Ghanaians by showing that Parliament itself was endeavouring to keep its hands clean in the matter.
He was of the view that because the former Speaker was no longer in the employment of Parliament, the PSB had no business investigating the matter.
The proposed independent body could also propose policies for future adoption to prevent the repetition of the matter, Mr Azeem added.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
POLITICIANS TO BLAME... FOR GROWING SCOURGE OF SAKAWA (Pg 16) 26-05-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
AN initiative by some ministers of state to help curb cyber crime among the youth has aroused a thrilling backlash from a section of the society which believes that politicians are to blame.
Responding to the issue during interviews with the Daily Graphic, they were unanimous on the view that the lifestyle of politicians who rose to sudden wealth and opulence upon acquisition of power is the cause of the upsurge in the “get rich quick” mentality among the youth in the country.
As the country looks for the way out of the “Sakawa” scourge, some young ministers in President Mills’s government assembled in Accra recently to extol the virtues of diligence and hardwork that had enabled them to rise to leadership positions, as examples for the youth to emulate.
But some contributors to the topic stretched it further to indicate that the success of the message would depend on how the youth view the lifestyles of politicians in general.
In general, they claimed, politicians’ attitude to wealth had been a bad influence on the youth in respect of their instant and wanton acquisition of riches which gave the impression that material acquisition was the only way to earn respect and honour in society.
They, therefore, stressed the need for politicians in particular and leaders in general to set good examples for the youth to emulate.
"People enter politics for four years and build mansions and buy expensive cars. Just look at what we are experiencing today; five months after handing over, we have been occupied with issues about cars and houses. What do we expect from the youth?’, a lecturer at the Department of Sociology of the University of Cape Coast, Mr Joseph Kingsley Adjei, asked.
In the opinion of the Foreign Mission Director of the Assemblies of God Church, Rev Alex Nkrumah, pastors could not escape blame for what is happening now because of the adulteration of the gospel, and the fact that "some of us do not match our words with our works".
The backlash of politicians being the prime suspects for the upsurge of cyber crime or what is popularly called ‘sakawa’ among the youth appears to be in direct conflict with the initiative by the young Ministers of State who assembled in Accra.
Mr Adjei said the upsurge in cyber crime was also a function of a growing cultural orientation in which people looked at the substance instead of the source of wealth.
"Now success is measured not by honesty, but by how many cars, mansions and property one has. We have thrown away honesty; we have thrown away hardwork; we have thrown away diligence", he remarked.
Mr Adjei said since many of the youth could not go through the traits of success, such as hardwork, diligence and honesty, they had resorted to short-cuts like ‘sakawa’ and armed robbery.
He also traced the problem to the total breakdown in time-tested social values which taught children about virtues in life, adding that economic pressure had compelled families to abandon their children, thus exposing them to various social vices.
Rev Nkrumah said the ‘sakawa’ phenomenon should not take any student of the Bible by surprise because the Bible had predicted that to happen in the last days, "men will be lovers of gods and lovers of money".
He blamed leaders for failing the youth because they had not lived examplary lives for the youth to emulate.
"The best way to teach a child to do the right thing is to let your works match your works", he said, adding that spiritual leaders should endeavour to preach the undiluted message of the gospel and let "God’s word be God’s word".
Ever since the phenomenon of ‘sakawa’ among the youth was splashed on the front page of the Tuesday, May 12, 2009 issue of the Daily Graphic, there has been a loud public outcry against the cyber fraud.
Interestingly, the deep concerns being expressed by the public come at a time Ghana has joined the international community to celebrate this year’s World Telecommunication Day on the theme "Protecting children in cyberspace".
The phenomenon of ‘sakawa’ appears to be a major challenge to the government’s plans to expand ICT infrastructure and services to enhance governance, commerce, education, health and overall national development.
The President is said to be deeply alarmed at the manner cyber crime is taking roots in the country, especially among the youth, and the government’s response has been very swift.
A Cyber Security Bill is to be introduced to Parliament to help combat the menace of cyber crime. Also, there are plans to deal with the issue in a multi-sectoral approach with the establishment of a Cyber Emergency Response Team, comprising the Ministry of Communications, the National Communications Authority (NCA), the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and other agencies.
"This is the time to galvanise our actions in concert to protect the youth of this country from the harmful influence of the Internet and the exploitation of children. The use of ICT for fraud is unacceptable", the Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrissu, said at the celebration of World Telecommunications Day in Accra.
AN initiative by some ministers of state to help curb cyber crime among the youth has aroused a thrilling backlash from a section of the society which believes that politicians are to blame.
Responding to the issue during interviews with the Daily Graphic, they were unanimous on the view that the lifestyle of politicians who rose to sudden wealth and opulence upon acquisition of power is the cause of the upsurge in the “get rich quick” mentality among the youth in the country.
As the country looks for the way out of the “Sakawa” scourge, some young ministers in President Mills’s government assembled in Accra recently to extol the virtues of diligence and hardwork that had enabled them to rise to leadership positions, as examples for the youth to emulate.
But some contributors to the topic stretched it further to indicate that the success of the message would depend on how the youth view the lifestyles of politicians in general.
In general, they claimed, politicians’ attitude to wealth had been a bad influence on the youth in respect of their instant and wanton acquisition of riches which gave the impression that material acquisition was the only way to earn respect and honour in society.
They, therefore, stressed the need for politicians in particular and leaders in general to set good examples for the youth to emulate.
"People enter politics for four years and build mansions and buy expensive cars. Just look at what we are experiencing today; five months after handing over, we have been occupied with issues about cars and houses. What do we expect from the youth?’, a lecturer at the Department of Sociology of the University of Cape Coast, Mr Joseph Kingsley Adjei, asked.
In the opinion of the Foreign Mission Director of the Assemblies of God Church, Rev Alex Nkrumah, pastors could not escape blame for what is happening now because of the adulteration of the gospel, and the fact that "some of us do not match our words with our works".
The backlash of politicians being the prime suspects for the upsurge of cyber crime or what is popularly called ‘sakawa’ among the youth appears to be in direct conflict with the initiative by the young Ministers of State who assembled in Accra.
Mr Adjei said the upsurge in cyber crime was also a function of a growing cultural orientation in which people looked at the substance instead of the source of wealth.
"Now success is measured not by honesty, but by how many cars, mansions and property one has. We have thrown away honesty; we have thrown away hardwork; we have thrown away diligence", he remarked.
Mr Adjei said since many of the youth could not go through the traits of success, such as hardwork, diligence and honesty, they had resorted to short-cuts like ‘sakawa’ and armed robbery.
He also traced the problem to the total breakdown in time-tested social values which taught children about virtues in life, adding that economic pressure had compelled families to abandon their children, thus exposing them to various social vices.
Rev Nkrumah said the ‘sakawa’ phenomenon should not take any student of the Bible by surprise because the Bible had predicted that to happen in the last days, "men will be lovers of gods and lovers of money".
He blamed leaders for failing the youth because they had not lived examplary lives for the youth to emulate.
"The best way to teach a child to do the right thing is to let your works match your works", he said, adding that spiritual leaders should endeavour to preach the undiluted message of the gospel and let "God’s word be God’s word".
Ever since the phenomenon of ‘sakawa’ among the youth was splashed on the front page of the Tuesday, May 12, 2009 issue of the Daily Graphic, there has been a loud public outcry against the cyber fraud.
Interestingly, the deep concerns being expressed by the public come at a time Ghana has joined the international community to celebrate this year’s World Telecommunication Day on the theme "Protecting children in cyberspace".
The phenomenon of ‘sakawa’ appears to be a major challenge to the government’s plans to expand ICT infrastructure and services to enhance governance, commerce, education, health and overall national development.
The President is said to be deeply alarmed at the manner cyber crime is taking roots in the country, especially among the youth, and the government’s response has been very swift.
A Cyber Security Bill is to be introduced to Parliament to help combat the menace of cyber crime. Also, there are plans to deal with the issue in a multi-sectoral approach with the establishment of a Cyber Emergency Response Team, comprising the Ministry of Communications, the National Communications Authority (NCA), the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and other agencies.
"This is the time to galvanise our actions in concert to protect the youth of this country from the harmful influence of the Internet and the exploitation of children. The use of ICT for fraud is unacceptable", the Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrissu, said at the celebration of World Telecommunications Day in Accra.
Monday, May 18, 2009
MINING HAS BEEN A BLESSING (Pg 28) 18-05-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
THE Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ms Joyce Aryee, has described mining in the country as a blessing rather than a curse to the nation.
She said in most places, like Ghana, mining had been the fulcrum of development: "Life without mining is impossible because everything of life is made of minerals. Life depends on minerals and metals and so mining is very important to life sustenance".
From vehicles, medical equipment, computers, printing machines and tiles, to streets, electricity, terrazzo, tiles and farming implements, Ms Aryee gave an endless list of the benefits of mining to buttress her contention that life could not be possible without mining.
Her comments, made in an interview with the Daily Graphic on Tuesday, are a sharp rebuttal of criticisms by a section of the public, particularly environmental activists, that mining has been more of a curse than a blessing to the nation.
The age-old debate on the cost-benefit of mining in Ghana was re-ignited this week in the Daily Graphic with calls for a national forum to discuss the future of the industry.
Welcoming that call, Ms Aryee said the relevance of mining to national development was unquestionable, but the important issue Ghanaians ought to consider now was how best to derive optimum benefit from mining, instead of denigrating the industry.
She said if mining was bad, as some people wanted to suggest, past and present governments would not have deliberately promoted the industry.
"As for mining, it will not stop because human beings depend on metals. How do you stop making cement, terrazzo, iron rods and tiles? You can’t", she maintained.
Ms Aryee said the issue was not about whether mining was worthwhile or not but how mining companies could be regulated to ensure that their operations had minimal impact on the environment.
She said every human activity, such as building and road construction, impacted negatively on the environment but it was important to minimise the impact, adding, "We too are using best practices to minimise the inevitable impact of this economic activity".
"If you ask whether we are fulfilling our environmental obligations, I’ll say yes, but if you ask whether we have reached perfection, I’ll say no; but we are regulated by the EPA", Ms Aryee remarked.
She said the chamber subscribed to international standards such as the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the International Council of Minerals and Metals Standards.
Ms Aryee said social, regulatory and legal issues pertaining to mining were determined by the state, pointing out that mining companies only operated within the established laws.
She said currently, the law in Ghana indicated that minerals belonged to the state and were held in trust by the President, but the challenge lay in how best to ensure that those who ceded their land "are handled in a way that does not create destitution".
Ms Aryee catalogued the benefits of mining to the nation as including the development of human resource through educational infrastructure built by mining companies, with the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, being the most prominent.
She said the sector had also been a major source of revenue generation for the government, contributing a great deal to the gross foreign exchange earnings since the advent of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1983.
The industry’s contribution to the macro economy in 2008 includes; 43.7 per cent of gross foreign exchange earnings; 14.72 per cent of IRS collections (third highest sector); 13.25 per cent of corporate tax (third highest sector); the return of 63 per cent of mineral revenue to the country and the creation of 12,601 jobs.
The sector also made voluntary contributions of more than $12.4 million to support education, healthcare, electricity, sanitation, water and other development projects. Furthermore, it paid about $6.2 million in respect of royalties to district assemblies, stools and traditional authorities, while property rate of more than $901,000 was paid to the assemblies.
Ms Aryee defended her suggestion for the promotion of mining as the growth pole of the economy because the industry served as a catalyst for the growth of other sectors of the economy.
She cited the springing up of banks in Tarkwa, and added that the 11 banks currently operating in the town as a result of the mining activity there could also be a source of financing for small and medium-scale enterprises, whose impact would trickle down to other sectors.
Ms Aryee said there was the need for legislation and policy to mainstream mining into the national economy.
She dismissed as baseless, the comparison often made about the huge development gap between mining towns in Ghana like Tarkwa and Obuasi, and Johannesburg in South Africa.
According to her, the difference between the mining towns in Ghana and Johannesburg was that the former were not well-planned like the latter, and suggested the need to re-plan mining communities in Ghana to facilitate their massive development.
Ms Aryee said contrary to assertions made by some environmental activists, mining companies were not so powerful as to twist the arm of government because they (companies) believed in compliance and standards.
"We cannot rail-roll government to do our bidding. It would not even help us", she emphasised.
THE Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ms Joyce Aryee, has described mining in the country as a blessing rather than a curse to the nation.
She said in most places, like Ghana, mining had been the fulcrum of development: "Life without mining is impossible because everything of life is made of minerals. Life depends on minerals and metals and so mining is very important to life sustenance".
From vehicles, medical equipment, computers, printing machines and tiles, to streets, electricity, terrazzo, tiles and farming implements, Ms Aryee gave an endless list of the benefits of mining to buttress her contention that life could not be possible without mining.
Her comments, made in an interview with the Daily Graphic on Tuesday, are a sharp rebuttal of criticisms by a section of the public, particularly environmental activists, that mining has been more of a curse than a blessing to the nation.
The age-old debate on the cost-benefit of mining in Ghana was re-ignited this week in the Daily Graphic with calls for a national forum to discuss the future of the industry.
Welcoming that call, Ms Aryee said the relevance of mining to national development was unquestionable, but the important issue Ghanaians ought to consider now was how best to derive optimum benefit from mining, instead of denigrating the industry.
She said if mining was bad, as some people wanted to suggest, past and present governments would not have deliberately promoted the industry.
"As for mining, it will not stop because human beings depend on metals. How do you stop making cement, terrazzo, iron rods and tiles? You can’t", she maintained.
Ms Aryee said the issue was not about whether mining was worthwhile or not but how mining companies could be regulated to ensure that their operations had minimal impact on the environment.
She said every human activity, such as building and road construction, impacted negatively on the environment but it was important to minimise the impact, adding, "We too are using best practices to minimise the inevitable impact of this economic activity".
"If you ask whether we are fulfilling our environmental obligations, I’ll say yes, but if you ask whether we have reached perfection, I’ll say no; but we are regulated by the EPA", Ms Aryee remarked.
She said the chamber subscribed to international standards such as the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the International Council of Minerals and Metals Standards.
Ms Aryee said social, regulatory and legal issues pertaining to mining were determined by the state, pointing out that mining companies only operated within the established laws.
She said currently, the law in Ghana indicated that minerals belonged to the state and were held in trust by the President, but the challenge lay in how best to ensure that those who ceded their land "are handled in a way that does not create destitution".
Ms Aryee catalogued the benefits of mining to the nation as including the development of human resource through educational infrastructure built by mining companies, with the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, being the most prominent.
She said the sector had also been a major source of revenue generation for the government, contributing a great deal to the gross foreign exchange earnings since the advent of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1983.
The industry’s contribution to the macro economy in 2008 includes; 43.7 per cent of gross foreign exchange earnings; 14.72 per cent of IRS collections (third highest sector); 13.25 per cent of corporate tax (third highest sector); the return of 63 per cent of mineral revenue to the country and the creation of 12,601 jobs.
The sector also made voluntary contributions of more than $12.4 million to support education, healthcare, electricity, sanitation, water and other development projects. Furthermore, it paid about $6.2 million in respect of royalties to district assemblies, stools and traditional authorities, while property rate of more than $901,000 was paid to the assemblies.
Ms Aryee defended her suggestion for the promotion of mining as the growth pole of the economy because the industry served as a catalyst for the growth of other sectors of the economy.
She cited the springing up of banks in Tarkwa, and added that the 11 banks currently operating in the town as a result of the mining activity there could also be a source of financing for small and medium-scale enterprises, whose impact would trickle down to other sectors.
Ms Aryee said there was the need for legislation and policy to mainstream mining into the national economy.
She dismissed as baseless, the comparison often made about the huge development gap between mining towns in Ghana like Tarkwa and Obuasi, and Johannesburg in South Africa.
According to her, the difference between the mining towns in Ghana and Johannesburg was that the former were not well-planned like the latter, and suggested the need to re-plan mining communities in Ghana to facilitate their massive development.
Ms Aryee said contrary to assertions made by some environmental activists, mining companies were not so powerful as to twist the arm of government because they (companies) believed in compliance and standards.
"We cannot rail-roll government to do our bidding. It would not even help us", she emphasised.
'OBAMA'S VISIT MOST SIGNIFICANT' (Pg 3) 18-05-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
A RETIRED Ghanaian diplomat, Mr K. B. Asante, and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Akwasi Osei-Adjei, have described the upcoming visit of President Barack Obama of the US to Ghana next July as America’s recognition of Ghana’s leadership role in Africa.
In separate interviews, the two statesmen urged President J. E. A. Mills and the government to take advantage of the visit to present Africa’s case to the US President with regard to fighting the scourge of poverty, hunger, disease and under-development in general.
Whereas Mr Asante called on the government to depart from the beggar mentality to a posture of confidence in dealing with its American guest, Mr Osei-Adjei stressed the need to discuss serious issues, such as how the US could assist Ghana to tackle the drug menace in the country.
“Although we will roll out the red carpet for him, we should firmly state the problems facing Africa,” Mr Asante told the Daily Graphic, adding that there was the need to even discuss controversial issues, possibly in private.
“It’s not a question of just shaking hands. We must discard the beggar mentality that is normally associated with such visits,” he added.
He said Ghana could raise the issue of the negative impact that rice importation was having on the country’s economy by politely reminding the American President of the measures he had put in place to salvage the banking sector in his country following the effects of the global financial crisis.
He asked the government to start preparing the issues it might want to discuss with the US President during the visit “because we haven’t got much time”.
Mr Asante said it should be possible for President Mills to sign a pact with President Obama to outline the way forward as far as relations between the US and Ghana, on one hand, and the US and Africa, on the other, were concerned.
Touching on the significance of the visit, the retired diplomat said naturally Mr Obama would want to strengthen US-Africa relations but noted that to have made Ghana his first visit to Africa underlined the country’s significance as a major power and influence bloc on the continent.
He said after becoming the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence, Ghana had been at the forefront of African unity “and so for the American President to come to the cradle of Africa unity is very important”.
Mr Asante said Mr Obama would not visit any country for the sake of it, pointing out that his visit to Ghana meant the country had something to contribute to world progress.
Mr Obama’s upcoming visit will be the third time a sitting American President has visited Ghana. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush visited Ghana in March 1998 and February 2008, respectively, in the twilight of the Rawlings and the Kufuor administrations.
President Obama’s visit comes at the dawn of the Mills administration and, according to Mr Asante, it was more significant than the two previous visits by American Presidents, which he described as essentially public relations enterprises.
He said the significance of President Obama’s visit lay in the fact that it was coming at a time of a serious global financial crisis.
For his part, Mr Osei-Adjei described the upcoming visit as good news because it demonstrated the fact that Ghana had come of age in world politics.
“The visit is a recognition of what we have achieved as a nation,” he noted, adding that there was the need to strengthen the gains of democracy, particularly by upholding the tenets of good governance, the rule of law and accountability.
He said he looked forward to seeing the two countries deepen their existing agreements, such as the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) and the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).
He said there was the need to ensure that all the promises made under those agreements were fulfilled.
On the drug menace, Mr Osei-Adjei said although Ghana was currently a transit country, there was the possibility of it becoming a consuming country and so there was the need to seek American assistance to address the problem.
He urged the government to adopt a non-partisan approach in the running and execution of the programme for Mr Obama’s visit so that all Ghanaians would benefit from it.
A RETIRED Ghanaian diplomat, Mr K. B. Asante, and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Akwasi Osei-Adjei, have described the upcoming visit of President Barack Obama of the US to Ghana next July as America’s recognition of Ghana’s leadership role in Africa.
In separate interviews, the two statesmen urged President J. E. A. Mills and the government to take advantage of the visit to present Africa’s case to the US President with regard to fighting the scourge of poverty, hunger, disease and under-development in general.
Whereas Mr Asante called on the government to depart from the beggar mentality to a posture of confidence in dealing with its American guest, Mr Osei-Adjei stressed the need to discuss serious issues, such as how the US could assist Ghana to tackle the drug menace in the country.
“Although we will roll out the red carpet for him, we should firmly state the problems facing Africa,” Mr Asante told the Daily Graphic, adding that there was the need to even discuss controversial issues, possibly in private.
“It’s not a question of just shaking hands. We must discard the beggar mentality that is normally associated with such visits,” he added.
He said Ghana could raise the issue of the negative impact that rice importation was having on the country’s economy by politely reminding the American President of the measures he had put in place to salvage the banking sector in his country following the effects of the global financial crisis.
He asked the government to start preparing the issues it might want to discuss with the US President during the visit “because we haven’t got much time”.
Mr Asante said it should be possible for President Mills to sign a pact with President Obama to outline the way forward as far as relations between the US and Ghana, on one hand, and the US and Africa, on the other, were concerned.
Touching on the significance of the visit, the retired diplomat said naturally Mr Obama would want to strengthen US-Africa relations but noted that to have made Ghana his first visit to Africa underlined the country’s significance as a major power and influence bloc on the continent.
He said after becoming the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence, Ghana had been at the forefront of African unity “and so for the American President to come to the cradle of Africa unity is very important”.
Mr Asante said Mr Obama would not visit any country for the sake of it, pointing out that his visit to Ghana meant the country had something to contribute to world progress.
Mr Obama’s upcoming visit will be the third time a sitting American President has visited Ghana. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush visited Ghana in March 1998 and February 2008, respectively, in the twilight of the Rawlings and the Kufuor administrations.
President Obama’s visit comes at the dawn of the Mills administration and, according to Mr Asante, it was more significant than the two previous visits by American Presidents, which he described as essentially public relations enterprises.
He said the significance of President Obama’s visit lay in the fact that it was coming at a time of a serious global financial crisis.
For his part, Mr Osei-Adjei described the upcoming visit as good news because it demonstrated the fact that Ghana had come of age in world politics.
“The visit is a recognition of what we have achieved as a nation,” he noted, adding that there was the need to strengthen the gains of democracy, particularly by upholding the tenets of good governance, the rule of law and accountability.
He said he looked forward to seeing the two countries deepen their existing agreements, such as the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) and the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).
He said there was the need to ensure that all the promises made under those agreements were fulfilled.
On the drug menace, Mr Osei-Adjei said although Ghana was currently a transit country, there was the possibility of it becoming a consuming country and so there was the need to seek American assistance to address the problem.
He urged the government to adopt a non-partisan approach in the running and execution of the programme for Mr Obama’s visit so that all Ghanaians would benefit from it.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
'SAKAWA' SCARE (Front page) 13-05-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
AUTHORITIES of the Ghana Education Service (GES) have called for an emergency national response to salvage the future of hundreds of schoolchildren who are increasingly being lured into the phenomenon of ‘sakawa’, the Internet fraud that has gained notoriety in the country lately.
Among other interventions, the authorities called on metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to enact bye-laws that would bar children of school age from going to Internet cafes to engage in ‘sakawa’.
“‘Sakawa’ is not helping us as a country. It’s a big worry to us. We need the support of religious bodies, schools, the media and everyone to address this problem,” the Director of Basic Education of the GES, Mr Stephen Adu, told the Daily Graphic last Monday.
It is not clear when ‘sakawa’ began in Ghana but the cyber fraud, which is akin to the notorious Nigerian ‘419’ scam, is believed to have taken deep roots in Agona Swedru from where, like an epidemic, it spread to other parts of the country in no time.
Enquiries made indicate that mainly in the ghettos of some of the major towns in the country such as Kumasi, Koforidua, Sunyani and Accra, ‘sakawa’ is becoming a major cause of pupil truancy involving many schoolchildren aged between 12 and 18, as they abandon the classrooms for Internet cafes.
It is a cyber crime linked to occultism and the modus operandi of those who engage in it includes the use of their victims’ credit cards to purchase items including expensive vehicles and household items on the Internet which are subsequently shipped to Ghana.
Sometimes the operators pose as females, manage to secure relationships on the Internet with male foreigners and subsequently discuss the possibility of marriage with them. But after convincing their victims to send them money for visa and other travelling documents to join them abroad, they hit a jackpot and abscond.
In posing as females, the ‘sakawa’ operatives download female images from the Internet and send them to their victims. In other circumstances, they request female Internet café attendants or other girls to engage their victims in telephone conversations.
Interestingly, the ‘sakawa’ business does not come so easy and cheap but with various forms of risk.
After taking delivery of parcels from the post office and courier companies, having succeeded in their deals, some of the ‘sakawa’ boys are confronted by gangs who lurk around the post offices seeking for successful operators to either deprive them of their parcels or share the booty with them.
Apart from that turbulence in the business, ‘sakawa’ is also cloaked in spirituality, as some of the operators allegedly use ‘juju’ to cast spells on their victims for successful deals.
Some of them allegedly sleep in coffins for three days, while others sleep at the cemetery, all in the quest to acquire supernatural powers to under-gird their operations.
In Accra, teachers and school authorities in some of the most affected areas, including Nima, Maamobi and New Town, told the Daily Graphic that the phenomenon was undermining the academic progress of the children.
They spend an average of eight hours at Internet cafés every day, either searching for foreign victims to swindle or browsing for pornographic materials which they download onto their mobile phones.
The heads of Nima One and Nima Two Junior High schools, Mrs Leila Mumuni and Mr Kofi Buabeng-Nkrumah, respectively, confirmed that there was a high rate of absenteeism in their schools.
They also confirmed receiving reports from parents and neighbours about the involvement of the children in the ‘sakawa’ business.
Mr Buabeng-Nkrumah, however, asserted that the absenteeism could also be attributed to other socio-economic factors, including circumstances that compelled the schoolchildren to fend for themselves, not just their involvement in ‘sakawa’.
The two school heads were unanimous that the high rate of absenteeism was affecting the academic performance of students.
Out of the 269 junior high schools (JHS) in the Accra metropolis which took part in the 2007 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), Nima One JHS placed 268th, while Nima Two JHS placed 269th.
The performance of the two schools improved marginally in the 2008 BECE, with Nima One placing 135th, while Nima Two placed 267th.
Some of the schoolchildren, the Daily Graphic gathered, spent whole nights at the Internet cafés browsing to make a ‘catch’ of a victim.
From primary, JHS to senior high school, the schoolchildren either divert their course to school or abandon the classrooms at break periods and in their school uniforms throng the Internet cafés to engage in the ‘sakawa’ business.
“They visit the cafés anytime, but many of them come in their school uniforms around 8 a.m. and leave around 5 p.m. Some of them come around 9 p.m. and leave around 9 a.m. the following day,” an Internet café owner, Mr Abdul Latif Mohammed Iddriss, confirmed.
Information gathered by the Daily Graphic indicates that the ‘sakawa’ business has proved so lucrative to the extent that some of the schoolchildren have bought expensive cars out of their “booty”.
“Schoolchildren between 15 and 18 now own cars. Some of the cars they buy cost between GH¢10,000 and GH¢30,000,” Mr Iddriss said.
According to him, it was very difficult to keep the schoolchildren away from the cafés “because if you sack them others will accept them”.
Mr Adu, who is also the Director of Secondary Education at the GES, said addressing the problem transcended the scope of school authorities alone and called for a national intervention to curb the phenomenon.
He said some of the schools had put in place measures to ensure that students did not engage in ‘sakawa’ but added that it was very difficult to monitor their movement after school.
For his part, the Accra Metro Director of Education, Nii Okaidja Dinsey, described the involvement of students in ‘sakawa’ as morally reprehensible.
While stressing the need to sensitise people to the ‘sakawa’ business and a review of rules and regulations in schools to enhance discipline, he called on district assemblies to enact bye-laws that would check schoolchildren from engaging in the practice.
“They (the ‘sakawa’ operators) give the café attendants and the girls big money when the deal is successful,” Mr Iddriss pointed out.
Many of the youth in Nima, Maamobi and New Town are said to be engaged in the ‘sakawa’ operation.
For 24 hours, Internet cafés in those communities are fully occupied and the owners appear to be enjoying brisk business as a result of the high patronage.
“Business has been very good because the cafés are always filled,” Mr Iddriss, who is also the President of the East Ayawaso Internet Owners Association, admitted.
On Thursday, April 9, 2009, a day before Good Friday, there was drama at the Taifa Community School in Accra as teachers and schoolchildren fled helter-skelter after detecting what was said to be a ‘sakawa’ ritual in one of the classrooms.
A dead lizard tied with red cloth bearing the inscription ‘sakawa’ was left hanging from the ceiling of the classroom, confirming widespread rumour that the ‘sakawa’ operatives were deep into spirituality.
For some of the operators, the price to pay for acquiring such spiritual powers is to have a sore on the body, which may not be visible because of one’s dress.
Some of the suburbs noted for ‘sakawa’ are also noted for producing budding footballers, but sources say if one sees a young person with a bandaged hand or leg in any of those communities, one should not just take that person for a footballer because he may be covering up a ‘sakawa’ sore.
For some adherents, the price to pay for spiritual power is to enter their cars backwards, while others are forbidden from giving monetary gifts directly to beneficiaries. The benefactor has to find a way of dropping the money for the beneficiary to pick.
Alarmed by the situation in their communities, the Nima/Maamobi Neighbourhood Watch Group, in conjunction with the East Ayawaso Internet Owners Association, organised a stakeholders’ meeting at Nima recently to find ways of dealing with the problem.
Addressing the meeting, the Nima Divisional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Angwubutoge Awuni, warned that the police would raid any Internet cafés that allowed children to browse pornographic materials.
He said the Internet was more of a blessing than a curse but that the ‘sakawa’ business was having a negative influence on schoolchildren.
He called for a national crusade against the cyber crime, adding, “We all have a responsibility to take care of our children.”
He said Internet café owners should not be solely concerned about making money, pointing out that they had a responsibility to check schoolchildren from engaging in ‘sakawa’ and browsing pornographic sites.
The Secretary of the Nima/Maamobi Neighbourhood Watch Group, Mr Mohammed Sakibu, said investigations conducted by the group confirmed the involvement of schoolchildren in the cyber fraud.
He underlined the group’s commitment to promote security, education and development in the area, adding that it would help check the increasing spate of cyber fraud among the youth.
A traditional medicine practitioner, Togbui Amuzu, has described the involvement of the youth in the ‘sakawa’ business as an abuse of the opportunities offered by globalisation and information and communications technology (ICT).
Deeply concerned by the phenomenon, he walked to the offices of the Daily Graphic to condemn his fellow traditional medicine practitioners who were in league with the youth in the ‘sakawa’ practice, saying they were equally guilty of greed.
AUTHORITIES of the Ghana Education Service (GES) have called for an emergency national response to salvage the future of hundreds of schoolchildren who are increasingly being lured into the phenomenon of ‘sakawa’, the Internet fraud that has gained notoriety in the country lately.
Among other interventions, the authorities called on metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to enact bye-laws that would bar children of school age from going to Internet cafes to engage in ‘sakawa’.
“‘Sakawa’ is not helping us as a country. It’s a big worry to us. We need the support of religious bodies, schools, the media and everyone to address this problem,” the Director of Basic Education of the GES, Mr Stephen Adu, told the Daily Graphic last Monday.
It is not clear when ‘sakawa’ began in Ghana but the cyber fraud, which is akin to the notorious Nigerian ‘419’ scam, is believed to have taken deep roots in Agona Swedru from where, like an epidemic, it spread to other parts of the country in no time.
Enquiries made indicate that mainly in the ghettos of some of the major towns in the country such as Kumasi, Koforidua, Sunyani and Accra, ‘sakawa’ is becoming a major cause of pupil truancy involving many schoolchildren aged between 12 and 18, as they abandon the classrooms for Internet cafes.
It is a cyber crime linked to occultism and the modus operandi of those who engage in it includes the use of their victims’ credit cards to purchase items including expensive vehicles and household items on the Internet which are subsequently shipped to Ghana.
Sometimes the operators pose as females, manage to secure relationships on the Internet with male foreigners and subsequently discuss the possibility of marriage with them. But after convincing their victims to send them money for visa and other travelling documents to join them abroad, they hit a jackpot and abscond.
In posing as females, the ‘sakawa’ operatives download female images from the Internet and send them to their victims. In other circumstances, they request female Internet café attendants or other girls to engage their victims in telephone conversations.
Interestingly, the ‘sakawa’ business does not come so easy and cheap but with various forms of risk.
After taking delivery of parcels from the post office and courier companies, having succeeded in their deals, some of the ‘sakawa’ boys are confronted by gangs who lurk around the post offices seeking for successful operators to either deprive them of their parcels or share the booty with them.
Apart from that turbulence in the business, ‘sakawa’ is also cloaked in spirituality, as some of the operators allegedly use ‘juju’ to cast spells on their victims for successful deals.
Some of them allegedly sleep in coffins for three days, while others sleep at the cemetery, all in the quest to acquire supernatural powers to under-gird their operations.
In Accra, teachers and school authorities in some of the most affected areas, including Nima, Maamobi and New Town, told the Daily Graphic that the phenomenon was undermining the academic progress of the children.
They spend an average of eight hours at Internet cafés every day, either searching for foreign victims to swindle or browsing for pornographic materials which they download onto their mobile phones.
The heads of Nima One and Nima Two Junior High schools, Mrs Leila Mumuni and Mr Kofi Buabeng-Nkrumah, respectively, confirmed that there was a high rate of absenteeism in their schools.
They also confirmed receiving reports from parents and neighbours about the involvement of the children in the ‘sakawa’ business.
Mr Buabeng-Nkrumah, however, asserted that the absenteeism could also be attributed to other socio-economic factors, including circumstances that compelled the schoolchildren to fend for themselves, not just their involvement in ‘sakawa’.
The two school heads were unanimous that the high rate of absenteeism was affecting the academic performance of students.
Out of the 269 junior high schools (JHS) in the Accra metropolis which took part in the 2007 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), Nima One JHS placed 268th, while Nima Two JHS placed 269th.
The performance of the two schools improved marginally in the 2008 BECE, with Nima One placing 135th, while Nima Two placed 267th.
Some of the schoolchildren, the Daily Graphic gathered, spent whole nights at the Internet cafés browsing to make a ‘catch’ of a victim.
From primary, JHS to senior high school, the schoolchildren either divert their course to school or abandon the classrooms at break periods and in their school uniforms throng the Internet cafés to engage in the ‘sakawa’ business.
“They visit the cafés anytime, but many of them come in their school uniforms around 8 a.m. and leave around 5 p.m. Some of them come around 9 p.m. and leave around 9 a.m. the following day,” an Internet café owner, Mr Abdul Latif Mohammed Iddriss, confirmed.
Information gathered by the Daily Graphic indicates that the ‘sakawa’ business has proved so lucrative to the extent that some of the schoolchildren have bought expensive cars out of their “booty”.
“Schoolchildren between 15 and 18 now own cars. Some of the cars they buy cost between GH¢10,000 and GH¢30,000,” Mr Iddriss said.
According to him, it was very difficult to keep the schoolchildren away from the cafés “because if you sack them others will accept them”.
Mr Adu, who is also the Director of Secondary Education at the GES, said addressing the problem transcended the scope of school authorities alone and called for a national intervention to curb the phenomenon.
He said some of the schools had put in place measures to ensure that students did not engage in ‘sakawa’ but added that it was very difficult to monitor their movement after school.
For his part, the Accra Metro Director of Education, Nii Okaidja Dinsey, described the involvement of students in ‘sakawa’ as morally reprehensible.
While stressing the need to sensitise people to the ‘sakawa’ business and a review of rules and regulations in schools to enhance discipline, he called on district assemblies to enact bye-laws that would check schoolchildren from engaging in the practice.
“They (the ‘sakawa’ operators) give the café attendants and the girls big money when the deal is successful,” Mr Iddriss pointed out.
Many of the youth in Nima, Maamobi and New Town are said to be engaged in the ‘sakawa’ operation.
For 24 hours, Internet cafés in those communities are fully occupied and the owners appear to be enjoying brisk business as a result of the high patronage.
“Business has been very good because the cafés are always filled,” Mr Iddriss, who is also the President of the East Ayawaso Internet Owners Association, admitted.
On Thursday, April 9, 2009, a day before Good Friday, there was drama at the Taifa Community School in Accra as teachers and schoolchildren fled helter-skelter after detecting what was said to be a ‘sakawa’ ritual in one of the classrooms.
A dead lizard tied with red cloth bearing the inscription ‘sakawa’ was left hanging from the ceiling of the classroom, confirming widespread rumour that the ‘sakawa’ operatives were deep into spirituality.
For some of the operators, the price to pay for acquiring such spiritual powers is to have a sore on the body, which may not be visible because of one’s dress.
Some of the suburbs noted for ‘sakawa’ are also noted for producing budding footballers, but sources say if one sees a young person with a bandaged hand or leg in any of those communities, one should not just take that person for a footballer because he may be covering up a ‘sakawa’ sore.
For some adherents, the price to pay for spiritual power is to enter their cars backwards, while others are forbidden from giving monetary gifts directly to beneficiaries. The benefactor has to find a way of dropping the money for the beneficiary to pick.
Alarmed by the situation in their communities, the Nima/Maamobi Neighbourhood Watch Group, in conjunction with the East Ayawaso Internet Owners Association, organised a stakeholders’ meeting at Nima recently to find ways of dealing with the problem.
Addressing the meeting, the Nima Divisional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Angwubutoge Awuni, warned that the police would raid any Internet cafés that allowed children to browse pornographic materials.
He said the Internet was more of a blessing than a curse but that the ‘sakawa’ business was having a negative influence on schoolchildren.
He called for a national crusade against the cyber crime, adding, “We all have a responsibility to take care of our children.”
He said Internet café owners should not be solely concerned about making money, pointing out that they had a responsibility to check schoolchildren from engaging in ‘sakawa’ and browsing pornographic sites.
The Secretary of the Nima/Maamobi Neighbourhood Watch Group, Mr Mohammed Sakibu, said investigations conducted by the group confirmed the involvement of schoolchildren in the cyber fraud.
He underlined the group’s commitment to promote security, education and development in the area, adding that it would help check the increasing spate of cyber fraud among the youth.
A traditional medicine practitioner, Togbui Amuzu, has described the involvement of the youth in the ‘sakawa’ business as an abuse of the opportunities offered by globalisation and information and communications technology (ICT).
Deeply concerned by the phenomenon, he walked to the offices of the Daily Graphic to condemn his fellow traditional medicine practitioners who were in league with the youth in the ‘sakawa’ practice, saying they were equally guilty of greed.
Monday, May 11, 2009
DON'T FROWN ON TEACHING PROFESSION (Pg 11) 11-05-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah
THE Headmistress of the Association International School in Accra, Madam Emelia Amartey-Quarcoo, has advised the youth not to frown on teaching because it is a good, noble and rewarding profession.
She also urged young teachers to be proud of the teaching profession and to offer their best at all times.
Madam Amartey-Quarcoo gave the advice at a get-together in Accra to celebrate 30 years of her teaching career, which has been crowned with many achievements.
In 2000, she was adjudged the National Best Teacher in the Senior High School (SHS) category during the National Best Teacher Awards. She has also represented the YWCA at many international conferences and held various positions in society.
Madam Amartey-Quarcoo expressed gratitude to God for taking her through 30 years of an unblemished career.
“There have been lots of struggles and challenges in the profession but God has taken me through all of them”, she remarked.
Madam Amartey-Quarcoo said teaching gave more satisfaction than money , adding that her interest in the profession was based on her quest to do everything with joy.
One her future aspirations, she said her ambition was to reach the highest level of her teaching career.
Pix: Madam Emelia Amartey-Quarcoo
THE Headmistress of the Association International School in Accra, Madam Emelia Amartey-Quarcoo, has advised the youth not to frown on teaching because it is a good, noble and rewarding profession.
She also urged young teachers to be proud of the teaching profession and to offer their best at all times.
Madam Amartey-Quarcoo gave the advice at a get-together in Accra to celebrate 30 years of her teaching career, which has been crowned with many achievements.
In 2000, she was adjudged the National Best Teacher in the Senior High School (SHS) category during the National Best Teacher Awards. She has also represented the YWCA at many international conferences and held various positions in society.
Madam Amartey-Quarcoo expressed gratitude to God for taking her through 30 years of an unblemished career.
“There have been lots of struggles and challenges in the profession but God has taken me through all of them”, she remarked.
Madam Amartey-Quarcoo said teaching gave more satisfaction than money , adding that her interest in the profession was based on her quest to do everything with joy.
One her future aspirations, she said her ambition was to reach the highest level of her teaching career.
Pix: Madam Emelia Amartey-Quarcoo
ROW OVER MINING (Front page) 11-05-09
Story: Kofi Yeboah, Elmina
CENTURIES after European concessionaires had imported heavy machinery into the country to engage in the gold trade, has mining been a blessing or a curse for Ghana?
This is the debate which some environmentalists and the anti-mining coalition in the country are urging the Ghana Chamber of Mines, which last week called for the promotion of mining as a growth pole for the national economy, to engage in.
Statistics indicate that the contribution of mining to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) has only increased from 1.3 per cent in 1991 to about five per cent lately.
Drawing attention to the destructive effects of mining on the environment, the group urged the government to institute a national forum to discuss the future of mining in the country.
Representatives of some mining communities and NGOs in the Central and Western regions made the call at a three-day workshop on, "Strengthening the capacities of communities in conflict management", held at Elmina in the Central Region at the weekend.
It was under the auspices of the National Peace Council (NPC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Present were some members of the NPC, including the Chairman and Catholic Bishop of Cape Coast, Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson; the Vice-Chairman and Ameer and Missionary in charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Ghana, Maulvi Wahab Adam; the Catholic Bishop of Ho, the Most Reverend Francis Lodonu; a former General-Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Madam Georgina Baiden, and the President of the Ghana Historical Society, Prof Irene Odotei.
The growth pole theory suggests the promotion of one sector of the economy with the intention of making it a magnetic force from which other sectors of the economy will develop for overall national economic growth.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ms Joyce Aryee, is reported to have suggested the promotion of mining as a growth pole in view of the sector’s positive contribution to the country’s economy.
The mining industry has come under a barrage of criticisms for destroying the environment and the livelihoods of farmers, thereby deepening poverty in mining communities, as well as being a source of conflict in the communities.
Tebrebe and Teleku-Bokasu are two mining communities that have witnessed violent clashes in recent times, leading to the loss of lives and property.
Representatives of mining communities who attended the workshop reiterated their resolve to resist mining operations in their localities because they would deprive the people of their farmlands and livelihoods.
They claimed that efforts to seek redress to their grievances at various quarters had not yielded positive results and expressed their determination to protect their land and livelihoods from mining companies if the government failed to address their concerns.
The Executive Director of the Wassa Communities Against Mining (WACAM), Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, dismissed the idea of making mining the growth pole of the economy on two grounds — that the growth pole theory was archaic and that even if the theory was relevant, mining could not be the ideal sector to promote as a growth pole.
He said mining companies operated with impunity because the law virtually sought to promote their operations.
He said there was no law, for instance, that stopped anybody from mining anywhere and so if a mining company found gold at the Castle in Osu and managed to convince the government about the benefits likely to be derived from the resource, it would bring down the Castle and mine.
Mr Owusu-Koranteng cited an instance in the past when Cabinet gave approval for some mining companies to mine in forest reserves, contrary to the law.
He said mining companies were so powerful and influential that they could always have their way, pointing out, however, that Ghanaians must not allow the companies to destroy the nation.
Bishop Lodonu, for his part, said it was important to address the harm mining activities and the extraction of other natural resources was causing to the environment in the interest of posterity.
"A time will come when we will not have any land to farm. We will dig the gold, dig the oil and die of hunger," he remarked.
Making a presentation on, "Natural resource conflict: An overview of the Ghanaian case", a lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Dr Kumi Ansa-Koi, said Africa was inundated with conflicts emanating from natural resources.
He said the extractive industry had been a major cause of the conflicts which had done more harm than good to the people, with women and children being the worst affected.
Dr Ansa-Koi identified poverty, over-concentration of power, bad governance and greed as some of the causes of natural resource-based conflicts and stressed the need to address them in order not to experience horrible situations, such as those in Nigeria.
Contributing to the topic as a lead discussant, a member of WACAM, Mrs Hannah Owusu-Koranteng, said although Ghana had not experienced natural resource-based conflicts on a large-scale, compared to what pertained in other African countries, signs pointing to that direction were very clear.
She stressed the need for good governance practices to address such conflicts, adding that the quest for foreign investment did not mean "we should disregard the rights of mining communities".
Mrs Owusu-Koranteng said it was wrong for mining companies to renege on the payment of compensation and royalties in lieu of their social corporate responsibility, indicating that the three obligations were separate and distinct.
In another presentation on the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts, a former Chief Director of the Ministry of the Interior, Mr Edwin Barnes, said although conflicts were part of normal daily life, it was important to manage them well.
He said in any conflict situation there was the need for the two parties to co-operate to ensure a win-win situation.
The UN Peace Index ranks Ghana as the foremost peaceful country in Africa and, in the words of Maulvi Wahab Adam, "It’s important for us to maintain the peace in the country."
CENTURIES after European concessionaires had imported heavy machinery into the country to engage in the gold trade, has mining been a blessing or a curse for Ghana?
This is the debate which some environmentalists and the anti-mining coalition in the country are urging the Ghana Chamber of Mines, which last week called for the promotion of mining as a growth pole for the national economy, to engage in.
Statistics indicate that the contribution of mining to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) has only increased from 1.3 per cent in 1991 to about five per cent lately.
Drawing attention to the destructive effects of mining on the environment, the group urged the government to institute a national forum to discuss the future of mining in the country.
Representatives of some mining communities and NGOs in the Central and Western regions made the call at a three-day workshop on, "Strengthening the capacities of communities in conflict management", held at Elmina in the Central Region at the weekend.
It was under the auspices of the National Peace Council (NPC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Present were some members of the NPC, including the Chairman and Catholic Bishop of Cape Coast, Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson; the Vice-Chairman and Ameer and Missionary in charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Ghana, Maulvi Wahab Adam; the Catholic Bishop of Ho, the Most Reverend Francis Lodonu; a former General-Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Madam Georgina Baiden, and the President of the Ghana Historical Society, Prof Irene Odotei.
The growth pole theory suggests the promotion of one sector of the economy with the intention of making it a magnetic force from which other sectors of the economy will develop for overall national economic growth.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ms Joyce Aryee, is reported to have suggested the promotion of mining as a growth pole in view of the sector’s positive contribution to the country’s economy.
The mining industry has come under a barrage of criticisms for destroying the environment and the livelihoods of farmers, thereby deepening poverty in mining communities, as well as being a source of conflict in the communities.
Tebrebe and Teleku-Bokasu are two mining communities that have witnessed violent clashes in recent times, leading to the loss of lives and property.
Representatives of mining communities who attended the workshop reiterated their resolve to resist mining operations in their localities because they would deprive the people of their farmlands and livelihoods.
They claimed that efforts to seek redress to their grievances at various quarters had not yielded positive results and expressed their determination to protect their land and livelihoods from mining companies if the government failed to address their concerns.
The Executive Director of the Wassa Communities Against Mining (WACAM), Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, dismissed the idea of making mining the growth pole of the economy on two grounds — that the growth pole theory was archaic and that even if the theory was relevant, mining could not be the ideal sector to promote as a growth pole.
He said mining companies operated with impunity because the law virtually sought to promote their operations.
He said there was no law, for instance, that stopped anybody from mining anywhere and so if a mining company found gold at the Castle in Osu and managed to convince the government about the benefits likely to be derived from the resource, it would bring down the Castle and mine.
Mr Owusu-Koranteng cited an instance in the past when Cabinet gave approval for some mining companies to mine in forest reserves, contrary to the law.
He said mining companies were so powerful and influential that they could always have their way, pointing out, however, that Ghanaians must not allow the companies to destroy the nation.
Bishop Lodonu, for his part, said it was important to address the harm mining activities and the extraction of other natural resources was causing to the environment in the interest of posterity.
"A time will come when we will not have any land to farm. We will dig the gold, dig the oil and die of hunger," he remarked.
Making a presentation on, "Natural resource conflict: An overview of the Ghanaian case", a lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Dr Kumi Ansa-Koi, said Africa was inundated with conflicts emanating from natural resources.
He said the extractive industry had been a major cause of the conflicts which had done more harm than good to the people, with women and children being the worst affected.
Dr Ansa-Koi identified poverty, over-concentration of power, bad governance and greed as some of the causes of natural resource-based conflicts and stressed the need to address them in order not to experience horrible situations, such as those in Nigeria.
Contributing to the topic as a lead discussant, a member of WACAM, Mrs Hannah Owusu-Koranteng, said although Ghana had not experienced natural resource-based conflicts on a large-scale, compared to what pertained in other African countries, signs pointing to that direction were very clear.
She stressed the need for good governance practices to address such conflicts, adding that the quest for foreign investment did not mean "we should disregard the rights of mining communities".
Mrs Owusu-Koranteng said it was wrong for mining companies to renege on the payment of compensation and royalties in lieu of their social corporate responsibility, indicating that the three obligations were separate and distinct.
In another presentation on the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts, a former Chief Director of the Ministry of the Interior, Mr Edwin Barnes, said although conflicts were part of normal daily life, it was important to manage them well.
He said in any conflict situation there was the need for the two parties to co-operate to ensure a win-win situation.
The UN Peace Index ranks Ghana as the foremost peaceful country in Africa and, in the words of Maulvi Wahab Adam, "It’s important for us to maintain the peace in the country."
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