Friday, January 22, 2010

COCONUT, THE WONDERFUL CROP (Centre Spread) 16-01-10

Story: Kofi Yeboah

MANY people wonder how come there is water in its fruit and how come the crop thrives for about 100 years on the beach where no plant dares grow for a day. Others have been engaged in intense international debate over the health benefits or otherwise of its oil. And many others have committed suicide for losing the crop. Such is the mysterious nature of coconut (Cocos nucifera L.), a crop whose usefulness is beyond measure, but whose potential has been grossly under-utilised in Ghana.
The popular Ghanaian musician, Atongo, had it all wrong with one of his hit songs, There is no beer in heaven. If he had done his research very well before releasing that song, he would have known that heaven’s beer is even being enjoyed on earth now. Some communities in Ghana refer to coconut as heaven’s beer and have been drinking it since time immemorial.
Indeed, coconut has many other accolades within various communities to reflect its mysterious nature and economic importance. Some call it the "Tree of life", others say it is the "Tree of Heaven", whereas others refer to it as the "Milk Bottle at the Doorstep of Mankind" and the "Heaven’s Gift to Mankind". These accolades affirm the fact that every part of the plant, from its roots to the fronds, is useful to man.
Interestingly, coconut is also referred to as the "Lazy man’s crop", but that tag does not suggest a weakness in the crop. Rather, it is an expression of its strength, in that, once it is planted, a farmer can go to sleep without weeding around it. The only job a farmer may be required to do is to harvest the fruit for a period of between 50 and 100 years.
For many centuries, indeed, as long as creation, the circumstances under which coconut produces water in its nut, has remained a mystery to mankind. That mystery finds expression in local proverbs, one of which says "Nobody can tell how water is produced in coconut until the end of the world".
There are hundreds of quality properties in coconut that can only be described as amazing. Coconut is used for many purposes in agriculture, health, environment, mining, aviation and industry.
However, many Ghanaians have not fully discovered the enormous economic potential and uses of coconut, five centuries after Portuguese missionaries introduced the crop into the country(Gold coast). It is very ironical that such an economic crop grows in communities where thousands of people are stricken with poverty.

Uses & importance of coconut:
From Africa to Asia, America to Europe, coconut has largely been used as a source of food and medicine for more than 5,000 years.
There is a huge economic potential of coconut and its by-products, which has remained largely untapped in Ghana. Activated charcoal produced from coconut shells, for instance, has a huge economic value in mining and industry.
Enquiries made at the Ghana Chamber of Mines indicate that the mining industry in the country spends about $20 million annually to import activated charcoal made from coconut, which is used to absorb gold from cyanide solution during processing.
The Communications Officer of the chamber, Mr Ahmed D. Nantogmah, says the mining companies cannot do without activated charcoal and that they are prepared to do business with any local producer who meets their quality standard. Unfortunately, there is none at the moment. According to chamber officials, a few of individuals who have come forward to claim that opportunity have not done anything beyond their intentions.
Activated charcoal is also used for water filteration and cleaning machines that expel air. It has medicinal properties, which are extensively tapped by pharmaceutical companies for the manufacture of drugs. When mixed in water, activated charcoal is believed (not documented) to be potent for the management of diarrhoea.
According to Mr R. N. Quaicoe, the acting Co-ordinator of the Coconut Programme of the Oil Palm Research Institute (OPRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), it is reported that activated charcoal applied on a snakebite sore can absorb the poison therein instantly.
Apart from activated charcoal, virgin coconut oil, a pure oil produced from fresh mature coconut, is also imbued with enormous economic and medicinal value. It is believed to have the potency to cure diseases from candidiasis to cancer.
For more than 5,000 years in India, coconut oil has been used for alternative medicine practice, which is the traditional medicine in that country, while in Panama, the inhabitants drink a glass of coconut oil either for protection against or speedy recovery from illness.
In the Philippines, coconut oil is used for the speedy healing of burns, cuts, bruises and broken bones. It is also applied on the hair to keep it shiny, thick and dark, even for the aged.
Mr Quaicoe shares a personal experience of how an application of virgin coconut oil cleared some rashes on his hand. After that medication, he has made the oil his body lotion.
Dr Kaku Kyiamah is the only industrialist in Ghana who is into the manufacture of virgin coconut oil and other coconut by-products. According to him, virgin coconut oil can be used to manage diabetes within six weeks. Furthermore, he claims, the oil can also be used to manage most cancers, sores and asthma conditions.
The antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial properties of virgin coconut oil are underlined in an article written by Lucy Atkins in the Tuesday, January 15, 2008 issue of the British newspaper, The Guardian, in which the author made reference to Dr Christine Tomlinson, the Director of the National Candida Society, as advising candida sufferers to include virgin coconut oil in their diet.
Dr Kyiamah believes the use of virgin coconut oil will save the nation a fortune. "We are losing double by importing oil to give us diseases and importing drugs to cure the diseases, and losing man-hours as a result of diseases derived from eating imported oil", he asserts.
Some of the uses of coconut are very astonishing, but when I visited Dr Kyiamah’s factory at Esiama in the Western Region, I came across one that was most intriguing. That was eating fufu with coconut soup. The taste of the soup has never gotten lost in my memory.
Apart from using coconut for food, the stem and fronds of the plant are also used for fuel and building, while the husk, shell and leaves are used for small-scale craft and handiwork. The crop also comes sweet as coconut palm wine, coconut sugar and coconut cabbage, which is a delicacy in some Asian countries.
Fine coconut fibre is used for making of vehicle seats, while coconut lumber is used for furniture, construction, tiles and other products.
In spite of the qualities and economic benefits of the crop, in most parts of the country, coconut shells are rather used to fill potholes and land depressions, burnt for fuel and dumped indiscriminately as waste materials.
"With little ingenuity and investment, we can turn the large volumes of coconut waste into wealth", Mr Quaicoe submits.

History of coconut in Ghana:
It is believed that coconut was introduced into West Africa by Portuguese missionaries in the 16th Century. In Ghana, the missionaries first planted coconut in the Volta Region and one of its amazing qualities immediately manifested. It survived on the beach, which is very hostile to plants in view of its high salinity and porosity.
When the then Department of Agriculture under the colonial administration realised the success of the crop, it promoted its mass cultivation on the coast westwards to the Western Region. People along the coast embraced the initiative and between 1920 and 1940, a ‘green carpet’ of coconut trees had been laid along the coast of the country from the east to the west and even beyond to neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire. Apart from the coast, the crop also performs very well inland.
Although coconut was first introduced in the Volta Region, the bulk of its production now comes from the Western Region, particularly the Jomoro District.
The West African Tall (WAT), the local coconut variety cultivated in Ghana, is very high-yielding, both in quantity of the nut and quality of the food and oil extracted from it. As a result, many people who went into coconut farming became very rich.
However, as many more people were attracted by the success of the crop to go into its cultivation, a terrible disaster, unfortunately, struck the country’s coconut plantations and a large part of the once beautiful ‘green carpet’, better appreciated in an aerial view, was rolled back.
A disease known as Cape St Paul Wilt, wiped off about a quarter of the country’s 45,000 hectares coconut plantations. Many farmers, particularly those in the Western Region, who could not bear the disaster, committed suicide in the process.
According to Mr Quaicoe, himself a coconut farmer, it was a terrible moment in the lives of many coconut farmers in the Western Region.

Cape St Paul Wilt:
The Cape St Paul Wilt is a disease that causes the leaves of coconut to dry. Although the disease is common in coconut-growing countries across the world, it is christened differently depending on which country it is found. In Nigeria, it is known as Awka Wilt, while in Cameroon, it is known as Kribi Du and Lethal Disease in Mozambique and other East African countries. In the Carribbean and America, it is called Lethal Yellowing Disease.
The name of the disease in Ghana is derived from Cape St Paul, a small village near Woe in the Volta Region, where it was first detected in 1932. Within 10 years of its detection, it spread to other parts of the Volta Region, particularly Keta.
The devastation caused by the disease was so intense that an oil mill established in the Keta area for the processing of coconut oil was closed down due to lack of raw materials. The anticipated job opportunities, especially for the youth in the area, were also curtailed.
The disease was confined to the Keta area until 1964 when it showed its ugly face at Cape Three Points in the Western Region, again wrecking large acres of coconut plantations.
Although something common could be established between the two communities where Cape St Paul Wilt first surfaced (both are communities along capes), the source of the disease causing organism and the circumstance under which it bypassed coconut plantations between Cape St Paul and Cape Three Points, have remained a puzzle to researchers.
"We have done many works on the disease but nobody can explain how this happened", says Mr Quaicoe.
Before the advent of scientific research, the disease had defied spiritual intervention. Initially, some farmers around Cape Three Points where the disease first appeared in the Western Region, deemed it as spiritual and proceeded to perform some purification rites to pacify the gods. But no!, the gods had no answers to this calamitous disease.
Currently, the western front of the disease is at a town called Ampain in the Western Region where it has been contained for a considerable period. The containment does not stop the disease; it only prevents a further spread westwards.
As of 2000, the country’s coconut landcover was about 45,000 hectares out of which 12,000 hectares have been lost to Cape St Paul Wilt. The good news, however, is that for now, about 80 per cent of the country’s coconut plantations is safe from Cape St Paul Wilt because they are found in the Jomoro District, which is on the west of Ampain, and parts of the Central Region where the disease has not been widespread.

Management of disease:
Painstaking research is ongoing to find remedy for the disease. The early signals of Cape St Paul Wilt include premature dropping of unmature nuts, followed by the yellowing of leaves. If the inflorescence (flowers), which are supposed to be white, turn black, then there is the possibility that an agent of Cape St Paul Wilt has visited the tree.
Although those signals may be due to some physiological stress in the tree, researchers advise farmers to cut down the affected palms to avoid its further spread, and thereafter, report the case to the relevant authorities.
Mr Quaicoe says it is only a laboratory test that can confirm the reality or otherwise of the disease.
Apart from the cutting and elimination of the affected palm, the disease can also be managed by injecting tetracycline into the affected trees. That will make the trees healthy enough to produce. However, according to Mr Quaicoe, this method is not economically sustainable.
"You can only do this when you have one or two coconut trees at your backyard. But for large hectares of coconut farm, you cannot afford it", he explains.
Another management option, which has received global endorsement, is to plant disease-resistant coconut varieties. In line with this recommendation, the government initiated a natural screening/selection programme in 1956 under which some coconut varieties were imported and planted at places where the disease was most severe.
The rationale was that if the imported coconut varieties survived on the disease-prone plantations, they would have passed the test of resistance to Cape St Paul Wilt.
Since the beginning of the programme, 48 different coconut varieties have been screened/tested. Out of the number, only three after more than 20 years of screening, showed high level of resistance to the disease. They are the Sri Lanka Green Dwarf (SGD), the Vanuatu Tall (VTT) and the Malayan YellowDwarf +Vanuatu Tall (MYDxVTT), a hybrid of two varieties.
In an attempt to salvage the country’s coconut endowment from total destruction, the government in 1999 recommended the MYDxVTT coconut variety to farmers for cultivation in the stead of the local WAT variety, which, although good agronomically, was very susceptible to Cape St Paul Wilt.
About 1,300 hectares of coconut were cultivated under the Coconut Sector Development Project of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
However, the intervention could not succeed as envisaged because many farmers reportedly planted the MYDxVTT variety too close to highly-diseased coconut trees, thereby weakening the resistance of the new coconut variety. Only those which were planted with the assistance of researchers survived the experiment and are currently doing well.
Recognising the fact that the MYDxVTT) is not totally resistant to Cape St Paul Wilt, researchers have remained on the field and in the laboratories just to stay ahead of the disease in all its manifestations. "It’s a continuous battle", Mr Quaicoe says.
The persistent, resolute and painstaking research appear to be yielding positive dividend with the discovery of a new coconut hybrid of SGDxVTT, which has proven to be more resistant to Cape St Paul Wilt than the MYDxVTT hybrid.
Research on this new hybrid started in 1999 on an experimental coconut farm at Agona Nkwanta in the Central Region, but the scientists are cautious in their optimism.
"Theoretically, it is better but as scientists, we are not satisfied with paper work. So we are still doing the field work", Mr Quaicoe says.
According to him, if everything works according to schedule, Ghana will be the only country in the world to develop a totally resistant coconut variety to Cape St Paul Wilt and that breakthrough will bring huge economic benefits to the nation, since many countries, particularly close neighbours, will want to import it for cultivation.

Challenges:
The Cape St Paul Wilt has battered the country’s coconut plantations enough, but one other major challenge that looks equally deadly to the industry is the poor remuneration and condition of service of researchers. As a result, many of them are abandoning the fields for the classrooms at the universities for greener pastures.
Over the years, politicians have paid no attention or, at best, lip service to the development of research and the improvement of the condition of service of researchers. That is because the results of research take a long time to materialise, perhaps, too long for politicians to cite as success stories of their relatively short regimes.
The CSIR has bemoaned this situation over the years, but their concerns have often been treated with a pinch of salt, largely because they do not possess potent industrial arsenal like university lecturers whose concerns are addressed promptly anytime they go on strike.
Mr Quaicoe says as a researcher, there is no motivation to go on strike for better conditions of service because he cannot see his research work done over 20 years to be destroyed within a short period of industrial action.
The only motivation that is keeping him on the job is that his kinsmen are mostly coconut farmers and so he considers his research work a non-negotiable responsibility to help improve farming practices and living standards of his kinsmen.
Another major challenge facing the coconut industry is what Dr Kyiamah describes as misinformation by some Western interests that coconut oil is harmful to human health, just so they can promote their own brand of oil.
At the 57th World Health Assembly of the World Health Organisation (WHO) held on May 22, 2009, the world body endorsed a recommended strategy on diet, physical activity and health, which among other things, advised individuals to limit their energy intake from total fats and shift fat consumption away from saturated fats to unsaturated fats and towards the elimination of trans-fatty acids.
The WHO’s recommendation has largely discouraged the consumption of coconut oil, which is the most saturated fat, but Dr Kyiamah alleges that it is only a fraudulent theory orchestrated by some Western interests to destroy the highly edible tropical saturated fats and project their types of oil for the purposes of marketing.
In an open letter to the WHO Country Representative in Ghana dated January 15, 2009, he argues that the WHO’s recommendation "conflicts with the basic chemistry of fats".
Quoting various documents to support his contention, Dr Kyiamah explains that trans-fatty acids are a type of unsaturated fatty acids and can be produced only within unsaturated fats. Consequently, trans-fatty acids cannot be eliminated by shifting generally to unsaturated fat.
He further submits that saturated fats do not contain trans-fatty acids and so shifting fat consumption away from saturated fats will not affect the trans-fatty acids in the diet.
"The statement in question makes the World Health Organisation (WHO) sound and look unscientific. The impression does not suit such an august organisation", he indicates in the open letter.
Responding to those concerns in another letter dated February 18, 200i9, the WHO Country Office dismissed the submissions of Dr Kyiamah, explaining that although trans fats are a type of unsaturated fats, "they are bad for your health".
"The recommendation therefore seeks to point this out by advising on a shift from saturated fats to unsaturated fats (which are generally better for health) and towards the elimination of trans-fatty acids; which even though are unsaturated fats, are an exception and should be avoided due to their adverse effect on health", the WHO contends.
It says the intention of its recomnendation is not to shift from all unsaturated fats but only the trans-fatty acids which are bad and raise individual’s cholesterol, as well as increase the risk for developing heart diseases and stroke.
This debate notwithstanding, coconut oil is becoming popular among British athletes, following its inclusion in the diet of the England rugby squad in 2007. In her article in The Guardian, Lucy Atkins quotes the rugby union nutritionist, Matt Lovell, as saying that virgin coconut oil can raise the metabolic rate and therefore help the body to burn fat more effectively.
"It is the most misunderstood of all fats. It is what we call a 'functional food' because it provides many health benefits beyond its nutritional or calorie content", he notes.
According to Lovell, coconut oil, like butter, is extremely high in saturated fat, but it differs from fats such as butter because it contains a lot of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) that are absorbed directly by the liver, and so they burn very much like carbohydrate.
The debate may become more intense and unabated, but the fact still remains; coconut is the heaven’s gift to mankind. And the question still stands; what use is Ghana making of it?

WHO'S WHO IN NDC? (Front page) 16-01-10

Story: Kofi Yeboah & Zakaria Alhassan

A keen contest for the chairman and general secretary positions of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is anticipated at the party’s national delegates congress in Tamale today.
However, the incumbent Chairman and the General Secretary, Dr Kwabena Adjei and Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, respectively, are tipped to retain their positions as about 2,000 delegates go to the polls to elect new national executive officers to steer the affairs of the party for the next four years.
The delegates will decide the fate of 65 candidates vying for 30 national executive positions of the ruling party.
Dr Adjei and Mr Nketiah are seeking second terms in office, having been elected at the NDC national delegates congress in Koforidua in 2005, but they face strong challenge from Dr Austin Asamoa-Tutu and Mr Kweku Eshun.
Apart from their experience as former Members of Parliament and Ministers of State in the Rawlings administration and their achievement of leading the NDC from opposition to government, Dr Adjei and Mr Nketiah have formidable credentials that put them a shade ahead of their challengers.
That notwithstanding, Dr Asamoa-Tutu’s political experience as a founder member of the party and parliamentary candidate for the Social Democratic Front (SDF) in the 1979 election gives him strong grounding to upstage the incumbent chairman.
As the 2008 NDC parliamentary candidate for Okaikoi North, Mr Eshun has also acquired enough political clout to upset the incumbent general secretary at the polls.
Aside from those two portfolios, the contest for the six vice-chairman positions is also expected to be very keen, given the stature of some of the 17 candidates vying for the positions and the interest that their contention has generated in the media over the past few months.
The contest for the national organiser position will, however, be devoid of keen competition, since Mr Yaw Boateng Gyan is running unopposed.
Other positions to be contested for at the congress are deputy general secretary (two), deputy national organiser, national treasurer, deputy national treasurer, national propaganda secretary, deputy national propaganda secretary and national executive committee members (14).
President J. E. A. Mills, Vice-President John Dramani Mahama and former President J. J. Rawlings are among the dignitaries expected to grace the occasion.
The atmosphere in Tamale was charged yesterday as candidates intensified their campaigns to win the support of delegates to the congress.
The entire metropolis, particularly the vicinity of the congress grounds at the WAEC Hall on the GBC Road, was in a carnival mood as various structures were bedecked with posters and paraphernalia of the respective candidates and the party.
There was drumming and dancing as party stalwarts and supporters filed in and out of the venue. Wild jubilation heralded the appearance of most of the candidates at the conference grounds as they arrived in convoys with fanfare.
Mr Mahama and majority of Ministers of State, district chief executives and other party bigwigs are already in the metropolis.
The President, former President Rawlings, as well as some leading members of the party, are expected to arrive at the congress grounds today.
Large canopies have been erected opposite the entrance of the venue to provide shade for party supporters who will be unable to gain access to the congress hall, which is restricted to only accredited persons.
Some of the candidates resorted to the use of radio to reach out to many delegates. One of such vice-chairmanship hopefuls, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, was on air yesterday morning explaining why he should be given the mandate.
The immediate past Youth Organiser of the NDC, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, also used the opportunity on another radio station to admonish all stakeholders, including residents of Tamale, to ensure a successful hosting of the congress.
He commended the people of the Northern Region for their unflinching support for the party over the years, adding that “this region delivered the highest parliamentary seats for the NDC in the entire country in the last general election”.
This is the first time the party is organising such an important event in the northern part of the country.

PARTY UNITY TO BE TESTED (Front page) 15-01-10

Story: Kofi Yeboah

THE unity and strength of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) will come under test as the party holds its first post-election victory congress since the 2008 polls in Tamale today.
The fate of the NDC, in a congress described by some political analysts as a make-or-break affair, lies in the hands of about 2,000 delegates who will elect national executive officers to plot another electoral victory in 2012.
The congress comes amidst allegations of vote buying and bribery levelled against some prominent members of the party and strenuous efforts by both the Rawlings and the Mills factions to establish their dominance in the party's hierarchy.
It is with such anxiety that hundreds of NDC supporters are trooping to Tamale for the congress this weekend.
The recent development of factionalism, rancour and allegations of vote buying in the party have inspired fears that Tamale may be a replica of Koforidua where the NDC national delegates congress in 2005 was characterised by violence in which some prominent members of the party were assaulted.
That incident eventually led to the breakaway of some members, most of whom later formed the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP).
Some political analysts believe the Tamale congress has a lot of implications for the fortunes of the NDC in the next general election.
“I'm expecting them to come out tops in all these because if they fail, that will be a recipe for defeat in 2012,” Mr Kingsley Adjei, a lecturer at the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Coast, told the Daily Graphic.
However, the leadership of the NDC has dismissed such fears, expressing optimism that the party would emerge from Tamale stronger and more united.
At a press briefing in Accra last Wednesday, the outgoing National Organiser of the NDC, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, said, “The NDC has grown beyond factionalism and personalities.”
One of his two deputies, Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, also dismissed the assertion that the party was divided, saying they all belonged to one camp — the Rawlings camp.
These dismissals notwithstanding, political watchers such as Mr Adjei believe the factionalism within the NDC is real and the earlier the party deals with it, the better it will be for its chances in Election 2012.
According to him, former President Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, should have stayed above any faction in the party because they were persons to look up to when anything went wrong in the party.
He said the recent election of the party's youth and women's organisers, both of whom were considered as coming from the Mills camp, lent credence to the perception that the popularity of former President Rawlings in the NDC was waning.
Mr Adjei said given those circumstances, if the candidates from the Rawlings camp did not succeed at the Tamale congress, there would be apathy in the party and that “will be disastrous for the party in Election 2012”.
He said the charisma of former President Rawlings in the electoral fortunes of the NDC could never be wished away.
Ahead of the Tamale congress, the NDC has come under intense criticism over allegations of vote buying and bribery which have raised eyebrows among some members.
Following the party's national youth congress in Sunyani recently, one of the contestants for the national youth organiser position, Ras Mubarak, alleged that the election had been fraught with bribery and vote buying.
Mobile phones and money were alleged to have been used to influence the delegates in the voting.
Some NDC members have condemned the allegations and called for investigations to ascertain the truth, adding that vote buying and bribery had the tendency to undermine internal party democracy.
However, according to Mr Afriyie-Ankrah, the allegations were nothing new, especially after people had contested and lost elections.
Sharing some thoughts on the issue, Mr Adjei said such tendencies were dangerous to the country's democracy because they led to putting square pegs in round holes.
The vote buying and bribery allegations reinforce the power struggle within the NDC, but one other challenge that confronts the party is how a national executive composed of persons from the Rawlings and the Mills factions or individuals with deep-seated difference will function effectively.
Apart from the popular media fracas between Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah and Mr Ato Ahwoi, the recent altercation between Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and the NDC General Secretary, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, over the role of the 31st December Women's Movement in the NDC provide the basis for such concerns.
Prior to the 2000 elections, the NDC experienced similar party wrangling and suffered badly with the breakaway of some members who later formed the National Reform Party (NRP).
In the subsequent election, the party lost power to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), sending it into opposition for the next eight years.
Zakaria Alhassan reports from Tamale that the excitement over the congress is gradually heating up in the metropolis with the expected arrival of delegates yesterday.
Over 2,500 delegates and observers across the country and beyond are estimated to mass up in the metropolis for the eighth delegates conference of the party that is being held in Tamale for the first time.
The venue for the congress, the WAEC Hall, is being prepared for the assembly. Canopies have been erected by Zoomlion, a waste management organisation, at the Tamale Sports Stadium to serve as the congress village and market.
At the moment, almost all hotels and guests houses have been fully booked. Food vendors and traders, particularly dealers in smocks, are all stockpiling to cash in on the thousands of visitors who will throng the metropolis for the congress.
While most of the contestants for the various positions in the party are yet to arrive, as they intensify their campaigns in the regions, their posters can be spotted at various parts of the metropolis.
According to the Northern Regional Secretary of the NDC, Alhaji Imoro Issifu Alhassan, “the Tamale congress will be the best the party has ever organised anywhere in the country”.
He said most of the logistics were to arrive from Accra yesterday and gave the assurance that “everything is, indeed, on course and we look forward to hosting a very successful congress”.
On security, the Northern Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police Mr Angwubutoge Awuni, indicated that the police were firmly on the ground and collaborating with “our headquarters in Accra for the necessary logistics for the provision of adequate security before, during and after the congress”.
The commander, who did not give figures, said enough police personnel would be mobilised to ensure peace and order during the congress.
Mr Awuni, however, called for co-operation and support from delegates and other stakeholders, “so that together we can have a smooth congress”.
A vice-chairman of the party in the region, Sofo Azorka, urged the youth in the area to live above reproach and go about their campaigns for the various candidates peacefully.
“Only accredited persons will be allowed into the main venue. We will, therefore, not tolerate any behaviour that will have the tendency of marring the beauty of this august gathering of our party leadership and invited guests,” he warned.
A food vendor, Hajia Muhammadu Ruhia, said, “The congress will surely be a success and we in the hospitality industry will be better off at the end of the day.”
She expressed appreciation to the leadership of the NDC for choosing to host the congress in Tamale for the first time in the northern part of the country.
A retired public servant, Alhaji Hussein Abubakar, entreated residents of the metropolis to seize the opportunity the congress would offer to showcase its rich cultural heritage and hospitality to the rest of the country and the world.
He appealed to party stalwarts, delegates and supporters to always use dialogue in arriving at consensus, since democracy was about accommodating different shades of opinion.

ASAMOA-TUTU CHALLENGES KWABENA ADJEI (Pg 14) 11-01-10

Story: Kofi Yeboah

AN ASPIRING chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Austin Asamoa-Tutu, has called on delegates to the party’s national conference scheduled for Tamale at the weekend, to vote for him to guarantee victory for the party in Election 2012.
He said the task ahead required persons with experience, maturity, versatility, tenacity and fresh vigour to surmount, adding, “I am totally convinced that I am the right candidate to serve our great party as the chairman on a secure and safe path into a bright future”.
A former Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Secretary for the Volta Region (1982-1984) and founder member of the NDC, Dr Asamoa-Tutu is counting on his wealth of experience in politics to reorganise and reinvigorate the party at all levels to ensure victory in Election 2012.
Sharing his aspirations with the Daily Graphic, he said he was predisposed as an experienced politician to unify the party and lead it to achieve great successes.
“I think people will listen to me. It depends on how you approach people”, he remarked confidently.
According to Dr Asamoa-Tutu, the vision to reorganise and reinvigorate the party would be powered by a party development fund to be established through internally-generated funds (IGF), as well as dues and levies from ministers of state, government appointees, NDC Members of Parliament (MPs) and all other party members.
He also intends to create an information and communication technology (ICT) database of all NDC members, linking the constituencies to the regions and the regions to the national level, with the view to enhancing effective administration.
Dr Asamoa-Tutu says he also has a strategy to identify and recognise the party’s foot soldiers, as well as empower them economically through the establishment of small-scale projects such as rice cultivation, for their benefit.
As a professional architect who also has the ability to speak Ewe, Twi, Ga, English, German, French and Slovene, Dr Asamoa-Tutu is confident that these assets will enable him to deliver on his promise.
Asked how he would deal with the challenge offered by the other contestants, particularly the incumbency advantage enjoyed by the current chairman, Dr Kwabena Adjei, the veteran politician said he had developed an effective strategy to stay on top of the contest.
Drawing deep inspiration from his campaign slogan, “Vote for change - Building and winning”, Dr Asamoa-Tutu paid glowing tribute to the current national executive of the party for standing firm through thick and thin while the party was in opposition, but he advised; “They should sit back and recuperate their lost energy and strength”.
Apart from serving as PNDC Secretary for the Volta Region during which he organised a regional development project seminar dubbed “Plans, Projects and Prospects”, Dr Asamoa-Tutu is a veteran in student and national politics.
He was a student leader at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and during his postgraduate studies in the former Yugoslavia and Germany between 1964 and 1978.
At the national level, Dr Asamoa-Tutu had been a social democratic long before the NDC claimed that political ideology, having contested on the ticket of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) in the 1979 general elections.
Since the founding of the NDC in 1992, he has remained a stalwart of the party, particularly in the Volta Region, and in the 2008 elections, he coordinated seven constituencies in the Volta Region, thus helping to ensure victory for the party.
As a professional architect, Dr Asamoa-Tutu has also played a pivotal role in the country’s development. The profile of projects undertaken by his firm, Design Forum, for the government, include the SSNIT Affordable Housing Project at Wa and the Dunkonaa Housing Project.
Furthermore, his company was lead consultants in a consortium that won the bid for the rehabilitation of the Electro-Volta House in Accra.
Dr Asamoa-Tutu holds a doctorate degree in Engineering from the Technical University of Munich, Germany (1977), Ingineur - Architect Diploma from the University of Ljubljana, Yugoslavia (1968) and Certificate in Fundamentals of Planning and Inter-disciplinary Planning from the Technical University of Braunschweig, West Germany.
From 2002 to 2004, he was an external examiner at the Faculty of Architecture at KNUST at both degree and postgraduate levels.

CARDINAL APPIAH TURKSON - Next Pope in waiting? (Mirror Pg 3) 09-01-10

By Kofi Yeboah

FROM a humble beginning as a carpenter's son, Peter Cardinal Kodwo Appiah Turkson has risen through the ranks of Catholic Priesthood to assume one of the highest positions at the Vatican amidst his touting by respectable Catholic faithful across the world as the next Pope in waiting.
If that fate meets him on his priestly journey, Cardinal Turkson will become, arguably, the world's most powerful and influential religious leader and that would surely immortalise his memory.
However, looking back to about four decades, Cardinal Turkson would have dictated the writing of a different story if he had followed a childhood passion that nearly lured him out of seminary and priesthood to become a pilot and an officer of the Ghana Airforce.
Indeed, he would have entered the Ghana Airforce the same year with former President Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings.
With his deep love for Science, Cardinal Turkson nearly abandoned the seminary to pursue a career as a pilot because he could not come to terms with switching to the Arts, since Science was not offered at the Seminary. However, fate resigned him to priesthood on whose wings he is flying from Accra to the Vatican to assume a new assignment as the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
The decision by the carpenter's son to stay at the seminary, rather than pursue a career as a pilot, was one of five defining moments in the life of Cardinal Turkson as a priest.
The first was at a tender age of 13 when he took a firm decision to enrol at a preparatory seminary in Saltpong to begin his priestly career, much against the expectation of family relations, including his parents,?? Mr Pius Turkson and Madam Agnes Aba Turkson,??? considering his early childhood mischievous and boisterous character.
However, the seminarian training reformed that character and transformed him into a quiet, sober, humble and very respectful person.
After resisting the temptation to abandon the seminary, the third defining moment in the priestly life of Cardinal Turkson came in November 1992, when he was appointed the Archbishop of Cape Coast following the death of Archbishop John Kodwo Amissah. At that time, he was preparing to defend his doctoral thesis, and the new appointment posed a dilemma whether to defend his doctoral thesis or take up the appointment.
Considering the painstaking biblical research he had undertaken, enabling him to learn the use of the Ugaritic, Accadian, Hieroglyphics, Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek, all of which were to end abruptly with Episcopal ordination, Cardinal Turkson wished that cup should pass him by. But eventually, he sacrificed the doctorate degree for Episcopal duties.
That interruption notwithstanding, Cardinal Turkson still remains the only active Cardinal to have advanced thus far in formal scripture studies, since three other Cardinals with doctorate degrees are now retired.
The fourth defining moment in the priestly life of Cardinal Turkson came in September 2003, when Pope John Paul II named him as Cardinal, the first Ghanaian Catholic priest to have attained that feat. The elevation was commemorated with a public consistory on October 21, 2003, at St Peter's Square where he received the red biretta and the title of St Liborio. That ritual enabled him to participate in the April 2005 conclave, which elected Pope Benedict XVI into office.
The fifth and, perhaps, the most defining moment of Cardinal Turkson's priestly career is his recent appointment as the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which brings him closer to the high office of Pope.
Cardinal Turkson now has a huge responsibility of promoting justice and peace across the world, a task which the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, the Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle, who is a long time friend of Cardinal Turkson dating back to 1968, believes he would measure up to using his gift of deep thinking.
Apart from being a deep thinker, as Most Rev. Palmer-Buckle assets, Cardinal Turkson's own commitment to justice and peace, which he has amply demonstrated nationally and internationally, provides yet another source of strength to overcome the challenges that his new assignment present.
In the aftermath of the 2008 general election, for instance, when the nation was on the brink of war, Cardinal Turkson was among a core of religious leaders and civil society members who played a critical role to salvage the country from political turmoil.
The Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, recalls an instance when Cardinal Turkson had to travel from Cape Coast to Accra late in the night, in the heat of the confusion that engulfed the nation after the 2008 election, to join forces with other religious leaders to intervene and ensure that peace prevailed.
The 61-year-old Ghanaian Cardinal is also expected to draw deep from his experience as the Chairman of the National Peace Council (NPC) and fluency in English, Italian, French, German, Hebrew and other international languages, as well as his pedigree as the church's lone non-retired Cardinal with an advanced degree in Scriptural Studies, to live up to expectation.
Cardinal Turkson was appointed Cardinal in 2003 by the late Pope John Paul II and with his new appointment into the universal church administration, he becomes the personification of Africa in Church matters and topmost African prelate in the Roman Curia.
He would be collaborating closely with the Supreme Pontiff (the Pope), in administering the Universal Church through the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace at the Vatican.
This will involve the promotion of justice and peace in the world in the light of the Gospel and social teaching of the Church. This responsibility spans a wide spectrum of challenges, such as social justice, the world of work, international life, social development, ethical reflection on the evolution of economic and financial systems, problems associated with the environment and the responsible use of the earth's resources.
His office also deals with a broad range of questions relating to war, disarmament, arms trade, international security, violence in all forms (terrorism, exaggerated nationalism, etc), political systems, role of Catholics in the political arena, promotion of World Day of Peace, and deepening the doctrine of dignity of the human person.
Born on October 11, 1948, Cardinal Turkson spent his childhood days at Nsuta Wassa, a small manganese mining town in the Western Region where his father worked as a carpenter. His late parents hailed from Nyanfeku Ekroful, a village near Abora Dunkwa in the Abora-Asebu-Kwamankese District of the Central Region.
At a very tender age in school at the Roman Catholic Primary School at Nsuta, young Turkson's intellectual prowess was established. He could memorise scripts for plays, passages and lengthy poems with so much ease.
He later proceeded to the Urban Council Middle School also at Nsuta where he sat for the Common Entrance Examination in Form Two and after passing, gained admission to Sekondi College.
With a hidden desire to shepherd the flock of God, Cardinal Turkson changed his mind from attending college after reading a poster at Tarkwa inviting young students wanting to be priests to enrol at a preparatory seminary at Saltpond. That was the beginning of his journey to the Vatican.
After a one-year stint at the preparatory seminary at Saltpond, Cardinal Turkson attended the St Teresa's Minor Seminary at Amisano, Elmina, where he obtained the General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary and Advanced Levels from 1962 to 1969.
In 1971, Cardinal Turkson entered the St Peter's Seminary at Pedu to study Philosophy and Theology, after which the late Archbishop Amissah sent him to St Anthony-on-Hudson, a Franciscan Seminary at Rensselaer, New York, where he obtained a combined degree of Masters in Theology and Masters in Divinity.
Cardinal Turkson returned to Ghana after his studies and was ordained on July 20, 1975 at the Francis de Sales Cathedral, Cape Coast, by the late Archbishop Amissah whom he later succeeded.
He later had his Biblical Scholarship at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (1976-1980) and obtained a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture. He returned to the Institute (1987-1992) for his doctorate degree, but had to abandon it to take up a new appointment as Archbishop of Cape Coast.
Cardinal Turkson has taught in many seminaries and educational institutions, including the St. Peter's Seminary, Pedu, the Major Seminary at Anyama in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, the University of Cape Coast and the Holy Child School In Cape Coast.
Within the Catholic tradition, Cardinal Turkson belongs to many families in the Roman Curia, including the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the Supreme Committee of the Pontifical Missions Society and the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church.
He has also held many offices, including Honorary President of the World Council of Religions for Peace (WCRP). Current President of the Regional Episcopal Conferences of West Africa (RECOWA), immediate past Treasurer of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), immediate past President of the Ghana Chapter of Religions for Peace and current Chairman of the NPC.
As he settles down in Rome to begin his new assignment, it is the silent prayer of Ghanaians, Africans and many well-wishers the world over that he would climbed the ultimate throne of glory at the Vatican.

GOVERNMENT RATING HIGH (Front page) 08-01-10

A cross-section of people and a number of recognised bodies in Accra yesterday scored high marks for the Mills administration in the areas of the economy, education and security after one year in office.
However, they conceded that a lot more needed to be done in the areas of consolidating peace, promoting business, providing infrastructure and improving the general conditions of workers.
A security analyst, Mr Emmanuel Bombande, noted that the first year of the Mills administration witnessed a remarkable improvement in the fight against violent crimes, but not in the search for peace, reports Kofi Yeboah.
In an interview, Mr Bombande stressed the need for the police and other security agencies to upscale their strategy in order to sustain the gains made and called for a more proactive approach to improve on peace interventions.
"Peace and security are mutually influential and are truly integrated, and yet, they are not the same thing," he remarked, as he shared some thoughts with the Daily Graphic on the performance of the Mills administration regarding national security in 2009.
Mr Bombande said although security could not be put in a time frame, there had been a remarkable improvement and progress in combating violent crime, such as armed robbery.
He said the achievement was due to the more proactive approach adopted by the police and the military, an improvement on their capacity for rapid deployment and the reward package instituted by the police, among other factors.
Although he admitted that there had been a few instances of violent crime of very disturbing proportions in the course of the year, he pointed out that, in terms of figures, those incidents were less than what pertained the previous year.
Mr Bombande, however, indicated that the issue was not just about statistics but the psychological barrier that made people to feel safe or unsafe.
He said the challenge was how to sustain the gains made and even improve on them to ensure that the incidents of violent crime were reduced to the barest minimum.
On peace, Mr Bombande observed that peacekeeping in the country had been reduced to the level of firefighting without any initiative to promote dialogue among the factions.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) feels that some achievements were made in the area of education, reports Emmanuel Bonney.
The association said the interventions such as the provision of free exercise books, free uniforms and the 50 per cent increase in the Capitation Grant from GH¢3 to GH¢4.50 pesewas, to attract and retain pupils in school were laudable.
A Deputy General Secretary of GNAT, Mr John Nyoagbe, told the Daily Graphic that the interventions by the government would help address inequality in the system.
He said such initiatives should not be a nine-day wonder but should be sustained, adding that the real targets of the interventions should be identified for them to derive maximum benefit.
"The increase in the Capitation Grant by 50 per cent is worthy of commendation. But the issue is the time of delivering the resource is the most important thing. If the Capitation Grant comes early enough then school heads would use it to plan and implement the programme, but if it comes in the middle of the term or towards the end, then one can now guess what the money would be used for," he said.
Mr Nyoagbe said teachers and their welfare issues especially teacher shortage and how to attract and retain teachers in deprived communities, needed to be given a very serious thought.
He said the 20 per cent allowance for teachers in rural areas announced by the government should not be a platform talk but must be translated into reality else the imbalance in education delivery would remain.
On the Government's decision to revert to the three-year senior high school education, he said once the government had decided to do that it should endeavour to motivate teachers and provide the needed facilities that would enhance teaching and learning.
On the health sector, a former Director-General (D-G) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, said it was premature for any serious assessment to be done on a government’s performance within one year, reports Lucy Adoma Yeboah.
He went further to point out that it would be a bit easier if the health sector had had one minister to head the ministry for the year but not under the current situation where the ministry had two ministers within that short period.
Professor Akosa explained that if Dr George Sipah-Adjah Yankey who was first assigned the responsibility of the ministry had been given the opportunity to work for the whole year, one would have been in a better position to, at least, look at some of the policies he might have introduced.
He said unfortunately, Dr Yankey did not keep long at the Ministry of Health and also the new minister, Dr Benjamin Kunbour, had just taken over as the substantive sector minister and, therefore, no proper assessment could be done on that ministry.
Matilda Attram & Henrietta Brocke report that a section of the traders at the Agbogbloshie market raised concerns about the economy in the first year of the Mills administration, which came into office on January 7, 2009.
A provision shop owner, Mr Fred Addo, said although the economy had not been better than expected, it was manageable.
Comparing the National Democratic Congress (NDC) era to that of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), he stated that the difference in the increase in fuel prices and goods was not that much.
“During NPP era a carton of milk was 16 cedis and now it is 20 cedis due to inflation,” he said.
He expressed the hope that Ghanaians would co-operate with the government to improve on the economy for the benefit of all.
For his part, the Executive Director at the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), Dr J. L. S. Abbey, urged the government to strive towards reducing its expenditure in order to close its deficit gap currently pegged at 10.5 per cent, reports Naa Lamiley Bentil.
Last year, the government envisaged a reduction of its deficit to 9.4 per cent but it was unable to achieve that target at the end of year 2009 and that, according to Dr Abbey, could be attributed to the backlog of expenditure in the year 2008 during the electioneering.
To reverse the trend however, and set the economic on a path of recovery, Dr Abbey stated that the government must remain focus and insist on value for money in its expenditure whilst ensuring that programmes and projects which had stalled were completed to the benefit of the people.
Infrastructure projects such as roads, for instance, must be built to facilitate economic activities.
According to him, 2009 was a very difficult year for even developed economies due to the global recession and described Ghana as “a tail of two cities”.
Explaining, Dr Abbey said Ghana was caught in between two forces, in that whilst developed nations increased their spending to stimulate the economy, Ghana’s government reduced spending significantly to stabilise its economy.
From the labour front, Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho reports that the Deputy Secretary General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw Baah, has commended the government for some bold initiatives that it had taken since it took office.
One of such initiative is the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), which, according to Dr Baah, would help bring relief to most workers especially teachers in terms of they getting fair wages which would be commensurate to their work.
He also commended the government for the implementation of the Three Tier Pension Scheme, which, according to him, would enable most workers to go on pension with some dignity.
Dr Yaw Baah, however, expressed some reservations including the existing high taxes which public service workers had to pay and the current employment situation in the country.

I'M COMMITTED TO PEACE, JUSTICE -Cardinal Turkson (Pg 16) 04-01-10

Story: Kofi Yeboah & Daniel Nkrumah

CARDINAL Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, the Chairman of the National Peace Council (NPC), has expressed the commitment to work towards peace and justice on the continent as he prepares to begin a new life as the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
At a send-off dinner organised by the NPC at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana, Cardinal Turkson said in furtherance of that commitment, he would identify personalities who were into justice and peace on the continent to work together to achieve his objective.
He noted that justice and peace were critical to the development of society, saying that his new appointment was another opportunity to serve humanity.
The send-off dinner was attended by the clergy, leaders of political parties, academicians, media, representatives from civil society, peace ambassadors, among others.
Reflecting on his work on the NPC, Cardinal Turkson said “we tried to do what we thought we had been put together to do to safeguard the peace of the country”.
“It’s been great working with all the members.”
Cardinal Turkson stated that once the 2008 elections were over, it was time to commit time and energy to address other issues and conflicts.
The Deputy Minister of the Interior, Dr Kwesi Akyem Apea-Kubi, lauded Cardinal Turkson for his commitment to the promotion of peace and also for the high level humility he had demonstrated.
He noted that Cardinal Turkson had been particular about the budget for the National Peace Council and said his concerns had been addressed in the 2010 budget.
He wished him success in his new assignment.
A member of the National Peace Council, Professor Irene Odotei, said inasmuch as the day was a great day because of the appointment of Cardinal Turkson to the position, it was also a sad day, because he was bidding farewell to the council.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor C. N. B. Tagoe, recounted the university’s association with the Cardinal, and said the university benefited from his wise counsel during his days as a member of the University Council.
He said Cardinal Turkson’s wise counsel on how to make difficult choices had been helpful.
The MP for Ningo Prampram and Majority Chief Whip in Parliament, Mr E. T. Mensah, expressed the hope that Cardinal Turkson was going to shine in his new assignment.
For his part, the General Secretary of the Christian Council, Dr Fred Degbe, described Cardinal Turkson as a man who was seasoned with the Word of God and had so much experience.
Dr Emmanuel Akwettey, the Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), also recounted the immense contribution of Cardinal Turkson during the last election.
He said at a time when civil society appeared to be at its wits’ end, Cardinal Turkson played a critical role to help foster peace.
He described as “phenomenal” the unity displayed by the religious leaders during the elections.
The NPC presented gifts to the Cardinal.

2009, GONE WITH THE WORST? (Centre spread) 01-01-10

Story: Kofi Yeboah

EXACTLY a year by now, a thick cloud of uncertainty hung over the nation as Ghanaians anxiously awaited the results of a presidential election contested on a knife’s edge amidst the beating of war drums.
However, after emerging from that crunch election, Ghanaians heaved a little sigh of relief from both political and economic turbulence.
The challenges of delivering on the campaign promise of building "A Better Ghana" by restoring national cohesion, consolidating the fledgling democracy, reviving the ailing economy, combating armed robbery and illicit drug trafficking, creating employment opportunities for the youth in particular, keeping the national development agenda on track, among other commitments, now confront the Mills administration.
While the government admits that the going has been generally tough, considering the severe impact of the global economic recession and the bad state of the national economy which it claims to have inherited from the Kufuor administration, it is nevertheless hopeful that the coming year would be a watershed of Ghana’s economic prosperity.
That optimism is bolstered by the prospects of an oil find, which will start flowing in the last quarter of 2010, albeit in small economic measure, and a promising outlook of the agriculture sector, which the 2010 Budget has targeted as the country’s growth pole for 2010.
With these glittering rays, President Mills could afford to look deep into the tunnel and assure Ghanaians that his electoral promise to transform the economy, improve on the living conditions of the people and leave a legacy of "A Better Ghana" will surely be redeemed.
Delivering one of such assurances last October when he paid a courtesy call on the Akuapehene, Oseadeeyo Nana Addo Dankwa III, the President asked Ghanaians to remain steadfast and calm while the government continued to get its act together to put the economy on an even keel and address the challenges facing the nation.
That plea may have been accorded a warm reception, given the short period in government, but with intense pressure coming from within and outside his own party to salvage the nation from economic hardship. With Election 2012 fast approaching, and with his own ambition to go back to the electorate for the renewal of his mandate, President Mills has no other option than to hit the ground, not running as he intimated in his inaugural address last January, but sprinting in 2010.

Politics:
The political temperature within the year under review remained very high, having reached a boiling point during the last electioneering. For the first time in the country’s history, no winner emerged for the presidential election, even after a second round of voting.
It took a third round, mainly in the Tain Constituency for a winner to emerge, but with the narrowest of margins ever recorded in Ghana’s political history.
Many people can easily recall the acrimony, violence, threats and the trading of allegations that characterised the elections, but many others might not be able to envisage what would have happened if the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had been declared winner of the closely contested election, or if President Kufuor had not openly declared his readiness to hand over to whoever was declared winner by the Electoral Commission (EC).
In the first instance, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would surely have done something beyond just writing a ‘Stolen Verdict’, considering the pronouncements of some of its leading members. And in the second instance, the NPP would surely have pursued various options, including a legal action to halt the declaration of the election results.
Had either of the instances prevailed, Ghanaians might be writing and telling a different story today.
The tension, violence and the acrimony that characterised Election 2008 and later replicated in the suspended elections at Akwatia and the Chereponi bye-elections were eary signals that the worst was yet to come, but in all that, the spirit of the Ghanaian prevailed.
The usual crossfire between the two major political parties – the NDC and the NPP – has remained hot since the beginning of the year, but it became more intense occasionally, such as instances when national security operatives and some government officials hunted for and retrieved official vehicles from the custody of former government officials.
That exercise, coupled with the arrest of some former government officials, particularly Messrs Kwadwo Mpiani, Stephen Asamoah-Boateng and Akwasi Osei-Adjei by the operatives of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) generated public furore for a considerable length of time.
One historic event of great significance in the annals of Ghana and, indeed, Africa, which seemed to have doused the boiling and the highly polluted political atmosphere in the course of the year was the visit to Ghana by the first Black President of America, Barack Hussein Obama, who was accompanied by his wife, Michelle Obama, and their two daughters.
The two-day visit by the 44th American President to what the White House described as "one of our most trusted partners in sub-Saharan Africa" last July, provided the basis for a brief, but rare rapprochement among President Mills, former President Kufuor and former President Rawlings as, together, they shared a breakfast table and took photographs with the American first couple.
President Obama’s visit, which was largely influenced by Ghana’s recent exemplary strides in democracy, political stability and good governance, served as a good tonic for national cohesion, but not too long afterwards, the old order of political discordant and acrimony was restored.
This time, however, the pendulum of political friction swung from inter-party (usually between NDC and NPP) to intra-party muscle-flexing, involving some big wigs of the two major political parties, sometimes threatening party unity and cohesion.
With regard to the NDC, the criticism made by Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah about the slow pace of the Mills administration in fulfilling the expectations of NDC faithful in particular and Ghanaians in general, and the reply to same by Mr Ato Ahwoi seemed to threaten party unity and cohesion.
The two leading members of the NDC may have succeeded in adding new terminologies to the country’s political lexicon, such as "Team A and Team B players" and "Pissing in and pissing out", but they may not have succeeded in winning the hearts and minds of their NDC comrades with their style of addressing what is considered to be internal party matters.
Turning the radar on the camp of the NPP, Dr Arthur Kennedy’s critical analysis of why the NPP lost the 2008 elections as captured in his book, Chasing the elephant into the bush, stirred controversy strong enough to rip the party apart.
The resurgence of rivalry between the Akufo-Addo and Alan Kyerematen camps in the contest for the flagbearship of the NPP for Election 2012 also suggested that there could be more turbulent times ahead, to which the party must brace itself.
These intra-party frictions are likely to spill over into 2010 and even intensify as the two dominant political parties prepare for their respective national delegates conference early next year to elect national executives, whose principal job definition would be to deliver victory for their respective parties in Election 2012.
One other issue that dominated media headlines in the course of the year was the scandal involving the immediate-past Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, who allegedly swept his official residence of all household effects on leaving office.
Still in the domain of the legislature, the recommendations made by the Chinery-Hesse Committee regarding the end-of-service benefits of former President Kufuor and his stewards, as well as of those of Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic, till today, seem to be a never-ending controversy.
The circumstances under which the recommendations were approved by Parliament have remained a mystery to date, but what perhaps, might have deepened the controversy was the decision of President Mills to constitute the Ishmael Yamson Committee to review the recommendations of the Chinery-Hesse Committee.

Economy:
Politics may have dominated national discourse within the year, but one other issue that also gained substantial prominence and was a subject of critical analysis and controversy was the state of the nation’s economy.
While the ruling NDC often painted a gloomy picture of the state of the nation’s economy it inherited from the Kufuor administration, the NPP vehemently dismissed those assertions.
For many Ghanaians and other people who cherish objectivity, the concern has not been about whose claim is wholesome, but essentially, about the increasing economic hardship and how to tackle the challenges facing the nation.
Prices of goods and services have gone up significantly in the course of the year, while it has been difficult to tame inflation. While acknowledging that the economy has been rough, the government claims to have stabilised the situation, for which reason it assures Ghanaians of good times ahead.
"Considering the huge challenges the Mills administration faced in almost one year, with inflation skyrocketing and the cedi falling freely, it has done remarkably well in respect of stabilising the economy and bringing the core economic indicators on track," the Vice-President, Mr John Mahama, stated in a Christmas message to Ghanaians.
Besides the facts and figures of macro and micro-economic variables, another issue that attracted enormous public attention was what might be termed “petrol politics’. There was hullabaloo as to whether or not President Mills had made a campaign promise to reduce the price of petroleum products "drastically" and the question of why he did not do so upon assumption of office.

Social:
To a large extent, the social front was generally quiet, except in a few areas, particularly the education sector, which was draped in controversy over whether or not to revert the duration of the senior secondary school programme from four to three years. Whereas the government made a preference for a three-year programme, the opposition NPP defended the four-year duration.
Opinion on the issue was intensely divided, even among the academia and such teaching bodies as the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT).
A National Education Forum held in Accra last May on the issue failed to yield consensus. If anything at all, it only succeeded in giving vent to the flaring emotions and the effusions of participants.
In the end, the advocates of a four-year duration had their say, but the government had its way as it subsequently announced its decision to revert to the three-year programme in line with a commitment made in the NDC manifesto.
One historical moment that graced the year was the centenary birthday celebration of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The occasion, which fell on September 21, was declared as a national holiday, but the decision by President Mills to declare it as Founder’s Day sparked off controversy as some critics of the Danquah-Busia stock contested the claim that Nkrumah was the founder of Ghana.
The critics contended that Ghana’s independence was orchestrated by many nationalists, all of whom ought to be honoured as is normally done for a victorious relay team, instead of just for one person, who was just the anchor man of a relay team to breast the tape. The argument only abated after the celebration.
The decision by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to eject an estimated 45,000 residents of Sodom and Gommorah also gained much prominence during the year as AMA officials, on one hand, and residents of the shanty town and human rights advocates, on the other hand, engaged in verbal crossfire.
Apart from gaining notoriety as a den of armed robbers, Sodom and Gommorah was also considered detrimental to the development and beautification of Accra, particularly the multi-million dollar Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project (KLERP). In the end, the powers that be restrained the AMA from carrying out the ejection exercise.

Conflict & crime:
Although the country was relatively peaceful during the year, the people of Bawku did not have a feel of such an atmosphere as the intractable conflict there confined the residents in their homes for long hours under the intermittent curfews imposed on the town.
That followed period skirmishes in the town, which led to the death of some residents and destruction of properties.
The activities of armed robbers also continued to incite fear in the general public. In some instances, the armed robbers were so daring to have taken the fight to the police, attacking and killing some police personnel as they carried out their operations. The police responded to the challenge with a “shoot-to-kill” posture, gunning down some armed robbers in a few encounters to prove their firepower superiority.
Although the new posture of the police was extensively condemned by human rights advocates, they maintained their resolve, and with the support of the public, took the fight to the armed robbers.
One major issue that cannot elude the memory of Ghanaians in 2009 was the increased involvement of the youth in cyber crime, popularly called ‘Sakawa’. The resort to occultism and other spiritual means by the youth involved in ‘Sakawa’ in their quest to get rich quick, generated widespread furore among the general public.

Sports:
Sports made a huge impact within the year under review, for both bad and good reasons. The alleged scandal of financial misappropriation that rocked former Sports Minister, Alhaji Mubarak Muntaka, leading to his subsequent resignation from office, dominated the dark pages of Ghana sports in the early part of the year.
The alleged scandal proved to be a test case for President Mills’ resolve to be hostile to corruption, particularly by not providing cover for his appointees found to be corrupt. As to whether the President passed the test in the case of Alhaji Muntaka is a matter of opinion for all Ghanaians.
Apart from Alhaji Muntaka’s alleged scandal, the country also suffered some setbacks in sports, with two of its world boxing champions – Joshua Clottey and Joseph Agbeko – losing their titles.
On the flipside, however, there were historic and glorious moments to savour as the national Under-20 team, the Black Satellites, won the FIFA Under-20 World Cup trophy in Egypt last October, making Ghana the first African country to achieve that feat. Earlier in the year, the Black Satellites had also emerged as African champions in the CAF Under-20 tournament.
Just around the same period that the Black Satellites won the Under-20 World Cup, the senior national team, the Black Stars, also made history by becoming the first African country to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa and, significantly, the second time of qualifying for the tournament, after their maiden qualification for Germany 2006.
Qualifying for South Africa 2010 also meant a qualification for the Black Stars for the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Angola this month, January.
The achievements of the Black Satellites and the Black Stars have set the tone for great expectations next year as the Black Stars in particular seek a fifth Africa Cup glory in Angola and thereafter, lead an African onslaught on the World Cup in South Africa next June.
Such also will be the high expectations in all endeavours, which Ghanaians would take into the new year, hoping that 2010 would, indeed, be a watershed of individual and national economic prosperity.

THUMB UP FOR GOVT (Front page) 01-01-10

Story: News Desk Report

GOVERNANCE and economic experts, as well as captains of industry, have given the government high performance ratings for 2009 in its handling of key economic variables and the fight against corruption.
Taking a glance back at 2009 and looking ahead into 2010 in separate interviews with the Daily Graphic, the experts cited the swift manner in which the government dealt with allegations of malfeasance against some of its former ministers, the stabilisation of the economy and fiscal policy direction as some of the key indicators.
They were, however, quick to add that it needed to do more to help cushion the economy.
The President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Nana Owusu Afari, urged the government to institute measures that would promote the growth of Ghanaian industry in 2010, reports Kofi Yeboah.
The call comes after industries had undergone a tough year in 2009, characterised by high inflation, high lending rates, job cuts and the effects of the global economic crunch.
Nana Afari expressed the hope that after stabilising the economy in 2009, the government would release funds into the economy to help industries to grow.
The AGI President suggested to the government to focus on reasonable levels of growth and infrastructure development that would impact positively on the growth of industries.
Nana Afari said after inheriting a big deficit, the government had to embark on a stabilising programme in 2009, for which reason it did not spend much for industries to also benefit.
Furthermore, he said, industries could not grow because high inflation affected the base and prime rates, which pushed lending rates high, thereby reducing cash flow.
According to the AGI President, 2009 was a very tough year because the repercussions of the global financial crisis also had a negative impact on industries.
He said in view of those challenges, some industries had to lay off some of their workers, adding that the situation also made it difficult for others to employ more workers.
Nana Afari said the AGI was holding discussions with the government to reduce the cost of doing business in order to expand the scope of industrial business and create wealth for Ghana to become strong.
Asked how industry was positioning itself to take advantage of opportunities inherent in oil production in the country scheduled to begin next year, Nana Afari said AGI members had high expectations for the emerging oil economy.
He was, however, worried that the country had not yet put in place a legal framework on the oil industry to ensure that local industries benefited adequately from the natural resource.
“If we don’t take time, we cannot position Ghanian industries well to benefit from the oil find,” he cautioned.
An economist, Mr Kwamena Essilfie Adjaye noted that the fiscal policy direction of the government for the year had yielded the expected results, reports Daniel Nkrumah.
He said in respect of the four major macroeconomic indicators, the government managed to get the economy into the direction it wanted.
Commenting on the specific indicators, he said although inflation had gone down from around 18 per cent in October to 16.92 per cent in November 2009, it would be difficult to attain the end-of-period target of 14.6 per cent, going by the trend in previous years.
He said there had consistently been an increase in inflation between November and December, adding that he was not expecting the trend to change.
On interest rates, he explained that because the government had been trying to control its deficit, it tried to limit domestic borrowing.
Mr Adjaye explained that although interest rates were not the best, the government had not contributed to an increase in demand for credit in the domestic banking and financial industry.
He added that the decreases in remittances, as a result of the global financial crisis, were also a contributory factor.
Commenting on the rate of GDP growth, he said the target set by the government had so far not been met, adding that there were indications that the country would grow at a lower rate.
The Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD) lauded the government for leading the crusade against corruption last year, Musah Yahaya Jafaru reports.
It mentioned the manner in which it dealt with the allegation of financial malfeasance against the former Minister of Youth and Sports, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, and the referral of the Mabey & Johnson case involving the former Minister of Health, Dr George Adjah-Sipa Yankey, and a former Minister of State at the Presidency, Mr Baba Kamara, to the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for investigation as high points in the fight against corruption.
The Head of Programmes of CDD, Mr Kojo Asante, who was reviewing political and democratic events in 2009, said Ghana had a President “who wants to take a strong line against corruption”.
He, however, said the government had not done well in putting in place the necessary systems to make corruption unattractive.
For instance, Mr Asante said, although it was mandatory for public officials to declare their assets, there was no mechanism in place to compel them to comply with the directive.
Mr Asante condemned the violence that characterised by-elections in Akwatia and Cheriponi, which he said was perpetrated by foot soldiers.
He attributed the situation to inaction on the part of the police and “political interference with the process of policing”.
Mr Asante expressed worry at the “heavy-handedness” of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) in the handling of suspects and stressed the need for it to be “humane” in dealing with them.