Sunday, December 7, 2014
Elections to define fortunes of NDC in 2016 (Daily Graphic - Thursday, December 4, 2014)
The maxim: “You don’t change a winning team”, will be taken to the electoral lab of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on December 20, this year for a real test.
This will be the second time the party’s congress has had to be moved after the original October 25 date had to be moved to December 13, when a lawsuit was filed against the party by an aggrieved member.
The positions of key incumbent national executive members face strong challenge as the NDC gears up for a national election in Kumasi that will determine the structural integrity of the party and define its fortunes in Election 2016.
The core of the NDC winning team that procured victory for the party in 2008 and 2012 are the Chairman, Dr Kwabena Adjei; the General Secretary, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, and the National Organiser, Mr Yaw Boateng-Gyan.
But even before nominations are opened for the contest, the positions of the chairman and the national organiser are being hotly pursued by pure-bred and formidable ‘Akatamansonians’ whose political credentials are quite hefty.
Dr Adjei faces strong opposition from Mr Kofi Portuphy, Alhaji Huudu Yahaya, and Mr Dan Abodakpi while Mr Boateng-Gyan seeks to ward off team-mate-turned opponent, Kofi Adams, from the national organiser seat.
The three candidates vying for the National Organizer position are – Kofi Adams, Yaw Boateng Gyan (incumbent) and Aboagye Didieye.
Party unity
Speculations that President John Mahama has thrown his weight behind some of the candidates are threatening to create cracks in party unity, as some aspirants are obviously not enthused about such developments.
Mr Nketia who is being challenged by Abdullah Ishaq Farrakhan for his general secretary seat, has already alluded to what could be described as a resignation notice if the current winning team is substantially ‘dismembered’ with the infusion of new faces.
“If I know that team will be a useless endeavour, I will not waste my time,” he said at the campaign launch of Dr Adjei at the KAMA Conference Centre in Accra recently.
Chairmanship
Having won and retained his seat in two consecutive national executive elections and also led the NDC to two consecutive election victories, Dr Adjei may possess a potent winning formula that could help tighten his grip on the chairmanship.
Perhaps, it is based on this conviction that even long before the horses emerged from their stables for the ‘NDC 2014 Furlong’, Dr Adjei had declared (about 10 months ago) that he was chairman for life.
“I will win the next elections hands down…. We have not struggled in vain, and I would not leave the scene for a novice; I ought to complete what I began,” he was reported to have told journalists at the launch of Fiesta TV and the ‘One Ghana Project in Accra in December 2013.
This declaration should be troubling to those seeking to wrest the chairmanship from Dr Adjei and they would require a superior strategy to overpower the man who knows “so many ways to kill a cat”.
But the incumbent chairman may find a ‘stubborn cat’ in Alhaji Yahaya, who as the first general secretary of the NDC and currently a national vice chairman, knows the expanse of the political trenches so well to manoeuvre his way through the contest.
Alhaji Yahaya is also part of the NDC winning team, except that this time round, he is seeking to operate, not from the midfield but as a striker to lead the party’s onslaught for victory in Election 2016.
He pledges to work with the constitution of the party and offer hard work, open, accountable and transparent leadership.
As a former minister of state and Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Abodakpi is not a political minnow, and so he is not in the race to add up to numbers but to give the other contestants a good run for their money.
The former Keta MP and Ghana High Commissioner to Malaysia has a simple mission: To reorganise the NDC for sustained victory.
With the seeming cracks emerging in the NDC, exemplified in the numerous court cases on election-related matters, Mr Portuphy may bring his rich experience in disaster management to bear on party unity, as he seeks to become national chairman of the party.
The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) boss is reported to be the President’s handpick, but with his rich experience in party matters, Mr Portuphy is a veritable candidate in his own right to contest for the highest position of the NDC.
National Organiser
Like the NADMO boss, Mr Adams is touted as the President’s ticket for the national organiser position currently held by Mr Boateng-Gyan.
But Mr Adam is unruffled by that tag, pointing out that “the President is for everybody, including me”.
In a telephone conversation from a base he describes as “the bush”, he told the Daily Graphic that he was closely in touch with the grass roots of the party and that if his opponent was similarly in touch with the grass roots, he would have thrown in the towel by now.
But with incumbency advantage and the backing of outspoken general secretary of the party, Mr Boateng-Gyan holds a trump card with which he could play his opponent out of the contest.
Celebrating 10 years at Graphic: Notes from my scribbling pad (Daily Graphic - Monday, May 5, 2014)
I have experienced good and bad times, high and low moments, periods of transformation and deterioration, professionalism and politics at play and appreciations and disappointments; all in 10 years of joining the Graphic family.
I joined the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) on May 3, 2004, with high hopes and great expectations.
Working with the Daily Graphic, the flagship newspaper of the GCGL and arguably the leading newspaper in Ghana, is the dream of many a young journalist.
So even as I was engaged at an equally high-esteem media organisation (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation – Radio News) and doing pretty well on the job, I always nurtured an inordinate desire to work with the Daily Graphic.
When I was invited to write an examination as a first step towards the job offer, my first impression of the company was A+-rated.
While sitting in the ‘examination room’, a lady walked in to serve the candidates snacks. My mind was not on food then but that gesture alone swept me off my feet because it was a virtue I found very unique. I was not there to be fed but that gesture spoke volumes! It showed a caring organisation.
So as soon as I left the ‘examination room’, I dashed home to draft my resignation letter to GBC, even before Graphic, invited me for an interview and subsequently offered me a job.
Indeed, it was a tactical move, considering the difference between the figures on my Graphic and GBC payslips and the fact that one year after joining the company, I got married something I couldn’t do in almost eight years at GBC because my salary then did not permit such an ‘extravagant’ lifestyle.
Good and bad times
Those were the good times at Graphic when one worked without thinking about salary and welfare matters. Morale of many workers, including myself, was very high.
But as I write today, a few months after the end of a protracted salary negotiation, one can hardly finish doing a task without discussing salary and/or welfare matters.
The morale of many workers now has sunk very low; some have become rather apathetic and distressed because they think they are not getting a fair share of the Graphic cake.
If any outsider thought Graphic was a land flowing with milk and honey, I believe many workers would tell him/her that it’s now a land grown with thorns and thistles.
Transformation and deterioration
Over the past 10 years, Graphic has undergone significant transformation. The completion of the headquarters building transformed the newsroom into a beautiful, refreshing ambiance that makes working quite pleasant.
The installation of the new printing press and the redesigning of the Daily Graphic and other newspaper brands in the stable have had positive impact on the appeal of the newspapers.
However, some of the transformations have caused deterioration to the company rather than enhanced it.
One of such transformations is the installation of a clock-in machine at the editorial department, which has been a vexed issue of passionate discourse.
The justification for the clock-in machine, I understand, is to check indiscipline in respect of lateness and absenteeism.
But my argument is that at editorial (where the ultimate job is to get stories that sell the newspaper), dealing with lateness and absenteeism are mere functions of strong supervision.
So those at the helm of editorial who fail to exercise their charges effectively must be held accountable for their weaknesses instead of abdicating their responsibility to a machine.
The only reason why discipline was the order of the ‘good old days’ that some people make quick reference to every time was not because machines were regulating the affairs of editorial staff; it was simply because supervision was strong and reporters felt happy to support their leaders to succeed! There was no apathy because they saw their leaders doing things in the interest of the job.
Be that as it may, the only good that the clock-in machine has served at editorial is that many staff clock-in just to satisfy all righteousness.
Thereafter, they may not be at post or when they are, they may only be pretending to be working for their payslip. That can only happen in the face of weak supervision. For me, so long as the reporter brings in good stories regularly, his absence from the office does not matter; after all journalism is not an armchair job!
Professionalism and politics
The Daily Graphic has maintained high professional standards over the years and many people hold it as the standard in the newspaper industry in Ghana.
That is why, understandably, anytime the Daily Graphic falters in upholding that banner, some people tend to be so unforgiving of the newspaper.
Although the Daily Graphic may not have been absolutely perfect in the discharge of an arduous task, generally, it has performed creditably in maintaining a professional balance.
It is never an easy task ensuring, for instance, gender, regional, political and religious balance, as well as satisfying all shades of opinion.
Unfortunately, there are occasions when professionalism is sacrificed for political expediency.
Sometimes, certain stories published in the Daily Graphic are more propaganda than what the mouthpieces of the various political parties would publish just because of submitting to the dictates of politicians.
The 1992 Constitution guarantees the freedoms and independence of the media and Article 162 (4) in particular, insulates editors from governmental control or interference, as well as punishment and or harassment for their editorial opinions, views and content of their publications.
So why should anyone shiver upon receiving a telephone call from a government official or politician?
Turning the Daily Graphic into an appendage or mouthpiece of the government or any political interest will only succeed in damaging the credibility of the newspaper.
Appreciations and disappointments
One of the considerations that inspired me to join the GCGL was its high calibre of journalists I had always admired.
The likes of Joe Aggrey, Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, Frankie Asare-Donkoh, Nanabanyin Dadson, Sammy Okaitey (late), Kofi Akordor, A. B. A. Fuseini, Joe Bradford-Nyinah (late) and George Sydney Abugri were my idols, and I enjoyed reading their stories.
But I doff my hat for three of them – Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, George Sydney Abugri and Kofi Akordor – for their consistency in writing.
The admirable thing about them is that in spite of their official schedules, they find time to write consistently, and I have always looked up to them for inspiration and valuable lessons in the art of writing.
It is good for senior journalists to write and practically demonstrate to the juniors how the job should be done, so that they will have the moral duty to chastise junior reporters if they fail to live up to expectation.
The numerous training sessions organised may be good but they become useless when decisions taken at those sessions become impracticable because same leaders go against those decisions or make it impossible.
In my experience at Graphic, I have been worried about the attitude of some leaders at editorial who never show appreciation for any good thing done.
In this instance, I make two exceptions; first is the late Sammy Okaitey. He showed appreciation for even ordinary things one did.
Second is the Mirror Editor, Janet Quainoo. She will verbally commend you or hand you a commendation letter for every good job done.
Sometimes, verbal commendation or a mere handshake, as the late Okaitey used to do, is enough an appreciation that greatly boosts one’s morale, and that is a demonstration of leadership strength rather than weakness.
Leaders at the editorial department (and other departments at GCGL) must take a cue from the sages that “Gratitude is the least of all virtues but ingratitude is the worst of all vices.”
I appreciate the Deputy Editor of the Daily Graphic, K. K. Inkoom, the Chief Sub Editor, Abigail Bonsu, and the Education and Gender Pages Editor, Salome Donkor, not because they are soft-spoken, but for their fine character of engaging positively with reporters.
Anytime they call me over a story, I always leave their desks richer in knowledge. They let you know why something in the story is wrong or has to be captured differently, and even the person sitting at the next desk will not hear the conversation.
But for some people, even when you are at the Agbogbloshie Market nearby, you’d still hear their call from the newsroom, and before you get to their desks, the whole world would have heard about your ‘crime’.
Such approach to editorial engagement is not an attribute of effective leadership; at best it rather exposes a weakness in leadership.
High and low moments
I have had high moments at Graphic in 10 years and I’m grateful to God for that. The pride of every athlete is the medals that hang on his or her neck after months of hard training.
Likewise, winning five Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) awards in 10 years is very much cherished.
But what gladdens my heart most is the opportunity to travel around the country to tell the stories of the underprivileged in society.
Visiting the deprived Dwarfs Island in the Afram Plains where politicians shudder to visit, except for the votes of the inhabitants in election year; Yeji where scores of children are engaged in fishing on the Volta Lake at the expense of education, and the Agbogbloshie slum in Accra where Olivia Agbenyeke, a brilliant girl whose dream of becoming a medical doctor had been snuffed by poverty until a Daily Graphic publication on her plight ensured her admission to medical school, have been some of my highest moments at Graphic.
On the flip side, however, I have been very disheartened by a legal suit at my instance that caused the GCGL a whopping amount of money.
It is a blemish I will never forget but it is never a setback to my commitment to the cause of helping develop Mother Ghana through my small pen.
Writer’s Email: kofi.yeboah@graphic.com.gh / kofiyebo@yahoo.com
Friday, July 9, 2010
TWO WORLDS ONE EXAM (Centre Spread, 09-07-10)
Majority of the more than 300,000 junior high school (JHS) students across the country, particularly those in public schools, have hardly touched a keyboard or mouse. And they are expected to write the ICT examination with their colleagues in the elite schools next April.
FOR the first time in the annals of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), final year junior high school (JHS) students will be examined on information and communication technology (ICT) next April. The essence of introducing ICT as an examinable subject at the basic education level is to equip the students with the requisite skills in ICT, which serves as one of the driving forces of the government’s development agenda.
Less than nine months from the maiden exam, Graphic set out to assess the level readiness by junior high schools in the country. And with Kofi Yeboah & Emmanuel Bonney in Accra, as well as regional perspectives from Victor Kwawukume in Ho, Vincent Amenuveve in Tamale and Nana Konadu in Koforidua, the discovery was a staggering state of disparity between some well-resourced urban schools and the rural huts and ‘tree unders’ which still serve as public schools for poor communities with no clue to what ICT connotes.
THE maiden ICT examination, which is supposed to be optional initially, should have been written at the last BECE in April 2010, but lack of logistics for a nationwide teaching and learning of the subject prompted the re-scheduling of the examination.
It is now scheduled to be part of papers to be written at the BECE next April, but nine months away from that date, a large number of the more than 300,000 junior high school (JHS) students across the country, particularly public schools, who are expected to write the examination, have hardly touched a keyboard or mouse or even seen a computer before. The closest many of them have come to a computer is in textbooks and on television.
From Accra through Ho to Tamale, heads and teachers of many public basic schools say “we are not ready for it now”. As a result, majority of the final year JHS students expected to write the BECE next April will not take part in the maiden ICT examination.
Their reasons? Unavailability of computers, lack of or irregular power supply and lack of teachers to teach the subject, all of which have conspired to confine final year JHS students in those public schools to oblivion, as their colleagues in private schools in mostly the urban areas, who are well-resourced in respect of logistics, power supply and teachers, anxiously look forward to writing the ICT paper next April.
ICT Policy:
The gap between developed and developing countries has been largely described as a knowledge gap, but lately, it has become more of a technological gap than anything else, considering the huge impact of ICT in turning the world into a global village in which opportunities, dreams and even fantasies are realised just with the click of a computer button. However, lack of logistics (computer and accessories), power supply and human resource in ICT have pushed developing countries, particularly those in Africa, to the fringes of the global village, thus making it difficult for them to savour the enormous opportunities that the ICT age offers.
Realising the need to catch up with development, many developing countries are making ICT a prominent feature in their development agenda. In line with that trend, the Government of Ghana has flagged ICT as a key driving force for the country's development agenda.
"ICT is a critical sector that can galvanise development in the country and therefore, should be given special attention to triumph", the Vice-President, Mr John Mahama stated when he granted audience to a delegation from the Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) in Accra recently.
The establishment of the Kofi Annan-India ICT Centre of Excellence to lead the transformation of Ghana into the ranks of the developed world via ICT, is legendary testimony to the country's commitment to that goal.
One laptop per child:
In its desire to make the ICT revolution very swift, the Kufuor administration saw good reason in the “Catch them young” mantra by introducing the “One child, one laptop” programme in which the government sought to give every child at the basic school level a laptop to enhance teaching and learning of ICT at the basic education level.
A consignment of about 1,000 laptops was initially imported for distribution to pupils in selected basic schools across the country, but that is as far as the policy has been rolled out, according to public information.
It was gathered that months after the deployment of the laptops, the computers had been kept under lock and key in many schools because, according to some of the head teachers, they were awaiting instructions from head office to use them.
Initially, the implementation of the programme itself was tampered with alleged impropriety regarding the purchase and distribution of the laptops.
In spite of the good intentions behind the programme, it has come under criticism with some critics, for instance, wondering whether it is possible for the government to provide one laptop to every school-going child.
Again, the critics find it difficult to come to terms with the implementation of the policy in the rural parts of the country many of which are not connected to the national grid. Those which are connected, do not enjoy regular power supply.
The lack of teachers with requisite skills in ICT has also been pointed out by critics as a major drawback to the implementation of the policy.
According to the Director of Teacher Education Division of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Victor Mante,15 Colleges of Education had been designated as Science, Mathematics and ICT training institutions.The first batch of 1,160 teacher trainees studying those programmes would graduate this year to be deployed to basic schools throughout the country.
Preparation for BECE:
As already indicated, the maiden ICT paper should have been written at this year’s BECE held last April, but that could not be possible due to the aforementioned challenges.
Indeed, the Director of the Basic Educational Unit of the GES, Mr Stephen Adu, admitted that the service had wanted the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to conduct the writing of the ICT at this year’s BECE, but for lack of ICT facilities in most basic schools.
"The examination could not be organised this year as a result of the inadequate deployment of ICT facilities in public basic schools. We are, however, hoping that by next year we would have enough facilities to do the examination," he said.
The Head of the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry of Education, Mr Paul Krampah, gave the assurance that the ICT examination would be written next year. However, it would be optional because not all the schools had ICT teaching and learning facilities.
Currently, the Ministry of Education is working with Intel and Microsoft to provide ICT facilities for more than 10,000 public junior high schools in the country and also train teachers for the course. Textbooks for the course are already available.
Mr Krampah said the rationale for the introduction of the programme was to equip students with the requisite skills and knowledge in ICT to prepare them for the world of work after school.
On the provision of electricity to power the computers and accessories, Mr Krampah, appealed to district assemblies to extend electricity to all the basic schools in their areas.
Public schools:
Despite the assurances and promises, it is very doubtful that many public basic schools will come on board when the maiden ICT paper is written next April.
Checks by the Daily Graphic in the Volta Region, for instance, indicate that many students of mostly public schools do not know about the introduction of ICT at the BECE and even any knowledge of the subject.
At the Ho Police Depot JHS, the Head teacher, Mr Kwadzo Deh, said his students were “not ripe” for the ICT paper because the school did not have computers or an instructor for the ICT subject.
Although he agreed that the introduction of ICT at the BECE was good, he said it was not practicable for his students to write the paper this year.
At the Akrofu-Agorve JHS, the Headmistress, Madam Olivia Dzebre, remarked, “In fact, I can’t say we are ready. You cannot start building a house from the top because we were not introduced to the subject from primary level”.
Lamenting the situation, she said there were no computers for practical work and that the only computer available was kept in a private residence, but the landlord always complained of high electricity bills, thus rendering it ineffective.
When the Daily Graphic visited the Lolobi –Kumasi Catholic JHS, the Headmaster, Mr Emmanuel Agane, said the school did not have computers although theory lessons were taught.
The Headmistress of Kpando St Michael JHS , Madam Claudia Demakpor, said the school was not ready for the ICT examination because it did not have computers, adding that the problem was aggravated by the lack of electricity.
The story was, however, different at the Volta Barracks JHS and the Ho Dome JHS whose respective heads, Mr Louis Yao Tende and Ms Martine Kudolo, claimed their pupils were ready to write the paper because they had been adequately prepared for the examination.
A visit to some public and private basic schools in the Northern Region showed that a lot more needed to be done to improve teaching and learning of ICT in the schools. While some of them have few computers, others did not have any at all.
Mr Ibrahim Abukari Danaa and Madam Suzzy Dugin both primary six and four teachers of Tiyumba Basic School, observed that there was scanty information in ICT textbooks that did not augur well for its teaching and learning.
They said many of the teachers taught the subject “in abstract” because of the non-availability of computers for practical work, and urged policy makers to organise workshops to train teachers who were expected to handle the subject.
The Headmistress of Dahin Sheli School, Madam Beatrice Iddi, stressed the need for standard computers to be provided for her school to facilitate teaching and learning of ICT.
She said although 30 laptops were donated to the school by the government, the authorities of the school were waiting for a letter authorising them to use the facility.
Head teachers of basic schools in the New Juaben Municipality were unanimous that the lack of infrastructure, as well as basic computers and accessories were posing a major challenge to the teaching and learning of ICT in their schools, a situation that could adversely affect the students’ ability to excel in the ICT paper at the next BECE.
At Srodae, a suburb of Koforidua, a computer laboratory built by the New Juaben Municipal Assembly for a cluster of schools in the area is yet to be inaugurated.Until the inauguration of the project, the students of the St Agnes Catholic JHS, Rev. Fr Lemmens Catholic JHS, Eva Marie Catholic JHS and the St John Bosco JHS will have to continue to patronise Internet cafes to have a feel of computers and, indeed, a sense of ICT.
According to the head teachers, if the lack of ICT laboratory and basic computers persisted, “the ability of our students to excel in ICT could be seriously compromised".
Private schools:
The President of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), Mr Godwin Sowah, said he wished all the schools, both public and private would be ready before the commencement of the ICT examination.
“For us the private schools, we are ready for the examination. You know we started teaching ICT long before the government introduced the course at the basic level in public schools”, he said.
It was gathered that some of the private schools were able to establish their ICT infrastructure base through levies imposed on parents.
At the Bediako Institute in Accra, the authorities were convinced that their students would write the examination once it began.
The Principal of the school, Mr Yankson-Sackey, said even when ICT was not a course at the basic level, the school was teaching it.
“For us, we are ready. When they bring the examination today, we will write it,” he emphasised, as he walked a Graphic reporter through an ICT lesson at the school’s computer laboratory.
That assurance notwithstanding, the story in some private basic schools is totally different as the lack of infrastructures and computers is posing challenges to effective teaching and learning of ICT in some of the private JHS.
At the Carol Gray International School in Koforidua, for instance, the head teacher, Mr A. B. Amoatey, said although the school had about 30 computers and a laboratory, the school fees being charged “is not enough to support the maintenance of the computers and its accessories”.
Way forward:
Testimonies by heads of schools and teachers clearly indicate that a lot needs to be done to promote the teaching and learning of ICT, particularly in public basic schools. It is, therefore, imperative for the government to underline the promotion of ICT education with action in order to achieve results. The objective should not be to make the ICT examination optional simply because the necessary infrastructure has not been put in place. Otherwise, the purpose will be defeated because it will only be limited to a few endowed schools in the urban areas.
FOR the first time in the annals of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), final year junior high school (JHS) students will be examined on information and communication technology (ICT) next April. The essence of introducing ICT as an examinable subject at the basic education level is to equip the students with the requisite skills in ICT, which serves as one of the driving forces of the government’s development agenda.
Less than nine months from the maiden exam, Graphic set out to assess the level readiness by junior high schools in the country. And with Kofi Yeboah & Emmanuel Bonney in Accra, as well as regional perspectives from Victor Kwawukume in Ho, Vincent Amenuveve in Tamale and Nana Konadu in Koforidua, the discovery was a staggering state of disparity between some well-resourced urban schools and the rural huts and ‘tree unders’ which still serve as public schools for poor communities with no clue to what ICT connotes.
THE maiden ICT examination, which is supposed to be optional initially, should have been written at the last BECE in April 2010, but lack of logistics for a nationwide teaching and learning of the subject prompted the re-scheduling of the examination.
It is now scheduled to be part of papers to be written at the BECE next April, but nine months away from that date, a large number of the more than 300,000 junior high school (JHS) students across the country, particularly public schools, who are expected to write the examination, have hardly touched a keyboard or mouse or even seen a computer before. The closest many of them have come to a computer is in textbooks and on television.
From Accra through Ho to Tamale, heads and teachers of many public basic schools say “we are not ready for it now”. As a result, majority of the final year JHS students expected to write the BECE next April will not take part in the maiden ICT examination.
Their reasons? Unavailability of computers, lack of or irregular power supply and lack of teachers to teach the subject, all of which have conspired to confine final year JHS students in those public schools to oblivion, as their colleagues in private schools in mostly the urban areas, who are well-resourced in respect of logistics, power supply and teachers, anxiously look forward to writing the ICT paper next April.
ICT Policy:
The gap between developed and developing countries has been largely described as a knowledge gap, but lately, it has become more of a technological gap than anything else, considering the huge impact of ICT in turning the world into a global village in which opportunities, dreams and even fantasies are realised just with the click of a computer button. However, lack of logistics (computer and accessories), power supply and human resource in ICT have pushed developing countries, particularly those in Africa, to the fringes of the global village, thus making it difficult for them to savour the enormous opportunities that the ICT age offers.
Realising the need to catch up with development, many developing countries are making ICT a prominent feature in their development agenda. In line with that trend, the Government of Ghana has flagged ICT as a key driving force for the country's development agenda.
"ICT is a critical sector that can galvanise development in the country and therefore, should be given special attention to triumph", the Vice-President, Mr John Mahama stated when he granted audience to a delegation from the Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) in Accra recently.
The establishment of the Kofi Annan-India ICT Centre of Excellence to lead the transformation of Ghana into the ranks of the developed world via ICT, is legendary testimony to the country's commitment to that goal.
One laptop per child:
In its desire to make the ICT revolution very swift, the Kufuor administration saw good reason in the “Catch them young” mantra by introducing the “One child, one laptop” programme in which the government sought to give every child at the basic school level a laptop to enhance teaching and learning of ICT at the basic education level.
A consignment of about 1,000 laptops was initially imported for distribution to pupils in selected basic schools across the country, but that is as far as the policy has been rolled out, according to public information.
It was gathered that months after the deployment of the laptops, the computers had been kept under lock and key in many schools because, according to some of the head teachers, they were awaiting instructions from head office to use them.
Initially, the implementation of the programme itself was tampered with alleged impropriety regarding the purchase and distribution of the laptops.
In spite of the good intentions behind the programme, it has come under criticism with some critics, for instance, wondering whether it is possible for the government to provide one laptop to every school-going child.
Again, the critics find it difficult to come to terms with the implementation of the policy in the rural parts of the country many of which are not connected to the national grid. Those which are connected, do not enjoy regular power supply.
The lack of teachers with requisite skills in ICT has also been pointed out by critics as a major drawback to the implementation of the policy.
According to the Director of Teacher Education Division of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Victor Mante,15 Colleges of Education had been designated as Science, Mathematics and ICT training institutions.The first batch of 1,160 teacher trainees studying those programmes would graduate this year to be deployed to basic schools throughout the country.
Preparation for BECE:
As already indicated, the maiden ICT paper should have been written at this year’s BECE held last April, but that could not be possible due to the aforementioned challenges.
Indeed, the Director of the Basic Educational Unit of the GES, Mr Stephen Adu, admitted that the service had wanted the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to conduct the writing of the ICT at this year’s BECE, but for lack of ICT facilities in most basic schools.
"The examination could not be organised this year as a result of the inadequate deployment of ICT facilities in public basic schools. We are, however, hoping that by next year we would have enough facilities to do the examination," he said.
The Head of the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry of Education, Mr Paul Krampah, gave the assurance that the ICT examination would be written next year. However, it would be optional because not all the schools had ICT teaching and learning facilities.
Currently, the Ministry of Education is working with Intel and Microsoft to provide ICT facilities for more than 10,000 public junior high schools in the country and also train teachers for the course. Textbooks for the course are already available.
Mr Krampah said the rationale for the introduction of the programme was to equip students with the requisite skills and knowledge in ICT to prepare them for the world of work after school.
On the provision of electricity to power the computers and accessories, Mr Krampah, appealed to district assemblies to extend electricity to all the basic schools in their areas.
Public schools:
Despite the assurances and promises, it is very doubtful that many public basic schools will come on board when the maiden ICT paper is written next April.
Checks by the Daily Graphic in the Volta Region, for instance, indicate that many students of mostly public schools do not know about the introduction of ICT at the BECE and even any knowledge of the subject.
At the Ho Police Depot JHS, the Head teacher, Mr Kwadzo Deh, said his students were “not ripe” for the ICT paper because the school did not have computers or an instructor for the ICT subject.
Although he agreed that the introduction of ICT at the BECE was good, he said it was not practicable for his students to write the paper this year.
At the Akrofu-Agorve JHS, the Headmistress, Madam Olivia Dzebre, remarked, “In fact, I can’t say we are ready. You cannot start building a house from the top because we were not introduced to the subject from primary level”.
Lamenting the situation, she said there were no computers for practical work and that the only computer available was kept in a private residence, but the landlord always complained of high electricity bills, thus rendering it ineffective.
When the Daily Graphic visited the Lolobi –Kumasi Catholic JHS, the Headmaster, Mr Emmanuel Agane, said the school did not have computers although theory lessons were taught.
The Headmistress of Kpando St Michael JHS , Madam Claudia Demakpor, said the school was not ready for the ICT examination because it did not have computers, adding that the problem was aggravated by the lack of electricity.
The story was, however, different at the Volta Barracks JHS and the Ho Dome JHS whose respective heads, Mr Louis Yao Tende and Ms Martine Kudolo, claimed their pupils were ready to write the paper because they had been adequately prepared for the examination.
A visit to some public and private basic schools in the Northern Region showed that a lot more needed to be done to improve teaching and learning of ICT in the schools. While some of them have few computers, others did not have any at all.
Mr Ibrahim Abukari Danaa and Madam Suzzy Dugin both primary six and four teachers of Tiyumba Basic School, observed that there was scanty information in ICT textbooks that did not augur well for its teaching and learning.
They said many of the teachers taught the subject “in abstract” because of the non-availability of computers for practical work, and urged policy makers to organise workshops to train teachers who were expected to handle the subject.
The Headmistress of Dahin Sheli School, Madam Beatrice Iddi, stressed the need for standard computers to be provided for her school to facilitate teaching and learning of ICT.
She said although 30 laptops were donated to the school by the government, the authorities of the school were waiting for a letter authorising them to use the facility.
Head teachers of basic schools in the New Juaben Municipality were unanimous that the lack of infrastructure, as well as basic computers and accessories were posing a major challenge to the teaching and learning of ICT in their schools, a situation that could adversely affect the students’ ability to excel in the ICT paper at the next BECE.
At Srodae, a suburb of Koforidua, a computer laboratory built by the New Juaben Municipal Assembly for a cluster of schools in the area is yet to be inaugurated.Until the inauguration of the project, the students of the St Agnes Catholic JHS, Rev. Fr Lemmens Catholic JHS, Eva Marie Catholic JHS and the St John Bosco JHS will have to continue to patronise Internet cafes to have a feel of computers and, indeed, a sense of ICT.
According to the head teachers, if the lack of ICT laboratory and basic computers persisted, “the ability of our students to excel in ICT could be seriously compromised".
Private schools:
The President of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), Mr Godwin Sowah, said he wished all the schools, both public and private would be ready before the commencement of the ICT examination.
“For us the private schools, we are ready for the examination. You know we started teaching ICT long before the government introduced the course at the basic level in public schools”, he said.
It was gathered that some of the private schools were able to establish their ICT infrastructure base through levies imposed on parents.
At the Bediako Institute in Accra, the authorities were convinced that their students would write the examination once it began.
The Principal of the school, Mr Yankson-Sackey, said even when ICT was not a course at the basic level, the school was teaching it.
“For us, we are ready. When they bring the examination today, we will write it,” he emphasised, as he walked a Graphic reporter through an ICT lesson at the school’s computer laboratory.
That assurance notwithstanding, the story in some private basic schools is totally different as the lack of infrastructures and computers is posing challenges to effective teaching and learning of ICT in some of the private JHS.
At the Carol Gray International School in Koforidua, for instance, the head teacher, Mr A. B. Amoatey, said although the school had about 30 computers and a laboratory, the school fees being charged “is not enough to support the maintenance of the computers and its accessories”.
Way forward:
Testimonies by heads of schools and teachers clearly indicate that a lot needs to be done to promote the teaching and learning of ICT, particularly in public basic schools. It is, therefore, imperative for the government to underline the promotion of ICT education with action in order to achieve results. The objective should not be to make the ICT examination optional simply because the necessary infrastructure has not been put in place. Otherwise, the purpose will be defeated because it will only be limited to a few endowed schools in the urban areas.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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