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Member of the NDC Manifesto Committee on Governance, Seth Ofori, has described the level of infrastructure projects executed under the previous NDC government led by John Dramani Mahama as unprecedented
According to him, the level of development projects recorded under the Mahama regime demonstrates his (Mahama) might and leadership qualities as compared to that of the NPP’s.
Responding to some allegations raised by some members of the governing New Patriotic Party(NPP) after NDC launched its 2020 Manifesto on Monday on Atinka AM Drive hosted by Ekourba Gyasi, Mr. Ofori, challenged members of the NPP to come with proof of any developmental projects being undertaken by the current government.
“Ghanaians cannot underrate the unprecedented infrastructure projects President John Dramani Mahama provided nationwide,” he said.
Commenting on the fight against corruption, Mr. Seth Ofori noted that, the next NDC Government will not tolerate corrupt officials and nepotism.
“ We are making it clear before we come to power that, John Mahama’s next Government doesn’t need any corrupt person and so therefore if any of our members plans to engage in any corrupt act, then you better find another party”
“We recall that, in 2016, the NPP and the then Flagbearer tagged President John Mahama and his Officials as corrupt but since they [NPP] came in power, they have not been able to identify and prosecute any corrupt government official under the erstwhile government” he added.
Psychologist and lecturer at the University of Ghana, Emmanuel Assampong has called for the decriminalization of suicide.
Emanuel Assampong’s statement is in line with the commemoration of the 2020 World suicide Prevention Day.
The 2020 theme for the commemoration, “Working Together to Prevent Suicide” seeks to call the attention of stakeholders to the urgent need to contribute to the decriminalization of the prevention of suicides.
Over 800,000 people take their lives annually, according to available statistics at the World Health Organization (WHO).
Speaking in an interview with Ekourba Gyasi on Atinka FM’s AM Drive, Mr Assampong said suicidal thoughts are classified as mental illness which should not be criminalized.
According to Act 29 section 57, subsection 2 of the Consolidation of Criminal
Code (1960), “whoever attempts to commit suicide shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”
Ghanaian law also criminalizes the abetment of suicide. According to Act 29, section 57, subsection 1 of the penal code, “Whoever abets the commission of suicide by any person shall whether or not the suicide be actually committed, be guilty of first degree felony.”
“When people have Malaria, we take them to the hospital and not the police station. I strongly believe that laws on suicide should not be criminalized, but persons who come out of suicidal thoughts should be taken through some social interventions to make prevent them from going through a similar phase in the future”, he added.
He cautioned the general public to comfort and assist suicide victims who do not get help after their first attempt because more often than not, these persons when left unattended to, try hard to succeed at the next attempt.
The First Lady of the Republic, Mrs Rebecca Naa Okaikor Akufo-Addo has donated assorted medical items to the Ho Municipal Hospital, as part of the Rebecca Foundation’s mission to support the health sector.
The items included bed sheets, diapers, blankets, nose masks, Sanitizers, and hospital beds.
Making the presentation, Mrs, Akufo-Addo said the Rebecca Foundation, has since 2017 been working to complement government’s efforts to improve the health sector with specific focus on the health of Ghanaian women and children.
According to her, the Rebecca Foundation has donated medical equipment and consumables, to all sixteen regions in the country, renovated health facilities including the Osu Government Maternity Home, sponsored surgeries and fully funded the construction of a Paediatric Intensive Care unit and a Mother and Baby unit at the and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi.
She emphasised that the health of women and children will always be her priority and expressed the readiness of the Rebecca Foundation to work with other organizations and individuals to deliver quality healthcare to women and children.
Receiving the items, Head of the Ho Municipal Hospital, Dr Lawrence Kumi, expressed gratitude to the First Lady, stating that the donation was timely as the facility was in need of assistance to enhance its health delivery.
Present to witness the donation were the Volta Regional Minister, Hon. Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, Deputy Volta Regional Minister Hon. Johnson Avuletey, MCE for Ho Central Hon. Prosper Pi-Bansah, former Vice Chairperson of the NPP Mrs. Agnes Okudzeto, and Executive Director of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI), Mrs. Mawusi Awity.
Greece is sending three ships to help house thousands of migrants sleeping rough on the island of Lesbos after fire destroyed their overcrowded camp.
For a second night families slept on roads, and in fields and car parks after fleeing Moria camp, where about 13,000 had been living in squalor.
A blaze engulfed Moria camp on Tuesday night, then another wiped out any remaining tents on Wednesday.
About 400 teenagers and children have been flown to mainland Greece.
The Greek authorities say a ferry is on its way to provide shelter, along with two naval vessels.
Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said about 2,000 people would be temporarily sheltered aboard the ships.But he also said authorities were working to provide emergency accommodation near the devastated Moria camp site.
Migrant families left with nothing
Bethany Bell, BBC News, Lesbos
Along the road from the burnt-out Moria camp groups of migrants sit at the kerbside and under olive trees. Some are carrying small bags, others are pushing shopping trolleys filled with blankets.
One woman from Afghanistan held her baby girl, born 25 days ago. She said she and her family had spent the night out in the open, as the police had not let them return to Moria.
She said no one had brought them either food or water.
A few steps away in the blazing sun, a Syrian woman fed her baby from a bottle. Police have set up roadblocks preventing refugees from leaving the area to go towards the main town, Mytilene, and the port.
When one migrant approached them, the police shouted “Go back, Covid, Covid!” A young Afghan boy hunched his shoulders and frowned. “Lesbos no good,” he said.
An eight-year-old barefoot Congolese girl told Reuters news agency she was hungry and “our home burned, my shoes burned, we don’t have food, no water”.
She had slept at the roadside with her mother Natzy Malala, who has a newborn infant. “There is no food, no milk for the baby,” Natzy Malala said.
Witnesses have told the BBC that three people died in the fire but the Greek migration minister said there had been “no casualties, no loss of life”.
He said that some people were returning to “safe areas” near the Moria camp, which was only designed to hold 3,000 people.
Mr Mitarachi said tensions had been running high in the camp because a 15-day quarantine had been imposed after a migrant tested positive for coronavirus last week.
image captionAid workers fear many migrants are now scattered across the island
What happened at Moria?
Fires broke out in more than three places in a short space of time, local fire chief Konstantinos Theofilopoulos told state television channel ERT.
Some protesting migrants hindered firefighters who tried to tackle the flames, he said.
The main blaze, which was initially fanned by high winds, was put out by Wednesday morning. Some 20 firefighters, 10 fire engines and a helicopter were sent to the scene.
image captionMigrants fleeing the camp attempted to save some of their belongings
The incident occurred just hours after reports that 35 people had tested positive for Covid-19 at the Moria camp.
Authorities placed the facility under quarantine last week after a Somali migrant was confirmed to have contracted coronavirus.Mr Mitarachi said the fires “began with the asylum seekers because of the quarantine imposed”.
Some of those infected with the virus had reportedly refused to move into isolation with their families.
Mr Mitarachi did not say, however, that the fires were a deliberate act of arson aimed at destroying the camp.
But some migrants told BBC Persian that the fire had broken out after scuffles between migrants and Greek forces at the camp.
image captionContainers and tents used to shelter migrants at the Moria camp were completely destroyed
Many migrants then attempted to carry their belongings to the port town of Mytilene but police had blocked roads. Others were reportedly attacked by locals as they tried to pass through a nearby village.
What has the reaction been?
A state of emergency has been declared and several ministers have been sent to Lesbos to assess the situation.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said “the situation in Moria cannot go on, because it is simultaneously a public health and national security issue”.
The EU has offered to help with the response. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the main priority was “the safety of those left without shelter”.
An overflow site – the Kara Tepe Refugee Camp – has since been built but there is still not enough space to accommodate all arrivals.
For years, thousands of people who arrived on Lesbos were placed in the camp and could not leave until their asylum application was processed on the mainland – a slow, bureaucratic process.
The EU has tried to resettle migrants among different member states, but governments across the bloc have rejected different proposals, and migrants have waited in squalid conditions.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has cut the sod for the construction of a solid waste treatment facility at Fiaso in the Techiman South Municipal of the Bono East Region.
The sod-cutting ceremony, which came off Wednesday (September 9, 2020), was graced by the Ministers of Bono East Region, Kofi Amoakohene, Sanitation and Water Resources, Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), Dr Joseph Siaw-Agyepong, Paramount Chief of Techiman, Oseadeyo Ekumfi-Ameyaw IV, and the Queen mother of Fiaso, Ohemaa Mariama.
It formed part of the President’s two-day tour in the Bono East Region.
The 15-million Euro project, which is expected to be completed within four months, is under a partnership between Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL) and its private sector partners and the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR).
When completed, the plant will have facilities including plastic waste recycling, finished products and spare parts, compost workshop, sorting workshop and an office building.
The rest are restaurant, weighing bridge, recycling plant, washing bay, skills training scavengers, clinic and a laboratory.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Executive Chairman of JGC, who also doubles as the CEO of ZGL, Dr Joseph Siaw-Agyepong, revealed that the plant will create 75 and 250 direct and indirect jobs respectively.
“…with the President performing the sod-cutting ceremony, we are starting the construction immediately. All the machines are ready to facilitate the project,” he said.
He thanked the chiefs and people of Techiman and Fiaso for making available a 100-acre land for his company to construct the plant on.
According to him, eight (8) districts in the region will bring their solid waste to the facility.
These districts, he said, include Techiman Municipal, Techiman North and South, Nkoranza North and South, Kintampo South and North, and Wenchi.
“This solid waste facility has the capacity to do sorting, process waste into fertilisers, plastics among others,” he said.
Dr Siaw-Agyepong indicated that what was driving his company to construct waste treatment facilities across the country was the President’s vision to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa, and by extension the whole country.
In this vein, he commended the President for setting up a sanitation ministry to take care of the country’s sanitation needs.
He further used the opportunity to congratulate the President for his appointment as the ECOWAS Chairman.
For her part, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, entreated the citizens in the region to refrain from practices such as open defecation and indiscriminate dumping of refuse, especially into the drains.
She gave a firm assurance that her ministry was in support of Zoomlion’s initiative to construct waste treatment facilities in all the 16 regions.
She encouraged other private waste companies to come on board and support the government in addressing the sanitation challenges in the country.
According to Madam Dapaah, a similar project would be commissioned on Sunday (September 13, 2020) in Goaso in the Ahafo Region.
The Deputy Minister of Heath and Member of Parliament for Ledzokuku, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye has launched the ‘Dr On Call Programme’ to support the primary health needs of the people in his community.
The ‘Dr On Call programme’ would allow a medical post/KIOSK that has a community nurse at post attend to basic health conditions like malaria and Hypertension which continue to kill thousands of Ghanaians, especially in rural or urban poor communities, where people sometimes avoid health facilities as a result of poverty.
“It is my objective to have one Medical kiosk in all Electoral areas in the Ledzokuku Constituency. You get attended to without any attendance card or charge, with or without health insurance,” he sated.
The MP also made it known that,”The idea is to let the citizen receive informed advice on Medical issues rather than go for pedestrian consultation; consultations that often aggravate the condition of the patient rather than providing healing.”
He stated that the nurses in each medical post would have the access to doctors who will be on phone to give directions where necessary, hence the name “Dr On Call Programme/ Initiative”.
“It is my ambition that very soon, this programme which brings healthcare to a level further down the CHPS level of care would serve as the foundation for the roll out of a National ONE ELECTORAL AREA, ONE MEDICAL POST POLICY,” he stated.
Dr Okoe Boye added that,”Big dreams usually start small and at unknown places like Teshie Sangonaa in theLedzokukuConstituency, where the Teshie Sango Lagoon embraces the Atlantic Ocean. Let’s keep the mask on, the virus must be defeated.”
A Political Science Lecturer at the Methodist University College, Dr Bonsu Osei-Wusu, has challenged Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama to come clear on the extension of the Free SHS policy to private schools as stated in their manifesto.
He was of the view that although the NDC has promised a lot in their ‘People’s Manifesto’, it is not possible to implement most of the promises, particularly education.
Speaking with Nana Owusu Nkrumah on Atinka TV’s Morning show, Ghana Nie, Dr Bonsu Osei-Wusu opined that there will be complications in trying to implement most of the things promised by the NDC, challenging John Mahama to explain how the party intends to fund the extension of free SHS to private schools.
“The money government spends on government schools cannot cater for those in private schools, because those in private schools pay feeding fee, and so if you say you are extending free SHS to the private schools, does it mean they will pay only the fees for them or pay for them as it is being done with public schools? They should come and answer these question,” he said.
He also noted that before the NPP government said it would implement the Free SHS policy, the NDC opposed it, stating that it was not feasible and therefore it becomes questionable if they say they will extend something which they claimed was not possible to private schools.
“Before free SHS, the NDC said it was not feasible. When the free SHS came, they complained that it was too expensive and that government was using all its money to fund it and had neglected other areas; if you are saying only the free SHS is expensive and now you want to extend it to private schools and tertiary it is questionable,” he said.
Commenting on the 50 percent off tertiary school fees, Dr Bonsu Osei-Wusu quizzed, “Even 10 percent of tertiary fees is more than the school fees of SHS, and now you are saying you are going to pay 50 percent and add laptop and tablet. Does it mean that the 50 percent off school fees will also be extended to private schools?”
Dr Bonsu Osei-Wusu suggested that instead of providing laptops and tablets to tertiary students, the NDC should rather focus of supporting tertiary institutions with accommodation since that has become their major problem.
“Did they consult the tertiary institutions on that, because the major problem of tertiary institutions is accommodation, and if you look at the University of Ghana alone they are about 40, 000. Due to free SHS, those who will come the first year is expected to be more and if you want to give everybody a laptop. I believe if you use the money to solve accommodation issues, it will be better and the students will appreciate it more than the laptops because some are still struggling with accommodation,” he added.
On other sectors, he said both have been presidents before so people can weigh the two parties to determine what they can do and vote for any based on their strength.
The CEO of MTN Ghana Selorm Adadevoh says the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be far reaching than was anticipated at the beginning of the year.
Mr. Adadevoh says the company has invested a lot of resources which is estimated to cost around GHS100 million to guarantee the safety and protection of staff and customers and to support government to cope with the global pandemic.
Speaking at the 2020 edition of the Annual Media and Stakeholder Forum, the CEO of MTN Ghana, announced that MTN Ghana along with the MTN Ghana Foundation has done a lot to make life more comfortable for its various stakeholders.
MTN invested about GHS 29 Million to provide the required measures to keep staff and the working environment safe. An additional GHS 72 Million have been spent on interventions that have impacted Customers whilst GHS 6 Million have been spent on initiatives to support government.
Specific interventions carried out by MTN Ghana include:
· Supply of PPE for all MTN frontline staff
· Provision of relevant tools to enable about 90% of staff work from home
· Provision of 45 buses to transport MTN frontline staff to their work locations
· Boosting Network resilience (50% increase in international bandwidth, 100 new sites); to support work from home, online school, entertainment and other digital activities.
· Provision of Free access to over 200 educational websites for several educational institutions
· Offer of Free MoMo P2P transfers up to GHS100 daily from March till date
· Provision of Free access (zero rate) of the Smart Workplace portal for government workers
· Donation of GhS5m worth of PPEs for frontline health workers and 4 PCR machines
· Donation of digital equipment to Noguchi Memorial worth GHS42,000; and
· Distribution of 85,000 face masks to various hospitals and clinics nationwide
· Two-month behavioral change campaign urging people to wear face mask. (Be Wise and Wear it for me campaign).
Selorm Adadevoh also used the opportunity to confirm that MTN Ghana was on track to become a digital operator by the end of 2023.
The MTN Editors and Stakeholder Forum is held across the country annually to engage senior media practitioners and stakeholders of the business to share insights into the business operations for the year and for the future.
Similar virtual forums will be held with the media in other parts of the country.
I wrote an article for the BBC back in 2010 that I called Flying Insults. This is how I started that article: “This is a difficult subject for me. But there is so much bad language flying around in Ghana these days it is impossible to ignore the subject of insults. It is in the area of political and public discourse that things appear to be getting out of hand.” I would crave your indulgence if I lift portions from that article as I try to write about insults in our political sphere today, 10 years later. As the French would say, plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
The President had what I call a face to face moment with a delegation from the Catholic Bishops Conference as he urged them and everybody else who has been calling for a clean campaign devoid of insults to be specific and call out those who insult.
In other words, if Elizabeth Ohene insults Kwasi Anyomi Ohene, call her out and don’t say people should not insult.
President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo cited the example of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flag bearer, former President John Mahama, endorsing a reference to Akyem Sakawa.
Mr Mahama has since then spoken on the subject and far from offering an apology for his choice of words, or hiding behind a claim of his words being misrepresented or taken out of context, he felt he was only matching President Akufo-Addo boot for boot in the area of insults.
According to Mr Mahama, President Akufo-Addo long ago lost the right to complain about insults because he had insulted and regularly insults people. Mr Mahama cited as evidence to back his claim that while in opposition, Akufo-Addo had called the then President Atta Mills Dr Dolittle and since becoming president, he calls his opponents naysayers and Jeremiahs.
Closer look
Being something of an expert on insults, I have been taking a closer look at these insults. President Mills was called Dr Dolittle. I start with the literal, obvious meaning of the word, Dolittle. So I break up the offending word; a President was being accused of doing little, he was not busy solving Ghana’s problems.
Since President Mills is sadly no longer with us, one has to be careful and not say anything hurtful about him, but I don’t think a description of little activity during his presidency can be taken as an insult.
In other words, it is like saying Elizabeth Ohene is 75 years old; it is not an insult.
Then it occurred to me that maybe Mr Mahama was taking the literary reference of Dolittle in George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion in which we have the characters of Eliza Dolittle and her father Alfred Dolittle.
Granted that this is a play that premiered in London in 1913, there isn’t much in there to get upset about the Dolittle father and daughter characters.
So, I moved to the more popular rendition of the play, in the film, My Fair Lady, based on Pygmalion. That was a beautiful musical and the Dolittle characters were charming. Calling someone after them would not constitute an insult.
It is like saying an article written last year which had no reactions will bring the house down when the same article is published today.
I later discovered there has been a Dr Dolittle Family/Adventure film released in January 2020, but whatever happened in that film cannot be part of the present conversation.
Naysayers
President Akufo-Addo calls his critics Naysayers and Jeremiahs. According to the dictionary, a Naysayer is a person who criticises, objects to, or opposes something.
The dictionary provides a sentence to illustrate the usage of the word: “He continues to win despite the many naysayers”.
Another example might be: The Free Senior High School (SHS) has been introduced and is working despite the many naysayers. Or the Electoral Commission (EC) compiled a new voters register despite the many naysayers. Can’t see any insult in there.
Akufo-Addo calls his critics Jeremiahs. Here are the meanings of Jeremiah in the dictionary: A major Hebrew prophet of the seventh and sixth centuries and I might add the first name of a former president of the country and a popular first name of many boys since then.
Another meaning says: A person who is pessimistic about the present and foresees a calamitous future. Every press conference held by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the past three and a half years will qualify to be adjudged as such. I thought this precisely was what Mr Mahama had been saying. An insult?
Rough
Maybe Mr Mahama is a man of very sensitive disposition and cannot bear what is called the rough and tumble of politics and that is why he regards Dolittle, Naysayer and Jeremiah as insults.
What about Mr Mahama’s reaction to the President complaints? Akyem Sakawa. President Akufo-Addo is an Akyem. Elizabeth Ohene is an Ewe. There is no argument.
I go to Google to get this meaning of the word sakawa: a Ghanaian term for illegal practices which combine modern internet-based fraud with African traditionalist rituals. The rituals, which are mostly in the form of sacrifices, are intended to spiritually manipulate victims so that the scammer’s fraud is successful.
Flag bearer Mahama is happy to cite an ethnic group and bundle them up as people who perform illegal, Internet-based fraud? And these people combine the fraudulent practice with traditional rituals? And this will match Dolittle, boot for boot, to borrow his terminology? Or will Sakawa be on the same wavelength as Jeremiah?
While he was President, Mr Mahama used to provide the best copy for insults that could be used against him. If someone called Candidate Mahama a dead goat, that would be considered an insult. And if you are looking for an Akyem Sakawa correlation, you should hear Candidate Mahama: “when it comes to unleashing violence, no one can beat us to that”.
And here was Candidate Mahama in the Volta Region during the voter registration exercise. He said the Volta Region people had been specially targeted for military invasion. Earlier during the 2016 election he had said ‘his northern brothers’ such as Bawumia had no future in the New Patriotic Party (NPP). He knows how to insult without even trying.
Mr Mahama has shown he is a walking, breathing, laughing insult.
The writer, Elizabeth Akua Ohene, for the avoidance of all doubts and just in case there is anybody out there who is unaware, is a card-carrying member of the NPP. She is a founder member of the party and served as a Minister of State in the John Kufuor Administration and is currently the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the NPP.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Ghana National Union of Technical Students (GNUTS) has congratulated President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on his appointment as the Chairman for the Economic Community of West Africa States last Monday 7th September, 2020.
“The entire student body and the Leadership of GNUTS wish you well in this new role. We are very hopeful and confidence in you that you will deliver. We pray the Lord Almighty grant you strength and grace for this Mandate,” the GNUTS stated.
President Akufo-Addo was elected at the 57th ECOWAS summit, held in Niamey, the capital of Niger.
West African leaders gathered in the Nigerien capital, Niamey for the 57th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the ECOWAS.
Akufo-Addo on Monday, September 7, 2020 led the Ghanaian delegation to the 57th ECOWAS summit.
This year’s summit will discuss matters pertaining to the COVID-19 situation in West Africa, the ECOWAS Single Currency Programme, and the political impasse in Mali.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, Senegal’s President Macky Sall and Gambia’s President Adama Barrow were among other leaders who traveled to Niamey for the Summit.
