Due to an army of problems we have been unable to provide you with current news from Ghana from October 25 until now. We apologise for this serious failure in the news delivery.
culled from the Ghanaian Chronicle
Mr. Enoch Teye Mensah officially the minister for Youth and Sports, but whose true role in the NDC set-up seems to include plotting and executing acts of vandalism against political opponents, and whose previous atrocities range from kidnapping to organising thugs to confront defenceless protesters, has been let loose once again.
On October 14, Mr. E.T. Mensah led a band of thugs made up of commandos and macho men to brutally assault a number of NPP registration agents at Taifa, a suburb of Accra. This was after Mr. John Amoafo Gyamena a.k.a. 60-61. a known NDC agent resident at Taifa, had reported to the minister that NPP party agents were noting down the names of eligible voters as well as the serial numbers on their registration forms.
One of the registration centres where the minister ordered this barbaric act was a market square adjacent to Taifa tro-tro station where market women, shoppers, passer-by and passengers waiting in long tro-tro queues stared in utter disbelief. One of the victims, 60-year-old James Kofi Baah, whose blood-shot eyes revealed the sordid ordeal, told Chronicle that at about 2.05 p.m. on October 14, three cars - a white Mitsubishi Gallant, AFB 3449, a Nissan Patrol, AFA 3524 and a Toyota Landcruiser with registration number AEB 33133 - pulled up in front of the St. Catherine Market Square registration centre and eight people came out of the vehicles.
He said he identified one of them as Mr. E.T.Mensah and another man as Mr. Kwakye Owusu, Ga District Chief Executive. Another man who claimed to be a BNI agent after asking the registration officer how he was getting on with the exercise asked for the NPP agents. Mr. Baah said: "When I owned up he ordered me to submit the exercise book in which I had been noting down the names and serial numbers and just when I was handing it over to him, I saw Mr. E.T. Mensah wink to the giant-sized man in a blue-black overall outfit who gave me three slaps on the face in rapid succession. The BNI man then asked for my name but when I hesitated, he dipped his hands into my breast pocket and found my name which incidentally was on my registration card in my pocket".
It appeared the minister was not satisfied with the show of vandalism of his commando friend; he drove off at top speed to other registration centres at Taifa. According to Mr. Joshua Anim Boakye, an NPP agent at the Church of Christ registration centre, the commando gave him a slap on the face after he had answered Mr. E.T. Mensah's earlier question that he was the NPP party agent. He said "a moment later, one of the men with the minister collected my exercise book from me and they all drove off." The minister-turned-NEC officer with his entourage visited the Black Child registration centre where as usual the commando performed the ritual and slapped Mr. Kweku Appiagyei, took his exercise book and drove off. An NPP agent at Dunamis registration centre who posed as a PCP agent was, however, spared the ritual but his exercise book was taken from him and so also was an NPP agent at the Achimota Police Station registration centre.
Mr. Adu-Gyamfi, NPP Ga-North constituency chairman, confirmed the story and added that he has lodged a formal complaint with the Achimota police who have given the victims forms to see a medical doctor after which the NPP will pursue the matter. He described the incident as "barbaric" and expressed shock at the minister's lack of decorum adding that "we'll certainly pursue this case in court." A source at the Chimota Police station also confirmed that a formal complaint has been lodged at the station and at the station and an assault charge has been cited. When Chronicle contacted "60-61" to react to the allegation that he informed the NDC that NPP agents were noting down the names and serial numbers of voters, he threatened the reporter thus,"se wo ye barima tese mea, twen me na wubehu" to wit "if you're a man like me wait for me and you'll see." Having heard of his physical assaults I didn't wait but scurried to safty. The personal secretary of the minister heaped insults on me on the phone when I tried to get the minister's comment on the incident. She asked: "why do you always attribute bad things to the minister? If you don't have any better thing to do....let me tell you we have got something doing. So clear off, the minister won't talk to you." And she banged the phone. A minute later, a call from a man who declined to disclose his name but whose voice gave him away told me that "write that story and you'll end up in Nkrumah's grave".
It would be recalled that at a joint NPP-NCP Press Conference a fortnight ago, Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey, NPP National Chairman accused Mr. E. T. Mensah of interfering with the registration exercise. He said opposition party agents at the Ayawaso Constituency reported to Mr. Kwame Pianim that the minister went round and confiscated their notebooks which they were using for cataloguing "anything unusual observed at the registration centres, a practice which did not contravene the electoral laws".
By Amos Safo
The first lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, has come under a barrage of attacks for asserting that Ghana under her husband has a clean human rights record.
Using a recent British Home Office research on Ghana as a reference point, Mrs Rawlings affirmed that Ghana has a clean record so far as human rights are concerned, and that for the first time in Ghana, the NCD government has made laws that support women's right. In an interview which was telecast on GTV last two weeks, the First Lady had also stated authoritatively that her husband won the 1992 presidential elections on a clean sheet. In contrast to this, the opposition has documented evidence of rigging and President Rawlings in his fourth year running is yet to be congratulated.
In a swift reaction of the First Lady's assertion, the two prominent Human Rights Activists, Messrs Kwesi Pratt (Jnr) and Kwaky Baako (Jnr) who are also members of the Alliance for Change, have dismissed her claim, describing it as a blatant lie. Kwesi Pratt who smells human rights abuses even when asleep, described President Rawlings as the worst violator of human rights in Ghana's history. He said even in a constitutional era, more than a thousand people have been detained without charge or trial since 1992. In addition, there have been 246 recorded cases of disappearances in the heat of 31st December Revolution which was led by President Rawlings.
Other instances of abuse of human rights were the introduction of the newspaper licensing law, the Religious Bodies Registration Law and the amendment of the Herbeas Corpus law. Perhaps what infuriated Kwesi Pratt the more was the denial of the people's right to employment through massive retrenchments. A total of 300,000 people have been retrenched since the beginning of the ERP, according to him. On his part, Kwaku Baako described the First Lady's assertion as a dishonest statement which does not reflect the situation on the ground. While not wanting to delve into confiscation of properties, beating and arrest, Mr. Baako recalled the shooting of students at Legon in May 1993. Two years later, in May 1995, the NDC unleashed armed commandos and ACDR's on unarmed demonstrators, killing five and leaving several injured.
In an angry tone, an anonymous caller wondered why Nana Konadu was reviving old wounds when the likes of Captain Ampofo are still languishing in condemned cells without trial. Prof. Adu Boahene, a renowned Human Rights activist refused to comment on the issue: "Sorry I have no comment on this", the aspiring Npp presidential candidate said.
Dr. E.A. Ayerebi-Acquah, Acting Central Regional Minister, successfully dodged Vice-President Kow Nkensen Arkaah at the 37th annual general meeting of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) which ended at Cape Coast on October 8.
The utterances of Vices-President Arkaah seem to be scaring some NDC Ministers including Dr. Ayerebi-Acquah. Consequently, when the GMA invited the Ag. Central Regional Ministers alongside the Vice-President to open the meeting on October 6, neither Dr. Ayerebi-Acquah no his representative honoured the GMA's invitation. Interestingly, the GMA officials, particularly, Professor Dodoo who was honoured together with 11 other medical doctors kept addressing the Ag.Central Regional Minister even though neither he nor his representative was present. A source close to the Ag. Central Reg. Minister, however, told the Ghanaian Chronicle that Dr. Ayerebi-Acquah (himself a medical doctor) decided not to honour the GMA's invitation just because Vice-President Arkaah was billed to give the key note address.
Incidentally, Vice-President Arkaah never fired any verbal political missile at the graceful function. For a start, he only said he was happy to be in the midst of professionals who regard truth as the cardinal principle of their profession. And for the first time, many political observers in Cape Coast expressed surprised at seeing three despatch riders and about 50 armed police men ostensibly guarding the Vice-President.
The Vice-President, however, told the doctors that objections have been raised about private hospitals and clinics contending that "their profit motive improperly influence their decision concerning patient care". He said the most obvious justification for their existence is the appalling shortage of hospital facilities that exist in the country and appealed to the proprietors of such hospitals and clinics to set aside one-day of the week to look after charitable cases, besides taking health-care to poor areas of the communities where such health facilities are located. Regardless of how many factors are responsible for the breakdown in the nation's health system, Mr. Arkaah urged the government to adopt a national health insurance scheme which will enable all Ghanaians to afford the soaring costs of hospital care. He said although an insurance scheme has the major advantage of making medical care affordable there is the danger that with low income levels and the relatively high premiums majority of ordinary Ghanaians might find themselves excluded from the coverage of the scheme.
In a country where salaried workers form only about three percent of the population, he said, there is the danger that an insurance scheme based solely on premium deduction at source will have very limited coverage. Dr. K. Addo-Kuffour, the out-going President of the GMA highlighted the sorry state of the nation's health delivery system and the devastating effect the structural adjustment programme has had on it. He reiterated GMA's recommendation to the international financial institutions to reassess their conditionalities to safeguard the health and general well-being of vulnerable groups in debtor-nations, especially as they affect maternal and child health and basic education.
By Victoria Odoi
Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission, has assured the public that isolated irregularities reported at a few centres during the voters registration exercise cannot corrupt the entire voter roll.
According to him, the factual reports of irregularities even when lumped together do not show any widespread or organised abuse of the system. Dr. Afari-Gyan gave the assurance at a press briefing in Accra Thursday on the just-ended registration exercise against the background of reported shortages and irregularities at many centres. He said despite these reports, only Ashanti, Greater Accra and the Northern regions requested for extra forms and the exercise proceeded smoothly in all other places. He said, however , that the commission is gathering statistics on the number and location of registration centres that were affected for analysis and if found necessary, remedial action would be taken at the appropriate time. The commission, Dr. Afari-Gyan said, will soon begin the scanning of the registration forms and the compilation of the provisional register.
When completed, he disclosed that the provisional register will be exhibited to provide all citizens the opportunity to check any inaccuracies and notify the commission. Additionally, he said, the commission will provide computer and paper copies of the register to each political party for thorough examination so as to bring any inaccuracies to its attention. On the inadequacy of cameras, he explained that even with donor assistance, the country cannot afford to purchase cameras to equal the number of centres. He, however, indicated that though the registration period is over, camera teams will continue to operate until everybody gets photo identity cards.
By Harold Wiredu-Dadzie The Volta River Authority (VRA) is to set up a Lake Traffic Control Unit (LTCU) to take charge of the certification, licensing and policing of private boat operations on the Volta Lake.
The unit, which is expected to be in place early next year, would also monitor, control and eliminate the causes of frequent fatal accidents involving small canoe operators on the lake. Mr. E.A.K. Kalitsi, Chief Executive of the VRA, announced this last Friday during the re-commissioning of the "Yapei Queen", one of the passenger cargo ferrycraft owned by the Volta Lake Transport Company Ltd (VLTC) at Akosombo. The chief executive said the traffic unit would also train local personnel in the basic rudiments of navigation and the construction of safe canoes for use on the lake.
Mr. Kalitsi, who is also the Chairman of the VLTC Board of Directors, said the long-term objectives of the traffic unit would involve charting and demarcation of sailing routes, including the removal of tree stumps on the lake on the approaches to the major centres of canoe operations. He said the establishment of the unit would help the VRA to re-organise its Maritime Services Section, as part of a programme aimed at improving the Volta Lake Transport system.
Mr. Kalitsi praised the management of the VLTC for providing accident-free services since its establishment in the early 70s and urged them to continually improve upon their performance. He disclosed that the VLTC would commission fuel storage reservoirs at Akosombo and Buipe by the end of the year. The commissioning of the reservoirs would enable the VLTC to transport liquid petroleum products to the Brong Ahafo and the northern parts of the country, where over 40,000 cubic metres of fuel is supplied annually. The Managing Director of the VLTC, Mr Kweku Duah, in a brief speech, said it is the expectation of the company to become a major operator in transporting cargo to and from Burkina Faso and other neighbouring countries in the sub-region.
By Faustina Ashirifie
The liberal economic environment created as a result of the economic recovery and structural adjustment programmes began in 1983 and the modest average gross domestic productivity (gdp) growth has propelled ghana on to another phase of her economic development efforts.
With the coming into being of a new Investment Code, Ghana Investment Code, Ghana Investment Promotion centre Act, 1994 (Act 478), under which investment procedures have been streamlined and incentive packages provided, Ghana is now hunting for foreign investments to put the economy on an accelerated path. The fact that President Rawlings himself has undertaken a number of trade and investment promotion trips abroad this year, shows the seriousness Ghana attaches to foreign direct investments, as a sine qua non for a decisive economic take off. Alongside, these efforts have been ministerial level trade and investment missions to some selected countries the last of which took Ghana's message to Switzerland from October 25 to 27.
That mission was designed to create a forum for Swiss and Ghanaian companies, analysts and portfolio managers looking for potential direct investments and expanding trade opportunities, to obtain in-depth and authoritative exposion on Ghana's economic potential.
ENTREPRENEURS
Thus, through an exhibition, a seminar and workshops, the mission was able to propagate Ghana's message of suitable political atmosphere, pursuance of sound and irreversible economic policies, attractive investment climate and ultimately, the fact that the country has opened up prospects for establishing Ghana as a gateway to doing business with the West African sub-Region. At the end of it all, both parties-- the participating potential Swiss
investors and the Ghanaian team agreed that the mission was a worthwhile effort. As Mr. Edgar Rothschild, an official of the organisation for Export Promotion in Switzerland (OSEC) put it", the printed matter for trade promotion is OK but when you see the people behind it, it becomes more effective and helps in achieving quick results, your programme is a big success"'
And, indeed, the fact that some Swiss entrepreneurs met their Ghanaian counterparts on one-to-one basis on the last day of the forum to discuss further, Ghana's investment opportunities, gladdened the hearts of the Ghanaian mission. About 37 potential investors participated in the forum, a number which was seen by the Swiss potential investors themselves as low. "Our number might have been larger if we had been given enough time to prepare", a number of them said and advised that next time round, much more time should be devoted to planning and preparation. This brought to the fore the issue of publicity. It was realised that the mass media were not at all used for the dissemination of information on that important mission. Of course, potential investors who could not be reached through the mail, could have had the information in the major Swiss dailies or the electronic media, if their services had been employed.
It could be argued that no money was allocated for media programmes but that excuse cannot be accepted from any country that is frantically looking for foreign investment. Trade and investment promotion is an expensive venture and Ghana should either do the right thing and reap results or forget it.
COMMON VIEW
It was also learnt from OSEC that some Swiss companies which had intended participating in the programme, had to abandon the idea for lack of information about membership of the mission. Another factor that affected maximum participation, was the inability of the organisers to identify and bring into the picture successful Switzerland-based Ghanaian businessmen. A common view expressed by some members of the Ghanaian team was that an involvement of such people would have raised participation level, since they would have been able to coax their partners of familiar potential investors to participate.
It is important that the potential of foreign-based Ghanaian businessmen is not over-looked or underestimated in Ghana's attempt to attract investment, because their investment decisions could be based not solely on profit motive but also on their sense of nationalism. One wonders whether Ghana's missions abroad have on hand some printed material on all aspects of Ghana's investment potential for distribution. One could easily discern from some of the questions asked that participants did not have beforehand certain basic vital information, which could prepare them to meet the mission. It would be recalled that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last year indicated that it would train some of its personnel to take up investment promotion schedules in the Ghana Embassies.
This gives the impression that not much is being done by the missions to market Ghana abroad in a serious manner. The decision to use Foreign Ministry staff for trade and investment promotion may have emanated from the need to cut cost, but in this era, where international division of labour is the order of the day, it is important to give that schedule not to diplomats but to those who have been trained for the role. Diplomacy has never proved enough for trade and investment promotion for any country. Ghana should learn from the experiences of the South-East Asian countries and adopt more pragmatic approach in her quest to attract foreign investment.
SIZE OF THE MARKET
The truth of the matter is that the size of the Ghanaian market is a bane of the country's effort in attracting foreign investment. The purchasing power of the people (which is currently low) is an important determining factor of the
size of the market for each product, which in turn, influences investment decisions. No wonder the market issue was one of the concerns expressed by a number of the Swiss potential investors, including Mr. Alexander Jost, Senior Vice-President of Nestle, who described it as narrow. The solution to this problem lies in regional integration and the Swiss did not mince words in advising Ghana to spearhead the move towards sub-regional integration.
It is also expedient that Ghana's macro and micro economic policies are well directed towards reducing the cost of living of the people, while efforts are made to improve labour productivity at all levels.
DUAL CITIZENSHIP
Some Ghanaians who are ordinary residents in Switzerland and others who have acquired Swiss citizenship brought up the issue of dual citizenship during the forum. They informed the mission that some of them either own or are partners in some major business concerns in Switzerland and would like to invest in Ghana if they would be made to enjoy the incentives provided Ghanaians under the new investment law. Their message to President Rawlings and parliament was that government should, as matter of urgency, reconsider the constitutional clause relating to dual
citizenship.
From Kwame Asare Boadu, Sunyani
AFTER disappearing for more that three months, the mystery beast at Sunyani resurfaced on Saturday at the suburb of Penkwase, casting doubts about the potency of the rituals performed by the chiefs of Sunyani. The rituals were performed sometime back to ward off the unknown beast, widely believed to be a spirit. But this is the third time that the animal has reappeared to kill sheep.
Its latest victim was a female sheep which was killed near the Nana Bosoma market at Penkwase. As usual, the beast slit open the abdomen and pulled out the intestines of the sheep. There were no traces of blood. The situation had brought fear back to residents who heaved a sigh of relief during the animal's disappearance.
Some of the residents are calling for more rituals, but traditionalists say it is a taboo for such a ritual to be performed more that once. According to some of the resident of the area, they heard dogs barking for well over 20 minutes around 2 a.m. last Saturday, but nobody was bold enough to go out to find out what was happening, until they realised to their horror in the morning, that the "dare devil" had returned.