Month: April 2011

Communication Minister Haruna Iddrisu and Member of Parliament for Tamale South, has mounted a strong defence of the Mills-administration and has warned detractors to back off.

Speaking to students at the Wa Polytechnic, the Minister minced no words in chiding unnamed detractors whose actions he hinted amounted to a subversion of the administration.

His remarks come at a time when the Mills administration has come under an avalanche of criticism, some of which have come from within his own party and from the ex-president Jerry John Rawlings and his wife.

Mrs Rawlings has hinted of her desire to challenge the sitting president in the upcoming presidential primaries of the ruling National Democratic Congress scheduled for July 8 this year.

Even though the Communication Minister did not specifically mention who the detractors of the government are, he was blunt in his statement:

“We will not tolerate a coup maker tomorrow; we will not tolerate a coup yesterday. So if you are dissatisfied with government wait for the end of the mandate of that government. So those of you in a hurry with President Mills in two years, he hasn’t reached his four year term,” he said.

Haruna Iddrisu said President John Mills must be given the space to operate, insisting, “Nobody has the authority to subvert the government.”

The Minister also pledged government’s commitment to administering free and fair elections in 2012.

He said government will support the Electoral Commission with an ICT infrastructure and the institution of a biometric electronic system to eliminate impersonation, double registration, and multiple voting.

Mr Iddrissu said the lessons of Ivory Coast are fresh on the minds of government officials who will not compromise on providing a credible election.

Source: myjoyonline.com

Government says it is hopeful majority of work done in the oil and gas sector will be executed by local indigenes nine years from now.

Government’s target is that by 2020, 90 per cent local content and participation would be realized and last year engaged a consultant from Trinidad to work towards it.

Some have however argued that this will be difficult because not much has been done to build the capacity of Ghanaians.

But Deputy Energy Minister, Inusah Fuseini disagrees.

He said looking at the value chain activities, achieving 90 per cent participation was possible.

“We are training people – because this is a critical natural resource of Ghana – to take over the control and management of those areas because we believe that if we have the requisite skill and manpower taking care of these areas – assuming they are patriotic enough – we should be able to utilize the resource for our own good,” he stated.

Source: Joy News

The Member of Parliament Seth Kwame Acheampong, has expressed confidence in the Ivory Coast President –elect, Alhassan Ouattara, to reconcile the country after the arrest of the beleagued ex President Laurent Gbagbo

The once peaceful West African country has been divided between the north and the south after a terrible civil war broke out on 19th September 2002. Although most of the fighting ended by late 2004, the country remains split in two, with a rebel-held north and a government-held south.

The intransigent Ex President Laurent Gbagbo was captured yesterday after a sustained attack on his residence by forces loyal to Ouattara. He had refused to cede power to the internationally recognized president -elect Alhassan Ouaatrra and held on to power since November 2010.

Mr Ouattara has announced an investigation into Mr Gbagbo, promising him a fair trial and also the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission.

Political watchers are viewing with keen interest how the deeply divided country will be united, others fear Mr Outattara may revenge against Mr Gbagbo which could further deepen the division.

Speaking on Adom FM on Tuesday, the Member Parliament for Mpraeso, Seth Kwame Acheampong, described the decision to establish a truth and reconciliation commission as a step in the right direction which marks the beginning of a journey to re-unite the country.

He noted that it is not in the nature of President Ouattara who is an international statesman to be vindictive adding that with the needed support of both the international community and the Ivorians themselves the difficult task of uniting the country will be achieved.

‘’ Ivory Coast has continued to remain a very polarized country since 2002 which has adversely affected the development of the country and it is important that unity is ensured’’ he said.

Meanwhile the government of Ghana has pledged its support to the people of Ivory Coast as they begin the journey of ensuring a peaceful and united country.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The NDC Member of Parliament for Prestea/Huni-Valley, Francis Adu-Blay Koffie, has slammed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Okonfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for his unsavory comments about Nana Akufo Addo, Presidential Candidate of the NPP.

He said it was unfortunate for a serving civil servant to have engaged in party politics and even go further to malign the NPP Flag bearer.

Professor Ohene Adjei, who was appointed barely a year ago at a meeting with NDC supporters in Kumasi, is reported to have made scathing remarks about Nana Akufo Addo, describing him as a bellicose person who will fight at the least provocation.

The CEO said Nana Akufo Addo must not be voted into power come the 2012 elections as his election will have dire consequences for the development of the Ghana.

His comment has been greeted with a lot of criticisms from section of the public who are against Civil Servants publicly showing their political colors.

The Lepo Wura , Alhaji Mohammed Nuru Deen Jawula received a lot of flak during the 2008 election when he as a Chief Director then, mounted a political platform to campaign for the NPP leading to his exit from the Civil Service.

Speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem show on Tuesday 12th April 2011, the Member of Parliament for Prestea /Huni-Valley, Francis Adu-Blay Koffie, condemned the increasing penchant for some civil servants to publicly display their political affiliation.

“The Chief Executive Officer occupies a very sensitive office, even if his appointment was a political one, he should not have openly show his affiliation with those comments he made, it will be good for him to do his professional job as a doctor rather than doing active politics’’ he said.

He said civil servants by their training are not supposed to be political activist as their duration in office is not affected by change in government and called on other civil servants who intend to do active politics to resign their positions.

Story by: Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Minority Leader in Parliament has slammed the ruling NDC’s early congress decision, saying it is not in the best interest of the country and the sitting President.

In interview with Citi News, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu said President Mills could become a “lame-duck President”(ineffective or disabled), should he lose the presidential ticket of his party at the upcoming Congress in Sunyani.

The Suame MP’s comments is the first to have come from an opposition leader since the National Executive Committee of the NDC chose July 8-10 2011, to elect a candidate to lead the party in the 2012 polls.

The power struggle within the NDC has deepened over the last few months, a development which is considered a threat to the party’s unity and chances in the 2012 polls.

The situation is believed to have informed the party’s decision to pick a leader early enough to minimize the tension.

But Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu says a thorough and dispassionate analysis of the proposal for early congress would have pointed to the NDC leadership that the decision has more disastrous consequences for the party and the country.

“To the extent that people are contesting him in his own party, it should suggest to anybody that as we have been saying in the Minority that things are not going well for us as a nation, then perhaps people should realize that some segment within the NDC agrees with us. In this case however, the reasons they (NDC people) have been giving, differ from our reasons. But clearly, they are not happy with his style of leadership”.

“I think we should be careful with this as a nation because assuming the party in these early times goes to the Congress and President Mills fails to secure the mantle of the party to lead them into election 2012, what would it tell? That yes! What the opposition has been saying is proven to be true”.

“Secondly if the President is treated like that, as human as he is, he will feel betrayed by his own party and he may not invest his time and energy in pushing for his party’s victory. If he demonstrates lethargy or even if it is perceived that the President is being lethargic, it could be dire for him and there could be a conspiracy to shove him off. We should look at all these scenarios.

If it should happen that way the nation will be in turmoil. That is why I am saying that as a nation we should be apprehensive about what is happening within the NDC” he noted.

According to the Minority MP, happenings within the NDC cannot be seen as an internal affair because what happens to the ruling party affects the country at large.

The Minority Leader in providing solutions urged the party’s elders to calm the waters.

“They are ruling and so if anything untoward happens to them and they sneeze, the entire country will catch cold. Let’s be realistic. It is not good to be witnessing a certain Government which is being assaulted by members from his own party. I am not saying the President should always be autocratic. He can be criticized but let’s see how we manage the criticism. And I think the Council of Elders should be able to sit down immediately to forestall any unforeseen unhappy events in the NDC which may affect the entire nation”.

Hon. Mensah Bonsu appealed to the NDC to ensure that even if a transition becomes inevitable, it does not become acrimonious since that will affect the party and the country.

A former Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Prof Kwamena Ahwoi, has said the MP’s share of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) ”is most likely unconstitutional.”

The formula for disbursement of the Common Fund allows MPs to receive four percent of the total allocation to the fund for purposes of initiating development projects in their constituencies. During his days as Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Prof Ahwoi led the piloting of the Common Fund in the 1990s. But now, he says, there is no provision in the 1992 Constitution to defend the decision to allocate part of the fund to Ghanaian lawmakers.

“The future of the MPs Common Fund I think is in doubt,” he stated.

Addressing a workshop on the District Assemblies Common Fund over the weekend, Prof Ahoi disclosed that the decision to allocate part of the fund to MPs in 1997 was as a result of demands from MPs for some form of financial assistance to undertake development projects, but under the control of the MPs to remove the incidence of DCEs “bluffing” them.

“Owusu Acheampong, who was the Majority Leader from the NDC and J H Mensah who was Minority Leader from the NPP side … came to us and told us bluntly that the way the DCEs are bluffing with the fund, if we don’t give them some, they won’t approve the formula (for the sharing of the fund). It was as blatant as that. And I told them that that would be unconstitutional and they said ‘Yes, we know, but we too we need to do some projects in our areas etc’. … It became a big argument, and it was a losing argument, because the battle was being waged by the Majority party, which was my own party, the NDC.”

In order to end the illegality, Prof Ahwoi suggested, and his suggestion adopted in the President’s Sessional Address, that an MP’s Constituency Development Fund be set up, separate from the DACF in order to help the legislators fulfill their commitments to their constituents.

The said fund will be operational by next year and MP will no longer draw funds from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), the immediate past Administrator of the DACF has announced.

The promise to introduce a constituency development fund for MPs was first made in 2009 by President John Mills. Three years on the President has still not honored the promise. But, Mr. Joshua Magnus Nicole told CitiNews after a workshop for members of the Parliamentary Press Corps that but for some delays and administrative challenges, the fund would have begun this year.

Source: citifmonline.com

The Member of Parliament for Adentan, Kojo Adu -Asare says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party will have a successful party congress if the National Executive Council (NEC) go strictly by the party’s constitution.

According to the MP, as custodians it behooves the party executives to live by the letter and spirit of the NDC constitution and also create a level playing ground for all.

The ruling NDC’s has decided to go for an early congress on July 8th 2011to elect a presidential candidate for the 2012 which is expected to end the internal party wrangling that has raged on for several months.

Relationship between ex – President Rawlings and President Attah Mills has not been the best as the former President has mounted a sustained attack at President Mills accusing him of bad governance and superintending over corruption.

The attack by ex- President Rawlings has been rather fierce ever since the former first Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings hinted of her intention to contest President Mills at the party’s congress.

Contributing to a discussion on Peace FM’s morning show, the Member of Parliament for Adentan, Kojo Adu –Asare who expresses concern over the internal feud in the party called on the National Executives not to take sides with the various factions that will be contesting during the elections to ensure a unified party after congress.

‘’They are the very persons who will solve problems emanating from the congress should any such thing arise, and so it is important that they remain neutral’’ he said.

He noted that internal party wrangling is found in any organization including political parties, but what will make the NDC much stronger will be its resolve to work together as a unit.

Hon. Au-Asare also urged the National Executives to create a successive plan so that whoever leads the party in the future will continue to propound the ideals of the NDC party.

Story by: Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Fanteakwa Kwabena Amankwa Asiamah, has welcome government’s decision to breathe life into the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, led mediation talks between the Abudu and Andani factions of the Dagbon chieftaincy dispute.

He said it is heartening that the government has now realized that peace in Dagbon cannot be realized only through the courts but that the Committee on Eminent Chiefs has an important role to play in ending the feud between the two gates.

Vice-President John Dramani Mahama, on the instructions of the president during the weekend, appealed to the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to revive mediation talks between the two factions.

The Otumfuo has been leading a Committee of Eminent Chiefs (CEC) mediating the Dagbon chieftaincy crisis which soared in 2002 resulting in the killing of the Dagbon Overlord, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II.

The Committee, together with the disputants drew a road-map to peace but the Abudus pulled out of the talks, complaining the Andanis had violated the road-map to peace and that Otumfuo and the CEC had failed to enforce the provisions of the road-map.

Speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo show on Monday 11th April, the Member of Parliament for Fanteakwa Kwabena Amankwa Asiamah, while expressing confidence in the ability of the Committee on Eminent Chiefs to amicably settle the dispute that has raged on for the past nine years, however stated that whatever ensured the collapse of the previous talks must be avoided.

He urged representatives from the two gates to have an unyielding faith in the capability of the Committee to achieve peace in Dagbon and called for their maximum co-operation in that regard.

The age –long suspicion between the Andanis and Abudu’s of each other must be jettisoned, the quest for peace may not be that important for the current leaders but very crucial for the young and unborn babies of Dagbon’’ he said.

Hon.Kwabena Amankwah Asiamah called on anyone who can contribute positively to realizing peace in Dagbon not to hesitate but avail himself to the committee as a patriotic citizen.

Story by: Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Some polling station executives in the Tema West Constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have appealed for a free and fair parliamentary primary poll in the Constituency.

They said if the rumpus preceding the impending election of a parliamentary candidate was not resolved it would spell the doom of NPP in the Constituency.

At a press conference, held at Community Two in Tema, at the weekend dubbed: ‘The Dark Days Are here,’ the executives said: “The holding of a fairly contested primary, would be the only antidote to the numerous problems facing members and supporters of the party in the Constituency.”

They recalled that after the vetting of parliamentary candidates on March 27, two aspirants: Mrs Irene Naa Torshie Addo, the sitting Member of Parliament (MP), and Dr Elvis Ebenezer Donkor, a medical practitioner, qualified to go into the contest.

The concerned polling station executives, therefore, said none of the contestants should be frustrated through overt or covert operations.

They recounted events following the last primary in the constituency between the then Majority Leader of Parliament, Mr Abraham Ossei Aidoo, and the current MP, and expressed regret that it left a sharp division in the party and if left unresolved with the current complaints, might eventually lead to the loss of the party’s safe seat in the Tema West.

They alleged that some of the constituency executives had received huge sums of money to embark on a smear campaign against one of the contestants.

This, the concerned polling station executives, who carried placards, predicted, would spell doom in Tema West NPP.

The inscriptions on some of the placards read: “NPP, We Are Not Learning;” “Nana Addo, Open Your Mouth And Say Something;” and “Nana, Your Effort To Be President Is Under Threat.

Source: GNA

Lead counsel for the 15 persons recently acquitted and discharged from charges relating to the murder of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, Overlord of Dagbon, has reiterated the importance for the government to do a thorough investigation before appealing against the court’s ruling.

Atta Akyea, who is MP for Akyem Abuakwa South, says given the way things are, “we are not going to go far” with finding the killers of the overlord of Dagbon, “if we go on like this”.

Lawyer Atta Akyea was speaking on the Big Bite show on Xfm 95.1.

He said “They should check their cases; any case which is politically motivated, which has not got a very solid legal ground, I am afraid, would fail no matter the judge you put there because the judge cannot improve the evidence for you if it is bogus.”

To the ‘learned’ parliamentarian, playing what he calls ‘propaganda’ with the killers of Ya-Na is only going to aggravate an already delicate matter and called for an extensive investigative work to bring the killers to book, stressing that “even Ya-Na would not be happy that the innocent should be brought to Nsawam as [the] killers”.

“You will investigate and come out with accused persons; not guilty persons. When you bring them before the court of law, they are presumed innocent under Article 19 of the constitution; you cannot do anything about that. So therefore, now prove that guilt …, because, the more heinous a crime, the higher the standard of prove.

So you just cannot come out and say that I have arrested people I suppose are the killers; that the judge should rubberstamp it for you. It is not even done in hell; and Ya-Na would not be happy that the innocent should be brought to Nsawam as killers”.

Atta Akyea said it was not strange that the NDC since coming into power had lost almost all of its major court cases because the NDC had constantly made political propaganda with those cases.

Describing as juvenile recent agitations for the arrest and prosecution of some NPP officials, Atta Akyea said so long as the judiciary remained an autonomous body, due process needed to be followed in the arrest and prosecution of officials perceived to be corrupt.

He said a pillar of government was about to fall “if they try to pollute the nation and vilify the judiciary”, adding that the judiciary “is an arm of government and not a ministry”.

With the pressure on government to find the killers of Ya-Na against the backdrop of accusations that the courts were packed with NPP-biased judges, Lawyer Atta Akyea accused the NDC of being guilty of the exact thing they were accusing the NPP of – judicial manipulation.

“If they expect the judiciary to do the bidding of the NDC, then they are interested in judicial manipulation, the very thing they are accusing the NPP of. So therefore, when you go to court and you lose, please respect the rule of law; your recourse is to appeal”.

Source: Xfm 95.1/ Accra