Month: October 2013

The youth of Asesewa in the Upper Manya District of the Eastern Region would soon have access to a modern library facility to help uplift falling standards of education in the area.

The district has within the last two years recorded some of the lowest grades in basic education in the Eastern Region.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Upper Manya Krobo Constituency, Hon. Jeff Tettey Kavienu initiated the ultra-modern state-of-art library in his bid to reverse the trend.

The project is being financed with his share of the MPs common fund at an estimated cost of GHc400, 000. The building to house the library complex is expected to rise by the end of the year, and hopefully by two years time it would be ready for use, he stated.

Mr. Kavienu, who is serving his first term in parliament, in an interview with the media lamented the fact that the constituency cannot boasts of a single library, which believed accounts for the low level of education in the area.

“Because there is no library facility in the area, it is very common to see most of the pupils after school trooping to the various game centers to have fun to the detriment of education which is their future.”

He explained that when completed, the library will be equipped with modern and up-to-date books and internet facilities for research and e-book borrowing and sharing, among others.

He said, improving educational infrastructure across the country is a major priority of President John Mahama and NDC administration, and therefore to remedy the falling standards of education in his constituency, his ‘MP Free Exercise Books’ distribution and scholarship for brilliant but needy student program will continue unabated.

He further assured that the programme would be expanded to cover more deprived areas like Sublino, Akunta, Akrotokrogua, Esoommanya, Agadzadzete, Baatokope, Akokomasisi, Dawayokunor and Adwenso, Takorase, Sutanpong, Breponson, and also to Kowhere.

The dynamic and project oriented MP was full of praise for the Chiefs of the area for giving up a parcel of land for the library project. He said the way and manner the chiefs of the area bought into his idea to provide a library for the area is commendable and must be praised.

He also singled out Plan Ghana, an international none -governmental organisation (NGO) for their social intervention projects in the constituency since 1993, without them, he said, “the educational situation in the area would have been more terrible.”

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Mr Joseph Nii Laryea Afotey-Agbo, the Volta Regional Minister, has said pupils and students at the basic level had no excuse not to progress academically as their needs had been provided by the government and their parents.

Mr Afotey-Agbo said this during the inauguration of a six-unit classroom block for the Jasikan Demonstration Primary School.

He said school conditions had improved beyond attending classes bare-footed, tattered uniforms and inadequacy of text books and others some decades ago.

“Your appearance is smart, uniforms well ironed with beautiful sandals and matching socks. I can only exhort you to be studious and aspire to greater academic heights,” he said.

Mr Afotey-Agbo said the future was bright for students only when they eschewed all negative tendencies likely to ruin their performance including drug abuse, engaging in cyber fraud affectionately called “Sakawa” and other vices.

He urged pupils and students to constantly pray for the government and their parents for progress and hard work for national development and peace.

Mr Daniel K. Ashiamah, MP for Buem, reminded the pupils that education was the fulcrum for national development and it was their responsibility to lay a good foundation for future progression.

Mr Killian K. Abrampah, Jasikan District Chief Executive, said the 2013 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) was appalling and called on all stakeholders to rise up to the challenge.

Master John Asare, a class six pupil who says he wants to become a doctor, told the Ghana News Agency that he would take his studies seriously to achieve his dream.

GNA

Wing Commander Francis Kabenlah Anaman (rtd), the Member of Parliament for Jomoro has appealed to the electorate to hold their MPs accountable.

He said this at separate meetings with chiefs and people of Ndum-Suazo, Bonyere Junction and Nawuley in the Western Region during a tour of the constituency.

He said parliamentarians had Constitutional obligation to be accountable to their constituents during and after their tenure of office.

The MP said having been given the mandate to represent them in parliament he would work assiduously to bring development to the area.

Mr. Anaman said he would leave an indelible mark in every community in the constituency by the end of his tenure as a legacy for the confidence reposed in him.

The MP enumerated a number of projects he had undertaken since he was elected and these include roofing an abandoned community clinic at old Edobo, securing a police patrol vehicle for Tikobo Number One Police Station, donation of 50 bags of cement and iron rods to Mantukwa community among others.

He expressed gratitude to the people for giving him the mandate and asked for their cooperation in order to accelerate development in the area.

Source: GNA

The Member of Parliament for Nkawkaw, Eric Darfuor Kwakye has funded electricity extension project worth GH¢ 8,000 for one of the Community Based Health Planning Services (CHPS) in his constituency.

Mr. Kwakye in an interview with Ghanamps.gov.gh, the project was to make the facility more efficient especially in offering night services and other services that require the use of electricity. By this, the facility would be able to meet the aspirations and needs of residents.

According to the MP, Daaten Health centre has been operating for sometime without electricity but looking at the importance of electricity he decided to contract an electrical engineer to connect the facility to the national electricity grid.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kwakye also presented public address system (PA system) worth GH¢ 1,500 to the Jamasi No. 2 community to aid in information dissemination.

Afua Yeboah /Ghanamps.gov.gh

The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hon. Ebo Barton Odro on Saturday led a Government delegation to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea for Her 45th Independence Anniversary.

Hon. Barton Odro represented H.E President John Mahama in Malabo.

H.E the President could not make it to Equatorial Guinea because he was preoccupied by an equally important assignment in Tamale, Ghana, where the University for Development Studies (UDS) conferred an Honorary Doctorate degree on H.E former President Jerry John Rawlings.

The First Deputy Speaker was accompanied by other Government officials like Deputy Information and Media Relations Minister Hon. Felix Kwakye Fosu and other officials from the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Hon. Kwakye Fosu stated that H.E President Mahama through Ghana’s First Deputy Speaker extended his congratulatory message to his Equatorial Guinean counterpart H.E Obiang Mbiago Nguema Mbasago.

He added that Ghana’s presence was significant being the first country in the sub Sahara region to gain independence.

The Member of Parliament for Afram Plains South, Joseph Appiah Boateng is to intervene to address some infrastructure challenges confronting St. Fidelis Senior High School.

Mr. Boateng has disclosed to Ghanamp.gov.gh that plans are advanced for work to commencement on the construction of a kitchen for the school.

He noted that, education apart from the academic work, other aspects should also be given the needed attention. According to him, ensuring good health for the students is also an important step towards achieving the needed academic performance. He noted that the project should have started a couple of months ago but had to delay because of delay in releasing funds to the assemblies and MPs. He however indicated that as soon as funds are made available work will start.

In a nother development, the MP is to fix a number of broken boreholes in selected communities to ensure improved access to portable water to residents.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.gov.gh

The Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry and Member of Parliament for Odododiodio, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye says reports on the World Bank banning Zoomlion in Liberia, was over exaggerated.

Addressing some journalists in Accra last week, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye said Zoomlion has no problem in Ghana with their operations and that their service has been hailed as excellent by all Ghanaians.

According to him, the issue in Liberia was an isolated incident and does not warrant the company being branded as corrupt, insisting that Ghanaians and government have great respect and admiration for Zoomlion and its exemplary expansion in other African countries, creating jobs for thousands of Ghanaians and other Africans.

He maintained that in Ghana, Zoomlion employs over 200,000 people nationwide and that Zoomlion has also contributed immensely to the management of waste and environmental sanitation in Ghana and other countries.

He pointed out that this is evidenced by the numerous awards received by the company from both local and internationally acclaimed bodies such as Ernst and Youngs, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC).

Again, he noted that in 2008 during the African Cup of Nations, Zoomlion made the country extremely proud thereby paving the way for them to win another contract in Angola for the 2010 African Cup of Nations, saying “its venturing into other African countries is a pride to me as Ghanaian”.

The Deputy Trade Minister said Zoomlion is currently in Zambia, Togo, Equatorial Guinea and Angola, stressing that Ghanaians must encourage and support Zoomlion and other Ghanaian industrialists like RLG, Kasapreko, and GIHOC who have excelled in other sectors of the economy such as communications, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

He advised Zoomlion to keep an eye on their external subsidiaries and hold to maintaining the image and integrity of their brand.

He said the Ministry of Trade and Industry would contact the World Bank to seek further understanding of the nature of the reported infractions with the view of ensuring that Zoomlion gets all the support necessary to institute and embed the corrective action.

Meanwhile, the Ghanaian waste management giant has duly taken punitive sanctions against its representative in Liberia.

The project in question is a Waste Collection Contract under the Emergency Monrovia Urban Sanitation Project. Indeed, Zoomlion’s World Bank project in Liberia is ongoing and has been extended and that Zoomlion still has a cordial relationship with the World Bank, the company maintained.

According to Zoomlion, it will always strive to uphold the best standards in enhancing the reputation of Ghana in all its operational countries.

The Member of Parliament for Pru in the Brong Ahafo region Dr. Kwabena Donkor is blaming the poor state of the Ghana’s economy on what he calls intellectual laziness on the part of our leaders.

According to him, the structure of the country’s economy has remained the same for over a century, a situation he blames on lack of creativity on past and present leaders.

Speaking to Joy News correspondent Elton John Brobbey, Dr. Kwabena Donkor who is also the Chairman of Parliament’s Mines and Energy committee said Ghana can address the huge unemployment and create wealth if it starts to add value to its raw materials.

“We are sitting on 1.2 billion tonnes of iron ore in the Northern region, 700 million tonnes of bauxite at Kyebi. If we put our hearts to it, they can serve as the basis of an industrial take-off”

But the MP says leadership lacks an awareness because they “are being intellectually lazy and going for the easier options”.

He laments that about 250, 000 students graduate from tertiary institutions looking for jobs, yet the mentality of leadership has not yet found out any new thinking needed to harness resources that can create opportunities for young people.

Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, a former Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, says it is difficult for women Members of Parliament to vigorously articulate issues of gender on the floor of parliament due to their limited number.

She said 30 women out of 275 Members of Parliament were extremely insignificant to put up strong argument for issues of women on the floor of male-dominated parliament and get supported.

The Former Minister said this at the national forum on women organised by the Gender and Human Rights Documentation Centre in partnership with Womankind Worldwide, UK, on Monday.

The forum sought to create the platform for all stakeholders to discuss and formulate strategies for engagement and maintaining effective relationships with women representatives in parliament.

Mrs Azumah-Mensah, the MP for Ho East, said “women MPs are under stress, frustrated because our number is too small…we would want to do a lot but we don’t have the control.”

However, she said, on some occasions they lobbied their male counterparts who are sensitive to gender matters.

She said it was regrettable that since the passage of the Domestic Violence Law in 2007 there had not been any legislative instrument to provide clear guidelines for its implementation.

She said the situation was partly responsible for the slow implementation of the Domestic Violence Law with its legislative instrument locked up at the Attorney-General’s Department, passage of the affirmative action for women and interstate succession law as well as spousal and property law.

She said women MPs faced widespread marriage break downs due to parliamentary committee work pressure which might not be reported, adding in some cases few women attempted to bring along their husbands but it failed.

The MP called for closure and regular collaboration between women’s groups and women MPs to map up strategies for speedy and effective implementation of laws affecting women leadership.

Ms Hamida Harrison, Convener for Women Manifesto and Mrs Elizerbeith Akpalu, Gender Consultant, called on political parties to be democratic enough by making the processes for electing leaders transparent and work towards eliminating corruption associated with such elections.

They said in spite of years of hard work to get women participate in political leadership, research had revealed a downward trend of women participating in political leadership positions.

Participants resolved to reverse the trend by building strong linkages, networks and alliances with individuals and relevant organisations, particularly Gender Communication Network to track and report critical gender issues at every stage of advocacy.

GNA