Month: February 2014

New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong has called on President John Mahama to render an unqualified apology to Ghanaians over the u-turn on free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

According to him, President Mahama’s annoucement in Parliament about government’s plans to introduce a progressively free (SHS) education smacks of hypocrisy and double standards.

“Mahama’s introduction of free SHS should be enough for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to lose the 2016 elections” he stressed.

The flagship free SHS campaign promise by the NPP became a topical debate in the country during the 2012 general election.

The NDC which fiercely resisted the policy argued that more emphasis must be placed on quality and access rather than making it free.

However, President Mahama in delivering his State of the Nation Address to Parliament on Tuesday February 25, 2014, announced the introduction of a progressively free SHS next year.

He said the school fees of day students will be abolished at an estimated cost of GH¢71 million. President Mahama also announced that the construction of 200 community senior high schools across the country will start by 3rd of March 2014.

This has been met with mixed reactions with the NPP accusing the Mahama-led administration of ‘stealing’ its idea- an allegation government has vehemently denied.

But speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Tuesday, Kennedy Agyapong said President Mahama has “goofed big time”.

He indicated that given the “dirty campaign” the NDC waged against the policy in 2012, free SHS education should be the last thing to be announced by this government.

The Assin Central MP said President Mahama’s sudden interest in the free SHS is an admission that the NPP’s 2012 presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo is a visionary leader.

“To endorse your opponents idea is politically suicidal. NDC has goofed big time but Ghanaians will be the best judges.

Kennedy Agyapong urged government to give credit where it is due and stop beating about the bush because “implementing a progressively free SHS education to day students is still free SHS”.

Myjoyonline.com

Vice President of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Ursula Owusu has deplored the disgraceful manner in which three girls, believed to be schooling at the University of Ghana, were made to crawl at the Accra Mall for allegedly stealing panties.

“You do not make them crawl on the floor…that is an affront to their human dignity. Even convicted murderers have rights. They are suspected thieves. You don’t treat them that way”, she condemned.

“You don’t humiliate them like that in the full view of the public. That is what barbarians do”.

In her view, “that is what people in the jungle do. You don’t treat them like dogs. It is not proper. It is barbarism”, she condemned in an interview with XYZ Breakfast Show host Moro Awudu on Tuesday.

On-lookers watched aloof as the humiliated girls were forced by men who appeared to be security officers at the mall, to crawl, amidst yells and accusations of theft.

Ursula Owusu who is a Member of Parliament Ablekuma West said the girls should lodge a complaint to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) or any of the human rights organisations to seek redress.

She expressed bewilderment at the fact that none of the on-lookers intervened to stop the act of “barbarism”. She said she found it totally “appalling”.

Meanwhile the Students Representative Council of the University of Ghana says it is now doing its investigations to find out if the girls are indeed students of the school.

Source: XYZ News

The Member of Parliament for Nabdam in the Upper East Region, Mr Boniface Gambila, has noted that members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who played ethnic and tribal cards were the enemies of the party.

He said the NPP is a national party and that all members of the party had the ability to play active roles to ensure the party’s success in 2016.

Mr Gambila expressed these sentiments in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

According to him, there was no constitution in the NPP that used ethnicity to resist its members from playing any active role that will move the party forward.

He said the non-northerners in the NPP who spoke to northerners with the tendency to incite them against each other or against other ethnic groups should desist from the act.

Mr Gambila said members of the party could come from any minority group to participate in the forward movement of the party, but not to sit behind and incite others, adding that, “members should use their capacities to play active roles to redirect the party’s affairs, which can bring the party back to power rather than playing tribal politics”.

“Since the inception of the party, there had not been evidence that the party had rejected or denied any of its members from participating in the affairs of the party.”

He said the concentration of members of the NPP should not be on its ancestors, but should rather be on the current generation who would move the party forward, adding, “They are those who can make the best of all to move our party forward.”

“We can talk about former President Jerry John Rawlings in the National Democratic Congress who is their founder and is still alive and former President John Agyekum Kufuor in the NPP who is also still alive, but not Danquah, Dombo and Busia who are no more.”

“Let us concentrate on the current generation to move our party forward instead of talking about the dead who are in their graves.”

Source: GNA

Minister of Trade Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, has disclosed government’s decision to name a street after ace British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, TV presenter Komla Afeke Dumor.

It has consequently instructed the Ketu South District Assembly, where Komla Dumor hailed from, to settle on a street to bear Komla Bumor’s name in his memory.

Hon. Haruna Iddrisu who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South, made this known in Parliament on Thursday, when MPs eulogised Komla Dumor who died of cardiac arrest on Saturday, January 18, 2014 at age 41 in London.

The Legislators in making their contribution to the statement made by Parliament by MP for Ketu South, Fifi Kwetey extolled the professionalism and objectivity with which Komla Dumor did his work.

Others described him a Ghana’s and Africa’s great ambassador to the rest of the world who did a lot of work to discredit the perception that nothing good could come out of Africa.

Earlier, MP for Dome Kwabenya, Adwoa Safo, in her contribution proposed that the Accra Metropolitan Assembly while it engages in its street naming exercise should name on of the streets in North Legon where Komla’s family house is located after him it is necessary in acknowledgement of his contribution to the media landscape in Ghana.

The late Komla Afeke Dumor, a former Ghana Journalist of the Year whose final funeral services comes off from February 21 to 23, 2014 is survived by a wife and three children.

Kwadwo Anim/Ghanamps.gov.gh

New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Okere, Dan Botwe has challenged Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe to be bold and quit the NPP if he wishes.

He said recent utterances in the media by Dr. Nyaho Tamakloe are not only gross violations of the party’s code but also embarasses the party.

“For you [Nyaho-Tamakloe] to be singing the song of our opponents, better join them; it means you don’t wish us well” he added.

Dan Botwe who was reacting to Nyaho-Tamakloe’s concerns about the composition of the party’s national vetting committee stated emphatically that “politics is not just about numbers but positive numbers”.

Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe said the composition of the vetting committee is lopsided and has no fair ethnic representation.

He contended that the huge Akan representation on the committee “reinforces the huge perception in the public domain that the party is Akan-dominated”.

But Dan Botwe on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Wednesday said Nyaho-Tamakloe’s claim is “baseless and an insult” to the party.

According to him, the current members on the vetting committee led by Chairman of the National Council of Elders Mr. C.K Tedam cut across all ethnic groups.

The Okere MP who is also a former General Secretary of the NPP said Nyaho-Tamakloe should have sought clarification about the composition of the committee before making his concerns public.

Dan Botwe described as sad how a leading member like Nyaho-Tamakloe will also be fueling the propaganda of “our political opponents”.

“You deliberately whip up the propaganda of our opponents; say it to incite people against the party. Its sad” he bemoaned.

He said “opportunism and hypocrisy” is not a virtue in politics therefore it should not be encouraged in the NPP.

Dan Botwe said the NPP will continue to remain strong in the face of the vile ethnic propaganda against it.

Myjoyonline.com

Mr. Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, Akatsi North Member of Parliament, has cautioned communities against loaning project materials out for personal projects.

He said project materials were not for constructing graves or personal building projects.

Mr Nortsu-Kotoe said this when he donated 900 bags of cement to seven institutions and communities in his constituency to undertake or complete self-help projects.

Beneficiaries include Avega and Wuata communities which had 100 bags each for CHPs Compound projects.

Another 100 bags each went to Atiglime community centre project and Dzadzefe-Havi EP Church Sunday School block.

Dzalele EP church had 300 bags and some chiefs also benefited to rehabilitate their palaces.

The MP said the practice of lending project materials often led to quarrels when beneficiaries delayed or refused to return the items, thereby dragging communities behind.

Mr. Nortsu-Kotoe agreed to support the Avega CHPs project with some cement blocks and sand.

He said in view of the high project cost, communities should arrange to execute projects partly through communal labour.

Mr. Nortsu-Kotoe later joined Mr James Gunu, Akatsi-North District Chief Executive, to inaugurate CHPs Compounds at Avevi and Dzalele.

The facilities, which have weighing sheds attached, were built by the Assembly at GHC45, 000 each.

Mr. Gunu said the MP’s uncommon collaborative posture was working well for the infant district and that his outfit was creating the enabling environment for health care delivery to flourish.

The DCE said he had had some negative reports about some health staff and appealed to nurses to refrain from treating patients with scorn.

He said such conducts could defeat the country’s zero or reduced maternal and infant mortality goal.

Ms. Doris Asamoah, a Senior Staff Nurse in charge of Public Health at Ave-Dakpa Health Centre, said the CHPs compounds were strategies to rope many more, especially rural dwellers, into the health delivery system.

Mr. Patrick Ahiabu, Akatsi-North District Assembly Presiding Member, said some villages that were unable to organize communal labour to support European Union classroom projects still did not have decent classroom blocks.

GNA