Month: June 2014

Member of Parliament for the Korle Klottey, Hon. Nii Armah Ashitey has donated more than 1,000 mathematical sets to Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) candidates of the Osu Cluster of Schools and Nii Amudzi School, all in Accra.

Hon. Nii Ashitey had done this over the years to support candidates in the constituency to prepare them adequately for academic success.

Nii Ashitey observed said the mathematical sets would help prepare the candidates adequately for their Mathematics paper scheduled for Wednesday.

He said he organized vacation classes and a sponsored mock examination to assist the candidates.

Nii Ashitey advised them to free their minds of anything that was a hindrance to their next level of education, but rather take their time to read and understand questions clearly before answering them.

Receiving the items, Madam Patience Adom, Sub-metro Officer in-charge of the Osu cluster of schools, said the donation had come at the right time, and hailed the MP for the good work done over the years in ensuring the academic success of candidates in his constituency.

Madam Adom disclosed that the constituency presented 1,500 candidates for both private and public schools in this year’s BECE examinations.

The 2014 BECE, which started on Monday June 16, would end on Friday June 20.

A total of 422,946 candidates, comprising 223,765 boys and 199,181 girls, are taking part in the examinations across the country, with the Ashanti Region presenting the highest number of 83,859 candidates, made up of 43,326 boys and 40,533 girls.

The candidates, who are from 12,562 public and private schools, are writing the examinations at 1,437 centres across the country.

Last year, a total of 391,079 candidates sat for the BECE, while 2012 saw a total of 376,859 candidates writing the examinations.

Mr Alban Bagbin, has stressed the need for Ghana to change from the ‘winner-takes- all’ system of governance to the proportional representation system.

According to him, the ‘winner- takes-all’ system of governance has not served a good purpose for the nation and so there is the need to consider alternative systems of governance such as the proportional representation.

“It’s a kind of system that will be better than the ‘winner-takes-all’,” he said at a roundtable discussion in Accra last Monday.

Proportional representation (PR) is a principle applied to voting systems in which the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system, if 30% of voters support a particular party then roughly 30% of seats will be won by that party.

Under PR systems, smaller parties are allocated seats in proportion to their share of the vote and are thus more likely to secure a certain level of representation,

Single-winner systems tends to promote strong two-party competition as in the United States, although scenarios involving three major parties also exist as in Canada or the UK at a time. Single-winner systems make it relatively difficult for smaller parties to secure parliamentary representation

Purpose of discussion

The roundtable discussion was organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in collaboration with The Netherlands Institute of Multiparty Democracy and the Global Leaders Forum (GLF).

A delegation from the GLF, including a former President of Botswana, Mr Ketumile Masire; a former President of Switzerland, Mr Kasper Villiger; the Co-director of the Oxford Institute of Global Economic Development, Prof. Paul Collier, and a former Zambian Minister of Finance, Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane, participated in the discussion.

It was on the topic: “Making Ghana’s natural resources count” and formed part of an initiative by the IEA to engage key stakeholders in discussing critical issues of national concern.

Politics

Mr Babgin said the country’s hybrid system of governance was not well- defined, and for that matter, some institutions of government, especially Parliament, were often undermined.

He said, “Parliament is now in the belly of the Executive”, pointing out that there was the need to strengthen the Legislature to enable it to discharge its functions more effectively.

Mr Bagbin said many Ghanaians had a narrow understanding of democracy, which they interpreted in Akan as ‘kabi ma me nkabi’, to wit, ‘Let’s put across ideas’.

He added that the inherent problem in such mentality was that any suggestion that came from one side of the political divide was often rejected by the other side without considering the merits therein.

Proportional Representation system is used by more nations than the single winner system, and it dominates Europe, including Germany, most of northern and eastern Europe, and is used for European Parliament elections (as enforced by EU law). France adopted PR at the end of World War II, but discarded it in 1958. In 1986 it was used for parliament elections.

Consensus building

Prof. Collier said it was difficult to build consensus in a multiparty democracy where the ‘winner-takes- all’ system of governance operated, unlike in a coalition government.

The MP for Sekondi, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, said even under the prevailing ‘winner- takes-all’ system of governance, it was possible to build consensus in Parliament.

He indicated that Ghanaians seemed to have an “Esau mentality”, by which they sought gratification now without considering its ramifications for the future.

He expressed the hope that “we’ll try to do things better”. The MP for Keta, Mr Richard Quarshigah, wondered whether consensus-building was possible under the circumstances because “we don’t seem to walk the talk”.

He cited the recent National Economic Forum held at Senchi, saying that although some MPs of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had mooted the idea in Parliament, the opposition party boycotted the event.

Member of Parliament for Adenta, Ashie Moore has donated several pieces of math sets and exercise books to about 2,365 Junior High Students in his constituency who are candidates for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE).

According to him, his gesture is to equip and also assure the students who are writing the first major exams of their lives of his support.

Hon. Ashie Moore urged the students to shun any examination malpractices that may eventually affect their results as that act may lead to the cancellation of their results.

He counseled them to take the exams seriously as their advancement to the next level of education will be dependent on their performance in this examination.

The students who were excited by the MP’s generosity towards them assured that they will give their best to ensure that they come out with flying colours.

This year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE)started on Monday, June 16 with 422,946 final-year junior high school (JHS) students writing the examination.

The figure represents an increase of 31,864 over last year’s total number of 391,082.
The 2014 BECE candidates, who are from 12,562 public and private schools, are made up of 223,765 males and 199,181 females.

They are expected to write the examination at 1,437 centres across the country.

Ghanamps.gov.gh

Gomoa West Member of Parliament in the Central Region, Honourable Francis Kojo Arthur wants to give holistic approach to efforts at improving the standard of education with special focus on early childhood development.

Mr. Kojo Arthur said education is so important and basic to achieving any meaningful goal, and early stages of child development should be taken advantage of by laying the right and solid foundation which can be build on as the child grows.

As a positive step towards actualizing this, the MP is building kindergarten blocks at some selected communities including Gomoa Abase No 2, GomoOsedze, and GomoaOhun. Currently, children are using temporal structures.

He said a befitting structure will be able to accommodate all children of school going age in the communities and provide room for their parents to attend to daily activities.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.gov.gh

An avenue has been created for Inhabitants of Wellembelle community within the Sissala East constituency to shortly acquire a Post office/Community Information Centre(CIC) meant to boost infrastructural development for the people.

The introduction of Post office/CIC model facilities in the local communities have been designed by government through the E-government platform under the Ministry of Communication to promote the accessibility to information even in the local areas, and also for the latent efforts to help bridge the digital divide between the Rural and Urban dwellers.

This has become apparent because of the need to promote and permeate the growing phenomenon of Information, Communication, Technology (ICT) across-board in every society.

The Member of Parliament for the Sissala East constituency, Hon. Sulemana Alijata Gbentie in an interaction with Ghanamps.gov.gh on the project revealed that the implementation and installation of the infrastructure has been awarded to Messrs Huawei Technology Limited, a leading global information and communications technology(ICT) solutions provider.

The facility, scheduled to be completed in 6 months period is to be fully furnished and equipped under the savings realized from the value for money for the E-government platform project in the Wellembelle community.

Jonathan Jeffrey Adjei/Ghanamps.gov.gh

Members of the New Patriotic Party in the United Kingdom at the weekend took the lead to launch Nana Akufo-Addo’s 2016 presidential candidacy bid with the launch of Akufo-Addo 2016 UK.

The campaign group in UK last Sunday fired the first salvo from the diaspora in a bid to convince NPP delegates that Nana Akufo-Addo still remains the best chance of returning NPP to power in 2016.

The campaign launch for Nana Akufo-Addo at Tottenham’s Chestnut Community Arts Centre in London, North London, was attended by a large crowd of supporters, NPP branch executives and non-partisan Ghanaians.

The group called for a grassroots campaign for Nana Akufo-Addo, not only for the forthcoming NPP Congress but also towards Election 2016. They charged supporters of Nana Akufo-Addo to be positive in their message and emulate the clear example of the man they are campaigning for.

Delivering the key note address at the UK campaign for Nana Addo, Shirley Ayorkor-Botchwey, MP for Anyaa-Sowutuom, who brought a special message from Nana Akufo-Addo from Accra, noted that Nana Akufo-Addo remains the man who is well known and accepted by the NPP grassroots and any attempt to change him will risk NPP losing in 2016.

She said, out of the 122 NPP Members of Parliament, she could confidently say that “Nana Addo can count on the support of about 100 of us.” She said the MPs are solidly behind Nana Akufo-Addo because, “Everywhere we go in our various constituencies the people tell us, ‘if you don’t bring Nana Addo we will not vote.’ The people love him and they believe in him. Even those who admit to not voting for him are now saying they regret that decision and want us to bring him back.”

The former Deputy Foreign Minister to Nana Akufo-Addo during the Kufuor administration said of her former boss, “I was the happiest Deputy Minister because I worked under the best Minister. Nana is a professional. He has vision. And, I can tell you, he has never been corrupt, he is not corrupt, and he will not be corrupted.”

She noted that Nana remains the most viable candidate who can lead the vision of the NPP in any future administration.

She recounted Nana’s sojourn in UK for 6 months after the Supreme Court verdict and how UK helped to prepare him for the March 20th Declaration. She therefore charged his supporters in UK to maintain the sense of conviction that they imbued in Nana to culminate his final decision to return to frontline politics.

Samuel Atta-Akyea, who succeeded Nana Akufo-Addo as the MP for Abuakwa-South reaffirmed the need for NPP to retain Nana Akufo-Addo as the flagbearer for 2016. He said, Nana Akufo-Addo has served Ghana for over 36 years in frontline politics because he is determined to leave a legacy that can change the destiny of the people.

“He was privileged enough to have education, because his father could afford it. He wants every Ghanaian child to have what he had. He wants to transform Ghana’s economy because his focus is on the next generation and not just the next election. Nana remains in politics, not for personal gain. Because he has something big to offer to Ghana. Ghanaians must give him the chance to deliver for us.”

Rousing the enthusiastic crowd to a rousing praise song, he convinced the crowd of supporters that NPP, and for that matter Nana Akufo-Addo, did not lose the 2012 elections and for that matter it would be suicidal for NPP to change him as the flagbearer for 2016, especially since the NDC’s second term ends in 2016.

Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, formerly of the Danquah Institute, and now a consultant based in London, lamented on the poor state of Ghana’s economy and showed, with statistics, the amount of revenues that have been at the disposal of the NDC, yet with very little to show for all that.

He said, the NDC, from 2009 to 2013, spent, besides the billions of dollars of loans, GHS83 billion, as compared to the GHS31 billion President J A Kufuor spent in 8 years.

Gabby added that, by the time the NPP left office in January 2009, if the total debt of the country were to be shared, every citizen would owe GHS423.00. By February 2014, that amount has increased nearly five times to GHS2,255.00.

He said, Ghanaians are looking to the NPP for inspiration and the party cannot fail to respond to that call.

Gabby said he could feel the spirit of 2000 returning. “What we do know for a fact is that the 4th Republic has established a two-term trend, where every government so far has been given two terms and you are out. But, what is also notable about this is that the opposition party that wins has always maintained its candidate from the previous election. We saw it in 2000 and we saw it again in 2008,” the founder of the Danquah Institute stressed.

He admonished the NPP not to think that they invented democracy. “NPP is a party that spends more time, energy and resources fighting each other than fighting for power. It is frustrating,” he said.

He called on the party to spend less time fighting each other and more time being seen to be addressing the concerns of Ghanaians.

He reminded Ghanaians to be vigilant of the electoral process, especially the voters’ registration process. He said, the party, and Ghanaians, in general, should not compromise on the need to have the voters register audited.

“You can’t have a country with a median age of 20.8 having a voters register with more than 56% of the population on it,” Gabby said, comparing the statistics from Ghana to other countries in Europe and Africa to stress home the point.

Ghana’s median age means that, by the national census, some half of the population are older than 21 and the other half younger than 21. Ghana’s voting age is 18.

Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, MP for Ablekuma West, took to the podium to thank NPP UK for the initiative in starting the campaign and pleaded with the people of UK to keep the fire burning in the bid to make Nana Akufo-Addo the flagbearer for NPP and the President of Ghana in 2017.

The Akufo-Addo for 2016 Campaign Group is made up of well-meaning Ghanaians in the UK, drawn from a wide section of the community including business people, ordinary members of NPP UK, the media, The Aljazeera Ladies, community groups and well-meaning individuals.

The group draws a great deal of support from the leadership of NPP UK and aims to bring together a number of initiatives here in UK and Ghana to support the campaign, not only to make Nana Akufo-Addo the flagbearer of NPP, but also the President of Ghana in 2017 with Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia as his Vice President.

The group aims to launch the campaign across UK and Europe and draw in a number of initiatives to help bolster Nana and Dr Bawumia’s campaign in the forthcoming primaries and general elections.

Source: Akufo-Addo for 2016 UK Campaign Group

It appears the controversy surrounding the saga of the missing baby at the Konfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi will not cease any time soon as Parliament has waded into the matter.

The Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho on Tuesday directed that a copy of the Committee report on the missing baby which was released last week be forwarded to the House for further scrutiny by the Committee on Health and subsequently report back to the House.

According to him, it is important that the report which failed to establish the where about of the babies be probed thoroughly to establish the truth in this unfortunate incident.

“This is a serious issue and all of us should be concerned…If our mothers, wives and sisters go to hospitals to deliver and cannot find their babies after delivery, then that is a serious matter” he said.

The Speaker’s directive follows a request made by the Majority Chief Whip, Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak, whose constituent(Suweiba) happen to be one of the women who had her baby gone missing, asking the House to go further into the report, as the main objective of the investigation which is the location of the babies was never established.

News of the missing babies generated a lot of public uproar which led to some Moslem youth storming the Konfo Anokye Teaching Hospital to demand a release of the baby whether dead or alive.

The family of Madam Suweiba has expressed their disapproval over the content of the report and has threatened to seek redress in court.

Meanwhile, Minister of Health, Sherry Aryeetey at a press briefing on Tuesday disclosed that the criminal aspect of the matter has been forwarded to the Attorney General’s Department for further inquiry and likely prosecution.

Ghanamps.gov.gh