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Month: October 2019

President Akufo-Addo calls for political and economic success of ECOWAS

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

As part of the integration process, President Nana Akufo-Addo has called on leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to demonstrate strong political will to make the community attain economic and political success.

According to the Ghanaian President, to make the process real it is important for the welfare of the three hundred and fifty million citizens of West Africa to be cared for.

He made this remarks at the Annual International Conference of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, on Monday, 21st October, 2019.

The President noted that the principal reason for the creation of ECOWAS was to enhance inter-regional commerce and co-operation.

And further explained that there was a clear recognition that the countries of West Africa would be a more effective economic bloc and have a stronger political voice if they came together.

“Subsequently, provision was also made for solving inter-state conflicts, as well as grave intra-state ones too. Today, however, while the EU is central to the lives of Europeans, ECOWAS is, still, somewhat peripheral to the lives of most West Africans. And it is not for the lack of plans or even rules and regulations. It is simply that the political will to make integration real has been less evident than in Europe,” he said.

Describing the problem as a lack of leadership, President Akufo-Addo stated that West Africa cannot make the bold transforming changes it needs to make without visionary political leadership.

“We need leadership that is focused on the region, and not on individual countries. The European Union took off because the political leadership of France and Germany decided to make it work. Once the political will is evident, we can then work together to make ECOWAS a true regional community,” the President noted.

“Since the Court has exclusive responsibility for the interpretation and application of the ECOWAS Revised Treaty, Courts of Member States must be encouraged to refer questions of interpretation of the ECOWAS Revised Treaty and other community texts, in cases before them involving questions of the Treaty and community texts, to the ECOWAS Court of Justice, in order to ensure uniformity in the interpretation of the Treaty and the texts”, he added.

The President stressed that importance of Member States complying with judgments of the Court, explaining that “the ECOWAS Revised Treaty provides that judgments of the Court are binding on all Member States, institutions, corporate bodies and individuals.”

He continued, “What makes ECOWAS better will make each of our individual countries better and more prosperous. It is time for those who believe in regional integration to give enthusiastic support to Community decisions and inspire confidence and integrity in the structural organs of ECOWAS, such as the ECOWAS Court of Justice. Our people deserve no less, and the dream of prosperity will be within our grasp”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

ECOWAS most dynamic regional economic community in Africa-Dr Apraku

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commissioner for Macro-economic Policy and Economic Research, Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku has said, the sub-regional body remains the most dynamic regional economic community bloc in Africa, “Despite the numerous challenges confronting the regional integration programme ECOWAS is pursuing”.

According to Dr. Apraku, in other to make the regional integration process more relevant to the needs and aspiration of citizens within the community, the Commission has adopted vision 2020 in June 2007.

He added that, basic objective of transforming from ECOWAS of states to ECOWAS of people, where citizens would be actively involved in the regional integration process with its people becoming the ultimate beneficiaries.

Dr. Konadu Apraku commended the collaboration between the ECOWAS Commission and Court of Justice, in an open remark on a four day conference organized by the court of Justice in Accra.

Speaking on behalf of the Commission, President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, further noted that the regional integration present the most cost effective and broad base  economic development way, to overcome the limitations of smaller internal markets and also increase, “our bargaining power to reduce negotiation, cost and ultimately reduce high rate”.

The region has recorded a lot of achievements in the areas of peace, security, economic integration, and development as significant progress has been made to sustain peace and security, through preventive diplomacy, he indicated.

“ECOWAS region has become relatively stable with occasional conflicts arising from terrorism, in the area of democracy and a good governance initiative by ECOWAS has yielded tangible results and consolidation of democratic institutions”.

Again, there has been monitoring of conduct of elections in various countries in member states in the region with considerable progress made.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Factor planning institutions in climate change agenda-Alima Mahama

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Alima Mahama has called for inclusion of planning institutions in the climate change agenda at the end of a three day Africa climate chance summit in Accra.

According to the sector Minister, there should be more to resolution four as presented at the end of the conference, which talked about national determined contribution on climate change to go through local government associations.

“I think it should be more inclusive than that, in our respective countries we have institutions responsible for planning and they do give planning directions to the local planning authorities, NALAG cannot give instructions directly but has to collaborate with the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC)”.

She promised that the ten point resolution reached after the Accra conference would be presented to President Nana Akuffo-Addo and shared among the Minister for Planning, Environment Science and Technology, who is on the fore front for climate change.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

New cases of Parliamentarians persecuted recorded -IPU

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Parliamentarians with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at the just ended 141st meeting in Serbia have condemned the human rights violations, with a record of new cases of abused MPs.

The IPU’s Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians, the only international body with an exclusive right to support MPs in danger had examined cases of three hundred and five (305) parliamentarians in ten (10) countries whose human rights had been allegedly violated.

More than half cases are new complaints which are mainly from Venezuela, Yemen the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Libya. Most of the cases concern opposition MPs with eighty-three percent (83) and a fifth are women MPs representing twenty-one (21) percent.

In Libya the committee examined the case of an independent lawmaker Seham Sergiwa of the House of Representatives of Tobruk, an outspoken critic of the current government, the IPU committee met the first and second Deputy Speakers.

Ms. Sergiwa was abducted from her home in Benghazi in July 2019, since then the IPU has pressed the Libyan authorities to take action. Without any sign of life, three months later there is growing concern about her fate.

IPU has urged the Libyan authorities to do everything they can to locate Ms. Sergiwa and secure her immediate release.

Uganda has recorded violation of the human rights of five (5) MPs, four independent and one from the opposition party. They include torture, arbitrary detention, lack of fair trial and violation of freedom of expression.

Mr. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu one of the MPs who is a popular singer has been a vocal critic of the Government and subject to a campaign of intimidation.

The IPU has asked for a fact-finding mission to the country to meet with the Executive and Judicial branches.

Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga has expressed her support for the mission as IPU is waiting for formal authorization from the Ugandan authorities to be able to travel to Uganda for the mission.

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone the committee examined new complains and the committee declared the complaint regarding Sierra Leone inadmissible and decided to postpone a decision on the admissibility of the complaint in the DRC.

In the case of Venezuela, MPs examined by the committee rose to ninety-six (96) since the last session of IPU in April this year. There are thirty-two (32) new cases all from the Coalition of Democratic Unity Roundtable Party (MUD) from the National Assembly of Venezuela.

The MUD coalition won the majority in the National Assembly following elections in 2015 and opposes the Government of President Nicolas Maduro, and the government had not provided any funding to the National Assembly since August 2016.

Additionally, in Turkey, fifty-seven (57) cases of current and former parliamentarians, all from the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) were examined. Since December 2015, hundreds of trial proceedings on criminal and terrorism charges are ongoing.

Since 2018, twenty-nine (29) current and former parliamentarians have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment, eight (8) and former parliamentarians are either in pretrial or serving prison sentences, including the former HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.

President of IPU Gabriela Cuevas Barron was in Turkey on a fact-finding mission to evaluate the situation on the ground with a delegation in June this year. The mission concluded that the authorities systematically presented HDP parliamentarians as terrorists and their parliamentary work as terrorism although the HDP is a legally authorized political party in Turkey.

The delegation also highlighted violations of the HDP parliamentarian’s rights to free speech.
In Yemen sixty-nine (69) MPs all elected in the last parliamentary elections in 2003, there were allegation raging from attempted murder, abduction, arbitrary detention to property destruction.

Since the beginning of political crisis in 2011 and the outbreak of war in 2015, two different factions claim to embody the Yemeni Parliament, the parliament in Sana’a in the territories under the control of the Houthi militia and the parliamentarians who fled Sana’a and who belong to the internationally recognized Government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.

The cases examined by the Committee concern members of parliament who fled Sana’a and neighboring governorates under the control of the Houthi Militia. On 10th September this year, the Sana’a-based House of Representative reportedly lifted the parliamentary immunity of thirty-five (35) of the sixty-nine (69) parliamentarians to allow criminal proceedings on treason charges to go ahead, which are punishable by death.

The IPU is monitoring the situation closely and has called for all parties to come together to find a solution to the current impasse.

Mr. Jean Wyllys, a member of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies since 2010, was the first openly gay Brazilian Member of Congress and a well-known supporter of the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.

He had been subjected to intimidation, harassed since elected to parliament because of his political views and sexual orientation.

In January this year, he decided to give up his parliamentary seat and go into exile because of repeated threats and the alleged failure of the authorities to provide him adequate protection.

Mr. Wyllys’ decision to leave the country was also influenced by the assassination of Ms Marielle Franco in March 2018, a local council member who was also a vocal supporter of LGBT rights. Two ex-police officers were arrested in March of 2019 over their alleged involvement in this murder.

The IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians has copies of threats and acts of intimidation made over the past three years as well as Mr. Wyllys’ requests for protection made to the police and the parliamentary authorities.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

PARLIAMENT: Bill on election of MMDCEs to be prioritized – Collins Ntim

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Collins Augustine Ntim has said the bill to ensure whether election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) should be elected would be high on the agenda when Parliament resumes.

Parliament would resume on Tuesday the October 22, 2019 for its third meeting of the third session of the seventh Parliament of the fourth Republic.

According the deputy minister despite the meeting being a budget meeting, the issue on bill as to whether to elect MMDCEs would be high on the agenda, with December 17, 2019 slated for the referendum.

As to whether he is prepared for Tuesday’s meeting, he said in an interview that as an MP and a deputy Minister he is prepared for the task ahead.

“I do not have the laxity as being only an MP, I am at the same time a deputy Minister and working, I am here attending the climate chance African summit at the Accra International Conference Centre”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

 

Fix roads in rural communities- Health Minister

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
The Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has appealed to the Ministry of Roads and Highways to fix roads in rural communities especially those within the greater Accra region.

The Dormaa Central Member of Parliament expressed worry about the poor nature of roads linking some health project sites  in some Districts within the Greater Accra region.

The Minister made the call when he inspected some Policlinic projects within the Greater Accra region.
On the engagement of graduate Nurses, Mr Agyeman-Manu disclosed that the Health Ministry has received financial clearance from the Finance Ministry to recruit Nurses by February, 2019 in order to argument the existing figures to enhance health delivery to all.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com.

Companies Bill 2018 to go through second reading—Chairman

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Ben Banda Abdallah has said the committee would present its report when the House resumes from recess ending of this month.

The committee has held a stakeholders meeting on the companies Bill 2018 before the committee that is yet to go through second reading.

In an interview, chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee noted that committee members need to abreast themselves of what the public view when it comes to company law.

He further revealed that when the committee presents its report to the plenary, which is the second reading it has to go through the consideration stage, where clauses would be taken one after the other.

“We need to provide an easy environment for doing business, as to how many days it takes an investor to register a company in Ghana, reserve a proposed name for a company and to alter the object”.

Mr. Ben Banda Abdallah noted that the company law as it stands now is not in tune with current economic trends of companies.

You can decide to register a company to trade in oranges today and later decide to go into mango, we do not have that at the moment we are amending the law to enable businesses do that.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanams.com

Gambian Speaker urged to be strong and fair-Hackman Agyeman

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Board Member of the Parliamentary Service Board of Ghana and former Member of Parliament for New Juabeng North, Hackman Owusu-Agyeman has urged Speaker of the Gambian Parliament to be strong and fair as a Speaker.

According to the former New lawmaker, a good Speaker would produce a good Parliament; he told the visiting Gambia Speaker who is on a four day study tour to Ghana’s Parliament.

“In Ghana a lot of people do not respect MPs, I do not think yours is different; as a lawmaker you need to earn respect by what you do by comporting yourself. It is time to engage our various citizens on the importance of an MP in our democratic architecture”.

Mr. Agyeman was concerned and pointed out that Parliament is always a victim whenever there is a military take over, and it was time to engage “our citizens on the importance of Parliament in the democratic architecture”.

Financial independence of Parliament is important; it cannot be the case that whatever Parliament want to do is subjected to the approval of Minister of Finance, the Executive have their powers same with the Judiciary.

In Ghana all the structures you see here are not our own it belong to the state protocol, so where is the power of Parliament?

Again on radio you hear people say Parliamentarians  are  of no use because they are asking for loan to buy vehicles.

“A loan that we would pay back, someone said even nurses walk to work so MPs should walk to work. I was thinking that he was taking it to the lowest level, if you are an MP representing your constituent along the Burkina boarder what do you do?”

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Adwoa Safo foundation to establish nursing homes in 16 regions

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Member of Parliament for Dome/Kwabenya, Sarah Adowa Safo has revealed that her foundation would establish nursing mothers’ homes across the sixteen regions to take care of the aged mothers in Ghana.

According to the Deputy Majority Leader due to biological changes that come with old age, most aged women are referred to as mad or witches and excluded from the Ghanaian society.

She further revealed that disable children would be given voice, by integrating them into the normal school system, and lamented over keeping them in special schools.

“Stigmatizing them is not the best, they have a right, research has shown that when, disable children are allowed to integrate with normal children they develop better and feel being part of society”.

She revealed this in an interview with journalists when she marked world International Day of the child on Friday and invited young female student leaders to her office to celebrate the day with them.

When Ghanamps.com sought to know if activities of her foundation would only be concentrated in Accra, she disclosed that, they would be in the sixteen regions with their activities.

“My dream is to continue with the good work of my father who has been a humanitarian, philanthropist and a farmer for so many years. The technological aspect of his life is taking the shine, but he started as a farmer”.

The Dome/Kwabenya lawmaker added that an entrepreneurship fund would also be established to identify young women to incubate their business to grow to become icons in trade, ICT and wherever they find themselves.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Let’s collaborate to deal with encroachers on government lands – Sulemana Mahama

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

The Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Sulemana Mahama, has called for collaboration between licensed surveyors and his outfit to help curb the massive encroachment on twenty percent stake of government lands in the country.

According to the Executive Secretary, partnership would require that licensed surveyors exercise restraint despite the financial benefit they would get from the encroachers.

He further revealed that when there is that understanding, then the lands commission would be able to deal with the unlicensed surveyors.

“We have over flogged the idea of the cost of surveyors to the ordinary person, it is something that I believe in the course of your discussion you would deal with it”, he said.

He made this remarks at the first seminar and general meeting this year on the theme, “Land ownership and registration: the role of the licensed surveyor”.

Your role is very critical to this country. all the agenda of the past Presidents, better Ghana Agenda by late Mills, Operation Feed yourself, GPRS of former President Kuffor, expansion of the ports and road infrastructure, land plays a key role, hence the need for clear official dimensions of land, he said.

Again, service and dedication to duty has been imposed on us; for those of us at the Lands Commission, our role is in Article 258, Lands Commission Act 767 which enjoins us to work in tandem with the land users and special planning authorities.

“Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDCEs), however in performing this role we do face some challenges which I believe would be address at this seminar and looking into the future”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanadistircts.com