Month: November 2021

Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah has told Parliament government’s focus is to create employment that is national in character but not to focus on one constituency.

According to him when the jobs are created all the two seventy-five (275) constituencies would benefit from them, as government cannot discriminate to create job to benefit specific constituency.

This was the minister’s response on Thursday, November 18, 2021 to the Member of Parliament for Madina, Frances-Xavier Kojo Sosu’s question on the number of employments created for the youth in his constituency.

“Mr. Speaker, the job created is designed to benefit all constituencies like that of Medina. To address the increasing rate of unemployment in the Madina constituency, government would undertake the following measures:

• Government would collaborate with the Assembly in Madina to register job seekers within the constituency and match them with employment available within the catchment area the constituency and outside it.
• Again, there would be collaboration with TVIT to develop their employability and entrepreneur skills of the job seekers.

“We would facilitate the job seekers into various models of the YEA programme and other youth employment programme which government would draw up, as our Ministry would collaborate with other Ministries which has job creation programme to expand their services to the Madina constituency”.

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Member of Parliament for Nsawam-Adoagyiri Frank Annoh-Dompreh is advocating for the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) to institute an annual memorial lecture on peacekeeping in honor of the former late Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan.

According to him it is to immortalise the peaceful approach and diplomatic skills of the former UN chief while at the same time encourage peaceful coexistence in international relations among nations.

Again, given the rich content of the activities in conflict resolution engineered by Kofi Annan, the lectures will package those experiences for assimilation by younger diplomats and international actors in today’s global politics.

Furthermore, the identification of some distinct elements which make up the peace model of Kofi Annan are being proposed to be incorporated into the annual lectures, and they are fashioned in Kofi Annan’s inherent traits to; see a possibility where one may not be apparent.

Directly involve oneself in peace negotiations to mediate and bring about amicable compromises whiles taking responsibility for one’s own role in working towards world peace and stability.

Mr. Speaker, specifically, the importance of leadership cannot be overemphasised in characterizing Kofi Annan’s approach. It is also apparent that the Kofi Annan’s peace model recognises the fact that institutions are made up of people and whichever systems or practices have come out as a result of the operation of an institution, or group of institutions still cedes the possibility of change to be dependent on decisions of the people.

This is also why Kofi Annan had a style of directly interacting with heads-of-state, to bring about peaceful resolutions as opposed to interacting with the institutions they find themselves in. These are some of the elements of his peace model that create the distinction and resulting success and many of such idiosyncratic approaches are bound to be realised in these memorial lectures.

In a statement on the floor of the House, he noted that Peace Talks, is a similar peace instituted initiative that showcases the inspirational stories of people who are making extraordinary contributions to peace and co-founded by the United Nations Office at Geneva.

The Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, and Inter-peace, has progressed the work envisioned by Kofi Annan since its commencement in 2013. Though this specifically expands the dialogue on peace building and conflict resolution, an annual memorial lecture has the potential to be fashioned into the academic curricular of students for which credits will be obtained to further encourage the utility of Kofi Annan’s peace model.

And, this endeavor will follow a well-defined organisational plan with relevant local actors and specified target audiences in academia, corporate institutions, public servants and government officials.

It will include a host of activities that ensure the impartation of knowledge and the birth and promotion of individual ideas to support the peace model that will live on in the heart of the African continent from which it originated in Kofi Annan.

“I therefore make this call to all from this honourable House, to take steps to institute memorial lectures on the peace model of Kofi Annan”.

In his memoir, Kofi Annan reflected on his roles at the UN on the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Although he was not Secretary General at the time, this was one of the significant events that dented the UN’s peacekeeping reputation. Kofi Annan reported on how he lobbied for 100 governments – and made personal calls to others – to assist with the passage of the Security Council Resolution (918) where page 2 of the resolution sought to enable the UN dispatch about 5,500 troops to the country

Subsequently, the 1999 independent investigation into what had happened categorically concluded that the UN had failed to prevent and stop the genocide in Rwanda. As Secretary-General during the investigation, Kofi Annan most importantly accepted responsibility for the turn of events and poised himself to ensure the prevention and reoccurrence of such a dreadful event.

 He sought to do this by reforming the UN to be mandated and equipped for the kind of forceful action needed to prevent a genocide.

In his words, he said “I realised after the genocide that there was more that I could and should have done to sound the alarm, and rally support. This painful memory, along with that of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has influenced much of my thinking, and many of my actions, as secretary-general”.

 His support and validation of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was a key act which one could say Kofi Annan had at heart. The R2P was an interventionist protocol out of which a clarion call for peace and conflict resolution is made to help protect war & conflict prone regions, principally to protect the people of the state.

 Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Minister for Food and Agriculture Dr. Akoto Afriyie has given assurance to Parliament that his Ministry is taking steps to ensure that there are fertilizers available for farmers in the 2022 crop season.

According to him the COVID-19 pandemic has affected global economic activities resulting in high prices of goods and the supply chain as no sector has been left out on the international market.

And there has been increase in the prices as a result of inadequate supply of fertilizers to farmers around the globe including Ghana.

Dr. Afriyie further told the House recognizing the threat and its implication to governments flagship programme, planting for food and job, and its impact on food security, the Ministry has taken steps to ensure the product is supplied during the 2022 crop season.

“We are collaborating with companies that import fertilizers to Ghana to buy early enough and in touch with the Finance Ministry to make prompt payment of outstanding debts to the various companies”.

This was when Member of Parliament for Kwadaso Dr. Kingsley Nyarko sought to know steps being taken by the Ministry to address the complaint of farmers about the unavailability and high prices of fertilizers and how the ministry can ensure its availability in the next crop season.

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The Majority Leader, Osei- Kyei -Mensah- Bonsu has explained that, the Roads and Highways Minister Kwasi Amoako Atta’s action to suspend road toll collection across the country was to save lives and property.

He explained that, upon intelligence gathered by the minister, there were a lot of chaos and misunderstanding between drivers and people collecting the toll fees as soon as they heard the finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta announcing free tolls on our roads.

Mr. Kyei Mensah said, in order not to allow the situation to escalate throughout the country, the roads minister immediately issued the statement to bring the situation under control.

And further told the House he agrees with the Minority Leader that the budget for 2022 has not been approved and even the debate has not yet started: that matter has not been concluded and Parliament has to conclude the matter for the minister to come with the directive.

And further pointed out that the Minister did not suspend the law but all he did was to save a situation as they picked up intelligence of a confusion that was about to erupt.

In addition, he noted that if the House has questions to ask the Minister could be invited to give better particulars about his directives on the various toll collections.

 Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu said Ghana’s finance minister Ken Ofori Atta would go down the Guineas book of record under the fourth Republic of Ghana as the most borrowing Minister of finance when he seconded motion for adjournment on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.

According to him with the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy presented by the sector Minister, Ghanaians would not be able to bear the hardship they are already enduring. “The system is hot and it’s only Ofori Atta who ironically reduces hardship and suffering by imposing taxes”, he said.

Again, the one point seven (1.7) momo and electronic tax targeted at raising fifteen (15) billion Ghana cedis would worsen the already hardship of the people. More importantly, he said the e-transaction levy would reverse the gains of financial inclusion.

“Mr. Speaker we are not in a hast to debate him, when you project revenue from 53 billion to 80 billion within one year, the market and Ghanaians have listen to you, this budget does not end any suffering of Ghanaians”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

As government introduces electronic levy tax in the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy as presented by sector Minister Ken Ofori Atta, Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga East, Isaac Adongo said if Ghanaians spend their money electronically, Dr. Mahamoud Bawumia would be there to take his share.

According to him it would be double taxation because as Ghanaians pay tax on their income, they have to pay another tax on money they want to send to their parents electronically unless they go to the bank physically to withdraw the money.

“I cannot imagine this level of insensitivity, and we are doing this at a time that we are saying COVID has affected our people. You recounted when the Vice President said when the economy is not performing and you decide to raise money by imposing taxes you would go into a downward cyclical and we were growing our economy during our time at 3.4, and you said the same thing about us; now you are growing at 0.4. These people, any time NPP is bringing a bitter pill for you to swallow they find sweetener”.

In his engagement with the media just after the finance minister had presented his budget, he recounted that just after Nana Akufo-Addo led government came into power in 2017, they said they were moving away from taxation to production.

“In this budget, we have seen nineteen (19) taxes. They further said good work budget, we rather saw unemployed Ghanaians; they said year of roads, we witnessed only two billion cedis devoted to roads”.

In a related development John Abdulai Jinapor on his part pointed out that, road tolls have been abolished but what government has not told Ghanaians is that they would go to the DVLA to pay same amount they were paying as road taxes.

“We would do whatever it is to ensure that the impoverished Ghanaians, who are suffering under excruciating inflation would not be affected, we would do everything possible to ensure that happens”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com