* Sunday, 06.12.2009

Ghana cannot achieve middle income status

without science and technology

* 05.12.2009

From Benjamin Mensah, GNA Special Correspondent, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

Port of Spain, Dec. 5, GNA - Ghana is taking steps to strengthen diplomatic relations with Trinidad and Tobago and collaborate to reduce the immigration blues facing Ghanaians and receive technical assistance and expertise in the oil and gas industry.

In this regard, Government is considering the possibility of appointing an honorary consular in Trinidad and Tobago to attend to issues affecting Ghanaians resident in that country.

President John Evans Atta Mills gave the assurance when he met with the Ghanaian community on Monday evening in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, after attending this year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

The principal concern expressed by Ghanaians related to immigration and welfare issues in spite of the fact that Trinidad and Tobago was a country that needed no visa for entry.

President Mills reiterated Government's commitment to serve and ensure the safety of Ghanaians, irrespective of their locations. He said it was the belief of Government that Ghanaians must be given the opportunity to develop and that the country's resources belonged to the people to ensure their welfare and not the enrichment of leaders. He welcomed the transfer of expertise and technical assistance in the oil and gas industry.

Government, he said, would also tap into the fountain of knowledge that Ghanaians had acquired from staying and working in other parts of the globe. President Mills called on Ghanaians living in Trinidad and Tobago to respect the laws of the country to facilitate the deepening of bilateral relations.

The President informed the Ghanaian community of the improvement of the security situation back at home, with reduction in armed robbery, and the creation of a more enabling environment for investment. He called for national unity to enable the Government to execute its development agenda.

President Mills said Government would team up with Ghanaians to work hard to build a better Ghana, on the core principles of investment in people, job creation, accountability, openness and transparency. Mr James Victor Gbeho, Presidential Advisor on Foreign Policy, said Government was not engaged in a fight with opponents and lauded the divergent views and free expression in Ghana, which he noted was a natural situation among political contenders and a sign of the vibrancy of the country's democracy. He said the Government was not divided against itself, and Ghanaians would soon observe the solidarity and camaderie that existed in President Mills Administration. Mr Gbeho said Government had laid the proper foundation for the take-off of the economy.

Legon Police apprehends two armed robbers

 Accra, Dec 5, GNA - The Police at Legon, on Sunday arrested two suspected armed robbers who broke into a house at East Legon and stole a Toyota Hillux.

The Legon District Police Commander Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Richmond Bonsu, who confirmed the story to GNA, named Kwabena Godfred, 28, and Godwin Cudjoe, 33 as the suspects.

ASP Bonsu said the armed robbers belong to a syndicate that posed as agents who recruited house helps, gardeners and drivers for people who needed their services. He said the syndicate managed to recruit Mr. Godwin Cudjoe as a house help for the complainant, owner of the house. ASP Bonsu said Cudjoe stole some items belonging to his master and absconded.

The District Police Commander said that later Cudjoe and Godfred who also lived in the house, threatened to attack a lady house help in the same house with hacksaw blade, iron rods and whips and took away the vehicle. ASP Bonsu said the suspects replaced the original number plate of the vehicle with a fake one and attempted to send the vehicle to Togo for sale but they were involved in an accident.

He said the suspects hid the vehicle that got dented in the accident at Peki-Adzakoe in the Volta Region. ASP Bonsu said when the suspects were arrested they led the Police to Peki-Adzakoe to retrieve the vehicle. He advised the public to be cautious of people who pose as agents who recruit house helps, drivers and gardeners and advised that prospective clients should check their background with the Police before engaging their services.

Accra, Dec. 4, GNA - The Four-day International Convention of Jehovah's Witnesses kick started in Accra on Thursday, with a call on members to reject worldly fantasies and apathy used by the Devil as tools to lure people into spiritual slumber.

Various speakers at the programme called on the Witnesses to fight the Devil's machinations by maintaining their spiritual alertness and to remain focused on guidelines from the scriptures in order to overcome temptations. Speaking to 30, 372 Witnesses and their friends at the Ohene-Djan Sports Stadium in Accra, Mr. Geoffrey Jackson, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses organisation, reminded the conventioneers to keep busy in the Lord's ministry in order to chase spiritual sleep away and to endure the ravages of what many people refer to as the end of the world. "Keeping on the watch is not a matter of being awake. A guard could be awake but may prefer to use the time available to watch a television programme whiles he is at post."

Mr. Jackson said true Christians needed to train their Bible-led conscience to focus on the important things in life and to develop a keen understanding of events of time to remain watchful. He noted that a Christian should strive to defeat physical and spiritual blindness.

Mr. Jackson explained that spiritual blindness was more subtle and very harmful.

He expressed worry that a number of people in the developed countries had become either atheistic or agnostics and professing belief in evolution. Mr. Jackson said belief in a Creator and in creation was fundamentally important in securing a future life for a Christian as well as helping the individual to wake from slumber.

> BACK to TOP <

* 03.12.2009

Bolgatanga, Dec. 3, GNA - Mrs. Mary Agangmikre, the Upper East Regional Manager of the Ghana Tourist Board, on Thursday warned operators of hotels and institutions in the tourism sector that the Board would close down tourist facilities particularly hotels that did not meet the required standards.

She told the GNA that warnings had been issued out to those who did not meet required standards and advised such defaulting operators to regularize their operations by getting the necessary documents. Mr Agangmikre said required documents included permits from the Town and Country Planning Department, the Ghana National Fire Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ghana Police Service and the Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit of the Municipal and District assemblies. She commended some hotels in the Region for their high level of hospitality and friendliness and said they would attract tourists to the region.

* 02.12.2009

10,000 people are suffering from HIV/AIDS

in Upper East Region

Bolgatanga, Dec. 2, GNA - Health records in the Upper East Region indicates that nearly 10,000 people in the area are living with HIV/AIDS. The HIV prevalence rate in the Region is 2.0 per cent, which exceeds the National rate of 1.7 per cent.

Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana East District is leading the Region's prevalence rate with 2.8 per cent recorded number of infections. The Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. John Koku Awoonor-Williams made this known in a speech read on his behalf during the commemoration of World AIDS Day in Bolgatanga on Tuesday. The theme for the event was:"Universal Access and Human Rights." He said there were 24 associations of People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs) with a membership of 1,560.

The members, who are supported with funds from Global Fund, carry out monthly meetings and socialisation programmes to promote positive living among them.

He said six hospitals in the Region were providing Anti-retroviral (ARVs) drugs to patients.

Dr. Awoonor-Williams said plans were far advanced to open six additional HIV satellite clinics to increase access to the PLWHAs. "One hundred health facilities are providing counselling and Testing and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV Services in the Region," he added.

Dr. Awoonor-Williams indicated that millions of people continue to be infected with HIV every year and explained that less than half of those who were in need of the ARVs therapy were receiving it while majority have no access to adequate treatment, care and support.

"Distance, cost of travel, non- availability of transport, poverty and host of other factors does not permit HIV/AIDS patients in the country especially those in the Upper East Region to access ARVs." He said the theme for the celebration points to the fact that there was the need for all and sundry to work towards universal access to HIV/AIDS, treatment, prevention and care and recognising such interventions as fundamental human rights.

Dr. Awoonor-Williams urged the people in the Region to go for voluntary counselling and testing to know their HIV/AIDS status to be able to sustain and prolong their life span.

The Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Woyongo appealed to the people not to stigmatize the PLWHAs because such attitudes hasten their death. He called on people in leadership positions in the country, especially the religious groups to preach against stigmatisation of patients. The Regional President of the Association of PLWHAs who spoke on condition of anonymity said the ARVs was a good source of relief as it reenergized infected persons to regain their health. She appealed to the Government to capture the ARVs drugs in the National Health Insurance Scheme to enable patients to get easy access to them.

Ghana records zero guinea worm infection in November

Sunyani, Dec. 2, GNA - Two members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Sunyani East Constituency on Tuesday appealed to delegates not to be influenced with money in exercising their franchise in the impending regional executive election.

Mr Michael Ramsey Yeboah and Mr Ekow Forson told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview that there was the need to elect competent and committed executives who could work to enhance the fortunes of the party in the 2012 general election.

"Even though bribery plays a very decisive role in elections it is also essential to consider electing executives who will have the political will to lead the party to success".

Mr. Yeboah said the Brong-Ahafo Region was one of the strongholds of the NPP but because of petty squabbles and disunity amongst some regional and constituency executives the party could not make any significant gains in the 2008 run-off election.

He advised supporters to bury their differences that could divide them and rally behind executives to enable the party to wrestle power from the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Mr. Yeboah said the NDC had worsened the plight of Ghanaians since it took office from the NPP and that when the NPP took power in 2000 the interest rate stood at 38 percent and came down to 18 percent in 2008. "Now interest rate stands at 34 percent", he said and called on Ghanaians to vote for the NPP in 2012 to enable it to lessen their burden through the implementation of pragmatic and laudable programmes and policies.

Mr. Forson said the fortunes of the NPP depended on people at the grassroots and urged constituency executives to intensify their campaign. He reiterated the need for the party's hierarchy to arrange some incentive packages to motivate foot soldiers so they would campaign effectively at the grassroots. Mr. Kwadwo Yeboah Fordjour, former Brong-Ahafo Regional Chairman, Mr. Frank Opoku Adjapong, a businessman and Mr. Asomah Cheremeh, a legal practitioner, have filed nominations to contest for the regional chairmanship of the party.

NPP polls expert predicted Mills victory in Election '08: Arthur Kennedy

It is now revealed that the 2008 Campaign Team of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, was beset by a fair level of in-fighting and bickering.

This is one of the revelations in a new book by a leading member of the party, Dr. Arthur Kobina Kennedy – Chasing The Elephant Into The Bush - The Politics Of Complacency.

Popularly known as Arthur K, he tells in his book that two days after the inauguration of the Campaign Team, he and others attended a meeting called by Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Chairman of the Team. The meeting was to lay the groundwork for better collaboration.

Arthur K continues: “A few days into the campaign, I called Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku (Director of the Campaign Team) about an issue and he indicated that he was not happy that ‘you are running to Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey on everything. I am watching that.’ I was stunned. I thought we were a team and that dealing with Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey would not be a problem. … Sometimes, people were excluded from meeting without explanation. Once, Boakye-Agyarko was asked not to join a meeting by the Campaign Committee, Seratu, who claimed to be acting upon Dr. Apraku’s instruction. Dr. Apraku was very hard-working but not collegial.”

In the first week of July 2008, Arthur K and others met Prof. Larry Gibson, an African-American law professor in Maryland, who also doubled as a political strategist. Prof. Gibson was reported to have helped elect Mrs. Eileen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Mr. Marc Ravelomana of Madagascar.

By August 2008, Prof. Gibson had reviewed various opinion polls and had told the NPP Campaign Team that Nana Akufo-Addo would not get an outright majority and in the run-off. Prof. Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would win.

This is how Arthur K wrote it: “Later, in conversation, Larry told me he had informed Nana Akufo–Addo in one of their early meetings that he was waiting for the completion of a survey that would measure his favorability and disapproval ratings against that of Professor Mills. According to Larry, he then asked Nana Akufo-Addo who he thought would be more popular. Nana Akufo-Addo, according to Larry felt he would be more popular than Professor Mills. When the results came in, Professor Mills was slightly more popular than Nana Akufo-Addo. However, the NPP was more popular than the NDC.

Reviewing the polls, he indicated that Nana Akufo-Addo would win the first round but would not get an outright majority and that the second round would be too close to call. There were 27% of the voters who claimed to be undecided. Later, Larry started referring to them as ‘Undeclared’ rather than ‘Uncommitted’. However, when pressed further, he said he would give the second round to Prof. Mills by a whisker. On support, he indicated that we were strong in Ashanti, Eastern and Brong Ahafo and nearly even in the north but were not doing well at all in Volta, Central and Greater Accra.

He indicated that we should write off the Central and Greater Accra regions. On this, virtually the entire group disagreed with him. We all agreed that conceding those regions would be tantamount to conceding defeat in the elections.”

National Security adviser denies alleged Jubilee House meeting

Accra, Dec. 1, GNA - The National Security Adviser, Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah(Rtd)has denied holding any meeting with other security heads and former President Jerry John Rawlings on the murder of the former Deputy Managing Director of the Ghana Commercial Bank, Mr Roko Frimpong. A statement issued by the Ministry of Information in Accra on Tuesday and signed by Mr Mr James Agyenim-Boateng, Deputy Minister of Information, stated that neither Brig-Gen Nunoo-Mensah nor the National Security Coordinator Lt-Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (RTD) had ever been invited by the former President to any meeting to discuss the murder.

"No security meeting has ever been held at the Jubilee House, part of which now houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," the statement said. The "Today" newspaper had claimed that Brig-Gen Nunoo-Mensah and a number of people had met at Jubilee House with former President Rawlings to discuss the murder.

It cautioned the media against "the increasing tendency" to knowingly and deliberately peddle falsehood with the intention to frame up especially government officials and members of the ruling party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

"To make up a story knowing very well that there's no iota of truth in it, and presenting it to the public in the manner that the tabloid did, cannot be said to be good journalistic practice."

Government said it hopes the new National Media Commission (NMC) "would be effective in performing its constitutional role by ensuring that the media works to enhance the country's development rather than fan trouble through deliberate falsehood".

"This definitely is a matter that government will be forwarding to the NMC for action, but we do not think that our newspapers and others media outlets should be engaging in this kind of journalism," the statement said.

Accra, Nov. 30, GNA - A pilot project to improve waste collection and management in the Okaikoi South sub-metro of Accra has been launched in Avenor.

Dubbed: "Pilot Door-to-Door Household Waste Collection", the project seeks to mobilize the youth into a group of eleven people collect refuse from households to be discharged at a central container site manned by a member of the cooperative.

The pilot project, a collaboration between Zoomlion Ghana Limited, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF) International Ghana and Nimba Community Support Services (Nimcoss) aims to improve general sanitation conditions of Avenor and the sub-metro. CHF is providing financial and technical support to the project while Zoomlion is providing logistical support to start the project while Nimcoss monitor the general activities to ensure that the desired goals are realized.

Under the project, eight of the eleven members of the cooperative are provided with manual tricycles and two with motor tricycles to be used to collect household waste from within the sub-metro and possibly its environs at a fee.

The refuse collected is then discharged at a container site manned by the eleventh person, the skip manager, who would then arrange and pay for the lifting and dumping of the refuse.

According to Mr. Yaw Duah,Project Manager of Nimcoss, the innovative thing about the arrangement is that throughout the process, Accra Metropolitan Assembly would not incur any cost. He said the if the project is successfully implemented, it would be scaled up to reduce considerably the financial burden of the Assembly since the contractors working in the area will funded for the cost of the collection and dumping of refuse.

He appealed to residents of Avenor to desist from dumping refuse into the Odaw drain since the practice compromised their own health and that of Accra residents in general.

He announced that there were other youth related projects that Nimcoss will work on with residents, and called for their support and patience. At the commissioning ceremony, the Assemblymember of the Gontein Electoral Area, Mr. Isaac Tetteh - Bosah, asked the selected youth work hard to secure a permanent lucrative job in the waste management industry. He asked residents to adopt positive sanitation practices to make Avenor a better place for habitation. Present at the ceremony were members of the Avenor Traditional Authority and the leadership of the Avenor Landlords Association.

ISODEC calls for Increase government Spending

Accra, Nov. 30, GNA - The Centre for Budget Advocacy of the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) has urged government to come out from its restrictive macroeconomic framework of reducing inflation and balance of payments, saying such a fiscal stance sacrifices growth and makes it almost impossible for the country to meet international human rights obligations.

In its initial reaction to the 2010 Budget, the Centre said the pursuit of such a fiscal policy would not allow government to tackle the high unemployment rate in the country and to pursue a public sector-led growth and transformation.

"For us the objective for fiscal policy is to finance a sustained, significant and permanent increase in public finance to support economic growth and deliver the basic necessities to secure a positive achievement in human development," Mr Nicholas Adamtey, Head of the Centre said.

Mr Adamtey said macro stability without due consideration for the basic needs and entitlements of citizens in fulfilment of state obligations enshrined in the national constitution, the United Nations Millennium Goals and international commitments like the African Human Rights and economic social and cultural rights framework is counter-productive.

He said it was the Centre's expectation that government would engage in broad consultation with stakeholders of the national economy namely organised labour, religious

bodies, professional bodies, chamber of commerce, farmers organization to secure a social pact for the management of the national economy.

The social pact will enable the government to negotiate and secure agreements/commitments of stakeholders to public sector reforms like rightsizing and the negotiation of wage levels until the situation improves, the role of the Bretton Wood's institutions in domestic policy making and the need for policy autonomy and progressively reducing reliance on external financing of the budget.

The Centre welcomed the various measures outlined by government to shore up domestic revenue mobilization, especially the increase in mineral royalties from the current level of three to six percent and called on government to exhibit the political will in implementing the measures.

Tamale, Nov. 30, GNA - A report released by the National African Peer Review Mechanism (NAPRM), had revealed an increasing rate of child prostitution in the Tamale Metropolis, which is said to be very worrying to the moral fabric of the people.

The report, which was conducted in 20 communities with 200 people responding to questionnaires, revealed 13.5 per cent rate of child prostitution in the area.

Dr. Francis Appiah, Executive Secretary of the NAPRM expressed concern about the growing incidents of child prostitution, saying, "It is worrying for Tamale metropolis to be engaging in the act, which would put the future of the youth at risk and danger".

Dr. Appiah was addressing about 75 Assembly Members in the Tamale Metropolis to seek their views and inputs into the report for onward submission to the President of the Republic. The report is also part of a nationwide survey, which is currently on going in two districts in the Northern Region, the Tamale Metropolis and Walawale Municipality.

The survey would form part of the national report to be presented to the Africa Union (AU) for review.

An Assembly Member for Pagazaa Electoral Area, Iddrisu Hardi, who also confirmed the child prostitution report, told the GNA that the situation was more serious than the report captures.

He said it was very common to see young girls in some hotels and night clubs between the hours of 2300 hours to 0200 hours parading as sex workers, adding that, "They disguise themselves before going out making it difficult to identify them after their business hours". The NAPRM also cited corruption and unemployment in the Tamale Metropolis as endemic, while the police and CEPS topped the list of corrupt institutions in the area.

Mr Alhassan Imoro, an Assembly Member for Datoyili Electoral Area expressed his worry and concern about the sample size of 200 respondents from only 20 communities', which he thinks is too small to be generalized because it is not representative enough.

On democracy, the respondents commended the country for championing democratic governance and urged the government to continue giving more freedom to the people to express their views.