Statement: Volta Youth League throws its weight behind the president

President J.E.A. Mills         The Volta Youth League has observed with keen interest, the recent developments in the NDC that sought to question the performance of H.E. John Evans Atta Mills during his short tenure of office and his ability to lead the party to victory come 2012. To the keen observer, the achievements of the President over the past two years in the field of health, education, agriculture, roads, energy etc cannot be over-emphasized. In the field of education, the President has cut the sod for the commencement of work on two public universities in the Volta and Brong-Ahafo Regions, schools under trees are almost virtually eliminated, construction of facilities to absorb students into the SHS system in the form of dormitories, dining halls, assembly halls and classroom across the country are there for all to see and appreciate if they so want to. The shift system which used to be the bane of public first cycle institutions in the Accra metropolis is now a thing of the past. The provision of health facilities across the length and breadth of the country in the form of hospitals, polyclinics, clinics and health training institutions are all ample testimonies to the ‘Better Ghana’ agenda. The road infrastructure in the country is under-going a massive over-haul as is evidenced by the construction of road networks in the urban and rural areas to open up the hinterland for farmers to have access to marketing centres. The food situation has been stabilized through various interventions by the government which is yielding fruitful results. We cannot begin to talk about the growth of the economy, the stabilization of the cedi and its attendant positive effects on the economy. Communities which are yet to be connected to the national grid since independence are gradually but progressively being hooked into the national grid. We need stability and continuity to complete this agenda. The livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) and other social interventions are being extended to many more communities across the country In view of the above and a host of others too numerous to state, we, the entire membership of the VOLTA YOUTH LEAGUE wish to re-emphasize our faith and confidence and call on all delegates in the upcoming congress and Ghanaians in general to give the mandate to His Excellency Prof. John Evans Atta Mills and his NDC government as the best team to retain the seat and lead the party to victory in 2012. We all know that President Mills has already been marketed over the years. He has been battle-tested coming from behind in the first round of the 2008 election to beat Nana Akuffo Addo the candidate of the NPP even with their rigging. We believe that tactically, it would be imprudent for the ruling NDC government to endorse a new presidential candidate the year before the 2012 elections. GOD BLESS OUR HOMELAND GHANA, ARISE ARISE NDC. Signed: Del Nyamador National Coordinator

NDC, NPP and the Ghanaian Journalist: A Critical Rebuke

*By Lord Aikins Adusei

Many Ghanaians are dismayed and horror-struck at the kind of journalism being practiced in today's Ghana. There is no doubt the NDC and NPP are the two leading political parties in Ghana and to replace them with a third party is unthinkable for now. But for journalists to defend their lies, their corrupt cocaine ridden behaviours, their ill-conceived economic policies, and their mismanagement of state resources, is something that the people of Ghana cannot understand. Almost all the journalists in Ghana appear to be either speaking for the NPP or the NDC. There is nothing to show that the journalists in Ghana write and talk as journalists. Ghanaians are looking for independent and neutral mind, but they cannot find any. There is no independent or middle voice. There is no voice speaking for mother Ghana and her children. There is no voice speaking for Ghana and the millions of Ghanaians who are languishing in poverty, without jobs, without electricity, whose houses have no water and who lack basic sanitation, not to talk about good roads, better housing and hospital facilities. 

The old colonial and tribal mentality that has characterised Ghana's politics has been transferred to the field of journalism. This has resulted in three sets of journalists and three groups of media outlets in Ghana. One of them belongs to the NDC including The Ghana Palaver, The Ghanaian Lens, The Daily Democrat, The True Democrat, The Crystal Clear Lens, The Weekly Standard, The Informer and The Ghanaian. Another group belongs to the NPP including, Daily Searchlight, The New Punch, The Mail (Formerly Accra Daily Mail), and Daily Guide. The third one is owned and controlled by the NPP or the NDC depending on who is in charge of government. I am referring to the so called state media (GBC and its cohort). Each of these media houses spews nothing but propaganda messages devoid of truth and matters that are at the heart of the people. When I was growing up as teenager I used to respect The Ghanaian Chronicle a lot. There was another paper called The Free Press. I would not rest if I did not read these two papers. That was in the 1980s and 1990s. These papers were committed to informing Ghanaians about the state of our nation: the poverty in the rural areas, the corruption that was so rampant in the country, the human rights abuses and the military brutalities that defined the politics at the time. Today that is all gone with Anas Aremeyaw Anas being the only journalist who appears to care about the well-being of Ghana. 

When NPP tells lies and NDC does the same the only body that can rightly inform the people is the media. But what happens when the journalist is in bed with the very politician telling the lies? Thanks to the media everything in the country has been reduced to NDC and NPP, nothing more nothing less. The poor nature of our roads is not discussed with the same intensity in which the media houses defend their clients (NDC and NPP). The corruption at the Accountant General's Department and in the ministries of education, finance, health, roads is not exposed because the journalists are busy defending the lies of NDC and NPP. The poverty in the rural areas is ignored completely in our discussions because the journalists are interested in writing lies. We hear the names NPP and NDC more than we do about unemployment. We do not hear about poverty in the rural areas unless they are talking about NDC. Where is their sense of patriotism? Where is our love for mother Ghana? Do we have to blindly follow NDC and NPP and speak for them? Do we have to defend their politics of insults, their politics of lies and their corrupt cocaine lifestyle? 

In the 1980s and 1990s The Daily Graphic, Times and the GBC were singing praises to government officials and ignoring the poverty that was swallowing the masses because the journalists and editors there were interested in nothing but their stomach. Has anything changed since then? No. Today because of the competition from the private media the practise of singing praises to officials in order to secure their jobs has become even more intense. The Graphic and Times are always full of images showing Ministers commissioning toilets. I mean toilets. Editors in both media outlets see toilets as so important that they have to devote pages to report them and even have images spread inside their papers. I wish the editors there will have the opportunity to read the New York Times, the Guardian in UK and the Washington or Jerusalem Post to check what they usually report.

Publishing toilets is nothing but propaganda designed to deceive the people that something substantial is being done to help them while the issues so close to their heart are completely ignored. But that propaganda has brought us nothing but misery, poverty, and hardship. People have to sell on pavements and in the streets of Accra, Kumasi in order to make a living. Children are dropping out of school in the northern part of Ghana in order to become kayayos and street vendors in Accra and in Kumasi and all journalists are quiet. Who should write to defend the homeless and the voiceless when the journalist trained to do so is busy telling and defending lies spewed by corrupt and cocaine mafias masquerading as politicians?

There is no doubt that every human has his or her own biases but when the biases are taken too extreme it produces effects that cripple progress and development and that is exactly what is happening in the field of journalism in Ghana today. The biases of the journalists and the media houses in the country have been carried too extreme to the point that they are not able to speak or write the truth anymore. Take for example the damning cocaine revelation captured in the US Diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks. Anyone who critically read the cables can tell for sure that the operatives of the NDC and the NPP have been deeply involved in the cocaine trade. The inglorious revelations show that both the NDC and NPP politicians have succeeded in making Ghana a hot bed for and epicentre of cocaine smuggling in West Africa. When the revelations were made public instead of journalists asking questions like why has Ghana become the epicentre; who is involve; what method do the perpetrators use; and what can be done to eliminate the cocaine threat, the discussion and the analyses that followed were quickly reduced to the usual NDC and NPP politics by journalists who should have asked critical questions and put those failing to protect Ghana from the menace of the drug trade on their toes. The media spent a lot of time apportioning blames to NDC and NPP without any serious analysis as to what can be done. As I write the damage of the cocaine revelation is being felt by law-abiding Ghanaians travelling abroad as they have become target and suspect of drug and law enforcement agencies in Europe. The nation's reputation and its image internationally have been severely battered thanks to NDC and NPP politicians and their uncritical media friends. I have been forced to ask where the Kofi Coomsons and the Haruna Attas have all gone.

We are slowly moving towards a situation where Ghanaians get to know the truth about what is happening in their own country not through local journalists/media but through revelation by foreign media. We have come to this situation because the biases of the local journalists have blinded them from practicing any serious journalism. If journalists want to be politicians they should leave the field and go into politics. It is unacceptable that they claim to be journalists while in fact they are bidding for NDC and NPP politicians, the same people who have made Ghanaians slaves of poverty. I have a serious problem when journalists write and speak like politicians; I also have a problem when they defend political corruption and when they ignore the plight of the poor. 

What kind of journalism is being practiced by the Ghanaian Democrat and Palava that sees everything in the NDC as good and everything in the NPP as bad? What kind of journalism is practiced by the Daily Guide when everything is black for NDC and white for NPP? If you want to hear favourable messages about the NDC listen to Radio Gold. If you want to hear anything negative about NPP listen to Radio Gold. Is that how we want to develop Ghana? Is that how we want to build fast railways networks, build high quality houses, provide affordable healthcare and jobs for our people?

Over the last couple of months I have been listening to Asempa FM. There is a programme hosted by one Nana Kwabena Bobie Ansah. I do not know if the programme is a comedy show or not. I cannot take the programme and its host any serious because there is nothing about Ghana's current economic quagmire that is discussed. His programme is more about personalities, whipping tribal and ethnic sentiments and making disparaging remarks about women than about Ghana's total development. Nothing close to the heart of Ghanaians is discussed except politicians making hate and tribally charged statements and spewing their usual lies and the journalists who blindly support them. There is no civility and decorum on Mr. Bobie Ansah's programme. The panellists engage in verbal insults with each other when that is not enough for them they proceed to exchange blows as happened on Wednesday 9 February 2011. They frequently interrupt one another and shout on top of their voice as if they are talking to people standing thousands of miles away. The worse thing is that the analyses are often shallow, uncritical, not-balanced and most of the issues discussed are without substance. At the same time the language used on the programme is raw and undiplomatic. I ask myself whose interest is Mr. Bobie Mensah serving, is it that of Ghanaians? Does he and his cohorts watch or listen to Dateline London on BBC; Fareed Zakaria's GPS on CNN or Fault Lines, Empire and Inside Story on Aljazeera and can he contrast the atmosphere on these programmes with his usually confused and ill-moderated programme?

But Nana Kwabena Bobie Ansah is not the only one whose work in my opinion is out of touch with ordinary Ghanaians. In January 2011, after Mills government increased fuel prices, Mr. Kwesi Pratt is reported to have said that the current hardship in the country is too much and it is like the NDC government stopped thinking a long time ago. Well the truth is that Mr. Pratt also stopped thinking so many years ago. What does he expect when he focuses all his effort defending the government and not the plight of Ghana and Ghanaians? I see Mr. Ametor Kwame, Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Mr. Kwaku Baako and their colleagues in journalism as part of the machinery that is producing the sickening poverty situation and deprivation in Ghana. I say so because their pronouncements indicate that they speak for NDC and NPP rather than Ghana and Ghanaians. Most of Mr. Pratt's debates have been to defend the NDC and to criticise the NPP. Likewise Mr. Kwaku Baako has most of the time defended the NPP and criticised the NDC all to the disadvantage of the country and its people. Ghanaians are really suffering but the message of the senior journalists has often tended to show that everything in the country is fine when in fact everything is bad. The consequence is that Ghana's development is being sacrificed for the same politics that has brought us nothing but misery. 

The politics of insults which has come to replace government policies to fight cholera, poverty and water shortage in our cities, towns and villages couldn't have gotten worse without the media playing a role. Hannah Bissiw and Ursula Owusu couldn't have gone far with their foul-language politics if the media were critical. Koku Anyidoho and his cohorts in the NDC and the NPP would have refined their language and their thinking if the media had been critical. Visit www.ghanaweb.com and experience the kind of language that the editors and moderators there allow users to use there: Ghanaians are literally tearing one another apart with words, language and insults some of which are too appalling to be described yet the editors at Ghanaweb see nothing wrong with that. Where is their sense of responsibility? 

In some countries that I know, it is journalists who set agenda for governments. Some of the journalists are so specialised in their field that they are able to speak authoritatively on issues affecting their countries. The reports and stories they run put fear in politicians and make governments shiver and run for cover. Those journalists are on the side of the people ready to inform the people what their governments, parliamentarians and political appointees are doing in their name. Do I see that in Ghana? No.

Am I disappointed? Yes. I am very disappointed that those who are given the platform to speak in favour of Ghana's development have betrayed the country and its people by siding with NDC, NPP and their corrupt representatives who for decades have been impoverishing the people, milking the country while asking the people to keep tightening their belts. Members of Parliament are asking for 7000 new Ghanaian cedis as salaries, but how many people in the country earn even half of that? And who is to inform the ordinary Ghanaian about the kind of rape that is happening to their country? The NDC and NPP politicians keep spending money on themselves building presidential palaces and buying presidential jets while ignoring the people's cry for water, for electricity, for food, for better housing, better education, and employment. As I write there are communities in Accra that have not received a drop of water for three years yet all that the media could do is to bring Hannah Bissiw the so called Minister for Water on air to engage in politics of insult. 

I am not the only one who is disappointed and dissatisfied with the work of our journalists and the media in general. I recently read a book authored by Ivor Agyemang-Duah (2008) titled 'An economic history of Ghana: Reflections on a Half-Century of Challenges and Progress'. In the book Dr. Nii Moi Thompson also expressed his unhappiness about the lack of critical and objective analysis of economic and social issues in the country as well as the willingness of the media to publish things without questioning and without checking their accuracy or authenticity. He made reference to some statements made by some politicians prior to the 2008 elections to buttress his point. “One of the presidential candidates for the December 2008 elections recently launched his campaign and the statistics he had in there were just flat-out false! It just didn't make sense; they actually indict his government. But no one questioned it. The main opposition party didn't question it. The media, well they are somewhere else. Anything you give them they will publish. No one has a critical mind as to say wait a minute, these numbers don't make sense” Agyemang-Duah (2008, p.64). “Whenever I go on radio or talk to journalists, I remind them that they have a professional responsibility and a patriotic duty to ensure that this democratic infrastructure is actually preserved by watching or editing the kind of language people use. I tell them they need to avoid things like this is a do or die election.” This good advice was offered in 2008 by Dr. Nii Moi Thompson but in 2011 we have the media playing over and over again a statement purported to have been made by Nana Addo in which he is reported to have said 'all die be die'. That is what is called irresponsible journalism indicating that the media has neither been rational, critical, objective, patriotic nor observant. 

Reverend Mensah Otabil in a recent comment published by Joy Online on Friday, 25 March 2011 also registered his unhappiness with the way the media focus time and energy to debate unnecessary issues in the country while issues that need attention are ignored completely. He said: “Can't we see the damage we are doing to ourselves? We are a third world nation; we have a development deficit of 250 years, our cities are chocking with filth, educational standards are [low], infectious diseases are killing us, our highways are unsafe for passengers, our water bodies are polluted, our forest cover is gone, industries are dying, homes are breaking up, the gap between the rich and the poor keeps widening, yet when you listen to our parliamentary debate, read our newspaper headlines, listen to radio or watch television for a whole month, you will not come across any sustained intelligent discussion offering responses”. 

The journalists in the country are trading the dignity of their profession for peanuts, ignoring the people they were trained to serve. It is because of their behaviour that is why the NDC and NPP have taken Ghanaians for a ride, not addressing the unemployment problem in the country and not doing anything to improve the lot of Ghanaians who are facing poverty, and hunger. Think about how many patients would die if doctors and nurses were to trade their profession for political lies.

So what do Ghanaians want to see? They want to see critical, objective and balanced position being taking by all the media houses and the people professing the profession of journalism. Ghanaians want to see journalists asking critical questions and putting politicians and other officials on the spot to extract from them information that the public need to know. They want to see the politics of insults be removed from our national debates. They want the media to focus on the education sector and ask critical questions as to why Ghanaian universities did not make it to the top 100 of the recently published university ranking. Ghanaians want to see the cocaine debate highlighted and policies fashion out to remove its threat from the country. They want the problems of unemployment, water shortages, sanitation, waste management, and electricity be placed within our national dialogue. They want the problems of gender inequality, child labour, kayayo, teenage pregnancy be brought into our national discussion. They want a national development dialogue that will focus on how to build roads, rail networks, and telecommunication infrastructures to increase broadband access and internet speed in all parts of the country. They want national resources to be devoted to develop the rural areas and reduce the rural-urban migration that is contributing to governance problems in our cities. And finally they want the media to play its watch-dog role to police the oil revenue that is beginning to flow into the coffers of government so that the NDC and the NPP politicians will not steal it and mismanage the rest as they have done with proceeds from gold, cocoa and other valuable resources of the country. 

There is so much to be done in Ghana to make it a better place for all its citizens and we must do it with critical mind, with critical eye and with critical ears, and with a sense of patriotism without the parody that has come to dominate our media landscape.

*The author is a political activist and anti-corruption campaigner. E-mail: politicalthinker1@yahoo.com

Sustainable energy access for Africa: a win-win solution for climate and development

*By Fiona Lambe and Patricia Tella

A woman cooks using firewood           Photo courtesy

Supporting developing countries to scale-up access to sustainable energy for cooking will not only bring positive effects for climate change; it will improve the health and economy of the world’s most vulnerable households. What’s more, the cost of achieving universal energy access in the coming decades is surprisingly low.

It is difficult to imagine, but right now approximately two billion people, one third of humanity, do not have access to energy for their most basic needs such as cooking, lighting and heating. Not coincidently, this is the same one third that is currently living in extreme poverty. Access to clean and safe energy for cooking is essential for human development. No country in modern times has managed to reduce poverty and achieve economic development without increasing access to modern forms of energy. Without a massive scale up in access to clean and safe energy, the world’s poorest regions will remain trapped in poverty.

For most Swedes, cooking is an enjoyable pastime and something that is normally taken for granted.  We just flip a switch; turn a knob, and the stove turns own. However, for two thirds of the worlds’ population, this fundamental task is both a tiresome burden and a major health risk.

In Sub Saharan Africa, four out of five households do all their cooking over an open fire or using an inefficient wood or charcoal burning stove which exposes them to high levels of smoke and health damaging chemicals. They cook this way because they have very limited choice. Electricity is either unavailable - only 28% of SSA (excluding South Africa) is electrified - or unaffordable. Since the task of cooking usually falls to women and girls, it is they who face daily exposure to levels of pollution which are estimated to be the equivalent of consuming two packets of cigarettes a day (WHO, 2006).

The health impact of this exposure is devastating. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) smoke from domestic fires kills nearly two million people each year and sickens millions more. This is more than three people per minute. It is a death toll almost as great as that caused by dirty water and poor sanitation and AIDS, and greater than malaria. Without systematic changes, household biomass use will result in an estimated 8.1 million Lower Respiratory Infection (LRI) deaths among young children in sub-Saharan Africa alone between 2000 and 2030 (Bailis, Ezzati, Kammen, 2007, p 6).

These are indeed startling figures. So why isn’t more being done to tackle this problem? If indoor air pollution is responsible for more deaths globally than malaria each year, why don’t we see a global push for energy access similar in profile and funding to the global anti-malaria campaigns?

One answer is that until recently, there has been a marked lack of political will to acknowledge and tackle this glaring problem. This was made blatantly clear in September 2000 when heads of state from all over the world met to agree on eight specific targets for combating poverty, disease, illiteracy, hunger and environmental degradation. The deadline for achieving these eight ambitious Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is 2015 - just five years from now, but we are far from on track to meeting these targets. A major reason for this is that Energy Access was completely left out of the picture. Amazingly, there is no Millennium Development Goal on Energy, despite the fact that lack of access to clean and safe energy, especially for cooking, is a major impediment to meeting every one of the MDGs.

Now, with just over five years to go, we are beginning to see some momentum and a new global push to get energy access firmly on the development agenda. One major reason for this about turn is recognition of the enormous potential for so called “co-benefits”– additional or “bonus” opportunities for tackling climate change through projects designed to address the household energy problem in developing countries.

Cooking stoves and climate change

The same tiny particles from cooking fires that are linked to more than two million deaths annually are also contributing to climate change. Black carbon or soot is thought to be the second biggest contributor to global warming after CO2, and although dirty diesel engines, power plants and other more advanced technologies also produce black carbon, cooking fires appear to be the largest source of soot in developing nations. Several studies have indicated that reducing black carbon emissions may be among the most accessible, quick and cost effective actions to mitigate climate warming over the coming decades (e.g. Hansen et al.; Jacobson, 2002; Bond and Sun, 2005). 

CleanCook photo showing an Addis Ababa woman cooking on her two-burner CleanCook. On the right, she is using a traditionally rounded pot which is now held sturdily by the pot support.

Replacing inefficient cooking devices with cleaner stoves and fuels, while immediately improving the health and well being of the users, could also have a significant positive impact on global warming in a relatively short time frame. This is because, unlike carbon dioxide which can remain in the atmosphere for many decades, black carbon particles generally fall from the sky in days or weeks.

A wide range of new and improved cooking stoves, as well as cleaner fuels are currently being field tested – many of these show great potential for addressing the climate and health problems. One success story is that of the ethanol fuelled “CleanCook” stove, originally Swedish technology, in Ethiopia. Ethiopian NGO, Gaia Association has pilot tested these stoves in households in Addis Ababa and in a number of refugee camps with very positive results. Households are ready to switch completely to ethanol (which is locally produced from sugar cane residues) and the project will soon enter a commercial phase where the Swedish stoves will be produced and sold locally.

Although a global effort to roll out improved household energy programmes poses a number of challenges, relatively speaking, it is not an expensive project. The IEA, in its recently published World Energy Outlook estimated that universal access to clean cooking facilities could be achieved through additional cumulative investment on $56 million in 210-2030 (IEA, 2010). This investment is equivalent to 0.2% of the total projected global energy investment to 2030.

There is now widespread consensus among policy makers and the development community that addressing the energy access problem is a matter of urgency. In September 2010, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves was officially launched by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. This is a $60 million dollar public-private partnership to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions. The Alliance’s goal is for 100 million homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020.

2010 also saw the launch of the Energy for All 2030 Project, an EU-wide initiative aimed at raising policy and public awareness about the issue of energy access for meeting the MDGs in SSA. In Sweden, Energy for All 2030 is being led by the Stockholm Environment Institute which is playing a leading role in highlighting these issues for Swedish and European Policy makers and supporting a platform for dialogue between African and European civil society. The SEI, together with UK partner, Practical Action recently met with the EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs to push for more policy focus and financing at the EU level for the goal of universal energy access. This political momentum is set to continue over the coming years and particularly in the run up to 2015 and the deadline for meeting the MDGs.

It remains to be seen if the energy access targets can be met within the given timeframes. But there is hope.  Prioritizing energy access as a key driver of social and economic development is undoubtedly the first step towards achieving universal energy access and there, at least, we have agreement. Now we need to see this consensus and support translate into action for the worlds’ poorest.

Energy for all 2030 is a Europe-wide project calling for more and better funding from the European Commission for energy access projects in Sub Saharan Africa. Support the Energy for All 2030 Project. Go to http://practicalaction.org/energy-advocacy/makethecall and pledge your support to make universal energy access a reality by 2030.

*The authors are Associate Researchers at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in Stockholm-Sweden. They can be contacted through their e-mails: Fiona Lambe (Fiona.lambe@sei.se) and Patricia Tella (patricia.tella@sei.se)

Ghana to bag $110m from sale of first crude oil

Ghana to bag $110m from sale of first crude oil         Ghana is expected to earn approximately a hundred and ten million dollars from the sale of its first share of crude oil from the Jubilee Field. The amount is revenue expected from the lifting of GNPC’s cargo on Wednesday. The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation’s lifting comes after three previous consignments had been taken by Tullow Oil and the other partners in the venture. The Chief Executive of the GNPC Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye this morning told journalists GNPC’s lifting brings to more than 3.6 million barrels, the amount of Jubilee crude sold so far since production began late November last year. “GNPC on behalf of the government of Ghana and on its own behalf successfully lifted a total of 995,259 barrels of Jubilee Crude to the MV Poetic. Over the months to come as the daily oil production increases government of Ghana and GNPC can expect more frequent liftings from the Jubilee Field,” he said. Vitol and Cirrus are responsible for the lifting and marketing of GNPC’s crude. Nana Asafu-Adjaye explained the valuation of the crude consignments and discounted claims that the first crude oil ever lifted from the Jubilee was sold for around 60 dollars. He said there is a pricing policy available insisting the current price at which the brent crude will be sold will fetch a price above a hundred and ten dollars per barell if current crude oil price continues. The Greek flagged vessel, the MV Poetic has since set sail for the US. Proceeds from the sale are expected to hit GNPC’s accounts with the Ghana International Bank in London on the 8th of April after which government’s share will be transferred to the Bank of Ghana. Meanwhile, the Head of Economic Evaluation at the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Kwame Ntow-Amoah has been explaining that the proceeds from the sale represents a fraction of the revenue due government from oil production. Source: Joy Business/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana

Akufo-Addo: We can transform Ghana in 10 years

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party         The Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party has stated that his party is preparing a comprehensive programme of industrialization and modernization that can transform Ghana’s economy in a matter of one decade. “What Ghana needs is a structural transformation of her economy. We cannot improve the lives of the mass of our people if we remain a raw material producing nation,” Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo stated. Addressing the closing ceremony of a workshop organized for NPP researchers from the ten regions Wednesday, Nana Addo lamented the fact that President JEA Mills did not seem to recognize how lucky he was, as President, to have inherited an expanded economy, with record high gold and cocoa prices. “On top of that, Ghana is now oil rich,” he said. “This newfound wealth presents an additional opportunity for a visionary leader with a programme to take critical steps to transform our economy. If we continued on the old path to rely on crude oil exports, we would end up getting the same low value economy that we have gotten from gold and cocoa over the last century. This must change.” The NPP leader believes Ghana has what it takes “to position ourselves as the Taiwan or Brazil of the West African region of more than a quarter of a billion people. That is the way to go.” He said Ghana and other West African countries are now importing an ever -increasing percentage of their food products from Brazil. “With the right programme in place, in the next ten years, Ghana can become a self-sustainable, confident economy, in many ways, with an extensive, modern agricultural industry that will feed our neighbours and beyond.” Taking a dig at the Mills-Mahama administration, Nana Addo referred to the problems with the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA). “That was the vision behind our Northern Development Authority programme which was sadly turned into a mere propaganda, electoral tool by our opponents under sad SADA. We will resurrect that programme to transform the North and for the benefit of Ghana’s larger transformation programme,” he promised. Nana Addo referred to the opportunities, which in his view, have gone amiss under the current Government. He reminded his audience of the “deliberate programme by President Kufuor to lay a solid foundation for Ghana’s economic platform, based on our basic principles of freedom, fairness and fraternity. We had introduced a consumer credit economy, with a vibrant banking sector, we had introduced the most significant social engineering programme with the national health insurance and we were rapidly expanding access to education and expanding Ghana’s physical infrastructure. Unfortunately all these programmes, which we had hoped to build on, are today undergoing a systematic programme of rationing, at best.” He said, Ghana has the landmass, natural resources, human resource, political stability, economic freedoms and individual freedoms that can be “consciously optimized to transform our economy and bring prosperity to every Ghanaian door step. We must get going. We need that can-do leadership vim to get us going and fast,” he stressed. Pointing to the ruling National Democratic Congress, Nana Addo said, “We are wasting time under this incompetent, do little government. The world is not waiting for us. Ghanaians are waiting for leadership and direction. We have a responsibility to give that to them,” he told his party people, urging them to prepare well to win power in 2012. He said he was drawing a lot of inspiration from the Brazilian experience, where within a matter of one decade, President Lula da Silva, managed to transform the nation “from a perennial underachiever into one with strong economic clout, and model social programs which have brought unprecedented prosperity to the people.” Nana Addo, in urging Ghana to learn lessons from the South American country’s experience, said, “Brazil’s middle class population has grown by some 29 million in 8 years and another 20 million people, nearly as many as Ghana’s population, have been pulled up from poverty. There is no reason why with the three Ds – Dedication, Discipline and Determination – we cannot achieve similar success in Ghana. If Lula can do it for Brazil, NPP can do it for Ghana,” he said to wide applause. Nana Addo articulated his vision, which is to transform Ghana from, what he called, “A Guggisberg Economy” to what his audience, in response, instinctively termed, “an Akufo-Addo Economy”. He explained the transformation as including “a new economy that makes Ghana the bread basket for West Africa and the entire Sahelian belt, a centre for light manufacturing industries and the financial centre of our region. This is the programme that, by the grace of God, we will present to the people of Ghana and implement after 2012. It would be ambitious, planned and doable.” Nana Addo who returned south from a trip to Yendi Tuesday, spoke to the party workshop on the philosophy of the NPP and his vision for Ghana. The three-day workshop, which took place at Mankesim, was attended by Jake Obestebi-Lamptey, National Chairman, Fred Oware, First Vice Chairman, Moctar Bamba, National Organiser, Otiko Djaba, Women’s Organiser, Anthony Kabor, National Youth Organiser, Abubakari Suleimana, Nasara Coordinator, Victor Newman, Brigadier Odei, Martin Adjei, resource persons, including Peter Mac Manu and Nana Yaw Attafuah, and the party’s regional research officers, among others. Credit: NPP Communications Directorate

Supporting Democracy in Africa

Democracy is not just a word. It is the wheel through which both the poor and the rich are given the opportunity to influence decisions that affect their lives including education, jobs, electricity, housing, transportation, and all the freedoms known to mankind. But recent developments in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Cameroon, Gabon, Ethiopia, Gambia and Ivory indicate that achieving democracy always come with a price. Since January protests have rocked the North African states of Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya. Similar protests have taken place in Gabon and Cameroon. The protesters have embraced jet fighters, helicopter gunships, armoured carrier assaults, water cannons, camel charge, tear gas and police brutalities.

Thousands have died. But we cannot remain aloof while thousands are massacred for demanding the right to elect their leaders, to speak their mind freely and to have access to basic necessities of life. Our silent means victory for the autocratic regimes littered across the continent. The people of Libya need our support. They need our prayers, and our encouragement. Let's us support them. Join Africa for Democracy now and let the world know how you feel about it.

Facebook activists are two steps ahead of world Intelligence Agencies

It is understatement to say that the recent revolutions and uprisings taking place in North Africa and the Middle East caught the intelligence community and their political masters off guard. The intelligence community is asking why they didn’t get to know that the poor were planning to overthrow the allies of our governments in North Africa and the Middle East. They wish they had known the intensions of the poor so they could inform the corrupt, insensitive and autocratic regimes to erect firewalls around themselves. 

French General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) had no idea how poverty and corruption were uniting to overthrow their friend in Tunisia. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had no clue what the Egyptian poor were up to regarding the $1.3bn given to Mubarak to buy his cooperation and likewise the Italian Agency for External Information and Security (AISE) had no idea what was going to happen to their friend in Libya.

While Al Qaeda and the Taliban were on the radar screen of many of the intelligence agencies, it appears the Yasmin revolution planned and executed on Facebook caught the spy agencies by surprise. Facebook activists it appears have been steps ahead of the world's finest spy agencies.

It will be no news if we hear tomorrow that the corrupt and autocratic regimes in Angola, Cameroon, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Uganda and Zimbabwe have been toppled without the spy agencies having a clue.

By Lord Adusei

Libya and the silence in US and Europe

There are report of horrendous atrocities being committed against the Libyan people by Gaddafi and his agents. While the reports make me sick it is the near-silence coming from Europe and America that rattles me. I must say without hesitation that I am deeply and horror-struck at the silent in Washington and Europe regarding the atrocities being carried out by the Libyan regime against the innocent and good people of Libya. The silence is another proof of the corrupt relationship between Gaddafi and European and American leadership. We are witnessing another Rwanda in Libya yet because of oil the US, Europe and Security Council in which they control are quiet.

The African Union has not said anything. The US is only rambling. The European Union has proven once again how irrelevant and ineffective it has become in shaping global events. The Arab League is as useless as it has ever been.  

This is why Europe and America won't take action against Gaddafi. 79% of Libya's oil goes to Europe. Out of the 79% Italy gets 32%; Germany 14%; France 10% and the rest of Europe 23%. US also get about 5% of her oil from Libya. Oil is the key factor here. For US and Europe oil is important than democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom to choose ones leader. Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi is known to be a close friend and a key ally of Gaddafi. In August 2009, because of a 500 million dollar oil contract between Gaddafi and British Petroleum, Britain released from prison Mr. Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan Lockerbie bomber who blew Pan Am aircraft Flight PA 103  over Scotland  in 1988 that killed 270 people most of them Americans. Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair was instrumental in ending Libya's international isolation. It is because of oil that Europe and America do not want to antagonise Gaddafi.

That is the world in which we live in.But like Rwanda the remnants of the Libyan atrocities will rebuild the country after the people have prevailed.

By Lord Adusei

It is over for Mubarak, Ben Ali and soon it will be over for Gaddafi

I have been following the development in north Africa.  I have spent a lot of time arguing for the people to claim back their countries and I am glad the people have finally risen up to redeem their country from the autocrats. 

Ben Ali, Mubarak and Gaddafi thought they were in control of their police states. They called for jet fighters, helicopter gunships, armoured carriers, water cannons, and tear gas and used it against their own people but the people refused to budge.They thought the people would not revolt. They thought the people would continue to accept their corrupt and illegitimate leadership.They were dead wrong. When they realised it was over for them and their cohorts they pleaded for mercy and promised their children would not succeed them, but the people refused to listen. They were given 2 options by the people: flee or we would crash you and your regimes. Eventually they took the best of the 2 options: they fled.

It is not over yet but I believe the people are on course to redeem themselves from the internal slavery and internal colonialism imposed on them by their so called leaders.

I can see the leaders in Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Uganda, Angola, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, and Republic of Congo panicking because like the leaders in North Africa they know they too have failed their people.

By Lord Adusei

The enemy within: The challenges of transformation in a corrupt society

An unemployed university graduate allegedly operating an unlicensed fruit stand in Tunis was harassed by a corrupt policeman for trying to eke out an honest living under an autocratic regime. In desperation, he set himself on fire. This suicide set off demonstrations which culminated in Ben Ali’s rapid flight from Tunis. This achievement has given birth to hope for true freedom in North Africa and the Middle East. The speed of internet communication has contributed to the emerging outcome of these events in many countries. Egypt has been under continuous military rule since Nasser’s coup of 1952. It has a 40% unemployment rate. If the internet existed in 1974 when students of Ghana’s 3 major universities first marched against the Acheampong regime, Ghana’s history would have been remarkably different.

In the 60’s it was said that “Winds of Change” were sweeping across Africa.  These changes ushered in a period of euphoria fuelling dreams of a better tomorrow for generations of Africans to come. Unfortunately, many countries fell to persistent military rule and civilian regimes built around a culture of personality cults. Sixty years later, while Egyptians have now found a voice to demand basic rights which we take for granted in Ghana, we all share a basic problem which retards Africa’s progress as a continent.

All these teetering regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Sudan and Yemen have been propped up by dictatorial corrupt individuals and systems. In the end they deny their citizens basic needs and rights through a well choreographed mix of brutality, fear and corruption. After five progressively free and fair elections in Ghana, our democracy is growing steadily but we still have not met the promise of democracy for the vast majority of our people. The main reason for this failure is the enemy within – the Ghanaian Citizen.

President Mills confronted this enemy at the Tema Harbour this past week and laid out—in very simple and clear terms—why corruption is literally depriving citizens of health care, education and infrastructural development. The revelations from the Anas Armeyaw video are not a surprise to anyone but children under the age of 6 in Ghana. Even some of them may not be surprised but their very future is at stake.

Somehow the CEPS and police officials fingered by Anas for smuggling cocoa on the Ivorian border in July 2010 have not been prosecuted because reportedly on two occasions, the prosecution did not show up and the judge was obliged to discharge the suspects. These are some of the systemic problems President Mills faces in combating corruption in Ghana. His words were direct, honest and fair. His outrage was justified and reassuring but the next step is setting up a covert government structure with prosecutorial powers to implement lasting interventions to address this plague.

The president is correct to warn all agencies of the state that he will “descend on them” but it must portend the beginning of an implementation phase in this year of action. We must begin to see a wave of firings, arrests and prosecutions because the problem is woven so deeply into the fabric of the society that corrupt officials in all agencies operate with impunity and are well known. This is not news.

The president is at the threshold of a major transformation in Ghanaian society which will be resisted by many but leadership requires courage to bring about change so we expect Prof. Mills to do better than Kwame Nkrumah who also acknowledged corruption to the nation publicly but could not proceed from the identification phase to the implementation phase of the solution.

Investors are truly turned off by this daily extortion which is not only in government agencies but across the country in a manner that has also clouded land tenure in Ghana. Chiefs are particularly notorious for frustrating investors by coming back under all sorts of pretexts to nullify previously concluded land lease transactions so they can resell already sold lands to others or absurdly to original buyers. They are aided by some members of the legal profession in collecting what has now become institutionalized as “re-entry” fees when buyers begin their projects. The judiciary should frown on these schemes which are all over the country. These unscrupulous chiefs are robbing their communities of development opportunities and should be halted in their tracks.

While I applaud the president for his bold signal to corrupt officials, I recall his visit to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital last year, which also followed an Anas exposé. The mental health bill has still not been passed and psychiatric patients are still being cared for in 19^th century conditions. A new modern Neuroscience facility needs to be built on part of the grounds of the outdated current hospital. Mental illnesses account for over 30% of total disease burden, whether we recognize this fact or not. With this in mind, it is extremely disappointing that a returning Ghanaian expert psychiatrist like Dr. X has been received the “go and come” treatment the president talked about. After a year in the country, Dr. X has returned to the US. We have 1 psychiatrist for 2.4 million citizens but this still goes on.

Service to ordinary citizens is a duty that must guide the actions of all public servants. The president has struck the right tone by the practice of confrontation and verification of facts. It is conservatively estimated that corruption costs Africa $300bn per year, accounting for over 25% of our GDP. This is the central issue of this era of our development as a nation. If we use technology to eliminate human interfaces leading to corruption and apply persistent enforcement, we will not need donor countries.  We may be ready to lead Africa again in ridding our nation of the greatest cause of revenue loss and hence failed development.

There are those cynical and short-sighted individuals who will have partisan responses to the president’s recent actions but any problem that sucks away about 25% of GDP should transcend narrow emotional responses that do not come with proposed solutions. In Ghana the hemorrhage amounts to an estimated $4.5bn/ year on average. The NPP had 8 years to address this problem and saw to it that appropriate legislation was passed but President Kufuor’s leadership on this issue was subpar. He simply declared zero tolerance and asked the public to bring problems to his attention. Their 8 years was a missed opportunity.

The president’s address to the CEPS officers has gone viral on YouTube. We should remember that the internet has brought down Ben Ali and will bring down Mubarak but Mills may well use it as a tool for advancing leadership with integrity and grappling with corruption in our homeland Ghana.

Prof. T. P. Manus Ulzen

tulzen@yahoo.com

February 6, 2011

CEPS and Corruption in Ghana: Where Does the Buck Stop?

There are custom officers who own 13 cars  and 5 houses in Koforidua. Corruption at CEPS is runs deep from the head to the bottom. The head of the commission of CEPS is corrupt. The police is corrupt. The Accountant General's department is one of the most corrupt institution in the country. Do anyone knows any institution in Ghana that is not corrupt? I am struggling to find one.

President Mills and the culture of Corruption in Ghana

I am shocked and dismayed by the response of President Mills to the recently released Anas video in which officials at the Tema harbour were caught taking bribes and sabotaging the state in its effort to mobilise funds for the nation's development. The President's response has been (as at it has always been) to give a long lecture about how officials should behave without taking concrete action. 

In a normal situation the first thing the President should have done was to call for the interdiction of those officials and allow the Attorney General's department to begin prosecuting those nation wreckers, instead I heard the president saying that if those taking bribe and milking the nation did not change then they would be transferred. Yes they would be transferred to other places so could practice their corruption.

I do not know why President Mills has got so much poor decision making skills. Is the president aware of the anger of the people who have read and watched Anas report? Why do the people who are stealing from the state have to be transferred to other ministries and department elsewhere to continue their atrocious behaviours? Do the President and his ministers understand the responsibilities the people of Ghana have placed on them? Do they understand the oath they have taken to protect and defend the motherland from the nation wreckers such as those CEPS and GHPA officials?

Is President Mills showing concern just enough to root out corruption in Ghana? What is preventing the President from taking swift action to remove all those officials from the port? Is the president and his ministers saying they do not know the rot at Tema and Takoradi harbours? Go to the ministries, the lands commission, and see how officials have turned their offices into money making ventures. What kind of a nation is Mills heading, what kind of a country is Mills building? How long will President Mills continue to dither and fail to take action to stop the rot? The entire nation is waiting for him to act. He is the only leader we know now and we want him to lead, to provide leadership and direction for the country. 

Lord. A. Adusei

Mills: Arrest anybody who 'trades' in my name

President J.E.A. Mills is angry at corrupt practices at the Tema Harbour President John Mills has charged authorities at the Tema Harbour to arrest anybody who comes to transact business at the harbor in his name. He is incensed over startling revelations of bribery and corruption uncovered by investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas. The investigative piece exposed how the country has been denied of due revenue by corrupt officials who in collusion with private companies at the harbour under-declare imports and thus evade tax. Nearly every stage of paper work at the harbour was riddled with bribery with officials captured on videos collecting monies from importers. In an unannounced visit to the Harbour on Friday, President Mills condemned in no uncertain terms the stinking corruption at the harbour. "There are people who come here throwing their weight around; dropping names of so-called higher ups. I have General Mordey and I am telling you if anybody comes here with the president's name the first thing you should do is to arrest that person," President Mills said. He was disappointed also that the evidence of corruption was uncovered by Anas Aremeyaw Anas when security personnel charged with the statutory responsibility of uncovering corruption and raising revenue, were either sleeping on the job or were neck deep in the corrupt activities. He said the security personnel must at all times search their conscience to find out if their actions were in the ultimate interest of the nation. He called for an institution of a law that will require officials at CEPS to declare their assets. President Mills also expressed disappointment with the Judiciary over the discharge of some 14 CEPS officials who were being prosecuted for their roles in the cocoa smuggling allegations made against them following a similar investigative piece by Anas Aremeyaw Anas. The President said he "will no longer tolerate these lapses" from the Judiciary. Joy News’ Seth Kwame Boateng who was with the president described his 'visible anger' as unbeknown and said the president was so disappointed that monies that ought to be used for the development of the country were going into private pockets. According to Kwame Boateng the CEPS officials listened intently as the president made his admonitions. President Mills later met with shipping agents at the harbour. Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana