Jinxed Campus Connect

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Samuel Ablakwa Okudjeto

Whoever engineered the Campus Connect project of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) must be disappointed that it has suffered a major setback, dying almost upon takeoff.

Cynics think it has taken this turn because after all, the project is a repackaged propaganda piece intended to throw more dust into the eyes of students in tertiary institutions.

We do not care about the staggering budget earmarked for the project but are only concerned about the reaction of those engaged in the execution of the dust-throwing assignment to spontaneous action.

In Kumasi the trio of Samuel Ablakwa Okudjeto, Felix Kwakye Ofosu and Dr Kpesa Whyte did not expect the pure water bombardment and heckling visited upon them when they entered the campus of Wesley College. It was a spontaneous action by enraged teacher trainees still sulking over their cancelled allowances initiated by Ablakwa Okudzeto.

To associate the action with the machination of a political party as Okudzeto seeks to do through his remote action in the Volta Region, is to display a sickening ignorance about the reality of the situation on the ground.

Driving to the Wesley College in those sleek four-by-four vehicles with a baggage of unfulfilled promises and cancelled allowances was courting trouble which the propaganda-bearing trio bore.

Angry and depressed students can never brook lies from persons they have already concluded are on a lying mission.

We are amazed that Hon Okudzeto Ablakwa is not getting it and would embark on what for him is an equalisation assignment which can draw more embarrassment for the political party he belongs to.

Following the embarrassment he and his team suffered, he turned to the Volta Region to avenge for their tribulations at the hands of the students in a manner which lacks finesse and sophistication.

Persons who have nothing to do with teacher training screaming their resentment to allowances can only be regarded as hired hoodlums expressing their madness to justify the monies given them by diabolic politicians in government.

These guys were told to state things contrary to what the angry teacher trainees said, and it exposed the Okudzetos and others.

The hounds Okudzeto Ablakwa engaged to heckle and embarrass Dr Mahamudu Bawumia were unable to set eyes on their target: he was not in Akatsi Training College but rather in Ho.

They could have as well been demonstrating against a person they were not seeing as they held their miserable-looking placards at Akatsi.

The Volta and Ashanti Region scenarios are at variance with each other. While the former was about an orchestrated project to embarrass Dr Bawumia, the latter was about disappointed teacher trainees venting their spleen over cancelled allowances.

Ablakwa must return to the drawing board because this one flopped, exposing his mischief in another embarrassing fashion.

Decency is an important ingredient in politics. When it is deficient those engaged in it are turned into nincompoops groping in the dark.

It sounds imbecilic to react the way the deputy minister behaved after his epic embarrassment in Kumasi.

 

Via: -Daily Guide  

NDC Blows $1.1bn On Scams – Says Nana Addo

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Nana Akuffo-Addo

Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has stated that Ghana’s acceptance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout is as a result of corruption and mismanagement running into GH¢1.8 billion.

Nana Akufo-Addo said monies from only three scandals that rocked the country under the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) government amounted to more than the $940 million bailout it was receiving from the IMF.

According to the NPP presidential candidate, who was addressing a packed hall of students of the University of Cape Coast on Saturday, corruption on any scale was expensive, adding that it “has been especially expensive to Ghana’s development under this fourth NDC government.”

Stating facts to buttress his assertions, Nana Addo revealed that the cost of scams involving the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) (GH¢200 million), GYEEDA (GH¢952 million) and the payment of questionable judgement debts (GH¢657 million) amounted to a whopping GH¢1.8 billion.

“At the exchange rate that was prevailing at the time when the scams took place, we are talking about $1.1 billion. The entire IMF bailout is $912 million,” Nana Addo told the students, who were shocked.

President John Mahama, in a recent interview on Angel Fm, said clearly that the Ghana government money was not meant for capital projects, but could not tell if the GH¢657 million spent to pay fraudulent judgement debts was contracted as loans.

Continuing, Nana Akufo-Addo said, “These scams that I have mentioned are only a fraction of the numerous scams that you and I know about. Just these three give a loss to our nation which is more than the entire (IMF) bailout.”

Nana Akufo-Addo explained that “unless we tackle the problem of corruption in government, we run the real risk of cynicism overcoming our politics and, thus, a catastrophic loss of confidence in our democracy. Ghana cannot afford this; our forebears did not struggle for Ghana to end up in such a sad state of affairs, and I believe that we can, in this generation, deliver the economic transformation that has eluded us so far if we do the right thing.”

The NPP, he said, understood that Ghanaians were weary of the impact of pervasive corruption on society and simply wanted their government to fix the problem.

“They want it fixed, not with words, but action. It is my belief that the fight against corruption must start with an incorruptible President. I have said so before and I will repeat it again today. I can assure you, in all humility, that I am not, have never been and will never be corrupt.

“I can also assure you that, as your President, I will not condone corruption in my government,” Nana Addo added.

He reinforced statements he had already made in the past by stating that “people who see service in government as an avenue for making money will have no place in my government. Their proper place is in the private sector, where money-making is a positive thing. Public service is exactly that, public service.”

Deficit Of Ideas

He said the decision by the Mahama-led NDC government to go for a bailout from the IMF “is as a result of the deficit of ideas in solving problems like ‘dumsor’, coupled with the mismanagement of the economy and a lack of fiscal discipline.”

Nana Addo stated that the whole world was at a loss as to how “for the first time in history, an oil rich country, some five years into oil production, is seeking a bailout from the IMF.”

According to the NPP flagbearer, this NDC government had received more money in loans, tax revenues and export receipts than any other government in Ghana’s history, but had surprisingly ended up with Ghana going cap-in-hand to the IMF for assistance.

“This sad spectacle is an indictment on the kind of leadership we have at the helm of affairs in our country,” he emphasised.

He recounted how the NPP, under the leadership of President Kufuor, showed in eight years that fiscal discipline was possible, and this resulted in the NPP government committing the nation’s resources into areas that improved the lives of Ghanaians.

“We need to bring back confidence in the economy so that businesses and families can plan their budgets properly. What an Akufo-Addo government will do again is to bring back that confidence,” he said to a rousing applause from the audience.

An Akufo-Addo government in 2017, God-willing and the people of Ghana consenting, he said, would ensure fiscal discipline on how taxpayers’ monies would be spent and ensure macroeconomic stability.

“Investors, domestic and foreign, will only be interested in Ghana when they can be assured of the bankability of investing in our economy,” he said.

He continued, “We will move away from high budget deficits and reckless borrowing because we know of the benefits of fiscal responsibility – low inflation, reduced interest rates, exchange rate stability, avoiding HIPC and making savings for social and capital expenditure.”

Nana Akufo-Addo assured the gathering that “I bring to the table and to the Office of President of this potentially great country an unblemished track record of personal integrity and fortitude. I invite you to bank on my essential leadership attributes and help make me your president. I will lead a strong fight against corruption in this country.”

TESCON

He told the teeming students that TESCON would be given a role to play in the 2016 elections.

“In all this, TESCON occupies a special place in the life of our nation, of our party and of myself. This is why I am so happy to speak again on a TESCON platform.

The year 2000, the year of its inauguration, saw TESCON take the lead in mobilising the youth of our party and of our country to make the historic change of 2000, when, for the first time in Ghanaian history, an opposition party, the NPP, came to power through the ballot box.

That event gave a great boost to the consolidation of the principles of democratic accountability in our body politic. TESCON in 2000 acted under its wonderful slogan – commitment without inducement. Is that still your slogan? Are you sure? We need it to make history again, to make another crucial change. TESCON has been very generous to me.

It has provided me with my Political Assistant, Francis Asenso-Boakye, its Founding President,” Nana Addo said.

A DAILY GUIDE Report

 

Via: -Daily Guide  

5 Ghanaians Killed In South Africa Attacks

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An immigrant holding a knife amid clashes between locals and foreign workers in Durban

Five Ghanaians have been reported dead in South Africa under circumstances prompting questions as to whether the deaths are related to the ongoing xenophobic attacks spreading across the rainbow country.

The four deaths come at the heels of an earlier death of a Ghanaian, a direct result of the ongoing attacks in South Africa.

With no telltale injuries on their bodies save the foams at their mouths, the police and officials of the Ghana High Commission in Pretoria are eagerly awaiting the outcome of a post-mortem to establish the cause of death.

According to a report from the Ghana High Commission in that country, the four bodies were discovered in Heibron in the Free State Province, a town which has so far been spared the bloody attacks common in other parts of the country.

The dead included a man, two women and a baby who were found dead when the locked salon in which they were was forced open.

Confirmation

Confirmation of the death of the Ghanaians, according to the Ghana High Commission, was obtained from the South African police who said they broke into the locked salon only to find the remains of the four.

The death of the four has triggered a number of theories about what could have killed them even before the outcome of a post-mortem.

While some think they were poisoned by their aggressors, others think that they could have suffocated, afraid to come out from the salon.

The last theory appears to be weak, given the fact that the town has largely been spared the spate of xenophobic attacks so far.

National Security Council

A Ghana High Commission staff has been tasked to probe the matter further as the National Security Council has also been requested to send an officer to engage with the South African police to unravel the mysterious deaths.

A statement from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hanna Tetteh, has assured the public about a continuous update about the state of affairs as and when these are available.

The Ghanaian envoy to that country has not been left out of the surprise which has gripped the South African police and members of the Ghanaian community who have heard about the mysterious deaths.

Envoy

In an interview on Joy FM, Kwesi Ahwoi, High Commissioner to South Africa, who refused to snub the station as his boss Hanna Tetteh did, spun a web of surprise around the death of the four, saying that it had triggered a lot of questions.

Apprehension about their safety has gripped members of the Ghanaian community, with many preferring a return home, especially as the spate of xenophobic attacks spreads, the plea from President Jacob Zuma notwithstanding.

Disguise

Koku Amankwah, Deputy Chairman of the Ghanaian community in Bloefonteim, said that some Ghanaians had been compelled to disguise themselves in order to escape the marauding South Africans.

The xenophobic attacks are thought to have been triggered by Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini’s call for foreigners to go back to their countries – something he claims was distorted.

Friday’s Death

Last Friday, a Ghanaian was confirmed among Africans killed in South Africa as xenophobic attacks spread.

The victim, Emmanuel Kwesi Quarcoo’s body was found by the roadside with head injuries in the port city of Durban in the Kwazulu Natal Province, the most hit of the tribal escalation.

Locals are hunting for foreigners and attacking foreign shop owners who they accuse of taking their jobs as violence continues to spread across South Africa, starting from Durban a fortnight ago. Some of the victims were roasted in broad daylight.

Police fired rubber bullets and a stun grenade to disperse a gang of lawless youth who had armed themselves with machetes, axes, clubs and other offensive weapons in a run-down district in Johannesburg and baying the blood of foreign nationals, particularly Africans.

By A.R. Gomda

Via: -Daily Guide  

Ghana flag designer Theodosia Okoh dies

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The late Madam Theodosia Okoh

The designer of the Ghana national flag, Theodosia Okoh, has passed on.

Okoh, 92, died at the Narh Bita Hospital in Tema Sunday morning after a short illness, according to family sources.

Okoh, the designer of the Ghana national flag which replaced the Union Jack after the West African nation gained independence from Britain, was born on June 14, 1922 to Very Reverend Emmanuel Victor Asihene, a former moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and Madam Dora Asihene at Anum in the Asuogyaman District in the Eastern region

She attended her elementary education at Ashanti Efiduasi Primary School then to the Basel Mission Middle School in Agogo in the Ashanti region before heading to the Agogo Presbyterian Training College to train as a teacher.

She also attended Achimota School where she studied Fine Art.

Mrs Okoh was awarded the Grand Medal due to her dedication to national development. She was much into sports and had the National Hockey Pitch named after her.

She was the president of the National Hockey Association.

She was the fourth of eight children and was survived by three children

Via: -Daily Guide  

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