The 2006 national best farmer Alhaji Abdul Salam Akate Bachewii has advised Ghanaians especially people of northern extraction not to forget their root as one’s root forms the basis of real development be it at the individual or national level. They should channel their resources to the socio-cultural, economic and religious development of their communities no matter how rural it is.
Alhaji Akate of Akate Farms dropped out of school in class two (2) at the Nabulo Primary school. The cause of the abrupt end of his education is something that will quiz readers.
He lost his father at a very tender age and had to leave school to support his siblings at Bawiesibelle in the then Sisala district of the Upper West Region in their farming activities. After sober reflections, Alhaji Akate decided that he had to leave in search of greener pastures instead of resigning his fate to tilting the land for his elder brothers in the village.
He therefore took a giant and risky adventure of going away from home. He left the village for southern Ghana in search for a bicycle which was then the dream and burning desire of every young man in the northern half of the country.
His search for a better life landed him in the Ashanti Region, Bekwai to be precise. He engaged in loading cocoa at Bekwai. After working for some time Alhaji Akate opted for a sedentary life of settling down for something worthwhile.
He later found out that he had the passion in animal farming. He went into poultry farming and his initial success in this direction finally endeared him to his newly found vocation. This somehow made him become more stable in the Ashanti Region and gradually won the Metropolitan Best Farmer in the Region.
As fate and hard work took over, he became the Ashanti regional Best farmer and finally crowned it with his grand success as the National Best Farmer award in 2006.
All this while, the 2006 Best National Farmer had made it a life time policy to sponsor children in basic and tertiary institutions from the Sisala East district and other parts of the Upper West Region and needy children across the nation. To this end he has done a lot in giving real meaning to the live of some needy students from the district by seeing to their educational needs. No wonder many of such children have now attained appreciable level of education in the Sisala East District and are contributing effectively towards the development of the area.
Alhaji Abdul Salam’s commitment to his village became very evident when he equipped the Bawiesibelle clinic with solar lamps, fridges, television sets and searchlights to encourage nurses to stay at the village and attend to the health needs of the rural people of his community.
In his quest to assist his people whose main occupation is agriculture, he acquired two tractors and set up a revolving fund for ploughing, and made available fertilizers and animal droppings from his farm in Kumasi and carried them in his articulator trucks to assist farmers in the Bawiesibelle. In 2010 he extended this same facility to the entirety of Sisala land.
To encourage the youth into sporting activities and better exposure, Alhji Akate sponsored the Bawiesibelle Youth Association to a grand Home Coming Sports fiesta , mounted every year, by providing them with jerseys, footballs and awards which has now been institutionalized. All villages in the Sisala land partake in the Home Coming sports fiesta organized annually. The sporting event has been styled in such a manner that there is no winner or loser.
In view of the remote nature of his village, it has now become his habit to use his bulldozers to create feeder road networks for the surrounding villages linking villages such as Kundugu and other adjoining villages. When he started these private initiatives, the district assembly stepped in to complement his efforts. From his personal contribution, he constructs culverts along some feeder roads linking his village and the rest of the surrounding communities.
Alhaji Akate has also provided several boreholes in various communities. Some of these boreholes are automated in order to bring portable drinking water to the doorsteps of the people in his community and beyond.
The most important legacy that Alhaji Akate wants to leave behind and be remembered for is the mosque he put up at Bugubelle.
The mosque has quarters and it’s about half a kilometer square which is believed to be peerless in the entire Upper West Region. The grand mosque has 70 pillars supporting the superstructure which can admit about five thousand people at a time during prayers. With this modest achievement, according to him, he can return to his maker, Allah in the hereafter. The mosque is believed to be the only an ambitious project single handily put up by an individual in Ghana.
BlinkzEntertainment a record label has signed Love Ossei Weliko known in Showbizz as Love or Lovesongs.
She is a young and Lovely Girl who was Raised in Kumasi and Accra but currently residing in Accra. Had my second Cycle education in Wesley Grammar School in Accra and currently a student of K.N.U.S.T and reading Bsc. Publishing Studies.
She just featured on Yung Harrison RnB Other Half which features another Artiste on Blinkzentertainment bill.
Kwame Nkansah the CEO of the Label expresses his passion to help develop talents. He has signed a couple of artiste like S Beez who he said are the next “VIP” of Ghana.
BlinkzEntertainment has come to stay. Artistes on the label is Tazmania, Yung Harrison, MzWinnie, S Beez. Currently Shot a video of the Other Half
The regional launch of campaign against yellow fever has been launched at Tangasia in the Nadowli district of the Upper West Region with a call on the people to adopt proper hygienic life in order to prevent the yellow fever mosquito from spreading the causative agent of the disease. The Nadowli district chief executive, Abu Kasangabata therefore called for effective sensitization of the people about the menace of yellow fever epidemic.
He said environmental sanitation is very dear to the Nadowli district assembly; the assembly he said is doing all within its power to provide portable drinking water to the people in ensuring that they are healthy. He said recent immunization exercise carried out in the district scored 94% success within the district, this he said is a remarkable achievement. The Nadowli DCE said there are several related problems associated with health delivery in the district; this compelled the district assembly to construct 16 CHPS compounds across the district. According to him the NDC government has pledged to access quality health services to Ghanaians.
He said the district assembly is making it mandatory for all chiefs, unit committee members, elders and opinion leaders in all communities in the district to carry all pregnant women to health facilities across the district when the need arises. He said this has been time tested convention which in due course will be made to become a law. He said any pregnant woman who dies in any community in the district, the chiefs and unit committee members especially will be held responsible.
He advised the people to beware about the emergence of a mining company in the district and said no mining community has truly benefited from mining operations. He warned that the activities of the mining company will bring in its wake certain diseases such as HIV/AIDS and many others related venereal diseases, this he said the people must be ready to face the emerging challenges associated with mining operations in the district. He said the Nadowli district assembly will be embarking on mass spraying along the Black Volta to fight against the mosquito causing yellow fever in order to save human lives in the district.
The regional manager of Zoomlion, Emmanuel Volsuri said the launch is a joint program between the Nadowli district assembly and the Zoomlion Company in direct response to the outbreak of yellow fever in some districts in the region. He said the program will involve door to door sensitization program to combat the yellow fever mosquito. He advised the people to take simple hygiene issues seriously by making sure that soak aways, empty disposable tins are properly disposed off. People must also cover all containers with water.
The regional environmental health director of the Upper West Region Mr. Rex Mathew Jakpa said over 60% of diseases at the district and 80% of diseases at the regional could be prevented if simple hygiene methods are followed by the people, but said poor sanitary conditions are the bane of the people. He said yellow fever is spread from person to person infected by a virus through a mosquito bite. He advised against the rampant spread of stagnant water as that is a serious environmental problem in any community. He said all breeding sites of mosquitoes must be eliminated as mosquito bites can lead to explosion of many diseases.
Nnaemeka Onyeka is a professional Actor and Model who pinched his tent with nollywood in 2010. Born in the bustling city of Lagos Nigeria on 1st of June to a middle class family he shares a good African Heritage background Nigeria Imo state (paternal) Ghanaian Kwahu (Maternal) Nnaemeka started acting at a very tender age of 4years from his primary school where he was into cultural dance and p…urely stage drama things went pretty well as his talent was taken to the highly celebrated TALES BY MOONLIGHT back in Nigeria where he acted alongside young talented kids and youth who always converge at the NATIONAL TELEVISION AUTHORITY (NTA) Lagos Victoria Island to showcase their talents. In 1997 Nnaemeka Acted at the now defunct National theater Satellite town A suburb of Lagos along side one of Nigerian prolific musicians who his still relevant in today’s Nigeria entertainment music DADDY SHOWKEY. In 2008 Nnaemeka Onyeka was chosen to represent his noble country in the 2008 AFRICAN SEXIEST MALE AND FEMALE COMPETITION along side ESOSA Miss Nigeria 2008 but didn’t win but really felt good having that great exposure 2years later his career began to to experience leap as he had many great photoshoots in 2010 with
1)COSBY MULTIMEDIA 2010
2) AMA DUFIE OF ARK STUDIO FOR
a)SAXS’S MEN’S SS 2010/2011 COLLECTION
b) photo-club imaging men’s wear
c) Noel Men’s underwear
3) MR STEVEN ADUSEI photo shoot ( for features and a spread in the november edition of Campus glitz Magazine)
Nnaemeka had his first feature as an upcoming ACTOR/MODEL from www.nollyzone.com and says he his grateful to Mr chris and the team who made things very easy to break into the industry, sailing from the success from that feature Nnaemeka Onyeka had his first Theatrical stage public performance at the November 2011 edition of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE GH powered by Exclusive Vista Gh, and he performed Edgar Lee (Aboat with a furled sail) Metro Tv Ghana gave a 3mins feature of my performance on the 26th of november 2011 on the saturday weekend extra news entertainment segment next feature was on VIASAT 1 Gh 8th December where he did a poetrical on set celebrating The creative arts of Ghana.
Nnaemeka Onyeka has been nominated for young Impact Ghana awards 2011 at movenpick ambassadorial awards 2011 and also billed to perform on that show, an impending interview on THE BE BOLD SHOW via ETV GHANA, OVATIONA MAGAZINE are to be aired and be on print in January 2012 celebrating this young talent.
I would be grateful if i get the honors to be featured in your fabulous Newspaper HI NEWSPAPER as a way of publicity for my career here are my contact facebook (Nnaemeka Onyeka)
twitter@Nnaemeka_01
+233-268070561
+233-243754766
Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President and Executive Director of IMANI Ghana
As IMANI Ghana has had many occasions to say in the past, the gravest duty of a civil society organization is to objectively and constructively criticize the government of the day. Democracy itself?cannot survive without this premise.
A well-governed country is one in which the government fears the people and not vice versa.
Those IMANI observers who ask why the same level scrutiny is not extended to opposition parties fail to understand the basic premise of ?checks and balances?. The parties in parliamentary minority do not control the levers of state power, the public purse, the distribution of privileges and other largesse, nor?are they, in fact, actually enjoined by the constitution to ?really do? anything. This is the blatant truth. Ours?is a centralized system of government in which the government of the day retains vast powers of appointment, finance, preventive, assignment and allocation. It must therefore also accept the overwhelming burden of responsibility and obligation.
Though we revel in criticism and wholeheartedly believe that thoughtful, careful, analytical and comprehensive critiques of government policy are the most effective approach to contributing to the growth of governance through the sharpening of institutions of state and the improvement of decision-making, we nevertheless started an experiment last year to use ?measured praise? as one of the tools available to us to encourage good behavior on the part of public sector leadership.
We have debated internally for several weeks now whether we should continue this approach, i.e. of?using recognition as a, minor, complement to our main, full-time, activity of criticizing government institutions to force improvement in delivery.
The optimists won, so IMANI is back again with the second edition of the:
Top 5 Most Inspirational Public Sector Leaders in Ghana
Once again, we are not abandoning the core approach of criticism. But it occurs to us that sometimes ?praise? can be used as a means of highlighting contrast, of spotlighting deviation from the very norm?one seeks to criticize, and as a unique advocacy tool to raise the profile of certain neglected subjects.
Let us first tell you how we selected our Public Sector Heroes.
I.?????????????????? Methodology
IMANI works throughout the year examining a vast amount of material related to government activity in?order to guide our advocacy for change in certain policies and activities of the government.
Those who follow our work are already aware that we are not an academic research body or a forum of subject matter specialists. We are through and through an activist and advocacy organization that?proactively seeks to influence government behavior, and which, in order to do that, aspires to shape public opinion.
We maintain credibility and legitimacy by carefully sifting through large amounts of published expert commentary and analysis to determine where the ?balance of authority? lie in any given matter likely to exert systemic impact on major areas of national life.
Put another way: individual experts differ and may oppose each other in their views, so there is a strong need for a public interest organization that has the capacity to retain the services of various multidisciplinary teams and to task them to find out the extent to which the majority of the most relevant, credible, and articulate experts converge in the views they hold on a particular subject. Sometimes such a convergence may not be obvious, since it is not always the product of purposive collaboration. It takes time, effort, and considerable objectivity to detect these convergences, incorporate them in clear analysis, and communicate them forcefully without fear of any single authority.
Where we believe that the weight of the best evidence and the stronger tilt of expert opinion define a ?commonsensical? path forward, we never relent to push for such common sense to prevail, regardless of the political or intellectual sensitivities of those in power.
We rate public sector institutions using these same time-tested principles, principles we have been honing for more than half a decade now in Ghana and beyond.
We look at published and pre-published commentary by organizations that interact with these public institutions; we speak regularly with leaders and middle-management of state agencies; we monitor news coverage involving the public sector with the keenest interest; and we write directly to these institutions seeking explanations for odd conduct whenever we come across any we don?t understand.
And we painstakingly and meticulously record our impressions. Some of these impressions find their way into various articles and monographs, but the majority merely goes to update our expanding databases of official conduct in Ghana.
Drawing on these considerable reservoirs of information, we design qualitative tools to extract further opinions from academics, consultants, development workers, journalists, activists, pundits and freelance researchers. We do not seek to validate data we have already procured with these items of feedback from such external stakeholders. Instead, such opinions open wholly new frameworks for evaluating the content we have gathered.
So, while these rankings remain the work solely of IMANI Center for Policy & Education, they have been greatly enriched by the observations, expertise and perceptions of a wide range of stakeholders.
To ensure consistency and coherence across the massively different contexts within which public sector leaders of different agencies and institutions work, we developed a tri-factor based criterion for rating more than 120 of the most vital public sector institutions in Ghana.
The initial sample was selected based on a number of indicators selected to bias our sample towards institutions whose actions impact most systemically on Ghana?s GDP and Human Development numbers. That is to say those organizations whose performance are critical to sustaining growth in average household income and to the delivery of services required to guarantee basic dignity and human comfort for the majority of Ghanaians.
Even so, it was not always a pretty exercise.
Take for instance the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission. It is nominally responsible for the?performance of the state utilities. By every measure, utilities are the most deplored public service delivery organizations in Ghana. Experts and members of the general public alike cringe just at the mere mention of ECG, for instance.
But is PURC really to blame for this mess?
The challenge is equally evident in the reverse. Does the fact that reference to Ghana internationally continue to be positive provide a justification for the continued existence of the so-called ?Brand Ghana Office?? How do you prove causality?
Also, it is not prudent to assign blame or credit where the powers available to a certain institution to do its job are wholly misaligned with the expectations of change expected in its industry or sector of operation. Insofar as PURC is not responsible for formulating investment strategy to capitalize the dilapidated utilities to what extent can it really transform that sector? It has near no-existent capacity to influence choice of management either, and while it may impose fines and penalties, the truth is that with state-owned enterprises such actions merely represent a transfer of funds from one part of the government to another.
In the same way, we doubt we would surprise anyone if we said we are not sure about the extent to which the National Council for Tertiary Education should be credited for the exploding popularity of Ghana?s universities with international students.
In essence, gauging the performance of public sector leaders and their institutions against specific outcomes needs to be done on very cautious footing. One must be further vigilant to what the development consulting industry has come to call ?additionality?, a funny term with a simple meaning: ?could these outcomes have occurred regardless of the clear-sighted leadership of the person being recognized??
Last year we dealt with the problem of ?additionality? by deciding in the case of one organization, NADMO, that we will honour the workers but not the leadership. This year we have looked at the issue at even greater depth and been convinced to go exactly the opposite way with respect to certain institutions, where on the surface it appears that the leadership is merely holding the place together by going through the routines. A more careful look has revealed in certain instances what amounts in actual?fact to near-heroic leadership, without which the whole institutional edifice would have tumbled down long ago.
Having tempered the central tri-factor criterion in these many, interesting, ways, it is time to list the three key factors employed in the filtration that reduced 120 contenders to 5 heroes of public sector performance.
I. Top of the list is: capacity to maintain the course of a major change process, reform or transformation necessary to uplift the organisation?s capacity to deliver its most critical mandate. Detailed analysis revealed to us that this factor was by far the most effective way to measure performance improvement attributable to leadership. In some important ways, it is also a proxy for innovation and creative thinking.
II.??? A demonstrable commitment to the ethics and norms of public service, which bind civil and public servants to strict professionalism in the conduct of their duties. At our current stage of institutional?development, these norms are most rigorously tested during relations with the partisan spirit of every government of the day. A public servant distinguishes herself by the importance he attaches to independence from the whims and caprices of the party in party. Loyalty to the government of the day only refers to the loyalty shown to the constitutional powers accorded governments in the discharge of duties required to improve the lives of the citizenry and not loyalty to the narrow, sectarian, interests of the ruling party.
III.?????????????? And lastly: respect for the right of the public to be duly informed of important developments within the public or civil servant?s sphere of duty likely to affect the way in which citizens receive the services they are entitled to receive. Such ?respect? obviously implies showing ?seriousness? in undertaking the information dissemination and communication components of that institution?s work under the leader in question. To be serious about public communications is to refrain from the churning out of poor; shoddy; false; deliberately distorted, vague or confusing; and self-serving material for the consumption of the general public. It also means to recognize the need to share credible, timely, factual, comprehensive and clear information with a view to actively ?informing and educating? the citizens about those important developments in the public servant?s sphere of duty that may impact the lives of citizens.
So who made the cut after this tri-factor lens was used to examine dozens of major public sector institutions and their leadership in Ghana throughout 2011?
Ms. Doreen OwusuFianko&???? Air CmdrKwameMamphey
Yes, like the rest ofthetravelling public we know our major airports and the airline servicesavailable to Ghanaians could be much improved, but one has to appreciate wherewe have come from. It is also important to point out an easy misconception:GCAA is not responsible for every single element of the Airport experience oftravelers. The GCAA and the Ghana Airports Company Limited, the GACL, together work to ensure smooth operations of airport activity. The GACL was decoupled from the GCAA and since 2007 both entities have worked seamlessly together.
If you are still uncomfortable about the security arrangements at the airport orcorruption on the part of some officers, bear in mind that several independentsecurity agencies, such as the National Security Secretariat, Ghana RevenueAuthority (GRA) and the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), operate at the airportbut do not report to the GCAA or the GACL in the ordinary course of things.
With that in mind,now consider those things that ARE indeed within the authority of the ManagingDirector of the GACL and the Director General of the GCAA. Consider forinstance the steady improvement in safety record management, includingair-worthy certification management; streamlining?of systems workflow(measurable through aggregating ?on-time departure? counts); and criticalsystems uptime (i.e. how often backup electrical power fails, whether there arepersistent air-conditioning failures, and how quick operators recover fromsystem-level IT crashes etc.)
In terms ofcontractor and/or third-party performance management, we take note of two majorongoing weaknesses: the unresolved perception within the industry thatadvertising contracts are being unduly interfered with and the completely unacceptableattempt to create a cartel for ground transportation, thus preventing legallyregistered taxi drivers in the Greater Accra area from operating within theairport, with no other purpose other than to enable this cartel to extortridiculous fees from passengers and other users of the airport. We hope theseissues will be addressed with speed.
Still, Mrs. DoreenOwusuFianko and Air Commodore KwameMamphey have both excelled in managing acomplex renovation exercise during which capacity utilization had to bemaintained and actually expanded throughout the transformation cycle, stillongoing. For this technical and managerial feat alone, they would have beenstrong contenders. Having performed reasonably well in the other areas ofexamination, we had little difficulty deciding unanimously to name them ourPublic Sector Hero and Heroine of the Year.
Martin Eson-Benjamin
-Chief Executive, Millennium Development Authority (MIDA)
In one respect at least, Mr. Eson-Benjamin belongs to a rare, pampered, breed of public servants in Ghana. Resources are hardly a problem when you are the Boss of MIDA. In fact some may argue that your real problem is just how to spend the money.? You have something quite close to security of tenure, since we have yet to see an administration in Ghana quite willing to attract the wrath of the United States over a matter such as how to spend the United States? own money. You have your pick of consultants, local and international.? How can a public sector leader in the shoes of an Eson-Benjamin fail to shine?
Look closely at the matter again. Many public sector organizations are ?sitting? on money they can?t access because of weak management systems. A recent report from the World Bank once again brought into the open the super-slow disbursement rate of millions and millions of dollars sitting in various accounts that cannot be put to good use because the public service lacks strong management to follow through with pre-agreed programs and meet important milestones in a timely manner.
You may argue that MIDA as a new organization does not have the same legacy issues that some major agencies have, or that it is donor-sponsored. Well NHIS is new too, and Ghana School Feeding Program is, or was in its heydays, donor-sponsored.
There isn?t that much unique about MIDA. Its formation stages were fraught with the same level of dysfunction that afflicts many state institutions in Ghana. If today, it is seen as a highly well-run entity, it is clearly because its leadership has performed well above average.
If effective disbursement untainted by corruption has become the single most prominent yardstick used in judging performance in the public service, then MIDA is more than exemplary. For it achieved an 80% disbursement rate just within 3 years of its 5-year mandate.
One may have challenges about some of the conceptual assumptions that underpinned MIDA, but the CEO?s job was to execute the compact as designed. From the progress reports we have studied, execution has been close to flawless, so much so that more than a year before the first program run out Ghana was already negotiating a successor compact.
Insofar as the CEO?s job was to implement the agreed compact, Martin Eson-Benjamin has performed his duties with remarkable dedication and deserves this commendation.
The Honourable Members of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee
An enduring clich? in Ghanaian political commentary circles is the supposed ?weakness of Parliament?. Many reasons have been adduced to explain the seeming inability of Ghana?s parliament to acquire the heft of other parliaments, even some of those in our own region of the world, such as Nigeria and Kenya.
There is one particular often-cited cause for this weakness though that stands out most irritatingly: the inability of honourable members to adopt a bipartisan posture when national interest demands accountability from the ruling Executive.
Thanks God for the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, which, its tardiness notwithstanding, has often managed to achieve just such bipartisanship in pursuit of public accountability. The Committee has also been very effective in placing the spotlight on corruption in the public and civil service, highlighting the undue overconcentration of attention on politicians to the neglect of other, sometimes even more pernicious, perpetrators.
We hope that the Committee will in the course of time develop the administrative muscle or machinery to be able to call the institutions of state to account when evidence of malfeasance uncovered during its sittings fail to receive prosecutorial attention.
Lieutenant-General Peter Augustine Blay
-Chief of Defense Staff, Ghana Armed Forces
For maintaining the overall esprit de corps and sense of professionalism within the Armed Forces, especially against the backdrop of weakening confidence in the general security establishment, increasingly perceived to be wracked by factionalism, more committed to the survival of the government of the day than to the security of the state, and unable to stay out of cheap scandal.
True, every now and then the occasional military brutality in the North, or a confrontation between forces personnel and police officers, mar the front-page of our newspapers, but such incidents have generally declined under the watch of this Chief of Defense Staff.
Communication flow, never the best in the public service, has nevertheless improved.
We at IMANI were dead-set against the ?Defence Industrial Holding Corporation? concept and the jury is still out on its feasibility, much less impact. But we acknowledge that even this flawed project is a sign of a military seeking to entrench its increasingly sturdy ?political non-interference? character by finding ?more productive? things to do.
We have also not been happy about the lack of progress in the reform of the peacekeeping compensation system, and the perennial whiff of mild scandal that seem to follow the remuneration of soldiers on peacekeeping duty. We accept that in some of these things, civilian oversight of the military renders the CDS something of a figurehead, but we believe more creative thinking can go into improving the lives of our service personnel, through effective deployment of the talents and energies that abound in the armed forces. Effective partnerships, other than flawed industrial projects, with the private sector would be key.
Still, compared to some of our securityagencies, such as the BNI and certain units within the PoliceService, we can confidently say that the military establishment under theleadership of Lieutenant ?General Blay has painted a smarter picture ofprofessionalism.
Dr. Regina Adutwum
-????????? Director-General, National Development Planning Commission (NDPC)
With the support of the Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Adutwum has worked consistently to enhance the relevance of the NDPC to the search for answers to Ghana?s most intractable problems. It has not been easy. At all.
Saddled by the constitution with onerous responsibilities as a lead agency in the development of broad but articulate frameworks for development, the NDPC has been consistently, throughout our history, starved of the necessary funds, manpower, and clout to perform the work expected of it.
Nonetheless, it soldiers on.
Through a creative engagement with stakeholders from across the political and intellectual spectrum, it is patiently succeeding in building a community and a network of advocates to push the patriotic agenda forward.
Surely in this cacophony of partisan drivel, the road will be hard, but we wish Dr. Adutwum very well.
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So that?s that: IMANI?s Top 5 most Inspirational Public Sector Leaders (our heroes and heroines) for 2011.
Some of you would surely be disappointed. But the one thing we can certainly not apologise for is our inability to please every reader of this report. We are also certainly aware of a feworganizations that have been working hard according to internally developed benchmarks, some of which accord with our own framework, to improve service delivery. The Ghana Investment Promotion Council comes to mind. Their improved communication efforts are slowly being matched by reform of the core investor support function itself. We have in the similar fashion been awed by some of the results being chalked by the Ghana Cocoa Board, and the organisation?s inspiring embrace of inclusive technologies to enhance outreach to its key stakeholders, the farmers. We urge them to continue along the path of reform. Surely, when they begin to show results the blips on our radar screen would grow stronger.
We deliberately don?t publish a Worst 5 Public Leaders or Institutions List. We feel we do enough though our general activities to criticize the public sector and in our own small way to contribute to deterrence of egregious misconduct.
Still, if we were to go down that route, just for the sake of emphasis, to ?rub it in? as they say, we would have chosen the following five organizations as the ones that least inspired us in 2011.
Ghana Education Service ? Despite its reputation for managerial weaknesses in transparency, accountability, governance, employee oversight, and planning, the organisation?s disastrous handling of the computerized school selection and placement fiasco shocked even jaded observers of this rickety institution in need of total overhaul at the administrative level.
National Lottery Authority – for killing off the private lottery industry in Ghana,???? thereby reducing total jobs in the sector and depressing???? innovation, and creating undue panic in the advertising market by???? confusing its mandate with the Gaming Commission of Ghana.
The Fair Wages & Salary Commission ? It may sound unfair, given how much work the valiant employees of this organization have done in the past few years to achieve the impossible task of harmonizing labour relations in this country through scorecards and what some have cynically called:??snake and ladders?.
The truth though is that much of that work has been scuttled by ineffective management of the stakeholder relations part of things, to disastrous effect. We also worry that the Commission?s bosses are refusing to tell government the biggest truth of all: there is nothing within the so-called ?single spine? framework that can manufacture harmony on the labour front.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions ? the so-called ?prosecutions division? of the Ministry of Justice seems to be tethering on the brink. If you try to count the number of times high-profile cases (politically related prosecutions are just a tip of the iceberg) have been bungled or severely delayed because state attorneys failed to turn up, you would give up less than half-way in frustration. Not surprisingly the situation is even worse with low-profile cases. This bureaucracy is a significant part of the justice delivery problem in this country.
National Youth Council ? A highly publicized launch of a new National Youth Policy and its rather public and humiliating dismissal of a supposedly underperforming chief executive were both supposed to herald a new era of progress in defining a winning blueprint for youth development in Ghana. Alas, very little is on ground to show.
So folks, we appreciate your time and patience in going through this report. Over the course of next year?we shall be monitoring the performance of both our 2010 and 2011 laureates in order to glean insights into the growth and maturity of public sector institutions. We shall watch keenly how leadership dynamics are affecting the development journey of this country as intermediated by these bureaucracies and agencies.
Organisations we shall be keeping a keen eye on include the Petroleum Commission. Hopefully, it shall show a wholesale departure from the aloof ways of the Ghana National Petroleum Commission which had nominal charge of its functions prior to its formation. Others are the Social Security & National Investment Trust and the Public Procurement Board.
Hope we can count on your continuing interest and support.
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The imposing new NDC headquarters building under construction at Adabraka
A voice recording alluding to the ownership of the controversial $20 million headquarters building of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has tightened the noose around the necks of party officials who have mostly denied the existence of the project.
The list of visitors to the project is also another kettle of fish, with leading members spotted at the location denying being there at all.
A top NDC personality was spotted there on Saturday around 12.45pm in his Land Cruiser V8 with registration number GS 1425 Z, parked in front of the site.
It is unknown why he did not alight to embark on a better tour of the site, preferring to monitor the progress of work rather from the comfort of his Land Cruiser.
In spite of feigning ignorance about the project by top personalities of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary, Dr Kwabena Adjei, Party Chairman and Ato Ahwoi have been identified by residents close to the site as regular visitors, as they turn up to monitor progress of work, using the elevator to get to the summit of the 6-storey structure.
Hon. Alban Bagbin, Water Resources, Works and Housing Minister, who was also mentioned as one of the regular visitors, has denied being on the visitors’ list, explaining that he only heard about the project from Ato Ahwoi when he visited the latter at his Labone office.
Fresh details about the secret project indicate that it is replacing an old structure which was demolished earlier.
Twum-Boafo and Associates is said to have brokered the deal for the acquisition of the land for the project. It has also been learnt that Steve Akuffo, a well-known architect, is serving as consultant and visits the site every week.
The undeniable voice of the General Secretary of the party, Asiedu Nketia, aka General Mosquito, has put paid to the running controversy between the pressure group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) which smells malfeasance in the project, on one hand, and top NDC personalities who would rather the subject is kept under the lid.
With the voice allusion played on some networks last week, the controversy is surely moving to another level, as fresh questions pop up regarding the foreign funding of an NDC school at Oyibi, near Valley View University, Accra.
With the ruling party yet to admit ownership of the project, the voice recording of the party scribe when he spoke to supporters in Sunyani provides another premise for AFAG and opposition elements to nail the NDC for opaqueness.
He said, “Fellow Akatamansonians, ladies and gentlemen, among the many new initiatives we alluded to in Tamale was the headquarters building. We have told you for a long time that the party was subjected to a barrage of incessant demands from our landlord. We had also told you that given an opportunity the party would want to acquire its own headquarters building. I am happy to announce to you that the party has acquired its own land and is putting up an ultramodern national party headquarters. Work is at an advanced stage and it is our expectation that the office would be ready for occupation by the middle of next year (2012).”
NDC Gen. Secretary, Asiedu Nketia,
The ruling party is being asked to explain the nature of assistance it is receiving from foreign sources as alluded to by Aseidu Nketia in the following statement, also delivered in Sunyani. “The party has acquired 20 acres of land at Oyibi, opposite the Valley View University for the construction of the initial structures of a party school with transit quarters. We have completed the design of the curriculum with the support of our sister parties like the SPD of Germany, the Labour Party of the UK and the Communist Party of China. Learning materials have been procured and the first training session will hopefully start by the end of this year (2011).”
Now a cynosure at the Adabraka suburb of Accra, people passing by the site spare moments to catch a glimpse of what arguably is one of the fastest developing projects in town on the verge of adding to the Accra skyline opposite Trust Bank, near Total Filling Station on the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue.
Having attracted the attention of passersby and occupants of nearby residential buildings by the sheer speed with which the project is being executed, not forgetting the mongoloid features of the Chinese expatriates working on it, the frequency of the visits of the aforementioned personalities enabled curious observers to make their inferences.
When he appeared on Oman FM’s ‘Boiling Point’ programme last Thursday, Ernest Owusu Bempah, Director of Operations of FONKAR, admitted that the project belongs to the NDC. He added that although there is nothing wrong with a political party undertaking a building project, the circumstances underpinning the party headquarters building are anything but decent. He said there are some names behind the project, persons who, when the party is no longer in power in future, could easily lay claims to it given the documentation covering it.
The underground segment of the project is said to be an architectural wonderment, a showpiece of complexities as the Chinese contractors work extra hours so they can deliver the party headquarters by the middle of next year as announced by Mr. Asiedu Nketia.
Another query about the project is that with the party executives saying they do not know anything about it, where is the funding for its execution emanating from, especially given the quantum of money involved. Although fundraising activities have been held by the party in recent times, proceeds from the activities are not enough to foot the whopping cost of the project.
This was one of the many defences put up by party officials who jumped into the fray. Shrouded in secrecy, there is no doubt that some of the executives do not know about the project as evidenced from their reference to the Oyibi land.
When AFAG issued a statement about the project recently, they pointed at the speed with which it is being executed, coupled with the cost, and concluding therefore that the arising morality questions need to be answered to clear the doubts in the minds of Ghanaians.
Soon after the story about the pressure group’s reaction hit the newsstands, a number of NDC national executives made interventions which raised more questions than answers.
• Corruption Getting Worse Under NDC
• The Woyomes’ PANDORA BOX
• Israel’s Former President, Mosha Katsav, Jailed
• Former Governor Rod Blagojevich Jailed
We have been told again and again that political corruption is the bane of Africa’s development. While the assertion is accurate, it is also recognized that the type of corruption in which African countries are implicated, just like anywhere else in the world, involves intractable networks with multiple players at various societal levels – there are principal culprits, abettors, underlings, international collaborators, and whole institutions, among others.
From the international financial havens (call them destinations for loot, if you want) in Switzerland to allegations of corruption in the judiciary, the legislature, and the executive in many African countries including Ghana, it has become obvious that the notion that a change of government could bring about accountability is fast becoming a mirage. It is easier to campaign on the back of corruption to win votes, simply because the poor whose taxes are being exploited by the rich and the powerful in society abhor it, but the political will wanes for obvious reasons after winning power. When this happens, corruption only festers and become endemic making it embedded in every aspect of a country’s life, and concomitantly undermines the progress of the people. This section examines the canker from the international levels before drawing down to the local situations.
International Kleptocracy
What beats reason is that instead of the much needed capital flowing to the African continent to spur its development, it is rather leaving the continent for Europe and more developed countries. Africa is the most capital-scarce continent, but this becomes dramatically more pronounced when capital is separated into its private and public components. In a successful region such as East Asia there is more than twice as much private capital as public capital; for Africa, the reverse is true. While private businesses find both scrupulous and unscrupulous means to repatriate profits back home, monies from aid, taxes, and kickbacks, using public office as conduits, find their way to the world’s financial centers. So while a meager capital flows into the continent, much of her capital is outward bound, most of it being hidden owing to its illegality. It is called capital flight. By 1990, 38 % of Africa’s wealth was held abroad, higher than any other region in the world.
Interestingly, a people comparison between those who make the list of the biggest customers of some of the secret financial havens of the world depicts a very ironic picture. The names of Bill Gate, Warren Buffet, and Donald Trump, foremost American entrepreneurs, not Bill Gate, George Bush, and Barack Obama, would make sense here. The latter group, being politicians, are nowhere near the mammoth wealth of the former, being entrepreneurs of their generation. But the obverse is true in most African countries. The leaders of many of these poor countries are themselves among the world’s superrich and some of the biggest customers of the so-called financial havens.
In some cases, leaders from some of these poor countries are richer than the countries they lead. One cannot gloss over the name of the late leader of the former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mobutu Sese Seko in a discussion of this nature. His country was his cash cow. He milked it without nourishing it; so when the cow became emaciated and turns its anger on the herder, it did not only dispose the herder but plunged the whole ranch into a bedlam. Even when these monies are discovered and efforts made by “requesting” countries to “holders” to return them, these pleas fall on death ears or are stonewalled by the “holder” countries. After the death of Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the former Zaire, billions of dollars looted from Zaire by the late President were tracked to Swiss secret accounts. A whooping US$5 to 6 billion was estimated to have been stashed away by the flamboyant kleptocrat. Interestingly, only 300 miles of road were tarred in that country by the time of his death. Similarly, Abacha’s stolen wealth was also traced to accounts in the same country. But due to the secrecy codes of Swiss banks, it has been very difficult for requesting African countries to retrieve their stolen wealth from the keepers of the loot.
In the United States it came to light in 2004 that Riggs Bank, in Washington, D.C. was holding huge deposits from the President of Equatorial Guinea with officials of the bank writing cringingly effusive letters of encouragement to the plunderer [urging him on to save more]. As soon as the matter came to light it was stopped and the bank radically reorganized. Interestingly, these are the very countries that turn around to churn out corruption indexes each year accusing African countries and their leaders of being corrupt when they are themselves abettors of these corrupt acts.
Until recently, if a French company bribed a public official in a developing country, the payment was tax deductible in France. French taxpayers were indirectly subsidizing bribery. But it did not apply in France. If a French company reported that it had bribed a French politician, the consequence would have been a criminal investigation, not a reduced tax bill.
However, recent developments in international circles give some glimpse of hope to countries whose citizens might have stashed their state funds in personal offshore bank accounts. Nonetheless, whether African countries would also have the guts to stand up to the Swiss authorities and other global financial centers outside the continent remain to be seen.
In a recent suit in Florida, the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department in the US were seeking to compel the Swiss bank, Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) to hand over the names of 52,000 U.S. taxpayers with private-banking accounts in Switzerland. According to an affidavit filed with the court by the Swiss tax authorities, the summons “does not identify any facts that could be construed as constituting tax fraud or the like, but rather makes a broad demand for the identity of all U.S. taxpayers for which certain forms have not been filed.” There is suspicion some Americans have evaded tax and shipped their monies abroad to banks with high levels of secrecy. But in hard economic times, with America seemingly not been able to find answers to its own domestic economic problems, it is keen on tracking some of these financial resources.
As usual, the US-Swiss treaty on sharing tax information, which is said to date back over 30 years, has been advanced by the Swiss side as a bulwark to frustrate any attempts at seeking out individuals who might have infringe on tax edicts of the United States. But this is where it matters most. As the Swiss authorities tried to hide behind the cloak of US-Swiss treaty to seal off their world of secrecy from a prying Big Brother, the US threatened to use the Central Intelligence Authority (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to break Swiss secrecy codes if they continue to frustrate their attempts at accessing vital information on American citizens who have evaded tax and have deposits with the world’s most revered depositories for their secrecy. This effectively cowed the Swiss into submission – the Swiss are said to have released 5000 names to the Obama administration in 2010, presumably to avoid the invasion of their secrecy codes.
If this is the precedent, would the United States, lead the way by being benevolent enough to urge its own banks to return stolen monies deposited in its banks to poor African countries like Equatorial Guinea? If not, do African countries even have the leverage or will to request the Swiss and other depositories around the world to return their stolen wealth?
What is incredible is that in cases where information on these stolen monies become available and leadership of opposition parties or newly installed governments have been urged to expose these crimes and request the return of these monies, they grippingly show disinterest in pursing what have been plundered from their countries. The only conclusion the director of World Bank Communications, Dr. Sina Odugbemi, at a conference in Ohio University in April 2010, could draw from this development is that it is obvious political elites are mindful of the effects of some of these actions, which may predispose them to similar actions when they leave office one day. Therefore, the adage “scratch my back and let me scratch yours” and the “revolving door” politics is fast becoming the norm in many African countries, even those that have changed governments in the last few years.
The conviction once was that if anti-corruption institutions are failing in their duties, a change of government within the democratic dispensation offers a relief. The anti-corruption campaigns, as key political messages by opposition parties in many African countries including Ghana, offered that false expectation that a new administration would unearth some of the corrupt activities of previous regimes and ensure accountability, especially at the political level.
It is noted, however, that “even radical and peaceful change can prove disappointing. In December 2002, Kenya breathed a sigh of relief when the 24 year rule of Daniel Arap Moi ended peacefully. The new president, Mwai Kibaki, a former finance minister and vice president under the old regime, had allegedly changed his stripes.” Unfortunately, a couple of years into his presidency, April 2004, draft revisions to the constitution intended to curb the power of the presidency and the plundering of public assets were blocked by a faction close to the president. In July the same year, the British envoy to Kenya told businessmen that the new government had signed corrupt deals worth almost US$200 million. “Evidently the practitioners now in government have the arrogance, greed and perhaps a desperate sense of panic to lead them to eat like gluttons. They may expect we shall not see, or notice, or will forgive them a bit of gluttony because they profess to like Oxfam lunches. But they can hardly expect us not to care when their gluttony causes them to vomit all over our shoes,” he said.
In Ghana, the issue of corruption had been one of the key election issues in the tightly contested election in 2008. The opposition NDC persistently accused the then ruling NPP administration of massive corruption. A plethora of government contracts, payments, and transactions involving both local and foreign companies were believed to have been shortchanged by the then NPP government officials and their underlings with the proceeds ending up in their personal bank accounts or those of their cronies. Watching the public accounts committee hearing in 2007, in Ghana, one got the impression that there was a bottomless abyss under her revenue vat, created by those charged with the responsibility of safeguarding her revenue mobilization, which is channeled into personal accounts and private pockets.
On the heels of that came the disclosures on how the NPP government obtained a loan facility of US$20 million dollars from India for the celebration of Ghana’s 50th independence anniversary celebration. This amount excluded components of local contributions from individuals and corporate organizations. The secretariat had reportedly spent US$60 million and was still in arrears of US$18 million two years after the celebrations. Disgruntled insiders continuously leaked information to the then opposition NDC about how resources made available to the body tasked – Ghana @ 50 – to oversee the yearlong celebration were being diverted into private pockets. By the end of the festivities, the expenditure incurred stood at US$78 million against the US$20 million approved by Ghana’s legislative body. Armed with these pieces of information and other colossal scandals like the carting away of 2 tons of cocaine from police exhibit room at the police headquarters in Accra, the capital, the opposition NDC continued to harmer on corruption as its key campaign message. The message sunk so deep that even the media gatekeepers who had been on the payroll of the NPP government since it took office could not do the damage control. Indeed, if the election had been a media war, the NDC obviously would have lost it even before the contest started. There were systematic attempts at every twist and turn to malign the opposition party and its leadership by some known media outlets. But this goes to underscore the fact that audience come to the media with their own backgrounds and views and the media only helps them to reinforce those views, as the cultural theorist argue. The issue of corruption made the government more and more unpopular among Ghanaians. The message sank so well that the NDC won the election 2008.
Although it is yet unknown whether any of her leaders, past and present, have stashed off public resources away in Swiss banks, there are no doubts about massive looting of the state coffers. The Justice Douse Commission, a commission set up by the NDC government upon assumption of office speaks volumes of that. Two important findings will bring the reader to this understanding. First, the auditor general’s report revealed that “neither staff nor records to assist in the auditing were available, and the Auditor General’s Department had to put receipts and payments together to determine whether there was value for money.” Practically, only one out of 25 public toilets for which an amount of GH 19 million, an equivalent of US$19 million, was allocated had been provided two years after the celebrations.
This was happening in a country where there are large numbers of unemployed individuals with finance and management degrees who could ensure the right things were done. But it goes to the very roots of the problem. When you employ family members and cronies who lack the expertise needed for these jobs, the outcome is gross indiscipline in the management of state resources. Since there were no checks and balances and this pseudo-institution, like many others, was ran like a family business, the outcome was not unexpected.
It is said that the wheels of justice turn so slow. It is unlikely, after a change of government, that Ghanaians were expecting the government to bypass the law courts to dump alleged culprits in jail without due process. But Ghanaians expect due diligence by the government in investigating some of these cases and bringing offenders to book, no matter how long it takes.
At the congress that elected the flag-bearer for the main opposition NPP, Nana Akuffo-Addo, for the 2012 election, the immediate former Ghanaian president, John Agyekum Kufour, accused his successor’s administration of being corrupt. In the ex-president’s words, “Corruption is becoming incarnate. We see corruption everywhere.” To him corruption has resurged under Atta-Mills, as if under his administration corruption was extinct. This comment, however, sparked off a hail of fire from two overzealous government functionaries – a deputy information minister, Samuel Okudzeto and a presidential aide-de-camp, Nii Lamptey Vanderpuye – to the effect that they had discovered a can of worms on assumption of office but had been prevailed upon by the international community, in the supreme interest of peace, as it were, not to open it.
Similar responses were to come from the NDC Kwabena Mensah Woyome, MP for South Tongu, whose brother Alfred Woyome is being accused by the MP for Assin North, Ken Agyepong, of swindling the state to the tune of GHC42 million. The young Woyome talks about a PANDORA BOX that needs opening. May someone tell the MP to carry the PANDORA BOX to the courts? After all, that is what the courts are for. If he needs help with a porter, I am sure there are many in his village who do not even have safe drinking water who can carry the PANDORA BOX to the courts for a pittance.
This is against the backdrop that the NDC campaigned vigorously on the back of fighting corruption and was elected to do a solemn duty to Ghanaians by fighting the menace, it now turned around to point fingers at the international community for prevailing on it to halt a duty its leadership had promised, with an oath, to execute. The term international community has sometimes been used nondescriptly to mean nothing. Who is the international community? Is it supposedly London and Washington, or it does include the comity of nations, headquartered in New York? Are they not the very institutions that accuse African governments day-in day-out of corruption? Why would they now turn around to halt what would make Ghana corruption free? Are they complicit in the so-called can of worm of corruption in Ghana?
If the president’s aide-de-camp is supposedly the former’s confidante, then he must be speaking for the president, and the public must trust what he tells them. One would have expected the president to call his aide-de-camp to order or disassociate himself from the statement, but indeed he must have said exactly what the president was thinking. For the Woyomes and Agyepong, they are now on each other’s, so there is a PANDORA BOX that needs opening.
These episodes only underscore the fact that politicians in young democracies such as Ghana and elsewhere are waking up to the reality that with the democratic trajectory, no government has monopoly over power. There is, therefore, the tendency to believe that the corrupt people you haul before the courts may return to apply same measures to you, especially when corruption starts to raise its head in your own administration.
Beyond the hail of rebuttal, the question needs to be asked whether the former Ghanaian president was telling his countrymen something they needed to find out more about. Did he have any incriminating evidence against functionaries serving in the government of his successor or it is just a political rhetoric as usual? If he did, why did he not submit that to the police service he left behind in less than two years? This question arises especially when he has been telling Ghanaians to go to the police if they had any incriminating evidence against any of his officials, when he was a president.
Print a copy and enter a discussion with your neighbor on this…
The above-title is serialized into 30 articles covering issues of politics, corruption, education, migration, the economy (Ghanaian economy), unemployment, land tenure, dearth of policy innovation, and stories from the frontlines – Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, ECOWAS and the AU. The series are syndicated and media houses/outlets interested in enriching the national debates in Ghana for the 2012 are free to publish all the series.
By: Prosper Yao Tsikata
Email: [email protected]
Blog: http://theafricanmessenger.blogspot.com
Activists in Pakistan have warned the US ambassador they intend to launch legal action against him and seek to have him charged over the alleged murder of two boys killed by a CIA drone strike. One of the boys had attended a conference in Islamabad highlighting the human toll from the use of drones.
Reports in the US media published earlier this year, suggested the US ambassador is informed of the intended target of every strike and asked for his agreement. Subsequently, campaigners have written to Cameron Munter, saying that unless he explains his role, they will seek to have him charged as a co-conspirator in the deaths of 16-year-old Tariq Aziz and his cousin, Waheed Khan, who was 12. The boys were killed by a missile fired from a drone close to their home in North Waziristan on 31 October.
“I am considering initiating legal proceedings against you as a co-conspirator in Tariq and Waheed’s murder– for murder is the only word that can properly be applied to the act committed by CIA agents and their accomplices,” says the letter, dispatched by the Foundation for Fundamental Rights, an Islamabad-based NGO. “However, I recognise that the US State Department has, at some level, been trying to rein in the CIA in its illegal war in the Pakistan border region, and I therefore want to be completely fair, and give you an opportunity to disavow what happened, and therefore potentially exclude yourself from any action that I might bring.”
The group’s director, Mirza Shahzad Akbar, a high court lawyer, said he would give Mr Munter 14 days from the dispatch of the letter to respond, before taking legal action. He said he did not believe diplomatic immunity would apply to Mr Cameron’s purported actions, though he was ready to hear his argument. Last night, the US Embassy in Islamabad declined to comment.
The issue of drone strikes has become increasingly controversial in Pakistan, where their use has increased markedly since Barack Obama was elected US president. Operated by the CIA and a matter the US refuses to officially discuss, it is believed Pakistan’s leadership has grudgingly agreed to their use. Defenders of the drones claim they are responsible for “taking out” high value targets such as Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, killed by a missile fired from a drone in the summer of 2009.
But campaigners say hundreds of innocent civilians, dozens of them children, are the collateral damage of such a policy. They say information claiming that “suspected militants” are the victims of the strikes, is often erroneous. The day before Tariq and Waheed were killed, four chromite miners died in a missile strike.
The two boys were hit by a missile just a couple of days after Tariq attended a conference organised by Mr Akbar, with the support of the British-based NGO Reprieve, to bring together witnesses and the families of those killed by drones. The teenage Tariq was an enthusiastic participant and agreed to take cameras back to North Waziristan to collect evidence of the impact of the drones. There has been speculation that Tariq, who mingled with international delegates, he was deliberately targeted.
“Tariq’s case is the one when outsiders got to see what the drone strikes are all about,” said Mr Akbar. Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that following a review of its drone programme, the Obama administration gave a greater role the state department over the selection of targets, with the US Ambassador in Pakistan having the right to appeal– but not veto– each selection. Ironically, Mr Munter was one of those in favour of a more “judicious” use of drone strikes.
In his letter to Mr Munter, Mr Akbar adds: “Understanding that your orders come from above, it seems to me that it is equally unwise for the White House to make the US Ambassador in Pakistan a publicly-acknowledged cog in the machinery of killing children in Waziristan: how does the State Department think you are meant to do your job here in my country if it is known that you are daily making active decisions in this highly unpopular and criminal war against Pakistan? Such a decision would appear to be designed to confine you forever within the diplomatic enclave.”
Heart problems put president in hospital Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari has suffered a “cardiovascular episode” and has been hospitalised in Dubai, aides said. Mr Zardari was flown to the Gulf emirate on Tuesday.
The illness comes as Mr Zardari faces a growing political crisis at home. The civilian government’s opponents have accused Mr Zardari and the former envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani, of being behind a plot to solicit support from the US to rein in Pakistan’s generals. The news of Mr Zardari’s departure briefly sparked short-lived rumours of a military coup.
As if that is the latest “Sakawa” in town to aid the young guys into making some quick money, the new craze in town is that almost all the young guys who visit the nite clubs with their girl friends are trying to suck their breasts openly without fear or shyness from the public.
When the first picture was sent to us we thought it was something designed to seek public attention until this writer witnessed it at a popular Nite club in Accra.
Every occasion comes with a different lifestyle but what we are witnessing this year is a mind boggling one which needs serious attention from the authorities of the Nite clubs these activities have been seen.
The first one was seen at a Nite club around Adabraka and Asylum Down(Accra) during their session they call Francophone Nite which is believed to house many people from our neighboring French countries. What is still not clear was whether those who were engaged in the act were Ghanaians or foreigners.
The most fascinating stuff about this breasts sucking craze is that the guys do not suck the “orange” (small) size breasts, but the “water melon” type which babies even admire.
What should be done to curb this public sexual display?
The 2006 national best farmer Alhaji Abdul Salam Akate Bachewii has advised Ghanaians especially people of northern extraction not to forget their root as one’s root forms the basis of real development be it at the individual or national level. They should channel their resources to the socio-cultural, economic and religious development of their communities no matter how rural it is.
