AU Chairman Kufuor cals on Sudan to work with UN to end crisis

President John Agyekum Kufuor, the African Union Chairman, has called on Sudan to work closely with the United Nations (UN) to end the crisis in the Darfur region. Sudan has been resisting attempts by the world body to send in peacekeepers to the troubled Darfur region.

President Kufuor, who made the call at an end of year reception organised for the Diplomatic Community at the Castle Gardens underscored the need to ensure peaceful approach to conflict management and resolution in the Africa.

He said as the Continent was moving away from liberation struggle to economic empowerment, he was determined to use his Chairmanship of the AU to work to tackle weak governance and conflicts. Additionally, Ghana would work with the ECOWAS Commission to promote greater integration. President Kufuor expressed the Nation’s gratitude to the country’s development partners for the support that enabled the Government to remain focussed on its development agenda.

He said, through the seven-billion dollars debt cancellation, a lot was being done in the areas of social services and infrastructure to improve the lives of the people. He stated that, with the sustained pace of the country’s current development there was no way it would not be able to achieve its vision of becoming a middle income status and the Millennium Development Goals.

Mr Mohammed Mahmoud Ben Labat, the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, congratulated President Kufuor on his election as Chairman of the AU. He expressed admiration for his constant effort at promoting good neighbourliness and sub-regional integration.GNA

EDITORIAL: Ghana Hits the Golden Age!

The Land of our Birth, Ghana, to which we all pledge our allegiance, is 50 years old!! Hitting the golden age as a nation is cause for celebrations…merry celebrations. It also calls for reflection, very sober reflection, of the fortunes that the nation has undergone since attaining nationhood.Ghana has undergone a lot of transformation since 1957. It has also undergone a lot of upheavals. In short, the nation has experienced both ups and downs over the past fifty years. From a modest beginning in 1957 with a population of just over five million people and limited infrastructure, a lot has been achieved. Educational opportunities have expanded tremendously. There was only one university at Independence: the University of Ghana at Legon, near Accra, established in the pre-independence days in 1948. Today the country boasts of four large public universities, three university colleges and a number of private university colleges. From the earlier days when students had to travel for miles to attend secondary schools, students now have a wide range of choice of different secondary schools and post-secondary institutions close to their homes and neighborhoods. Roads and other infrastructures have expanded greatly making many hitherto remote areas of the country now accessible.On the political front, the country has emerged from the small unitary Parliamentary system of government inherited from the British colonialists to a vibrant blend of Parliamentary and Presidential system. From a one-party dictatorship instituted by the first government in 1960, the country now boasts of vibrant opposition parties. From days gone by when freedom of expression and freedom of political association were taboos, the practice of which could land one in Preventive Detention, the country and its citizens now boast of and enjoy an unalloyed and unrestricted freedom of expression and association. The principle and practice of the rule of law now reign in the country. From days gone by when there was only one Radio and Television Station, the nation now boasts of over one hundred and thirty radio stations across the country and about four television stations. From the days when there were only two newspapers, the Daily Graphic and Ghanaian Times, there are now an uncountable number of newspapers, most of them privately owned. In short the nation has made a lot of strides on the political, social, legal and economic spheres.On the negative side, the nation has experienced a lot of social and political upheavals. A Preventive Detention Center was built at Nsawam, 22 miles north-east of Accra around 1958 to jail political opponents in the early life of the nation. This institution has been used continuously by governments at various times in the nation's history to incarcerate their political opponents.Military adventurers have also disturbed the political and social order of the county on countless occasions. Over the course of the past fifty years, military interventions have interrupted the political and constitutional order of the nation for as many as six times. The military arrogated unto themselves the power to run the political affairs of the nation for nearly half of the nation's fifty-year life. The result has been a near total destruction of every fabric of the nation's life. Military adventurism led to senseless human rights abuses, total plunder of the nation's wealth and the destruction of the political system.One negative thing that has lingered in the psyche of the nation's citizenry is the negative attitude to work and the wanton disregard of public property. People have not developed any positive attitude to work over the past fifty years. In fact this attitude seems to be getting worse. Nations can only develop if citizens regard public property as their own and take good care of them. Nations also develop if citizens develop positive attitudes to work and ensure higher levels of productivity. In this regard, Ghana as a nation has fared very badly. We can go on and on.Looking back over the past fifty years, however , we can all feel proud as having participated at various times in the nation's life to bring the Land of Our Birth to where it is today…respected among the community of Nations. To all those who have genuinely contributed to the positive development of the nation, we salute them and encourage them to work even harder. To those that have sat on the fence or participated in the destruction of the county at various times in its history, we wish them a change of heart and attitude. The country belongs to us all and no matter which part of the world we have settled and made a second home, GHANA will always be the Land of Our Birth, to which we all pledge our unflinching support and allegiance.Let us all resolve on this joyous occasion to contribute our quota in any way we can to make the country even greater and worth living in for generations to come who will and should celebrate the 100 th anniversary in more grander style.We wish all Ghanaians and supporters of Ghana around the world a very Happy Anniversary.AFENHYIA PA!!!

Source:Ghanaian News Canada

Minority NDC calls off Parliament boycott

The Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentarians, who began an indefinite boycott of Parliament on February 6 2007 in solidarity with the jailed member of Parliament (MP) for Keta, Mr Dan Abodakpi has called off the boycott and would return to Parliament on Tuesday.

A statement signed in Accra by Mr John Tia, The Minority Chief Whip, said the decision was taken by the Minority Caucus in consultation with the Functional Executive Committee of the NDC at a meeting held in Accra on Monday.

“The Minority caucus has decided to call off its boycott of Parliamentary proceedings which we had earlier embarked upon in solidarity with our colleague, Dan Abodakpi, Member of Parliament for Keta,” the statement said. It said the Caucus meeting considered all the pleas to the Minority, especially that of Mr Abodakpi and all well-meaning Ghanaians. “Accordingly, Members of the NDC Minority in Parliament will as from tomorrow, Tuesday the 20th of February, 2007, resume participation in parliamentary proceedings.”

The Minority thanked “all those who showed concern, solidarity and support for the struggle to fight injustice in this trying period of the country’s democratic dispensation”. NDC MPs described the 10 years’ imprisonment slapped on Dan Abodakpi, Member for Keta, by an Accra Fast Track High Court for causing financial loss to the State as a miscarriage of justice. The NDC said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had not abandoned its declared agenda to use the Fast Track High Courts to destroy the NDC through the use of political trials to jail the Party's leading members and functionaries.

President John Agyekum Kufuor in his State of the Nation Address on February 8 appealed to the NDC MPs to reconsider their boycott of Parliament. Delivering his State of the Nation address to Parliament in Accra, he said: "I make this appeal in the light of the sincerity with which Government is committed to the reconciliation process it has initiated for healing the wounds of the nation and to make for a fresh start." President Kufuor said it was a "sad day" the opposition NDC has chosen to absent themselves.

He said it was also sad that they had resorted to this course of action, apparently in reaction to the judgement of a duly constituted court of law. "It is even sadder that they seem to ignore the fact that the due process of going through appeals, as provided for by the Constitution, is yet to be exhausted in the particular case."GNA

I am not just testing the waters - Botwe

Mr. Daniel Botwe, former Minister of Information at the weekend in Tamale indicated that he was out fully to contest the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) flag bearership race for the 2008 elections.He has therefore called on all party delegates and sympathizers to lend him the needed support to win the primaries to lead the party to victory in 2008 to dispense good governance to Ghanaians.

Mr. Botwe appealed to delegates and all those who support him to rule the country not to listen to any propaganda that sought to create the impression that he was only "testing the waters" and to later support one of the candidates already in the race.Mr. Daniel Botwe said these when he briefed the media in Tamale on Saturday to throw more light on his activities towards the race for the flag bearer of the NPP and how he could win the primaries for the big post of the party and to formally confirm his intention to the delegates in the region.

"The limited objective is to confirm to delegates that I am not stepping out of the contest. I will give Ghanaians my time measured plans aimed at developing the country if I win the race in December this year." he said.He said, no one goes to war in anticipation of being killed or losing the battle and that adequate measures were put in place to ensure that he wins the primaries convincingly to ensure that the NPP won the 2008 elections with ease.

Mr. Botwe said, he had been the party's General Secretary and Organizer before and he knew how to galvanize support for votes, which he succeeded in helping to win the 2000 and the 2004 elections. He said the 2008 elections was going to be the toughest ever and would be keenly contested and needed someone who had been with the people throughout difficult times to be able to retain power for the NPP, adding that he was a threat to candidates in any of the opposition parties.

On the number of aspirants in the NPP, Mr. Botwe said the high number was not a problem but rather confirms how truly democratic the NPP was saying, "it will discourage losers in the primaries from forming their own parties since they can not get the numbers that would encourage them to do so".He expressed disappointment about the low patronage of people for the Ghana@50 celebration and how everything was centred only in Accra instead of decentralizing it for people to feel it.He said, "I have travelled all the way from Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region to Lambusia in the Upper West Region, Binduri in the Upper East Region, Walewale and Tamale in the Northern Region and no National Flag is flying or hoisted anywhere.

He said even on the day of the National Flag raising day, veterans converged at the District Assembly in Walewale and could not get flags for the purpose, which he said, was a shame and described it as a planning error since the celebration was for the nation but not for NPP. He appealed to all Ghanaians, irrespective of political affiliations to join and make the celebration a success since Ghana was for all Ghanaians and must all regard it as such to ensure national progress. 17 Feb. 07
Source:GNA