Corruption Will Cause Civil War In Ghana Soon

To those of you who are in Ghana and are following the Public Accounts Committee hearings, I say Kudos! Those of you who are in Ghana but have not had the time to watch the proceedings, you must make the time to follow its proceedings. The revelations that are unfolding are very disturbing. For the diaspoas, you must surf Ghanaweb and find the truth for yourselves.


Tuesday was the first day of hearing. The first to appear before the committee on Tuesday was the Tourism Ministry. Officials including Asamoah Boateng who appeared before the committee could not provide receipts to support some financial expenditures of the Ministry. Laid down accounting procedures or principles were flagrantly disregarded willfully. So ‘ROT EXPOSED AT THE MINISTRY OF TOURISM’ was the banner headline for the Daily Graphic.


The next to appear before the committee were officials of the Korle-Bu Teaching hospital, where close to 4 billion cedis was expended on projects without due process. Again, laid down accounting procedures were sidestepped willfully to the benefit of some corrupt officials.
The committee has just completed grilling officials of the Transport Ministry, where the rot may be described as very monumental. It came to light that 5.5 million cedis have been embezzled in that ministry alone. Interestingly, this is the Ministry where the President found it so difficult to accept the resignation of its former Ministers, Richard Aanane, despites allegations of corruption leveled against the man. The excuse of the President was that, the man was doing so well and finding a replacement for him would be very difficult.


Keep your fingers cross whiles the PAC move tortuously to unravel all the rot. I have just been informed that some Ministries are moving heaven and earth to cover some of their shady dealings by removing huge files from their offices in the evening.

Lucky Dube's murder - Four arrested

Four men were arrested on Sunday in connection with the murder of reggae star Lucky Dube, 702 Eyewitness News reported.Police arrested the four in Spruitview on the East Rand on Sunday morning, the radio station said.

A crack team of detectives had been assembled to search for the killers.Dube was shot dead in Rosettenville at about 8.20pm on Thursday night, said police spokesperson Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht. The singer was travelling in a grey Chrysler with his two teenage children at the time.Source: Mail&Guardian

Lucky Dube's Legacy

Condolences spanned the length and breadth of the political and cultural spectrum, with everyone from President Thabo Mbeki to the South African Football Players' Union praising Dube's legacy and raising concerns about the level of violent crime. Mbeki made an appeal to South Africans to confront the "scourge" of crime together."This is ... very, very sad that this happened to an outstanding South African -- an outstanding musician, world renowned," he said as he was leaving for France to support the Springboks in the World Cup final.Mbeki conveyed his condolences to the family and also to Dube's fans in SA and around the world.Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said: "For more than two decades he confronted pertinent social and political issues through his music, bringing to the fore the pain and suffering of many South Africans."Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan called Dube one of the most "important and relevant" voices to come out of the country in the 20th century."What makes his death more painful is that it happened at a time when government has renewed its pledge to forge a partnership with people, communities and their institutions to fight crime," he said in a statement. - Sapa

Ghana08: Ghana, Morroco, Guinea, Namibia

Group A(Accra): Ghana, Morocco, Guinea, Namibia
Group B(Sekondi): Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Mali Benin
Group C(Kumasi): Egypt, Cameroon, Zambia, Sudan
Group D(Tamale): Tunisia, Senegal, South Africa, Angola

Highjakers Kill Lucky Dube in Jo'burg

Reggae musician Lucky Dube was shot dead in a hijacking on Thursday in Rosettenville, Johannesburg police said.Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht said the incident took place at about 8.20pm when Dube (43) was driving a blue Volkswagen Polo in the Johannesburg suburb.She said Dube was dropping off his son in the area when he was attacked. "His son was already out of the car. When he saw what was happening, he ran to ask for help.

" The hijackers were still at large. The boy was too traumatised to provide police with any information, Engelbrecht said.Dube, born in Johannesburg on August 3 1964, was named "Lucky" as he was born in poor health and doctors thought he would die, according to Wikipedia. But Dube survived and went on to become a front-line artist in the reggae genre. However, the singer's website, Luckydubemusic.com, says: "Giving birth to a boy was considered a blessing and his mother considered his birth so fortunate that she aptly named him Lucky.

"He recorded more than 20 albums in his music career, which spanned more than 20 years, according to Luckydubemusic.com. His albums include Rastas Never Die, Think about the Children, Soul Taker and Trinity. His latest, released in 2006, is called Respect.The build-up to this international success, though, started in 1982 with the release of Kudala Ngikuncenga, an album that was not reggae but mbaqanga, a genre that was to serve him well for four more albums until his transition to reggae in 1985.

"The change was brought about by the fact that I wanted to reach the world. With mbaqanga I would have been seen as a tourist musician," he told the Mail & Guardian in an interview in 2001."Don’t waste your time and mine,” a concert promoter told Richard Siluma, Dube’s producer at the time. “No one wants to hear reggae.” By 1987, Dube was the sole reggae star among South African "disco" acts and established music acts such as Brenda Fassie, Stimela and the Soul Brothers.His introduction to the international stage was heartening, such as when he was invited to play at the Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica in 1991. He recalled how the spiritual home of reggae had been waiting for him and his band. "We knew they love the music. They said we remind them of Peter Tosh.

" On the final evening of the festival they were called back for an encore -- and for another performance the next year. The reggae sensation, who did not drink or smoke cigarettes or marijuana, despite the association of the substance with Rastafarians, had won more than 20 awards for his music contribution locally and internationally. He is the only South African artist to have a record signed to Motown Records, according to Luckydubemusic.com. His reception on the international stage had been mixed, however. European audiences had argued that he sang world music and local audiences felt his music had changed to an extent that it flew over them.This did not seem to bother him.

"We have found that locally the audience does not grow with you. People expect me to still be doing Ayobayo, yet that was 1987 and this is 2001," he said in the M&G interview.Dube always had to fend off questions of whether he was Rastafarian. "If Rastafarianism is about having dreadlocks, smoking marijuana and believing that Haile Selassie is God, then I am not Rastafarian. But if it is about political, social and personal consciousness, then, yes, I am," he said.Although his idol was Peter Tosh, he acknowledged the unshakeable influence of the king of reggae, Bob Marley, whom he described as "the reason we know reggae".