Chronicle: Rawlings To Boycott Ghana@50

Credible information gathered by The Chronicle newspaper indicates that Former President, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings would not honour the invitation extended to him by President John Agyekum Kufuor to join in the celebration of the country’s jubilee anniversary scheduled to take place on March 6, this year.

According to sources close to the Former President, he is likely to turn down the invitation due to the soured relations existing between him and the incumbent government, coupled with the accusations that he has left a messy legacy and that he’s soliciting for funds and support to topple the ruling government and many others.This would obviously shatter the hopes and aspirations of most Ghanaians, who would have wished to see the two leaders on the same platform, especially during this historic Jubilee anniversary of Ghana’s independence to chart a new course for unity and reconciliation.This paper has gathered from the grapevines of both the leading members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and sources close to the office of the former President that though the NDC founder would have loved to attend the gathering, various comments have come up for a second thought and consideration.According to the sources the questions being asked are whether or not the invitation to Mr. Rawlings, who was accused of being a serial coup maker in addition to recent allegations by the President, Mr. Kufuor to the effect that he (JJ) had solicited for funds from an oil-rich country to topple the current administration, should be taken seriously.Considering his reservations about how he was ignored at all State functions, over the period, including being ignored at a dinner in honour of President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire in 2001 by President Kufuor, Mr. Rawlings is said to have contemplated deeply on whether or not to join the President to celebrate Ghana @50 at the time that Mr. Kufuor continues to accuse the NDC administration that he led of leaving a messy legacy for the NPP to inherit.Another major sentiment the former President is reported to be agonizing over is how the first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, has been completely shoved aside, and his name not being made to occupy where he belongs in our history by the current administration. According to our sources, Rawlings is angered that in a Jubilee State of the Nation Address, Dr. Nkrumah’s name did not come up at least once in the address.“All monuments are rehabilitated but Nkrumah’s monument is completely left out; even his mausoleum has been left and government is rather asking for donation of $2m with donors’ name being inscribed on the mausoleum.If even the founding father has been so shabbily treated, is it any wonder that Mr. Rawlings, who led us for nearly 20 years has been completely ignored,” a party member told this paper. Besides other reasons why the NDC founder would turn down the invitation, this paper learnt was how he was not invited to take part in one of the major programmes outlined for the Ghana @ 50 celebrations - the lecture by Mr. Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary General and above all, the late invitation at a time all other heads of state had been invited ahead of schedule.

Wayo calls for Ghana@50 Boycott on VOA

People have no water, they are dying, there is no electricity ... Kufuor - the biggest conman ... World Bank - a bunch of criminals.

The founder of the opposition united renaissance party (URP) is calling on Ghanaians to boycott the country’s golden jubilee celebration which takes place next month. Speaking to the Voice of America (VOA), Kofi Wayo said the protest is necessary because of the failure of the ruling party to provide the people with the basic necessities of life as promised. Wayo also accused the government of President John Kufuor of what he calls “messing the country up.”
Wayo said he does not understand why the government would spend millions of dollars on the celebration when some of the population does not have clean water.
“These people have no water, they are dying, there is no electricity so what is the priority of an intelligent leader? Ninety percent of the children die from water borne diseases, so why can’t they make water their priority? But their priorities are fancy cars, they are buying jaguars luxury Mercedes and no water,” he said.
He questioned why a country like Malaysia should export oil palm to Ghana when they got the palm from Ghana in the first place.
“You see two year olds with canisters and I took a look at the canisters they are made from Malaysia because Malaysia ships to the country palm nut oil and the Malaysian got the palm nut from Ghana. You see the Africa leader is not interested in substance… these leaders have no culture, no ethics, they have no morality, they don’t know anything about this,” he said.
Wayo chided leadership in Africa as lacking the humane ability to provide the needs of the people they rule.
“They don’t manufacture anything in this country. Even needles to sew clothes are imported into the country. So you can see the leadership has no intelligence at all. You see these leaders are not even leaders; they are a bunch of scoundrels... there is no water and their priority is to buy expensive cars so they can ride in and be big shots,” Wayo noted.
He took a swipe at President Kufuor for what he describes as “not keeping his promise to Ghanaians.
“I swear, I’m disappointed, I’m shocked, this man is the biggest con man I have ever come across. He was a pretty good liar…he believes in corruption, he bought a hotel for his son; his whole family is in the government. The whole system is collapsed so everybody depends on extortion to survive and we are trying to turn it around,” he said.
Wayo said there was the need to free the people from being deceived.
“We got to have freedom, we’ve got to have the people get water and light. The World Bank is telling the leadership to raise prices when the people are already poor and can’t afford it anyway. The World Bank people are a bunch of criminals,” he fumed.

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

Veep launches official celebrations of independence anniversary

Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama on Thursday joined a number of people, including ministers of state and pupils from Accra Metropolis to mark the official countdown towards the country's 50th independence anniversary in Accra.

Mrs Theodosia Okoh, the designer of the national flag and Mr Ernest Debrah, Minister of Food and Agriculture were among those who joined the Vice President to hoist the national flag at the Independence Square.

The event dubbed: "Rally Round The Flag Day," which was organised by the National Planning Committee for the Golden Jubilee celebrations, attracted Mr Hackman Owusu Agyemang, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Ms Gloria Akuffo, Minister of State In-Charge of Aviation, Mrs Oboshie Sai-Cofie, Deputy Minister of Information and National Orientation and Ms Elizabeth Ohene, Minister of State who assisted in hoisting the 10 flags at the independence square.

The event was preceded by a float through the principal streets of Accra to display the national colours, the distribution of the flags to schoolchildren who waved them enthusiastically.Vice President, who inspected a Police Guard of Honour after his arrival at the Square, later addressed the gathering where he asked Ghanaians to use the Golden Jubilee celebrations to forge national unity to facilitate development.

"Today marks the forward march of our 50th anniversary. We are all people of one nation and we should all participate in the anniversary to hold the nation together and lead the nation to prosperity." Mrs Okoh, who would turn 85, in June this year could not recall her age when she designed the flag.She however, expressed joy about the event and asked Ghanaians to unite to ensure a successful anniversary.
Source:GNA