Cardinal Turkson Named to Pontifical Justice Council

Pope Benedict XVI appointed a cardinal, two archbishops and a layman as members of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.The Vatican press office announced the appointments Saturday of Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana; Archbishop Juan García Rodríguez of Camaguey, Cuba; Archbishop Héctor Rubén Aguer of La Plata, Argentina; and Savino Pezzotta, of the Italian Workers Union.The Holy See also announced the appointment of Stefano Fontana, director of the Cardinal Van Thuân International Observatory, as consultor to the dicastery.

Accra Gears Up For Ghana@50

A number of projects are being executed in the Accra metropolis as part of plans and programmes to turn the physical and aesthetic outlook of the city for the country’s 50th independence anniversary.

Various organisations including the Ghana at 50 Secretariat, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) are funding these projects.Among the projects being undertaken by the Ghana at 50 Secretariat are the rehabilitation of the Independence Square, Freedom and Justice Arch and the Military Monument at the 28th February Crossroad.

The Project Officer in charge of Public Affairs at the secretariat, Mr Henry Wellington Okyne said, the secretariat was funding the construction of 10 jubilee rest stops on major highways throughout the country, adding that the projects were at various stages of completion.

The Very Important Person (VIP) lounge at the Kotoka International Airport is also being rehabilitated.Mr Okyne, however, could neither immediately give the cost of the projects, nor could he mention the exact locations where the projects were being undertaken.Some residents have already been gripped by the jubilee anniversary fever as they have displayed paraphernalia including Ghana flags on their vehicles, while others are seen wearing clothes made from the colours of the Ghana flag, which are red, gold and green with a black star in the middle.

One could also get bangles, hats, key holders and other items which have all been made with similar colours.According to Mr Okyne, although the secretariat was producing some of the paraphernalia, there were other individuals and companies who were manufacturing these items.

Daily Guide: NDC Plots To Mess Jubilee Celebrations

Information reaching Daily Guide indicates that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has begun unfolding a number of activities intended to undermine the forthcoming Golden Jubilee celebration of the country’s independence.

Details of an elaborate plan to pour cold water on this high profile event, which would witness the arrival of very important personalities from all over the world, included unleashing of thugs on celebrants.This, Daily Guide has learnt, was to compel many people to stay away from the celebrations.

Monday, March 5, 2007, would witness one of such deflating activities unfold at the Frankies Hotel at Nima in Accra, a reliable Daily Guide source hinted.On that day, the party would inaugurate its Greater Accra Women’s Working Committee and have in attendance various party groups and thugs whose services would be needed to execute the programme. This seemingly innocuous inauguration would thus be but a ruse to put finishing touches to the plan; hence locating it in an area from which the NDC/CJA strategists intended to draw most of their support.

The source hinted that the line-up of activities was the result of an elaborate planning by a body of party activists at the top.In a brief telephone interview with Daily Guide, Ms. Maggie, the Okaikoi North constituency Women’s Organiser of the NDC, in charge of coordinating letters on the programme, said they would soon be sent out to the various media houses for coverage.“We are trying to inaugurate our Women’s Wing and Working Committee,” she said. Asked why the event would take place at the time the country would be celebrating her Golden Jubilee anniversary celebration, she could not give any specific reason but confirmed the function would take place on March 5.

In an obvious coordination between the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) and the NDC, the former was said to have impressed upon the latter not to go ahead with the inauguration of the Working Committee which had been scheduled for February 24, and rather postpone it to the March 5 date.On the heels of the Nima inauguration would be a rally at Jamestown, which party supporters were to attend in their numbers.

The next day, March 6, would witness a mass protest procession of party faithful through the principal streets of Accra. A similar procession had already been announced by the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), the socialist arm of NDC. The objective of the change in date, according to one political observer, was “intended to divert attention from the anniversary and thereby rob it of the shine it deserves from all citizens of this country”.

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