Dr Sakara cautions AMA against removal of party paraphernalia in honour of Mills

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Category: Politics

Created on Tuesday, 07 August 2012 00:00

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Opinion

Dr Sakara cautions AMA against removal of party paraphernalia in honour of Mills

{sidebar id=10 align=right}The 2012 Presidential Candidate of the Convention People’s Party has admonished the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to not to be partisan, in its decision to remove paraphernalia of the various political Parties in Accra, in honour of our late President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills.

The AMA had decided to remove party paraphernalia hanging on street lights in the capital, to enable them decorate the City, as part of preparations towards the funeral of late President Mills.

Dr. Sakara however stated in a release on Tuesday that “as far as we all agree to the fact that the late President should be given all the due respect, we also believe that Party paraphernalia together with our national Flags serve as honour to him, since he was a father for all”.

“Poster and paraphernalia of political parties should not be removed discriminately,” Dr Sakara stated

The CPP flagbearer has also cautioned the AMA to take note of all paraphernalia and where they were originally located, to ensure that they fix them back at the same locations after the funeral.

He said leaving out the paraphernalia of any of the parties after the funeral, will amount to abuse of incumbency.

“Let us all as one people ensure we provide an atmosphere that will be fair to all as a sign of honour to late President Mills, who only wanted nothing but good for the people of Ghana. This I believe will make us more united than ever especially as we go into the December elections”, the statement said.

From: Myoyonline.com

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Where do we lay of dearly departed President Mills to rest?

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Category: Culture & Tourism

Created on Sunday, 05 August 2012 00:00

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Where do we lay of dearly departed President Mills to rest?

The story has been told, I do not know how true, that a former Governor-General of the Gold Coast, who was born in Galt in Canada was buried twice! One of the chiefs of the Gold Coast, Nana Sir Ofori-Atta had travelled to the Britain and inquired where this great Governor of the Gold Coast, who built Achimota School, KorleBu Hospital and the Takoradi Harbour, had been buried and when he was taken to the grave he was not too happy with what he saw. He therefore got contributions from the chiefs and people of the Gold Coast and they buried him in a proper cemetery at Bexhill on Sea. – Oh how we Ghanaians love to honour our leaders when they are dead after giving them so much aggravation when they are alive.

{sidebar id=11 align=right}Another head of state, I am told was also buried three times. I suspect that Osagyefo was initially buried in Guinea and then at Nkroful, his home town but he is now resting peacefully at the mausoleum in Accra at the site of the Old Polo grounds where he had declared independence for Ghana. This mausoleum gifted to us by the Chinese to signal their aggressive entry into the construction business in Ghana.

How and where we bury our dearly departed President Mills is very important and the fact that it has excited so much discussion suggests that there is a need to formulate policy on what happens when a head of state passes on. Of course a dead president must be accorded a fitting state burial but this issue of whether the body belongs to the family first before the state, and whether it is the matrilineal or the patrilineal family that must take the decision needs to be resolved.

It is my opinion that the committee needs to do a lot more work before President Mills is laid to rest and must revisit their decisions yet again after consulting more widely with all relevant interests in the matter of his burial.

Years ago I read an interesting essay in ‘Talking Drums’ a well written news magazine produced by some excellent Ghanaian journalists who were in exile in London. The article centred on what it takes for nationhood to take roots in a newly independent country. The writer had suggested that for a very long time, the township of Tema, built to house the workers that would support the accelerated industrial development policy of the Osagyefo, did not have a cemetery because of the practice of taking people back to their home towns for their final funeral rites and interment. The small cemetery in Tema Manshia was reserved only for the Tormabii or indigenes of this gourd village.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}The building of the cemetery in Tema signalled the start of true nationhood in our country because it challenged the notions that people needed to be taken back to their hometown when they passed on. They could now be buried anywhere as the Ga adage suggests – shikponko shikponko ekpooo gbonyo – no ground rejects a dead body. The return ticket you come into the world with does not necessarily mean back to your village or where you were born.

Funerals however are the stuff of Ghanaians, we make so much of a fuss, the quarrels, the demands, the spite, the ultimatums come to the fore as we gather to meet and deliberate on the final obsequies. The writing of the obituary is always a problem, who should be mentioned first, the obligatory mention of the chiefs who may or may not even know the departed, the order of the chief mourners and whether in the other categories all should be mentioned or just truncated to brothers and sisters which has now been rendered to siblings.

The Ga meet three times and dispense with the nawotwida and it is a serious offence to leave out anyones name even if the space on the poster does not allow all names. Funerals bring all together to honour the departed but also to provide an opportunity for families to come together and for friends that one has not seen for a long time to attend and sympathise. You need to be invited to an outdooring but there is absolutely no need to be invited to a funeral, you hear about it and you attend and the intention is to help defray the costs of the burial and to make merry in the gbonyo party.

Of course where a person gets buried is important to the family – there is a need to visit the grave to do the one year, five year, ten year and even the twenty five year anniversary celebration of the demise. So it has to be closer where all the family members can easily congregate. Most young men of my time will remember their parents cautioning them to marry closer to home because they did not want to have to cross many rivers to far flung places in their journey to attend funerals of their in laws and other relatives as custom demands.

Now in the spirit of nationhood people can be buried anywhere and the preferred place for most is Osu cemetery whether or not they were born at Osu. No wonder there is no more space in Osu and dead bodies are being buried on top of each other and the older dead are being dug up. Perhaps this is the time to consider building cemeteries for our statesmen and the people.

This issue of matrilineal and patrilineal will not be solved today. The Fante, I am told are matrilineal though the father names the child and so it is the father’s village that the body should be returned to and this has been a source of a lot of conflict and expense for some. Very few people are buried without a quarrel with their family or within their family as there is no script regarding wishes of the departed.

In one harrowing case that I know of, an injunction was placed on the body by the children and we attended the church service without the body and because the hall for the reception had already been hired and the food prepared and paid for, some decided to attend the reception despite the fact that they body was not buried. In another case, the relatives came and stole the body after the church service and took it to the village for burial.

A colleague of mine in the UK assumed that because their parents came from the same village, or so they were told, their mother would be buried in the same place as their father in the house that he had built. They learnt with shock that their mother came from the next village and since she had not built a house in her village, they the children had to build the house before they could bury her. They had to keep the body in the fridge for the two years it took for them to build the house before they could take her home for burial.

It is so sad that the unity of the nation in grief on the death of the father of our nation, President Mills is being broken by the dissenting voiles and the cloud of confusion surrounding his burial place. On one hand the people of GaMashie are complaining that the date coincides with their Homowo Festival although, truth be told, Osu will celebrate the festival at a later date, there are others who suggest that the ground is heavy – shikpon etsii, whatever that means, and that the burial has been caught in the traditional Homowo festival calendar nonetheless.

I do not have a view one way or the other about the Homowo issue but I am concerned at the speed of the burial and I am also concerned that this discussion of where the president must be buried has spilled into the public domain. Surely this must be a sign that the funeral committee have not been thorough in their deliberations and decision making.

My little learning in management school tells me that informed decisions are based on experience, expertise and research. Maybe there are many in the funeral committee who have expertise on burials but they should have impressed on the family that the president because of his high office belongs to the nation as a whole and that in death it is the government responsibility to supervise over his funeral and his burial.

What has been the experience of our former heads of state? Nkrumah had a triple burial as I have suggested; I believe that Busia have been buried in the United Kingdom where he died and Limann asked to be taken to his village after the state funeral for a burial by his family and Ankrah was probably buried at Osu. The others, Afrifa, Acheampong and Akuffo were shot at the firing squad in Teshie so I cannot speculate as to what happened to their bodies.

Some research on what obtains in other countries may be helpful to help us adopt and adapt their practices with our tradition. For instance have President Jerry John Rawlings or President Kufour been asked where they wish to be buried?

The Mausoleum is out, it belongs really only to Nkrumah and his wife. The Jubilee or Flagstaff House is a bit scary knowing that dead bodies are around may distract the sitting president. I mean working in a cemetery or close to a cemetery provides one with a daily reminder of the inevitable and there are those of us who are petrified to the extent that we would not wish to walk by a cemetery at night. A friend was once locked in a cemetery in London and lived to tell the tale though he is now more careful about his timekeeping.

I continue to tell him that white ghosts are not that scary, having lived in ‘Blofo ashi e’, Jamestown British Accra where my maternal family house shared a wall with the old white people cemetery and where as small boys we developed a cottage industry of sorts fashioning dice for playing Ludo out of the marble stones.

One of the most solemn and dignified funerals I have ever witnessed on television was that of Princess Diana, after the service and the outpouring or gushing of grief, she was taken in the cortege with the people lining the streets to be buried in their family plot on their vast estate.

I sincerely believe that there is only one choice and this must be made into policy; dead presidents must be taken to their villages for burial after a state funeral as this will be an inspiration to others in the village or town to aspire to higher office and the government must ensure that a fitting memorial is built in the village to our first president who has ever died in office.

But maybe the decision of President Mahama is an inspired choice after all and Geese Park will in time be developed as a Mausoleum for past presidents.

*Ade Sawyerr is a partner in Equinox Consulting, a management consultancy that provides management consultancy, training, and research services in the areas of enterprise strategies, employment initiatives and community development primarily for disadvantaged communities in Britain. He provides occasional comment on politics in Ghana and Africa. He can be reached at www.equinoxconsulting.net or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . He can also be followed **http://adesawyerr.wordpress.com or ** http://twitter.com/adesawyer*r

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NPP Manifesto Exclusive: Akufo-Addo Offers Transformational Leadership

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Category: Politics

Created on Monday, 06 August 2012 00:00

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NPP Manifesto Exclusive: Akufo-Addo Offers Transformational Leadership

Ghana’s main opposition party, the New Patriotic Party, is preparing to launch its 2012 Manifesto on Saturday, August 25. But, before then, The New Statesman can reveal, exclusively, that the document lays out a detailed programme on how to transform Ghana, under “an action-oriented, transformational leader”.

The NPP believes the National Democratic Congress has failed and must be changed for hope and confidence to be restored in order to move Ghana forward.

The 2012 NPP Manifesto begins with a bold statement: “Ghana is ready for transformation. But, before that can take place we need to, first, change the current drivers of the vehicle... Transformation is beckoning, change is due.”

{sidebar id=11 align=right}To the NPP, there are talented Ghanaians everywhere who must be encouraged to give active support to Ghana’s transformation.

Accordingly, “Nana Akufo-Addo is determined to identify and develop new talents and engage our best minds to drive the forward movement of Ghana,” the document will assure.

Above all, the NPP believes, “The agenda of transforming Ghana requires a presidency that will act as the force in driving the public sector to work for the people and encouraging the private sector to go for gold; a presidency that will provide the vision, direction and inspiration for the people to excel. What the NPP is offering is a leadership that will deliver. We will govern with decisive action plans and timetables, and allocate resources prudently,” the manifesto will say.

Leadership

The NPP argues that Ghana has been denied of any clear leadership direction under this third NDC government and the nation cannot continue squandering opportunities under the NDC. The NPP accuses the ruling NDC of reducing governance to greed, lies and propaganda gimmicks.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}Still on leadership, the NPP sees it as key to unleashing Ghana’s potential: “Our nation’s potential for greatness is immense. This potential can only be harnessed and achieved with the right leadership. The NPP sees the task ahead as two-fold: transformational leadership and competent management of national affairs. By tackling our leadership and management weaknesses, we will unleash the talents of the Ghanaian people and build a great nation with the people of Ghana and for the people of Ghana,” the NPP Manifesto will say.

In Nana Akufo-Addo, the NPP believes Ghana has just the right kind of leader for this right kind of moment.

“Our leader and Presidential Candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, is competent, committed, experienced, honest and has a clear vision on how to make Ghana work for you. He is a can-do leader, dedicated to pushing Ghana to succeed,” the document will assert.

The NPP says it wants to “move Ghana forward” and the document explains, “A transformed nation means a transformed economy, a transformed infrastructure, a transformed and much improved quality of life… This change,” the NPP stresses, “requires a clear vision, a can-do leader and the roadmap to get there.”

Nana Addo’s Can-do Spirit

According to Yofi Grant, Co-ordinator of the 2012 NPP Manifesto, the document, which has taken two years to prepare, “offers the roadmap to implementing Akufo-Addo’s vision of having an educated, confident, healthy workforce to drive the industrialisation of Ghana. Nana Addo’s can-do spirit tells him that what other countries have done Ghanaians, too, can do. It is all about decisive leadership, in tune with the concerns and aspirations of the people on the ground; a leadership that the people can buy into.”

Mr Grant continues, “What you will see in the manifesto is the clear, action plan of a transformational leader who is committed to really changing things. Nana is only saying, ‘look guys, we cannot continue failing over 70% of our kids with a failed education system, we cannot expect to make our nation modern and improve the lives of our people if we don’t add value to our economy, help our businesses grow and our young people to have good jobs with good pay. The good news is that, it is doable and we will do it.’ This is Nana’s message to Ghanaians.”

Society of Opportunities

The manifesto’s introductory page sets out what Ghanaians should expect from the next NPP government:

“Our vision is to create a society of opportunities for the Ghanaian people. We recognise that the quality of our nation will be determined by the quality of our people. This means a Ghana that will put the welfare and wellbeing of the people first, enabling them to achieve their aspirations. A transformed economy is key to this happening. Quality education, good healthcare services, skills and knowledge for our children, world-class infrastructure and decent housing are fundamental to building a society of opportunities for every Ghanaian,” the manifesto will say.

Making Ghana Work for You

Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP are also saying to the people of Ghana, “We will make Ghana work for you.”

In the words of the NPP Presidential Candidate, “Key to all this is the all-important project to transform Ghana’s economy. We do not have a choice but to industrialise and add value to our economy. It is this necessary economic paradigm shift that will open up our economy to offer Ghanaians the opportunities, confidence and incentives to live a prosperous life. Ghana must work and we must get it to work for the people.”

Again, in his manifesto statement, Akufo-Addo commits himself to running a government that would give “value for money” and “tackle corruption with vigour and sincerity.”

Sacred Trust: Value for Money

{sidebar id=12 align=right}To him, “spending public money must be seen and treated as a sacred trust”, especially by politicians and public servants, in general.

The NPP promises to “tackle Corruption through a principled leadership that sees protecting the public purse as its firm duty.”

The party “will introduce institutional reforms that will enhance the autonomy, confidence and funding of statutory anti-corruption institutions. We will strengthen the institutions of governance so that they work without undue political interference.”

With the NDC borrowing over $13 billion, so far, under their 4-year term, with very little to show for, the driving philosophy of the next NPP government would be the transformation of Ghana, supported by a value-for-money administration of public funds.

Access to Public Goods

The party believes that for it to succeed in meeting the growing demands for access to public goods, such as good education, good healthcare, a more efficient police service and infrastructure, it must be deliberate and disciplined in ensuring that public funds are spent responsibly and public contracts are negotiated in the supreme interest of the state.

The NPP promises to “transform the way our children are educated” and sets out the plan for free, quality public education from Kindergarten to Senior High School, with the training, conditions of service and supervision by and of the teacher at the centre of the new education policy.

Empowering Private Sector

The NPP is lamenting over what it sees as the “unpardonable neglect” of the private sector in Ghana under the NDC. The party aims to increase significantly the current level of public-private-partnership, more so in the provision of electricity, water, and transportation, including roads, railways and aviation.

To the Ghanaian private sector, which is in distress, with low business and consumer confidence, the document assures, “NPP is a party that understands business.”

It would be bold in empowering local businesses, particularly manufacturers, road contractors, farmers and real estate developers, to grow and capture a dominant portion of the domestic market and compete in international markets.

Red Tape

The NPP has a programme to cut down on red tape, while empowering regulatory bodies to enhance standards of service providers and ensure value-for-money for customers. Doing business would also be made easier with a proper address system for our communities, investing in IT-enhanced services in the public sector and implementing the national ID card project.

The state will, therefore, be pro-active in creating the conditions for business, investing wisely and substantially in infrastructure and “freeing up private businesses to flourish and grow and innovate and compete and create good paying jobs for our people,” Akufo-Addo will say in his foreword.

On decentralisation, the next NPP government would work on devolving more power and increasing accountability at the district level.

On waste management, NPP plans to introduce cutting edge green innovations which would turn our waste, including plastic waste, into electricity to feed the national grid, fertiliser for farming and roofing sheets for building construction, for example.

The NPP says it has no intention to reinvent the wheel. “We will only work hard and smart to implement in Ghana the very socio-economic policies that have made nations industrialise and competitive and the lives of their people better.”

New Economy

The NPP sees the structural transformation of the Ghanaian economy to be paramount, and “we will provide the leadership, right policies and effective management to make it happen.”

The document drives home the point: “We cannot enrich the lives of the Ghanaian by continuing to export our raw cocoa beans, our mined gold, our drilled oil, our sawed timber and other raw materials without adding value. We also cannot keep importing even the simplest things we use when we can and should manufacture them here. Our small businesses must be actively supported to get working and producing, thriving and growing to become bigger and better, serving Ghana and beyond.”

The NPP sees farming as crucial to its transformation programme. “Primarily, transforming the Ghanaian economy means transforming agriculture. We will make farming work for the farmer by supporting, not only the big commercial farmer, but also the small and medium scale farmer. We will increase production and value in the agricultural sector to create jobs, make Ghana self-sufficient in food and a major agro-based industrial nation in our region,” the 2012 NPP Manifesto will say.

“For that to happen, change must come now – on December 7, 2012,” the NPP document appeals to the Ghanaian electorate.

The Chairman of the NPP Manifesto Committee is Prof. Yaw Twumasi, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Danquah Institute.

By Asare Otchere-Darko

The writer is the publisher of the New Statesman and Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, a policy think tank.

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Move To Flagstaff House; Shake-Up A-G’s Dept – Prez Mahama Told

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Category: Elections & Governance

Created on Sunday, 05 August 2012 00:00

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Move To Flagstaff House; Shake-Up A-G’s Dept – Prez Mahama Told

The Executive Director of anti-corruption body, Ghana Integrity Initiative, Vitus Azeem, has advised President John Dramani Mahama to start operating from the Presidential Palace (Flagstaff House) immediately after the burial of ex-President J.E.A Mills.

Mr. Azeem in a statement issued Saturday on the death of Prof. Mills, said it was one of the campaign declarations of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) led by the late Prof. Mills, during the last elections to use the plush edifice built by former President John Agyekum Kufuor when they come to power.

“His Excellency made a pronouncement in 2008 to the effect that once the Presidential palace has been built, the NDC will use it if they won power. We expect His Excellency John Mahama to, therefore, move into the palace at least for government business as soon as the burial has taken place,” Mr. Azeem stated.

{sidebar id=12 align=right}The GII also urged the new President to overhaul the Attorney General’s Department to address issues of judgment debts that have bedeviled Ghana in recent times.

He said: “While we mourn the death of the late President Atta Mills, GII also wishes to congratulate his successor, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, the fourth John to ascend to the Presidency of the Republic of Ghana since Independence.

“While wishing him well, we also wish to draw his attention to some of the pledges that his predecessor made to the people of this country but which he was not able to honour due to his untimely death. In particular, the promise of a transparent and accountable government in the face of the judgment debt saga continues to stay with us and we expect His Excellency to see to the end of this saga. We need a shake-up of the Attorney-General’s Department if this is to be successfully addressed.”

He further added: “Secondly, the National Anti-corruption Action Plan (NACAP) was delivered to His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama earlier this year. During this delivery, he promised to ensure that the Right to Information Bill was passed into law as soon as possible. The NACAP still needs to be adopted by Parliament and the RTI Bill is still pending in Parliament.

“It is probably too early for us to put too many demands on His Excellency John Dramani Mahama but GII looks forward to good working relationship with him.”

Source: Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII)

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