Akufo-Addo maps up strategy to improve education in Ghana

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Category: Politics

Created on Wednesday, 15 June 2011 00:00

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Akufo-Addo maps up strategy to improve education in Ghana

The 2012 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party has reemphasized his conviction that it is only through education, education, education that Ghana can achieve prosperity and enhance the human dignity of all her people.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said, the freedom of the Ghanaian is meaningless without a deliberate policy to grow his or her intellectual property. We need to prepare our people and empower them with the confidence and skills to become champions in this new and exciting, competitive Africa.

His government, he said, would design Ghana's education system and training institutions in such a way as to encourage and support this process of socio-economic transformation that will also necessarily embrace a strong attachment to technology, with greater emphasis on the sciences.

It is not for nothing, the NPP flagbearer said, that China mandates 40 percent of her secondary school students to do science and using Germany as another example, he said that the German economy is the strongest in Europe because successive German authorities invested heavily in developing great minds like Albert Einstein.

Science, technology, communication and information technology have become the structure of knowledge in the 21st century, Ghana can only succeed by following that path with deliberate policies.

He said this when he delivered a major policy statement on his vision for Ghana at the 3rd NPP International Conference in Hamburg, Germany, at the weekend.

He said, fundamentally, the main political issue in Ghana is how to win the enduring war against poverty.

However, we can only win this war by first recognizing that we cannot continue deploying the same ineffective weapons of old and expect victory, he said, stressing, Ghana cannot continue the folly of doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

This, he said, calls for breaking “our future free from the shackles of the Guggisberg economic model of producing and exporting raw materials.”

But, it takes more than raw materials to develop a nation. “Africa, he said, “is probably the richest continent in terms of natural resources. Yet, those riches have not translated into prosperity for the African people. On the contrary, the African people are the poorest on earth.

He suggested why: We have not been able to use our natural resources to transform the lives of our citizens because we have not prioritized the development of the most important ingredient in any nation's development mix: the mind.

He noted, that is why I have made the issue of nurturing the intellectual property of the Ghanaian my highest priority. Education, education, education.

The 2012 Presidential Candidate of the NPP said, without education we shall sweat and toil in vain. For Ghana to industrialise, we must take a total look at the economic, organisational, administrative, legal, regulatory, technical, financial and even sociological conditions of Ghanaian industry. But beyond that, we must not compromise in our commitment to provide for every Ghanaian child access to quality education, regardless of the circumstances of his or her birth.

He criticized the education reforms of the late 1980s, which introduced the Junior Secondary School system as the first point of exit, for merely ending up “throwing out onto our streets each year an estimated quarter of a million school leavers without any form of basic, employable skills.

This represents about half of the numbers that sit for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) at the two exit points, failing in their final papers, he pointed out.

He referred to a recent survey by the Ministry of Education which showed that about 64% of JHS pupils cannot read or write.

Nana Addo explained the grim reality from the findings: “What this means simply is this: we have been banishing about half of our youth to a future of hopelessness and struggle. This is not the way to build a nation and we should work together to put a stop to this phenomenon of failure and hopelessness.

To him, the least that a society can give its youth are education and skills for jobs. Without the foundation of quality education, the other two become a chanced struggle and the quality of tuition a child receives before the age of 16 can make or break his or her future. That is why I am saying that, under my presidency, the Junior High School level would no longer be the first exit point for education.

If elected, his government will introduce a policy that will make Senior High School part of the basic school system and, therefore, the first point of exit for every child in Ghana.

Again, we are determined to tackle the critical issue of the kind of education that we offer to our future citizens. The future is for quality education. This means that at the heart of our education policy will be what we have called, 'Teacher First', he said, recognizing that to offer quality education is to focus on the needs of those offering tuition, teachers.

We are determined to put the needs of the teacher and hence the quality of tuition for our children first,” he said, adding, quality education will be at the very heart of the next NPP policy on education.

We intend to enhance quality of education in every public school in Ghana in our overriding goal of building a new society of opportunities by committing, by legislation, a significant and constant percentage of our GDP to education.

He criticized the Mills administration for pursuing a consistent yearly policy of cutting down the percentage of GDP dedicated to education.

He also condemned this year's real cuts in spending in key social interventions, like the school feeding programme and capitation grant, saying the cuts do not show a nation serious about its future. Education is the key to unleashing the talents of our people.

He ended his Hamburg speech by reassuring Ghanaians, I have a strong desire to serve Ghana with a clear conscience, pure motives and a solid character and to that end, I will offer a leadership of competence, courage, compassion and commitment, guided at all times by faith in God.”

The conference, which began last Thursday, saw him addressing the Ghanaian community in a townhall meeting, finishing off with a Church service on Sunday.

Nana Addo moved on to London, where he will be addressing the Ghanaian community at the Dominion Centre, Wood Green, London.


Source: NPP Headquarters

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Akufo-Addo: NDC Has Made Ghana A Poverty "Owing Democracy"

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Category: Politics

Created on Saturday, 11 June 2011 00:00

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Akufo-Addo: NDC Has Made Ghana A Poverty "Owing Democracy"

The flagbearer of the opposition News Patriotic Party Nana Akufo-Addo has ones again chastised the

ruling government for pushing more Ghanaians under the poverty line since taking over the affairs of the country.

Below is a press release from the communications team of the party about the flag bearers comments.

Akufo-Addo: NDC has made Ghana a poverty “owing democracy"

Today in Ghana, we are living in a poverty-owning democracy, even as more and more Ghanaians fall below the poverty line of $1.35 a day.

This situation is not acceptable. The very people trumpeting alleged care for you are the very people worsening the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian each succeeding day. Where is the better Ghana that they promised?

The above observation was made by the 2012 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, when he made a major policy statement of his campaign at the 3rd International Conference of the NPP in Hamburg, Germany, on Saturday, June 11.

In his hour-long speech, in which he laid out his vision for Ghana, Nana Addo also gave a detailed account of the despondency that has gripped the nation under the government of President JEA Mills.

A vote for change,"he said, should not mean a vote for less money in people's pockets.

But, the 2008 vote for change has rather reduced the people of Ghana to an ever-worsening situation of joblessness and hopelessness, with more and more people begging on the streets for small change.

Nana Addo described Ghana under President Mills as “reeling under the needless weight of a leadership crisis.

Citing examples from all three arms of government, he stated, for the first time in the history of our 54-year old motherland, the Speaker of Parliament was compelled by the behaviour of her own side, the Majority, to walk out of a sitting of Parliament.

On the Executive, he said corruption, infighting, broken promises and incompetence have become the order of the day.

Instead of steering the affairs of the nation on the highway of stability and progress, the Presidency, the NPP leader said, is dodging booms about corruption and nyafu nyafu chopping by greedy bastards and Team B players from the founder of their party, and preoccupied with bitter feuds between FONKAR and GAME, OLONKAR and SADAM.

While, ordinarily, the NPP would be happy to remain indifferent to this NDC internal issue, we cannot, however, sit by unconcerned when the all-important affairs of tackling poverty, creating jobs, providing security, fixing our worsening physical infrastructure, investing in the welfare of the young, old and sick are all being set aside in a never-ending struggle to determine who really is in charge.

Surely, our beloved country deserves better,he said.

Not only in the Legislature and the Executive can we sense a crisis, Nana Addo stressed, the Judiciary, the defender of our liberties, is under threat as well, facing a constant barrage of intimidation and harassment from agents of Government and the ruling party.

He described this threat against the Judiciary, as a most unwelcome development for Ghanaians, especially when regard is had to the history of judicial assassinations associated with the antecedents of the ruling party.

Why should such a serious threat to our democracy occur after the longest period of our nation's democracy and at a time when all three official arms of Government are headed by men and women of law, he asked rhetorically.

It does not speak well of the ability of the Chief Executive of the State to provide good governance for our nation, Nana Addo said.

The NPP flagbearer said the increasing impoverishment of the Ghanaian under a so-called party of social democrats was unacceptable. He accused the NDC of cutting the budgets of all the social intervention programmes implemented by the NPP.

He referred to findings of a recent survey undertaken by world renowned pollsters, Gallup, in 18 African countries, which showed that under President Mills, 12.7 million people, representing 53% of the entire population, cannot afford the cost of food.

In the survey, those who admit to living comfortably have dropped from 20% in 2007 to 4% of the population in 2010. In 2007, 11% of Ghanaians said they were suffering under severe economic hardships.

Two years into the so-called "Better Ghana" agenda of President Mills, the number of Ghanaians who cannot cope at all with the harsh economic realities has shot up by a whopping 210%, from 11% of the population to 34%.

The NPP flagbearer emphasized, to put it bluntly, over 8.2 million Ghanaians are saying that enkoyie kroaaaa! They have been delivered a bitter Ghana, instead of a better Ghana.

On top of that, Nana Addo added, “the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty programme (LEAP), the social welfare benefit system introduced by the NPP to provide some regular financial support for the very poor in our society, is dying under the Mills government of alleged social democrats.

Rather than the current driver of Ghana's development vehicle, President Mills, driving ahead and taking the highway to greater freedom and prosperity, the President has, as Nana Addo himself predicted in 2008, pulled the brakes, turned back, reset the mileage and put back the sign for Learner Driver.

Today, those in charge of the administration of the state have virtually put the brakes on our development vehicle.

"We need to take control of the vehicle again, and as quickly as possible. Indeed, even within the circles of the ruling party itself, there appear to be serious divisions of opinion as to the capacity of the current driver of the Yutong bus to take us safely to our destination,” the NPP flagbearer said to wide applause.

He urged delegates of the conference, we, the NPP, therefore, have a great responsibility to restore the hope, trust and confidence of the Ghanaian people in their government.

"We will have to introduce urgent policies that will put our young people to work.

The NPP conference took place from 9th-12 June in Hamburg.

Source: citifmonline

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Asere Mantse: No B***S**t!!! No-one Installs Ga Mantse But Me...G*dd**n S**t

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Category: Culture & Tourism

Created on Tuesday, 14 June 2011 00:00

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Asere Mantse: No B***S**t!!! No-one Installs Ga Mantse But Me...G*dd**n S**t

The Dzasetse and acting Asere Mantse of the Ga State Council (GTC), Nii Amarkai III, caused endless outburst of hilarity albeit under somber circumstances when he occasionally interlaced his address with expletives during the formal installation of the new Ga Mantse, Boni Nii Tackie Adam Latse II on Monday.

Formerly the Ga Traditional Council, the GTC was thrown into a crisis situation over the weekend when the Stool House was raided and a new Ga Mantse installed, giving the Traditional Area two occupants to the throne.

With King Tackie Tawiah III who was installed in 2006 still in office, a rival king, Boni Nii Tackie Adama Latse II was enstooled amidst the firing of musketry, drumming and dancing.

Nii Amarkai III, who outdoored the new king at a well-attended press conference on Monday, emphatically stated that he had not directed nor instructed any of the four Ga royal families (Teiko Tsuru We, Amugi We, Abola Piam and Takie Kommey We) from which a king is chosen, to elect a prospective ruler, except the Abola Piam family.

I've never in my life given any drink to anybody to install a Ga Mantse for the state. I gave the drink to Abola Piam for them to provide a Ga Mantse and I'm responsible here at this Ga Traditional Council, he said.

Waxing extensively on Ga history, the Asere Mantse claimed ownership of most Ga lands eventhough he declared himself to be penurious.

It's a government acquired land … acquired from me, Nii Amarkai I'm the owner of the land of which even the compensation has not been paid for me to become rich. And I know from today, maybe the Ga Mantse elect will make sure I get my money back for the land, the Dzasetse prayed.

Sounding a bit breezy at times, Nii Amarkai III who was flanked by all the Wulomei in the Ga State, said to amazement of all how hard hit by poverty he has become.

I aint got no s**t, I took a taxi to this place (to address the press conference), he said.

He, however, pointed out that though the GTC consists of so many paramount chiefs, he was the official “principal Kingmaker.

This land is called Kaneshie (referring to where the GTC was sited) and it's under me, right under me and not under anybody in Accra. Not under Sempe, not under Otublohum, not under any œg*dd**n s**! It's right under me; Nii Asere, he asserted.

To him, as long as he remains landlord no one can dictate to him how he should go about installing a Ga Mantse.

I've given the mandate to Abola, Gbese to provide me with a tangible person to be installed as a chief I've never raised anybody's hand that you're this. I only raised the hand of Gbese Mantse, Nii Ayi Bonte as the acting Ga Mantse… there's no b**s**about that, he stated.

The Dzaasetse then held aloft the hand of the new Ga Mantse and proclaimed him king of the Ga state but not before reeling off the following words; and today, as I sit down here with the press around me, do you want me to raise the hand of the chief that I've installed for the Ga State? This is the chief that I've installed for the Ga State and nobody else, Nii Tackie Adama Latse II. Do you understand (the meaning of) Latse? Fireman! He's giving to fire the Ga State, Nii Amarkai III stated.


Source: Kwadwo Asante/Peacefmonline.com

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Adwoa Safo To Outdoor Campaign Song

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Category: Politics

Created on Friday, 10 June 2011 00:00

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Adwoa Safo To Outdoor Campaign Song

Lawyer and aspiring Member of Parliament (MP) for Dome-Kwabenya on the New Patriotic Party's (NPP's) ticket Ms. Adwoa Safo, has taken her campaign to a different level.

Unlike her other colleague aspirants who are campaigning by making speeches, Safo has employed the services of some renowned musicians to help carry her message through music in order to reach so many people in the constituency and the country at large.

A source close to her said, "She has come to realize the role music plays in the life of the Ghanaian and in the country's politics as well.” Besides, the source further disclosed that through music and a little effort, Nana Akufo-Addo, flag bearer of the party, was able to send his message to so many Ghanaians all over the world. “By this move, Ms Adwoa Safo believes that she can touch the hearts and impress positively on the minds of the electorate."

This initiative by the parliamentary hopeful has sent a strong signal to the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to select a candidate that can battle with the aspiring NPP parliamentary candidate.

Although Adwoa believes that the race ahead is an issue-oriented one which will focus on message and "policies and not politics of insults “ she believes that her yet-to-be-launched song would move the constituents like the hip-life and gospel music in the country.

Meanwhile, Ms Safo has assisted some residents at Kwabenya who had their properties destroyed by fire with an amount of GH¢1,000.00.

Presenting the cash to the victims, the aspiring parliamentary candidate advised them to use the amount to assuage their pain, adding that she would come again to assist them.

The victims thanked the aspiring MP for her kind gesture.


Source: New Crusading Guide

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