Mr. Kyerematen was addressing separate gatherings of the NPP constituency and poling station executives, supporters and sympathizers in the Greater Accra Region on Monday, in what looked like an unofficial launch of his presidential bid for Election 2012.  He said that the battle for power in 2012 was not between him and other aspirants of the NPP presidential slot.

Mr. Kyerematen said he was a symbol of hope and prosperity, resourceful with fresh ideas, God-fearing, humble, unifier who represented both young and old people, and attractive to floating voters, who could deliver victory for NPP in Election 2012.  He touted the achievements of the NPP government between 2001 and 2008, saying they were the party’s trump card for winning the polls in 2012.

Mr. Kyerematen said that the party’s new presidential candidate must present an agenda, which would help build on those achievements, to improve the lot of Ghanaians.  He outdoored his message for 2012 Election, which included expanding health infrastructure, by granting loans to private individuals to build hospitals and clinics to ensure that all Ghanaians had access to proper medical care.

Mr. Kyerematen also promised to improve the working conditions of teachers, revamp education, road infrastructure and revive the economy to raise the Gross Domestic Product to provide jobs and cash for Ghanaians.  He said these laudable objectives would remain vague without an effective machinery to sell them to the electorate.

Mr. Kyerematen promised a campaign strategy, which would involve grass root participation and organization and ensure that constituency and polling station members took control of the campaign.  He said that his decision not to request for a second balloting to determine a clear winner for the party’s flag bearer slot during its last presidential primaries in 2007 was to safeguard the interest and unity of the party.

Mr. Kyerematen said “I made the supreme sacrifice to step aside and support my brother, for purposes of unity in the party even though I could have won if we had gone for the second round.” He said with the expanded electoral college of the NPP of which about 115,000 delegates would vote to choose the flag bearer, his chances of winning the slot was brighter.

Mr. Kyerematen addressed two gatherings each in three constituencies, La Dadekotopon, Odododoidoi and Klotey Korley, where he delivered a message christened “Restoring Hope for the Future, the Need to Make the Right Choice.”  He was met by enthusiastic NPP supporters of mainly the youth, who sung songs, calling on the party, especially delegates, to choose a young and energetic person with fresh ideas to wrest power from the National Democratic Congress.

At Odododoidoi, there were temporary hold ups when Mr. Kyerematen walked through James Town, Makola and Kantamanto markets and Tudu traffic light as market women, commuters and passers-by demanded that he addressed them, amidst shouts that “we want you in 2012″.  At La Dadekotopon, he visited the Osu Children Home and donated three bags of rice, two cartons of key soap, two gallons of cooking, two boxes of milk and toiletries and GHc 500.00 towards the celebration of Easter by the inmates of the Home. 

 Mr. Kyerematen was accompanied by party stalwarts like Mr. Kwabena Adjepong, Mr. Maxwell Kofi Jumah, Mr. Kofi Dzamesi and Mr. Yaw Buabeng Asamoah.

GNA

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Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa had earlier revealed figures of some 1.6 million new jobs created in various sectors of the economy last year alone.

A Daily Graphic report on Friday, 19th March, 2010 quoted the deputy minister as saying that the Youth-in-Agriculture Programme had so far created 47,000 jobs. The road sector he disclosed had some 950,000 jobs created while the labour based segments had generated some 555,000 jobs.

The oil and gas sector had so far created 1,000 jobs whilst the Eco Brigade and the civil service had engaged 10,000 and 982 new employees respectively. This Okudzeto said is a clear indication of President Mills’ resolve to fulfill his campaign pledge of providing jobs for the jobless.

But in a reaction, Nana Akomea said the figures were not only credible, but “cooked up.”

“The source of the figures is the deputy minister’s own desktop research at his own office,” he mocked, adding, there are recognized institutions like the statistical service, which provides credible information on available jobs in the country.

Assuming the figures were true, Nana Akomea maintained the sources of employment cited by the minister were nothing new; nothing more than the regular annual budgetary support-based employment.

“When you look at the sources of the so called 1.6 million people employed, it is the regular sources. Road building, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, agriculture. These are normal regular budgetary activities that are conducted in the country,” he emphasised.

TRUE FIGURES

But the deputy information minister said the figures were true and incontrovertible. He piously quoting a letter from the head of civil service signed by Mr Okyere Darko Ababio indicating the 982 jobs provided by civil service, as well as one signed by GNPC’s Thomas Manu indicating the 1,000 jobs provided in the oil and gas sector.

“If you look at the Youth-in-Agriculture, the 47,000 jobs, this was given to us by the chief director of the ministry of agriculture with a breakdown and names of the farming taking place.

“How else do we put out credible figures,” he quizzed, adding, critics must rather support the government in its quest to make lives better for all Ghanaians.

He said government inherited a huge unemployment situation from the NPP, and would do its best to ameliorate the situation.

—- myjoyonline

 ”While we condemn the defamatory statement made by the NPP activist, we strongly condemn the police overreaction to the comments, as evidenced in the lightening speed with which they arraigned the activist and secured a two-week pre-trial detention for an offence which did not even warrant a denial of bail,” the statement said.

It said the Accra High Court’s decision to set aside the pre-trial detention order and the subsequent granting of bail to the NPP activist was a “commendable development consistent with the tenets of human rights and rule of law.”  The party said following the granting of bail, it expected the political tension between the NDC and NPP to “cool down”, for due process and rule of law to flourish.  “While we support efforts to entrench freedom of opinion and expression in Ghana, we are concerned that the very freedom of expression we are fighting for would be compromised if the rule of law and due process is not allowed to flourish,” the statement said.

 The Party thus urged the minority in parliament to call off their boycott and allow due process to prevail.  It also entreated the police to drop the criminal charges against the NPP activist and allow any complainant so defamed by the said comment to seek redress in his or her civil capacity at the law courts.  The statement called on the government to live up to the expectation of not allowing state institutions such as the police to abuse the powers and discretion granted them by the Constitution.

GNA

Mr. Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr. Martin Amidu, Minister of the Interior, Mr. John Akologu Tia, Minister of Information, and Mr. Alban Samenu Bagbin, Minister of Works and Housing, were those who received the nod of Parliament after a heated debate on the floor of the House that there was no nominee from the Western Region.

The rest of the designated ministers are Mr. John Gyetuah, Minister of State at the Presidency, Mr. Moses Mabengba, Northern Regional Minister and Mr. Inusah Abdulai Fuseini, Deputy Minister of Energy.

Contributing to the debate Mr. Papa Owusu Ankoma Member of Parliament (MP) for Sekondi said the Western Region deserved better from the National Democratic Congress and challenged President Evans Atta Mills to take a bold step to correct the omission.

 Mr. Joe Ghartey member for Esikadu/Ketan in his contribution quoted article 35 section six (b) of the 1992 Constitution which stated that “the state shall take appropriate measures to achieve reasonable and gender balance in the recruitment and appointment to public offices.”  He said the Western Region contributed a lot to national development by giving out cocoa, bauxite, manganese and the currently the oil reserves of the country.  Mr. Daniel Botwe, MP for Okere said the constant change in the information minister was the best for the country.

He said the Information Ministry regarded as a propaganda unit of government was now used as a unit which give and receive information of national interest.  For this reason he said the position was only reserved for sharp-tongued orators that could project government’s achievement.

He said institutions like the Ghana News Agency and Information Service Department should be strengthened to assist the Information Ministry to achieve its purpose.

He said the current local governance system, which allowed government appointees to control the assemblies was a drawback to development. Dr Nduom was speaking at the second in the series of his “Agenda for Change” initiative, which he said would bring transformation to all sectors of the economy.

The Change agenda will focus on a series of media interactions and consultations with the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Centre for Democratic Development Ghana, on burning national issues. It also seeks to bring transformation in education, a new regime of industrialisation, and governance.

Dr Nduom noted that even though successive governments dating back to independence committed themselves to some form of decentralisation, they ended up hanging on to local authorities in order to control the people.  He said the current system of local governance, was flawed by provisions in the 1992 Constitution, which was largely ineffective and did not promote development.

Dr Nduom observed that some programmes on decentralisation coupled with projects by international development partners sometimes weakened the national resolve to implement difficult reforms. He said there was the need to remove the combined suffocating influences of the President, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and regional ministers from the district assemblies to facilitate the concentration of development on the needs of the local people.

Dr Nduom noted that the problem of empowering the people at the local level had persisted because certain flaws in Article 240 (1) of the 1992 Constitution had given too much powers to the President to appoint and dismiss district functionaries.

He  said the Rawlings regime held on to the appointment of DCEs thinking that it would be a tool to consolidate its hold on the presidency but lost power to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which also kept the status quo. Dr Nduom said the NPP had the perception that appointment of DC Es would build the political strength of the party yet it lost power.

He said this was an indication that political control over DCEs and the assemblies to strengthen the hold of a party was not possible.  “I believe that the people of Ghana want the right to elect those who rule them and make laws in their localities to gain their eyes, ears and minds. “The people want the right to use the ballot box to select and sack those who are supposed to serve them.This right must be given by amending the relevant sections of the Constitution to give power back to the people.

“If the people are smart and discerning enough to cast a ballot to elect a Member of Parliament and a president, they are definitely smart and discerning enough to cast a ballot to elect a district chief executive and assembly members”, he said.
GNA
JA
24 Nov. 09

“PNC in spite of the support failed to obtain even one per cent of valid votes cast in Election 2008, now they are talking from the roof top championing two per cent threshold for State Funding of political parties when bigger parties were proposing 0.5 percent,” he said.

Mr Ward-Brew said this in a sharp rebuttal to a submission made by the PNC at the official launch of the final report on Ghana’s 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Accra by the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) in Accra.

Mr Henry Asante, PNC representative attempt to rebut Mr Ward-Brew’s stand against the Institute of Economic Affairs’ (IEA) position for organising Presidential and Vice Presidential debates for only four out of the eight Candidates for Election 2008.

The DPP presidential candidate had submitted that the conduct of debate among four of the presidential candidates and their vice presidential candidates amounted to interfering in the electoral process by a non-governmental organisation. Mr Ward-Brew expressed concern about the failure of CODEO to mention the irregularities in the report.

Mr Asante however defended IEA’s stand stressing that the institute used a criteria to select parties for funding and to participate in the debate. He said the criteria among other things included performance of a party in an election and those with representatives in parliament, which irritated Mr Ward-Brew. 

Professor Miranda Greenstreets Co-Chair of CODEO called the two political party leaders to order to ensure that the programme goes on without further throwing of “Political Bullets”.

Mr Kyei Mensah-Bonsu who announced this, when he interacted with his constituents in Kumasi at the weekend, said land had been acquired for the project to take-off soon to facilitate the health needs of the people.

He said he had provided 100 bags of cement worth over GH¢1,000 as his contribution towards the provision of classroom blocks for the National Vocational Training Institute, at Old Suame to improve facilities at the school.

The MP used the interaction to brief the electorate about the policies and programmes of the government as well as parliamentary proceedings.
 Mr. Mensah-Bonsu said the sound economic policies pursued by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) improved the national economy, which recorded per capital income of $712 at 2008.

He said there was also significant improvement of the Gross Domestic Product of 7.3 per cent, and expressed the hope that the figure would be enhanced by the current government.

The Minority Leader noted that the electoral defeat of the NPP in Election 2008 does not mean that the party is not functional adding that “the party is still formidable to protect the interest of its members as well as the Ghanaian populace.”

Mr. Mensah-Bonsu noted that the task ahead in the 2012 elections was challenging and therefore urged party executives at the various levels, to educate people about the ideology and manifesto of the NPP.

This, he said, would not only help to increase the membership of the party but also get the needed support from the people to enable it wrest power from the National Democratic Congress in 2012.

Mr. Kofi Senyah, Presiding Member of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and Assemblyman for the area, said the people in the community had formed a neighbourhood watchdog committee to fight against the crime wave in the area.

He said the people were contributing GH¢10 per house hold to support the activities of the committee and therefore asked landlords to ensure the prompt payment of the amount to raise funds as incentive package to the volunteers.

The Presiding Member appealed to the MP, the government and civil society organisations to support the community in the construction of drains to check erosion and floods and improve the road network.

He said reserving that position for a Muslim or Northern extraction has not brought the required votes from the people in the North and Muslims population and it therefore might be fruitless if the party continued do so in future elections.

“Who ever therefore comes second to the eventual flag bearer in our future Presidential primary, whether an Akan, a Ga or an Ewe, we should not hesitate to endorse such a person as the running mate”, he stressed during an interaction with newsmen at Wa at the weekend.

Alhaji Issahaku observed that if his proposal was accepted, it would go a long way to save the party from excessive lobbying for that position, which has not helped the unity of the party in recent past.

He opposed the proposal for a constitutional amendment to expand the party’s Electoral College for the election of the Party’s Flag bearer for the next election, saying it was unnecessary as the party won two elections with its current constitution.

 “Our party won elections in 2001 and retained power in 2004 with this constitution, which was drawn when we were in opposition, why should we rush to expand the Electoral College just because we have lost power.

 “What we have to do now is to assess our performance and find the causes that led to our loss of power. I do not think we lost because the present electoral arrangement in our constitution did not serve its purpose.”

Alhaji Issahatu said believed the party contested the last election without unity and also said there was open rivalry within the rank and file, which made it unattractive to floating voters.

He said what should be of great concern now was how the party could work out strategies to bring members together to work for victory in 2012 and not any extensive amendment of the constitution.

Taxis lined up for petrol

Accra, July 8, GNA – The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has expressed its dismay at the current shortage of petroleum products in the country.
The party said “In the past few weeks there had been several rumours that the country was running out of petroleum products. There have been the usual denials. But it is official now. The newspapers have reported it.”

A statement sign by Nana Akomea, Minority Ranking Member on Communications, said the Tema Oil refinery (TOR) has confirmed the shortage and if further evidence was required, the queues at the filling stations testified to the dire nature of the situation.  It said according to TOR management, at the time when the NPP administration was handing over to the incoming NDC administration, the country had supplies that could last up to the end of March and there was “Laycan” for April and May.

The statement wondered why this sudden turn of events and said according to TOR this was partly explained by the fact that the RFCC has broken down adding “But why should this breakdown lead to a shortage in supply.”  It said the regime of deregulation implemented by the NPP Government ensured that the OMCs supplied petroleum products to the markets and there was no limit on how much oil was imported.

 The statement said “TOR only imports and refines crude and the fact that the RFCC has broken should not create these shortages.” It said in the campaign period close to the 2008 Election, the then presidential candidate Professor Evans Atta Mills promised that if elected as President of Ghana, he would reduce petrol prices drastically but after the elections, the government of President Mills has not reduced the price of petrol.

The statement said “He has not even maintained the price of petrol. The government, six months in office, has increased the price of petrol by 35 per cent.  They have not been able to tell us why at 65 dollars per barrel of crude, gasoline should be selling at 51,000 cedis.  Ghanaians have been reeling in shock.”

It said the last four days from July 5 have seen the re-emergence of petrol queues in the city of Accra and elsewhere. The statement said “Ghanaians are once again being subjected to the terrible trauma of queuing in their vehicles.  This is an experience which has long been forgotten.”

It said within six months of President Mills administration and having dismantled the existing administration of TOR this harrowing experience was back. The statement said when crude oil sold at all time high of 147 dollars per barrel, the NPP government maintained a steady flow of petroleum products. 

The NPP urged the government to act without delay to relieve the country of this terrible plight.

The statement said if the promise of reducing petrol price has been broken, the suffering of Ghanaians due to the 35 per cent increase in fuel price should not be increased through the queuing for petrol.

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Accra, June 3, GNA – The Minority in Parliament on Wednesday observed that ‘the detention’ of Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, former Chief of Staff, by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), amounted to the constriction of ‘the frontiers’ of democracy.

‘We assure them that from now onwards we shall resist them by whatever legal means and tools available to us,’ Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, told the press in Parliament in reaction to the questioning of the former Minister on Tuesday.

Describing the questioning of the former Minister as illegal, the Minority Leader said: ‘Clearly, the method of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) under the NDC in this matter amounts to nothing less than constricting the frontiers of democracy.

By every step of the NDC, we are witnessing a return to the regime of impunity.’ Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said Mr Mpiani had on many occasions publicly stated his readiness to co-operate with the police whenever he was needed to assist in investigations.

‘In the circumstances, one may want to know what the role of the BNI is, in an alleged criminal investigation, and for a person who has consistently stated his preparedness to submit to investigations, why detain him upon a telephone invitation?’

The Minority Leader said basic courtesies required that at least the spouse and some members in leadership of the party be informed about the reasons for the detention of Mr Mpiani.

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