M&J Bribery Scandal:THE GHANA CONTRACTS

107. M&J has conducted business with government departments in Ghana over a number of decades. From the mid 1980’s until approximately 1996, M&J’s interests in Ghana were represented by Kwame Ofori.

During the early 1990's Kwame Ofori acted as M&J's agent in Ghana. He controlled a Ghanaian bridge building company, and apparently had influence within the ruling circles of the then ruling party in the Ghanaian government - the National Democratic Congress (“NDC”).

108. To promote its business transactions with government departments of Ghana, M&J paid commissions to its agent or agents in relation to the business it won in Ghana. It is accepted by M&J that through the creation of the GDF (the notional fund created by M&J known as the “Ghana Development Fund”), its executives facilitated corruption on behalf of M&J and that its executives were in (or sought to create) a corrupt relationship with a variety of decision making Ghanaian public officials with responsibilities affecting M&J’s affairs. These funds were purportedly for the development of M&J business in Ghana but, in truth and reality, were capable of and were understood to be capable of, being used for corrupt purposes.

109. When appointing and permitting its agents in Ghana to act on its behalf or for it, M&J knew that there was a risk that unknown proportions of the agents' commission totalling £750,000 might be used for corrupt purposes.

110. The budget representing the GDF was managed by Director D, an executive who later became a director of M&J. Whilst Director D had responsibility for different territories during his career, in particular he had responsibility for Ghana. Consequently during the material period, the affairs of M&J in Ghana were heavily influenced by his direction and control.

111. On 3 April 1996 Mr. Ofori and a relative attended a meeting at Twyford with the Office Manager. It appears that Director B and other Directors made their excuses for not attending. The Office Manager' note of the meeting records that Mr Ofori did not have control over the "total 15% commission". Mr Ofori complained that he had problems as he did not believe Director D had distributed 5% to the "relevant personnel" or “local personalities”. The note records Mr Ofori saying that had he been involved in the payment of the total amount of the 15% commission the present difficulties would not have existed and said that this aspect had been dealt with ably by him in the past.

112. On 14 March 1996 Mr. Ofori had sent a fax on “Danielli Mabey Ltd” headed notepaper (a Ghanaian company which was wholly unrelated to M&J and which is understood to have been owned by Kwame Ofori). The fax was marked for the attention of Mrs Margaret Ofori in Accra and appears to have been then passed to M&J. The fax detailed how it was that “the situation in Ghana has been deteriorating gradually ever since Director D came in to Ghana.” There can be little doubt that the contents of the fax had become known at Twyford before Mr. Ofori visited M&J’s Head Office. This is because Director D had himself sent a “confidential memo” dated 25 March 1996 direct to Director B rebutting Mr. Ofori’s assertions, and detailing how it was that he had had a meeting recently with the only person who “can guarantee M&J’s position in this market”: Kwame Peprah. Mr. Peprah was at that time the acting Minister of Finance and the Chairman of the NDC Finance Committee.

113. In fact Director D had been introduced to Mr. Peprah through Baba Kamara (aka I. B. Ibraimah), who was the NDC Treasurer, and ‘political overseer’ for the Ministry for Roads and Highways.

114. The role of Baba Kamara and his value as an agent to M&J is made clear in a document authored by a M&J executive, probably prior to July 1996, and sent to Director A; Director B; Director C and Director E. The document is entitled “Ghana” “Review of existing Agent and introduction of alternative Agent”. Concerning the value of the proposed new agent, “Kamara Ltd is a small Ghanaian contractor owned by Baba Kamara. He is the NCE (sic) Treasurer and also the political overseer for the Ministry of Roads and Highways. He is a member of the all powerful NDC Finance Committee which includes Kwame Peprah (Minister of Finance and Minister of Mines and Energy), Obed Asamoah (Justice Minister and Foreign Minister) and Mrs Rawlings amongst others….[he] has considerable influence over Ato Quarshie, the Minister for Roads, the Deputy Minister and other top ranking civil servants and has been working with us since June 1994. This has been demonstrated over the allocation of the extra Stg 1.3 mil for the Tano bridge and the Stg 4.5 mil allocation for the Priority Bridge Programme.”5

115. Additionally, Mr. Kamara’s wife was secretary to the then President of Ghana - the former Flight Lieutenant ‘Jerry’ Rawlings, who had originally achieved power by means of a military coup in 1981. Unsurprisingly, a person in the position of influence of Mr. Kamara was an attractive prospect to M&J as agent for their business in Ghana, and the SFO contend, that M&J knew and intended that commission paid to Mr. Kamara would be deployed as and when required to corruptly promote M&J’s commercial interests. The SFO believe that because he had demonstrated his effectiveness to attract business corruptly, he was appointed by M&J. This is not accepted by M&J.

116. Allied to the decision to use Mr. Kamara as their agent from some time early in 1996, M&J had plainly also decided to “sideline” Mr. Ofori, and to impose more direct control over the payments made to “local personalities” by Director D supervising and control from 1994 and the creation of the notional GDF.

117. As will become apparent, whereas in Jamaica corrupt payments were directed towards a specific individual, payments allocated against the GDF were more general and numerous government ministers and officials were potentially in line for a bribe. Each such payment required the authorisation of two M&J directors.

118. Payments allocated against the GDF did not relate specifically to stages of contracts in progress. The SFO says that they were obviously made with the intention of securing and maintaining those contracts when it was deemed prudent to do so. It is accepted by M&J that in creating and making payments from this fund corrupt payments would be made to public officials in order to affect the decision making process in favour of M&J. Thus payments were made for a variety of purported purposes to a variety of ministers and officials. Some of those purposes were self-evidently unrelated to M&J’s legitimate business such that the payments can best - and, indeed, only - be described as bribes. Not only were the bribes overt, so too was the means of collection on the part of the Ghanaian ministers and officials, most of whom had UK bank accounts. Some, indeed, visited the UK in order to collect their payments in sterling.

119. During the 1990’s M&J entered into three principal contracts with the Ghanaian Ministry of Roads and Highways (“MRH”) for the provision of bridges: Priority Bridge Programme Number 1, worth £14.5 million, was agreed in 1994; Priority Bridge Programme Number 2, worth around £8 million, was agreed in 1996; and the Feeder Roads Project, worth £3.5 million, was agreed in 1998.

120. Throughout the relevant period, and until the general election in 2000, the NDC formed the Government of Ghana and many of the GDF payments were directed to its members. Thus the then Minister at the MRH, Dr. Ato Quarshie, received a cheque when he visited London in July 1995 in the sum of £55,000 for “contract consultancy”. The cheque was drawn on M&J’s Clydesdale Bank account at the Victoria branch in Buckingham Palace Road, and signed by Director A, and another M&J director at that time. Director A also faxed the bank instructions to enable Dr. Quarshie to cash the cheque.

121. The payment to Dr. Quarshie and the following payments are but examples of a wider-ranging series of bribes to various ministers and officials, which will be set out in a schedule. Even relatively junior officials were the willing recipients of bribes. In 1996 Saddique Bonniface was the ECGD desk officer in the Ministry of Finance (he was recently until the change of government a highly placed politician within the Ghanaian administration). He had a bank account at the National Westminster Bank in Rickmansworth. On 29 February 1996 Saddique Boniface received a transfer of £10,000 from M&J to an account at Barclays Bank Plc in Watford. On 29 October 1996 the same account received a transfer of £13,970 from M&J. On or about 29 October 1996 Amadu Seidu, the Deputy Minister at the MRH, received £5000 in his Woolwich account held in St. Peter Port, Guernsey and Dr. George Yankey the Director of Legal and International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance, received £10,000 in his Midland Bank account in Hill Street, London W1; and Edward Lord Attivor, the ex minister at the MRH, also received £10,000 in his London bank account. This was the same branch of the Clydesdale Bank which was used by M&J. Authorisation from M&J directors for each of these transfers was requested by Director D. Amadu Seidu received a further £5,000 on 7 March 1997, the same date on which Saddique Bonniface received a further £2,500. The latter two transfers were authorised by Director B.

122. Mr. Bonniface’s son was a student at Exeter University, where, on or about 26 March 1998, he received a cheque from M&J in the sum of £500. Although this is a relatively small sum it is indicative of the nature of the corruption M&J was then practising: it is a payment which could have no conceivable legitimate commercial purpose.

123. M&J's payments to Dr. Yankey were not confined to the payment on or about 24 October 1996, since his Hill Street account received £5,000 on 26 August 1998 from M&J. Dr. Yankey was subsequently convicted in Ghana of conspiring to wilfully cause losses to the state and served a prison sentence, along with Kwame Peprah. Their convictions cannot be directly related to payments from M&J, but reflect the culture of government corruption at the time, a culture with which M&J was only too willing to engage.

124. From December 1994 to 18 August 1999, M&J used the GDF and associated accounts to pay bribes directly to named Ghanaian public officials totalling £470,792.60.

125. None of the payments set out above, obviously, could be said to have anything remotely resembling a legitimate commercial purpose. Thus M&J was able to engage in wholly corrupt business practices without any effective level of external scrutiny being applied. Plainly, those who governed and directed the affairs of M&J were responsible for arranging and authorising payments which, no matter they were eagerly sought and accepted, were considered vital in securing M&J’s business in a developing nation – at the expense of those least able to avoid the expenditure that is inevitably involved in the making of corrupt payments: the people of Ghana.
 Overseas politicians and officials named as recipients of bribes from Mabey and Johnson
Ghana
Ato Qarshie (former roads minister) £55,000
Saddique Bonniface (minister of works) £25,500
Amadu Seidu (former deputy roads minister) £10,000
Edward Lord-Attivor (chairman inter-city transport corp) £10,000
Dr George Sepah-Yankey (health minister) £15,000

SOURCE: http://www.sfo.gov.uk/mabeyjohnsonltd/SFO-Annex2-Statement-01-250909.pdf

Trial HIV Vaccine 'reduces infection'

Researchers say an experimental HIV vaccine has for the first time cut the risk of infection.

The vaccine - a combination of two earlier experimental vaccines - was given to 16,000 people in Thailand, in the largest ever such vaccine trial.

Researchers found that it reduced by nearly a third the risk of contracting HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS. It has been hailed as a significant, scientific breakthrough, but a global vaccine is still some way off.

The study was carried out by the US army and the Thai government over seven years on volunteers - all HIV-negative men and women aged between 18 and 30 - in parts of Thailand.

The vaccine was a combination of two older vaccines that on their own had not cut infection rates.

Half of the volunteers were given the vaccine, while the other half were given a placebo - and all were given counselling on HIV/Aids prevention.

Participants were tested for HIV infection every six months for three years.

The results found that the chances of contracting HIV were 31.2% less for those who had taken the vaccine - with 74 people who did not get the vaccine infected and 51 of the vaccinated group infected.

The vaccine is based on B and E strains of HIV that most commonly circulate in Thailand not the C strain which predominates in Africa.

'Encouraging'

"This result is tantalisingly encouraging. The numbers are small and the difference may have been due to chance, but this finding is the first positive news in the Aids vaccine field for a decade," said Dr Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet medical journal.

"We should be cautious, but hopeful. The discovery needs urgent replication and investigation."

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said: "For the first time, an investigational HIV vaccine has demonstrated some ability to prevent HIV infection among vaccinated individuals.

"Additional research is needed to better understand how this vaccine regimen reduced the risk of HIV infection, but this is certainly an encouraging advance for the HIV vaccine field."

The findings were hailed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UN/AIDS).

They said while the results were "characterised as modestly protective... [they] have instilled new hope in the HIV vaccine research field".

Some 33 million people around the world have HIV.

Q&A: HIV vaccine

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8272532.stm 

NDC to dispose of Tema Oil Refinery?

The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), the only refinery in Ghana, may be slipping through the fingers very soon following advanced plans by the government for its divestiture.

Even though government officials had for several months denied the allegation of plans to offload TOR, documents chanced upon by DAILY GUIDE reveal that the state-owned property is at the verge of losing that status.

This intention was made known by the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena Dufuor, recently in a document sent to the President.

According to the document, dated 7th September, 2009, and which was copied to the Chief of Staff, the Office of the President, and other stakeholders, the ministry has exclusively mandated Ecobank Development Corporation and Ecobank Ghana Limited (acting as transaction advisors) to prepare the way for what it called ‘the eventual privatization’ of the refinery.

The Mills Administration is struggling to recapitalise TOR, as it has not been able to import a drop of petrol for the company since it came to power, over-exposing its main creditors, Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB).

TOR owes GCB over GH¢900million, in addition to other liabilities to some other banks.

Attempts to import crude from Nigeria and Libya have hit brick wall, with President Atta Mills now turning his attention to Venezuela in South America.

The President, who is currently attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, is expected to visit the oil-rich South American country, with cup in hand to beg for crude oil from President Hugo Chavez.

Kwesi Pratt, a friend of Hugo Chavez, has taken the lead to prepare the ground for President Mills in Caracas, DAILY GUIDE has learnt.

The ‘sale’ comes at a time when the country is gearing up to become an oil exporter in the next couple of years.

“Pursuant to Government’s decision to restructure and capitalize the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning hereby grants Ecobank Development Corporation and Ecobank Ghana Limited (together referred to as ‘Transaction Advisors) the exclusive mandate to assist MOFEP, Ministry of Energy (MOE) and TOR (the client) to undertake the assignment on the following terms and conditions and in accordance with the agreed timetable outlined in the Technical Assistance Proposal,” the letter said.

The scope of the mandate, given by the minister, include establishing and confirming the state of TOR, arrangement and syndication of $300 million to re-finance the refinery’s debt, arranging for additional funds to make up for any financial gaps identified, as well as leading and managing the eventual privatization of TOR.

As part of the remuneration terms, TOR will pay Ecobank a total of $1 million in two installments, plus a success fee of 2 percent of the total amount raised.

A non-disclosure clause in the mandate letter further permits the transaction advisors not to publicly disclose whatever service or advise it provides, unless compelled by law.

TOR had been entangled in series of financial crises since 2007, for which reason the previous government reportedly contemplated privatizing it, but was shelved after the country discovered large volumes of crude oil later that year.

When the sale issue leaked into the media a couple of weeks ago, it was vehemently denied by politicians in the current administration, in spite of glaring indications that negotiations were far advanced to that effect.

The move was condemned by a number of politicians, including the NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa, P.C Appiah Ofori.

“TOR is the only refinery in the country, and as at now, the only legacy Ghanaians can claim to possess as the legacy of Osagefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s dream of establishing Ghana as an industrial giant in Africa, besides the Akosombo hydro electric dam,” he wrote to Parliament.

Currently, only the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) are keeping the wheels of the economy running by importing refined oil into the country.

Ecobank Development Corporation is the investment branch of a Lome-based lending company, and was co-adviser on Ghana’s $750 million sovereign bond, and the lead adviser in the sale of Ghana Telecom (GT) to Vodafone.

By Bennett Akuaku - Daily Guide Newspaper of   Thursday, 24 September 2009 on story titled "TOR For Sale"

Re: Spio-Garbrah Accuses Prez of poor team but Ahwoi Blows him

An intra-party squabble between top members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has hit the roof as the public is drawn into the boxing arena to witness the battle between pro-Mills and pro-Rawlings supporters of the ruling party.

 Ato Ahwoi, the influential pro-Mills fighter on the one hand yesterday grabbed the political jugular of the equally influential pro-Rawlings communications expert, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, as Ghanaians listened to the unfolding drama with shock.

“My NDC brother, if President Mills does not appoint you as a minister, please continue to piss in as many times as you want!” Ahwoi fired a missile to Spio who refused to comment on the attack on him.

Spio fought an abrasive battle with Mills for the nod to lead the NDC to the elections of 2008 but in the end the latter won the day.

Many of Spio’s supporters who were expecting juicy appointments in the government have been sidelined, much to their astonishment.

The ‘sins’ leading to his exclusion from government is that he had commented on the sickness of President Atta Mills.

Ato Ahwoi, a key member of the close-knit ‘Fante Confederacy’ in the Mills Administration, literally slammed the government door on Spio, swearing, “The door will never be opened to him.”

Ahwoi, one of three brothers in the Mills camp of the ruling NDC, was responding to a Spio-Garbrah-authored newspaper article in which the former Communications Minister in Rawlings’ administration pointed at a litany of shortcomings in the President Mills Administration.

Rubbishing the contents of the article, Ato Ahwoi taunted his Fante brother  and accused him of sulking because he could not make it to the Mills Cabinet, and ruled out any such possibility in the event of a reshuffle.

As if praying for an opportunity to vent his umbrage over Spio, he recalled that since 1993 the Chief Executive of Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation in London has always insulted President Mills.

He accused Spio of spreading the “Mills is sick” campaign through a text message to Jerry Rawlings which quickly spread like a ‘California wild fire’ and wondered whether he (Spio) would now like to work in a sick man’s team.

Spio, he said, is not a team player “and therefore the door will never be opened to him” adding that being an egocentric he would be a bad influence on the Mills team and so it would be better to keep him out.

He said the former Communications Minister has been making churlish arguments, posing as the most intelligent member of the ruling party.

“I am telling Spio-Gabrah that he is not the only intelligent man in the world. Spio-Garbrah is not the only intelligent man in the NDC,” Mr Ahwoi told Joyfm.

Ato Ahwoi’s attack on Spio was not limited to the airwaves but in an open letter in which he took a swipe at the Rawlings man who authored an article in the Daily Graphic titled, “Honouring Nkrumah’s Legacy: A Challenge To The NDC”.

Describing the article as deceptive, he said it launched an unnecessary attack on President Mills to ostensibly eulogise the late first President of the country.

Spio’s action, he noted, is intended to intimidate President Mills into giving him a ministerial appointment.

Another reason which he said is evidence that Spio is longing for a ministerial appointment lies in his reference to President Obama’s offer to US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, after a grueling campaign to lead the Democrats during the last general elections.

Mrs. Clinton, he claimed, “never said Mr. Obama was a sick man and will never win an election. Now why are you desperate to serve in the government headed by someone who will win an election?”

He asked further: “Are you implying that because you  lost miserably to the President in the NDC primaries, he should invite you into an important position in his government?”

Spio, he noted, in the open letter, is dying to be a minister in Mills’ government “yet you are insulting your potential colleagues that they have not been appointed on the basis of merit but by virtue of proximity to power, feigned loyalty, financial considerations and other factors.”

Continuing, he asked rhetorically, “Are you implying that you were appointed a Minister in the 90s by some of these reasons like fake loyalty and financial considerations?”

Taunting his party colleague further, Ato Ahwoi said, “If you want to be a presidential candidate of the NDC and become the President of the Republic of Ghana as a true party man why don’t you do a private memo on the shortcomings and possible solutions, other than publishing them?”

A few days before the centenary celebrations for Ghana’s first president, Dr. Spio-Garbrah who conducted an abrasive contest for the NDC flagbearership race in the last elections but lost out, wrote a scathing article in which he pointed at the appointment of unfit persons in the government.

He particularly noted that the communications machinery of government is unable to speak with one voice, a development which has not been helpful to governance.

There are persons in government whose loyalty to the party cannot be vouched for, he opined, stressing that a number of shortcomings have chipped at the popularity of the party. Spio noted that the present composition of the cabinet is not the best having been made up of a Team B membership with Team A sitting on the bench.

The qualified ones, he stated, have been marginalized for the non-performers which is affecting the fortunes of the party.

Although the title of the scathing article centred on honouring the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Dr. Spio-Garbrah weaved it to encompass the shortcomings of the Mills government as he sees them.

Having campaigned feverishly against then Prof Mills till the fires died out on the pre-NDC presidential primaries, Spio’s concerns at this time could easily be interpreted as the case of the monkey and the sour grapes.xxxxxxxxxx
Leading NDC member and former minister under Jerry John Rawlings Ekwow Spio-Garbrah has accused the man who beat him to the NDC flagbearership in 2006, President John Evans Atta Mills, of frittering away the government's goodwill and thereby derailing the NDC's political fortunes in the 2012 elections by woefully failing to meet the expectations of Ghanaians and most importantly, ordinary members of the party.

In a scathing article in the Friday, September 18, 2009 edition of the Daily Graphic, Dr Spio-Garbrah appears to have pitched camp with former president Rawlings in breaking ranks and publicly calling for a faster pace of delivery by the Mills administration. He also appears to have made the first moves towards vying for the party's 2012 ticket, warning that leading NDC members would not sit by and watch Prof John Atta Mills return the NDC to opposition through his actions and/or inactions.

"Should leading NDC members stay quietly on the sidelines even if we can see that if matters continue as they are we [NDC] would lose power in 2012? Are we the kind of passengers who sit passively in a bus until we die in an accident even when we realise that the bus is not being driven well?", he wonders.

In the article, entitled Honouring Nkrumah's legacy: A Challenge to NDC, Dr Spio-Garbrah dismissed attempts by some members of the Mills administration to sweep under the carpet, adverse comments made by former President J J Rawlings about the calibre of persons appointed as Ministers by President John Atta Mills and the pace of work of the Mills administration, maintaining that Mr. Rawlings "is the only one who has ever supervised President Mills as a Vice President, and therefore the only one who can pronounce fairly on whether President Mills can do better or not."

Drawing parallels from the different approaches adopted during Ghana’s independence struggle, Dr Garbrah insisted that calls by the Mills administration for more time to deliver on its electoral promises were unacceptable, especially in the wake of the attacks it launched on the erstwhile NPP administration in the areas of job creation, general national development (roads, electricity, water, hospitals, etc) and the promises it made to the electorate before narrowly winning the 2008 general elections. “The NDC rank and file who fought to bring the Mills-Mahama administration into power are asking for “Jobs and Empowerment NOW”, NOT “Jobs and Empowerment in the shortest possible time”, he stated.

Citing several instances of a lack of vision and initiative in the Mills administration, including the inability to capitalise on the historic first African visit by US President Barack Obama to market Ghana’s tourism potentials and failing to unite Ghanaians in the quest for national development, Ghana’s former ambassador to the US from 1994-1997 is adamant the Mills administration cannot be accused of putting its best foot forward.

“Currently, if by the generally agreed slow pace of the government, some Ghanaians who need jobs or good health are dying very quietly and invisibly in remote parts of the country, should patriotic Ghanaians remain quiet simply because they are NDC members and because they fully support this government”?

He also took a swipe at the quality of persons appointed into public office by the administration, accusing it of making appointments “not on the basis of merit but by virtue of proximity to power, feigned loyalty, financial considerations and other factors”. 

 “There is a general measureable view around the country that the NDC government can indeed achieve more results faster if it simply ensured that the right NDC people (emphasis ours) are in the right positions‚ a large segments of the public have been asking why the government may have chosen to field some players from its Team B when many Team A players are available. Can the government really move quickly if it appoints people who may mean well but who lack the requisite qualifications, experience and therefore confidence to take quick and correct decisions in their new positions? Of the more than 70 experienced Ministers and Deputies from the Rawlings era, only two are in the current line-up of Ministers and Deputies.
While commending the Mills administration for honouring the legacy of Ghana’s first President, perhaps premised on their admiration of Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s contribution to Ghana’s development, he said many Ghanaians believed the current government had failed to emulate the sense of urgency and speed that characterised the life and times of the man voted Africa’s man of the millennium in the year 2000.

---

Source: Statesman and posted on

www.ghanaweb.com: General News of Wednesday, 23 September 2009  with the title : "Spio Attacks Mills"

How does the contemporary Ghanaian Youth view their first President?

About 43 years ago an era  in Ghanaian history came to an abrupt end. The military seized power through the use of force to remove the first post independence president of the nation from office. In commemorating  Dr. Nkrumah's centenarian birthday, the government declared it Founder's Day holiday. This has sparked off huge debate about the appropriateness of calling just an individual out of the many independent leaders as Founder of the Nation. One of such debate took place on Facebook.

Properly put, it was to assess the man Kwame Nkrumah among contemporary Ghanaian youth and how they perceived their first post independence leader. Truly speaking, the current generation of Ghanaian youth never experienced the rule of Dr. Nkrumah hence their views can be described as based on either what they have read or hearsay.

It kicked off with a view on a law his administration enacted and has been blamed for curtailing Ghanaians fundamental human rights. This Act was called the Preventive Detention Act. It sought to say it was protecting individuals who intended to do wrong from committing it as well as protecting them from being penalise by detention. One contributor asked; was the Preventive Detention Act 1958 enacted by Ghana's first President, Osagyeafo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah really a necessary evil to deal with attempts on his life? But the assasination (attempts) on Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan did not push the US Congress to impose a PDA. Rather they enhanced personal security a...rrangements of the presidency. The Patriot Act, like the obnoxious McCarthyism of the early Cold War years, were arguably to protect America but not the leader.

Nkrumah was like a god. Everything was about him and the 1966 coup d'etat had to correct that because sometimes the people don't know better.

 This is the greatest tragedy of our history. The irony of life, Nkrumah and Danquah both spoke against the excesses of the white colonial government. They were arrested but survived and were released but when Danquah as usual spoke against the excesses of the black man, Nkrumah's government, he was arrested again, kept permanently there, he never survived but died in prison.

The PDA was the worse law that any democracy could have. I beleive anyone who beleives in the PDA never beleives in Democracy. The PDA was a law which tried to suppress the opposition and we all know there is no democracy without an opposition. The PDA is a law for TYRANTS and those who beleive in dictatorship.

Nkrumah confused Self-governance and self-determination to mean the self Nkrumah should govern without challenge and that the self Nkrumah should determine for Ghana and Africa the future. It was really silly on the part of the 'Greatest African' of our time trying to suppress opposing views. Let's remember the others too. Like Liberian Edward Wilmot Blyden, often regarded as the ideological uncle, if not the very father, of West African unity. He coined the phrase 'African Personality' which Nkrumah took without acknowledging. Since his death in 1912, the concept of African unity has always being linked to the continent’s nationalist movements. That Act spelt Nkrumah's doom. How could he imprison his political opponents when Ghana was not his personal property? He went ahead to waste our resources on Africa unity when Ghana was under-developed. That was meant to pursue his personal selfish ambition of becoming the president of United Africa.... over ambition.

J.B Danquah and others did worse things than Nkrumah did they banned CPP in way they were also running a one party state and justified the throwing of bombs, going to UK to ask them not to buy Ghana's cocoa and also joining force with the CIA they are traitors. Nkrumah forever no matter how you try to rewrite history.

Kwame Nkrumah created Founder's Day and put on coins 'Conditor Ghanainses civitas" - Founder of the Ghana Nation. J. B. Danquah's response: the priest who baptises the baby can by no chance be said to be the parents of that child, Independence was like a relay race with Nkrumah doing that last 100m.

Joshua led the people of Israel to the promise land, does that negate the work of Moses, who did more of the work Joshua did. one starts n another finish, who then is the founder.

J.B Danquah and others did worse things than Nkrumah. Did they ban CPP in way they were also running a one party state and justified the throwing of bombs, going to UK to ask them not to buy Ghana's cocoa and also joining force with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents, they re traitors. Nkrumah forever no matter how you try to rewrite history. This is because he is the Africa man of the millennium, his good sides is far beyond his bad sides. HE IS A G8T ACHIEVER. Talk about his achievements and balance them. He can be compared to none in our political history.

Ghanaians must stop being passionate and learn their history. When did Danquah ban the CPP?

Well, J.B Danquah and others (referring to those who support him). Wasn't CPP banned after the over throw of Nkrumah. Check your history and read well.Stay Blessed.

Just put the PDA together with the Deportation Act (which even attempted to ridiculously deport Ghanaians as in Larden & Annor vrs AG), the Trade Union Act 1958 (arresting and detaining the leadership of striking workers without trial), etc, then you realise that we had a ruthless dictator wielding absolute power who was never going to retire...a self-declared president for life.Ghana in those days was all about a god called Nkrumah. Four decades after his overthrow Ghana is still all about him alone! The man is an achiever. no doubt. but what are the good sides? Infrastructure and Pan-Africanism, right? Okay, what did we sacrifice for the infrastructure? The man inherited a reserve of over 250 million British Pounds Sterling and left a debt of over 600 million GB Pounds. Who wouldn't have put some of that money in infrastructure?...in any case most of the projects (including Akosombo) had a negative NPV. We may look at them and be proud, but some of them were very wrong economic decisions and only left us in debt.
..there issues also with his commitment to 'pan-africanism' which we may discuss on another platform

New World Tallest man's height scares potential girlsfriends away

A towering Turk, Sultan Kosen, was officially crowned the world's tallest man Thursday September 17, 2009. The world's tallest man - who also has the largest hands and feet - has been named by Guinness World Records for the launch of its 2010 book.

Mr Kosen, whose height is due to the medical condition pituitary gigantism, said he hoped his new-found fame would bring him love for the first time. "The first thing I want to do is have a car that I can fit in, but more than that I want to get married," he said.

"Up until now it's been really difficult to find a girlfriend. I've never had one, they were usually scared of me. I'm hoping now I will find one." "I can't go shopping like normal people, I have to have things made specially and sometimes they aren't always as fashionable", said Sultan Kosen. He went on: "Hopefully now that I'm famous I'll be able to meet lots of girls. I'd like to get married."
At 8ft 1in (2.47m), Sultan Kosen, from Turkey, is about 4in (10cm) taller than previous title-holder Bao Xishun.

The 27-year-old's hands measure 10.8in (27.5cm) and his feet 14.3in (36.5cm). Mr Kosen, whose height is due to the medical condition pituitary gigantism, said he hoped his new-found fame would bring him love for the first time. ne of the difficulties of being so tall is getting clothes which fit and Mr Kosen wore a specially-made suit to meet journalists, which was one of the first outfits he has owned that is the right size.

He also had to have a three-metre-long bed made. Mr Kosen said: "The most difficult things are, for example, that I can't fit into a normal car. When I get into a car, it's a really tight fit. "I can't go shopping like normal people, I have to have things made specially and sometimes they aren't always as fashionable.

"The other thing is that ceilings are low and I have to bend down through doorways."

This was after his Ukrainian rival dropped out of the running by refusing to be measured, the Associated Press reports. Stadnyk, 39, told The Associated Press he refused to be independently measured because he was tired of being in the public eye. Stadnyk complained that "if this title had given me more health or a few extra years, I would have taken it, but the opposite happened, I only wasted my nerve cells," he said. "If I have to choose between prosperity and calm, I choose calm."

Guinness World Records said that 8 foot 1 inch (2.47 meter) Sultan Kosen, from the town of Mardin in eastern Turkey, is now officially the tallest man walking the planet. Although the previous record holder, Ukrainian Leonid Stadnyk, reportedly measured 8 feet 5.5 inches (2.57 meters), Guinness said he was stripped of his title when he declined to let anyone confirm his height.

But Mr. Kosen's height does have its upsides.

He said: "The good thing about being so tall is that I can see people from a long distance. The other thing is at home they use my height to change the light bulbs and hang the curtains, things like that."

A spokesman for Guinness World Records said Mr Kosen was the first person in more than a decade it had recognised as being more than 8ft in height, He grew normally until he was 10, but then a tumour caused him to develop a medical condition called pituitary gigantism.

The tumour was removed last year and his growth stopped. His visit to the UK is the first time he has travelled outside Turkey, and he will go on to visit the US and Germany.

Earlier this year, Zhao Liang from China thought he might be a contender for the world record after he was treated for an injury in hospital. Staff there measured the former basketball player at 2.46m (just under 8ft 1in) in height.
Ukrainian Leonid Stadnyk was briefly awarded the title in 2007, but it was returned to Bao Xishun when Mr Stadnyk declined to be measured under new guidelines, which required him to be independently measured by Guinness World Records adjudicators.

The shortest man (pictured left) lives in Mongolia. He is only 75 cm tall and weighs 7 kilos.
Manuel Uribe (pictured right) from Mexico is the world's fattest man.

Foetus in fetu anomalous phenomena

An outstanding incident took place in the medical practice of Saudi doctors. A year-old girl turned out to be pregnant. Doctors said that it was the first incident in the history of modern medicine. Arab media outlets discuss whether the removal of the fetus from the baby girl is going to be considered a murder. It turned out that the mother of the pregnant baby originally had two embryos during her pregnancy. One of the embryos began to develop in the uterus of the other child. In spite of the fact that doctors describe the incident as unique, there can be other similar examples found in history.
Stunned doctors have discovered a one-year-old girl is carrying a BABY in her tummy. Little Kang Mengru, from China, left medics baffled after her belly became enlarged.

Doctors carried out a CT scan to discover the cause of the growth and found a foetus inside her.

They believe the tot is her parasitic twin.

She is now waiting for an operation to have the tiny baby removed.

Source: The Sun

A 36-year-old farmer had the embryo of his twin brother removed in the town of Nagpur, India, in 2006. The man asked for medical help only after his swollen belly hampered his breathing.

Doctors were certain that the man had a gigantic tumor in his belly. However, they found fragments of human genitalia, hairs, limbs and jaws in the patient and finally removed a weird underdeveloped creature having legs and arms with long nails.

In 2002, Indian doctors found a fetus in the body of a six-month-old boy. The dead fetus, which surgeons removed from the boy, weighed one kilo, whereas the boy himself weighed 6.5 kilos.

The anomalous phenomenon is known as foetus in fetu. Such incidents are extremely rare: an embryo inside an embryo may appear once in 500,000 pregnancies. The phenomenon always occurs at an early stage of pregnancy. As a rule, the fetuses die in mother’s womb.

It may also happen that a child with a foetus inside survives the entire pregnancy. In this case the embryo continues to live inside its owner’s body like a trapped parasite.

A foetus in fetu can be considered alive, but only in the sense that its component tissues have not yet died or been eliminated. Thus, the life of a foetus in fetu is inherently limited to that of an invasive tumor. In principle, its cells must have some degree of normal metabolic activity to have remained viable. However, without the gestational conditions attainable (so far) only in utero with the amnion and placenta, a foetus in fetu can develop into, at best, an especially well-differentiated teratoma; or, at worst, a high-grade metastatic teratocarcinoma. In terms of physical maturation, its organs have a working blood supply from the host, but all cases of foetus in fetu present critical defects, such as no functional brain, heart, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, or urinary tract. Accordingly, while a fetus in fetu can share select morphological features with a normal fetus, it has no prospect of any life outside of the host twin. Moreover, it poses clear threats to the life of the host twin on whom its own life depends.

Genes blamed for early first sex

The fact that children raised in homes without a dad have sex earlier is down to their genes, say US researchers.

The study tested for genetic influences as well as factors such as poverty, educational opportunities and religion.

The more genes the children shared, the more similar their ages of first intercourse regardless of whether they had an absent father or not.

A spokesman for the charity, Brook, said children needed early education to help them make informed choices.
Competing theories

The study published in the journal, Child Development, says several theories have been advanced about the environmental factors which influence this association between absent fathers and early sex.

One suggests that because these children observe unstable or stressed parental relationships, they learn that resources are scarce, and people untrustworthy.

This leads them to mature in such a way that they are geared towards mating rather than parenting.

Another states that because adolescents reared in single-parent households may have parents engaging in sexual behaviour with partners to whom they are not married, the children may be more likely to view non-marital sex as the norm.

And a third theory states that a single-parent family structure may encourage adolescent sexuality by reduced parental control.

In other words two parents can much more closely monitor their offspring's activities and social networks, reducing the opportunities for sex.

But this study shows these factors are not as important as genes in determining early sexual behaviour.

Results

The researchers at the University of Oregon compared the average age of first intercourse among children whose fathers were always absent, partially absent or always present throughout childhood.

They looked at more than 1,000 cousins aged 14 and older from the American National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

For the children whose fathers were always absent, 63.2% reported having had sex.

This compared to 52.5% of children whose fathers were sometimes absent.

And only 21% of children whose fathers were always present.

The average age of first intercourse for children whose fathers were always absent was 15.28, compared to partially fathered children at 15.36 and 16.11 for children whose fathers were present for all of their childhood.

It compared children who were related in different ways to each other, and who differed in whether they had lived with their fathers.

The more genes the children shared, the more similar their ages of first intercourse, regardless of whether or not the children had an absent father.

Genetic risk factor

Jane Mendle, professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, who led the study said: "The association between father's absence and children's sexuality is best explained by genetic influences, rather than by environmental theories alone.

"While there is clearly no such thing as a 'father absence gene', there are genetic contributions to traits in both mums and dads that increase the likelihood of earlier sexual behaviour in their children.

"These include impulsivity, substance use and abuse, argumentativeness and sensation seeking."

But Professor Mendle said her study did not have the power to discriminate conclusively between genetic and environmental factors and further research with a larger number of children would be necessary.

Simon Blake, from the sexual health charity, Brook Advisory Centre, took issue with the idea that genes were the overriding factor in early sex.

He said: "We know from research that factors associated with young people having first intercourse at a younger age are: lower educational achievements; friends and the media being the main source of information about sex education; socio-economic status; early sexual experience and the earlier age at which girls start their periods.

"All young people need access to confidential sexual health services as well as high quality education about sex and relationships from a young age.

"This gives them the skills and information to make informed choices, and the self-esteem and aspirations for themselves for the future.

"Targeted outreach work is also an effective way of reaching those more vulnerable groups."

Do homosexuals get satisfaction?

A contact on Facebook, MacDiamond Nyamekor, who is also a well known TV and radio host in Accra, put the following information below on his wall:

MacDiamond Nyamekor asked:
"A question for all homosexuals. If you truly don't need the opposite sex for the act, why does one of you always have to play the role of the oppossite sex during your same sex session? And why are some of you bisexual, supplementing your same sex affair with an opposite sex one? Inadequate satisfaction from your same sex partner? Send answer if you have got the guts".

This simple agenda triggered a rather too emotional and conservationist responses from his contacts.

Sandra Amoasiwa Rankson said:

food for thought

 Uche Matilda wrote:

Because of the implications in it..

Frank Afari replied:

Homosexuals don't need an opposite sex. The principle behind their desire is simple: one man needs a "hard" masculine figure to give pleasure to. Another man needs that pleasure. So both enter into a mutual reciprocal relationship; a kind of donor/recipient style for mutual pleasure. Here the idea of opposite sex is not implied at all, Mac, don't get it wrong. Nevertheless it is an awfully sinful partnership. Abhorrent, disgusting, mammalian. Mac, I'm told there are a few homosexuals in high positions. I'm told of one whose lower abdomen is in a bad state as a result of his partner's insatiable, grueling horsepower. I wish we could contact him to tell us what on earth is the secret behind the oomph they derive from their fellow man's body.

Max Kafui Agbai opined:

Right on brother!at the risk of invoking a cliche',God (Mawu Sogbolisa),created ADAM and EVE, not ADAM and STEVE! I fail to see how anybody can derive pleasure from a place where 'the sun doesn't shine'!the mere thought of that act make me want to throw up!am sorry!

Dilys Sillah took it scripturally:

for God so loved the world...

Kojo Gyabaah spewed out this:

I cannot ever understand their reasoning. Imagine Elton John seeking to adopt a Ukrainian child. It sounded so preposterous to me. You (i.e. he Elton John) think and say that marriage is merely about partnership and NOT procreation yet you (he Elton John) want humanity to survive much more for you (him) seek to to adopt and raise somebody else's child. If everybody is a homosexual like Elton John, then whose child would be available for adoption?

The truth is God created us all gullible in that at one point or the other we have need for the complementary sex. This is the normal expectation to have fellow-feeling with the complementary sex. Anybody who feels otherwise needs to be examined for congenital disorder irrespective of whatever pronouncement the so-called experts make. They (mental health experts) can have their say but let's defend the truth. Our physical make up absolutely runs contrary to this absurdity called homosexuality or whatever polishing name they have given it. They don't get any satisfaction for their insatiable damnable act.

Dragonesse Kc advocates tolerance:

To be a homosexual doesn't mean no need of the opposite sex. It's only a fact of preference. You can prefer black people to white, you can only have attraction for tall and skinny girls, or big ass ladies, etc... It is just a matter of preference. Homosexuals are very good friends with opposite sex, just like some people can be very friendly with some type of person but they will never stand to share their life with. I know you are a good Christian, even though you may be tolerant and friendly with those who don't believe in God, you may not accept a lady who doesn't believe in God at all as your wife. I am wrong? We are all different, and to live in a peaceful world, we need to be tolerant.

MacDiamond Nyamekor concluded his discourse with this moderation:

Kojo that's a great one, God have mercy, Henry please don't vomit, Frank that man better be saved before he becomes 'behindless'. And to  KC, tolerate them we must but with the intention to pray them out of it. God hates sin but loves sinners. That's the only reason I know him today

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa's take on Ghana buying aircraft then....NDC's Nemesis?

In a Feature Article posted on Ghana Homepage website on March 20, 2008 by the Deputy Minister of Information, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, he questioned and suggested that the proposed purchase of Chinese two aircrafts by the then NPP Government was intended as the then President's end of service package. In his strongly worded and harsh article captioned: "Purchase of Prez Jets: Kufuor's End of Service Package?", Mr. Ablakwa minced no words in reducing the NPP to ashes. Well his misinformation worked, at least a while. Today however we know that President Kufuor did not even get a common office on Ga-Dangme land much more cars or aircrafts. Actually, his end of service has been held up in what the government calls reviewing the package. By the way, there are so many committees reviewing everything in Ghana today including how to manage KVIP toilets. Some have even suggested that the President, H.E. JAE Mills should set up a committee to review how to dissolve the numerous reviewing committees. With this knowledge, will the current revelation that his party, the NDC now in power is ordering 4 C-27 Spartans aircrafts from the US Defense Cooperation Agency (http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/C-27J-Spartans-for-Ghana-05786), will the NDC be haunted by their own propaganda? Is the propaganda nemesis already coming home to roost? Please read the full article below written by Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (pictured above):

The Purchase of the two Luxurious Custom Made Presidential Jets: President Kufuor’s End of Service Package? The NPP’s Shameless Treachery and the Welcome Challenge to Ghanaians. Governments never learn. Only people learn. - Milton Friedman (The Observer, 1980).

The NPP Government has once again insulted Ghanaians and shown that it deliberately chooses not to prioritize and therefore ignores the plight of the suffering masses. This time, by its conduct in the intended purchase of not one but two Luxurious Custom Made Presidential Jets namely the 12 seater Falcon 900 and 30 seater Airbus Jet 319 both at the cost of $105,015,000, is only a further proof of the degree of bad governance, vulgar opulence by the NPP ruling elite and pathetic levels of double standards and hypocrisy which has characterized this NPP regime.

This is the regime that opposed the purchase of the Gulf Stream III by the NDC Government when it was in opposition in 1999 and 2000. In Parliamentary Hanzards dating 15th February 2000 and 30th March 2000, NPP MPs like Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, Mr. J.H. Mensah, Nana Akuffo Addo, et al take turns to lambast the NDC regime for being insensitive to the plight of the people. They further said that the international community from which Ghana borrows wouldn’t take us serious. They even questioned the suitability of a 14 seater Gulf Stream III.

We must not forget that during the NDC period it was even just one jet which was at a cost of $16,680,000 and it was a 14 seater second-hand jet. Contrast this with the current $ 105, 05,000 for the 12 seater Falcon 900 plus 30 seater Airbus 319 which are brand new, luxurious and with Government of Ghana special customized demand specifications valued at $10,000,000 according to the Defence Minister Hon. Albert Kan Dapaah on Peace FM on Tuesday March 18, 2008.

Today, when the tables turned, and the NPP were entrusted with power by we the people, they consider us fools who don’t matter anymore. The NPP aren’t making the arguments they made in 1999 and 2000.

Today the Presidential Press Secretary Andrew Awuni who continues to lie when he issued a statement on March 15, 2008 according to the GNA stated “The Presidency has not ordered any Presidential Jet for itself as being alluded to in the current debate on the issue… what the government has simply done regarding this matter is to put before Parliament an elaborate and comprehensive request from the Ghana Air force for re-equipping its communications squadron.” This shameless blatant liar thinks Ghanaians don’t know that the President of Ghana is the Commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces and that all Presidential Jets since 1957 are piloted and maintained by the Ghana Air Force. It is this same liar, Mr. Andrew Awuni who had the sheer effrontery to tell Ghanaians on Joy FM that “Ghanaians must do away with the poverty mentality.” Yes, when your fortunes suddenly change only few remember where they came from and that they left many people over there.

I ask myself, does the NPP Government, its spin doctors and mercenaries who come in different laughable styles and sophistications have any conscience at all? Do they listen to themselves when they speak? The same NPP which raised the issue of the plight of the people in 2000 now look at the people suffer a national devastating water crisis, thousands of youth unpaid for months under the NYEP, the sick carrying their own sachet water to hospitals for surgery, teachers, civil servants, nurses and doctors still crying for better salaries, schools in the Northern and Volta Regions threatening to close down if their food and scholarship subventions from the Government aren’t paid, millions of Ghanaians and industry being crippled with an unsubsidized and over-taxed fuel price, millions suffering excruciating poverty and the widening north-south dichotomy.

Today the NPP chorus is different and one of their gigantic looking mercenaries had no shame in saying on radio recently that priorities are subjective and sheepishly asked whose prority? This pathetic giant wants to deliberately forget that basic Economics has long cleared any doubt about priority in theorems such as Opportunity Cost and Scale of Preference. Again, where is the principle of J.H. Mensah in 2000 when he averred that the international community since we depended on their aid wouldn’t take us serious by the purchase of the Gulf Stream III which he called a toy? This time, the shameless irony is that the arrogant NPP General Secretary and the audit indicted Information Minister has no shame in telling us that the French President had to be pressed upon to help Ghana get a reduced deal. How embarrassing! If you cannot afford it, who and what are forcing you? The point must also be made that the claim by the Government that in 2010 all the Air force Planes will be grounded so there was urgency required in this matter is nothing but fallacious. We must note that President Kufuor has managed to travel all over the world without what the Air force had since 2001 so this claim can only be fallacious.

Secondly, what right has a vindictive and failed zero-tolerance for corruption President have in tying the hands of his successor when he himself refused to use the Gulf Stream III. Why does Kufuor think his successor will use his? President Kufuor by his conduct has already grounded the Ghana Air force since 2001 and if nothing happened then, nothing will happen after 2010.

As I look across to Nigeria and see the revelations about the alleged sleaze and corruption in Ex President Obasanjo’s purchases and contracts for which he is likely to be dragged before the Nigerian Parliament soon, then I wouldn’t be wrong in looking curiously at Obasonjo’s best friend’s actions here in Ghana especially as he also prepares to step down. What might be in it for President Kufuor that makes him appear to desperately love his unknown successor beyond 2010 so much? But well, as the African adage goes, and as events in Nigeria have proved- “it is when the frog dies that it’s true length will be known.”

Milton Friedman was right when he remarked that “Governments never learn. Only people learn.” To us ordinary Ghanaians, this Presidential Jet saga is only a challenge the NPP Government has thrown to us.

The NPP wants to test Ghanaians to see if what we did to the NDC in 2000 for similar acts will be visited on them in December 2008? I want to assure the NPP that this challenge is a very welcome one, and they should prepare for a more humiliating defeat in the December 7 elections which will be in direct proportion to their sins against us and this, we the people will continue to do until we attain what Plato said that “our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.”Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is the author of the book, A State of Coma; he has several other publications to his name. He was NUGS President and is currently a leading member of the CJA. He welcomes your comments.

Ghana to buy 4 C-27J Spartans Aircraft?

The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced on Tuesday 15-Sep-2009 16:43 EDT about Ghana’s official request for 4 C-27J light tactical transports, to be delivered with 10 Rolls Royce AE-2100 engines (8 + 2 spares), 4 of BAE’s AN/ALE-47 Countermeasures Dispensing Systems, 4 AN/ARC-210 VHF/UHF Multimode Integrated Communication Systems without COMSEC, 4 of Raytheon’s AN/APX-119 Identification Friend or Foe Digital Transponders with mode 1,2,3a, 3c; plus commercial GPS navigation, a VIP module and observation windows, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, personnel training and training equipment, and U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support.

The estimated cost is $680 million, but a DSCA request is not a contract. If Congress does not block the sale within 30 days, negotiations may begin.

Ghana's parliament was chosen to host President Obama’s 2009 Africa speech, on Saturday July 11, 2009 and the DSCA describes the country and the sale as…”...a U.S. Government partner which has been, and continues to be, an important force for political stability and democracy in Africa. The proposed sale will allow Ghana to strengthen its homeland defense by improving its capability to deploy troops to protect its borders against turmoil spreading from neighboring countries. These aircraft will enhance Ghana’s ability to participate in peacekeeping operations by increasing its cargo, material, and troop transport, maritime patrol, tactical operations, and medical evacuation capabilities.”

The statement posted on www.defenseindustrydaily.com sought to rationalise the sale as to 'allow Ghana to supplement or replace its 3 aged Fokker F27 transports, whose production line closed in 1987. Note, also, that Ghana’s Air Force uses its assets in a number of quasi-civil roles as well, some of which would be well suited to the C-27J’s capabilities'.
Alenia Aeronautica’s C-27J Spartan won the USA’s Joint Cargo Aircraft competition, via a partnership with L-3 Communications Integrated Systems of Greenville, TX. L-3 will be the prime contractor for Ghana’s sale, but much of the manufacturing will take place in Italy, with final assembly at at Cecil Commerce Center in Jacksonville, FL.
Implementation of this proposed sale will require up to 14 U.S. government and contractor representatives to participate in bi-annual Program Management Reviews (PMR) in Ghana and the USA.

Does it matter to let go of the past?

In a contemporary 21st century where availability of information has never been so awesome before, does it matter to worry one's head about holding back the past. A colleague in the office posted a comment on his FB Info wall that sent my mind wandering and seeking to find expression in what value the past holds on our lives.

The colleague called Agyewodin or to wit controversial wrote "Please try and put your past behind you because it will not augur well with you..." On the face value of it, this simple admonition sounded harmless and easy to deal with. In fact someone in the office wondered whether he was directing the quoted comment at a specific individual. Whatever be his motive for writing this straight and simple statement, that remains his freedom and right to express himself as he deems it fit for whatever reason(s).  He is not obliged to offer any explanation of his motives.

 In a humorous response, I wrote back, 'please I beg you start with your X-rayed profile portrait, in fact every photo you use would be part of the past by the time you finish uploading'. It must be noted here that this flows from the funniest photo he had displayed as his profile photo. A copy has been displayed here for your viewing pleasure.That is of course going too extreme and was just by the way trying to prompt him to reflect on what constitutes the realm called 'past'.
The important and most relevant lesson history/past life experience offers is by acting as a guide to future actions. For we know the past but cannot change it, we see the present and have every opportunity to make the best out of it; however the future only gains from experiences of both the present and the past. So we learn to let go of bitter past experiences but not the LESSONS learnt or taught. It is the best advisor in life. Pity is the man who ignores history. History matters. Indifference holds many perils, but so does a failure to act with intelligence.

Our past is relevant to us in every way along  life journey. Learning to move  on and leave behind  us bitter experiences is simply doing ourselves a whole lot of good healthwise and moralitywise. The Holy Bible quotes Jesus Christ teaching a model prayer that all those who believe in him should follow. In Matthew gospel book chapter 6 versus  12, Jesus said "and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors". This  versus clearly demonstrates that  letting  go  of  the  past  is a prerequisite for  reconciliation. Like all know relationship-problems, the solution should build up the relationship. Conflict in itself is good when well handled.

The question is what makes the past relevant. These are the ingredients which make us conscious of our weaknesses and strengths and the desire to avoid uncomfortable situations from recurring. 

Always remember that the word 'misfortune' also has within 'fortune'. It thus beholds of all and sundry to seek the face of fortune in whichever conditions we find our and know the the time desperation but a disguise blessing testing how faithful we. If we endure and pass the test like Patriarch Abraham, we'll be called upright and righteous. Always endure in good faith and look up to better future ignoring the stupidities of life but avoiding the pitfalls they harbour.

May God keep us safe and guide all our ways and thinking helping us to forgive our debtors in order for us to reach a higher pinnacle going forward. 

Diminishing confidence in the Ghana Police Service

For every society and by extension individuals to develop, one important ingredient that cannot be grossed, is security either perceived or real. For the most part, this aspect of human development is entrenched as one of the fundamental human rights and is entrusted to a group of people who are more often than not catered for by all and sundry through taxation. In Ghana, the Ghana Police Service is given this responsibility of ensuring the safety of all persons living within the territory marked as Ghana. From this premise and expectation, it is therefore no surprise that their motto is 'Service with integrity'. Sadly, many people in Ghana today are disillusioned about the output and outcome of the acts of Service. In fact, their motto has become a paradox. Senseless killings and murders, robberies, violence, bullying, survival of the fittest (jungle law becoming the order of the day) are committed regularly and the perpetrators are not apprehended in a number of cases. In instances where some are arrested, justice is sold to the highest bidder. The leading newspaper in Ghana, the Daily Graphic today wrote the following damning editorial on the performance of the Service in recent times and warned about downward sliding of the image it is creating for itself in the minds of a number of people living in Ghana. This piece is worth reading: "There is a gradual diminishing of public confidence in government and the security services’ ability to remain impartial when it comes to enforcing the laws of the land.

The unsavoury trend is evidenced by a number of unfortunate cases which cropped up recently about which nothing seems to be happening as regards the arresting of suspects and other applicable standard measures when the law is breached.

Many are compelled, justifiably, to conclude that today, there is selective enforcement of the law and that some persons in authority seek to turn Ghana into a country ruled by men and not by laws, a wish which is bound to crash given the distance the country has traveled from the dark days of arbitrariness.

Government, surreptitiously in league with the Police, it would appear, has adopted a measure of turning a blind eye to certain anomalies so that with time the heat these generate would abate naturally.

A little over a month or so ago, a certain New Patriotic Party (NPP) activist, Salifu Maikankan aka MKK, died under unnatural circumstances, a development which called for an autopsy to be undertaken on his remains.

It would be recalled that he had partaken in a picketing exercise alongside other party members close to the Greater Accra Regional offices of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) where Hon Asamoah Boateng was being held. The police fired dozens of teargas and even used live ammo to disperse the crowd.

A number of versions were advanced as to the cause of the death of the party man who returned home only to pass away the next morning.

Under such circumstances the natural and scientific thing to do is to order an autopsy which was assumed to have been carried out at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

Just when anxious colleagues, parents and relations of the deceased thought the results were going to be released, they were told that some tests had to be undertaken at the Noguchi Memorial Medical Research Institute and the Ghana Standards Board.

It is about three weeks today since the information was relayed to the family members and other concerned persons, yet the results are still being withheld in a security vault somewhere.

The development has fuelled all manner of speculations which do not augur well for the image of the government and the Police Service as a security institution.

We and other Ghanaians want to know the cause of death of the gentleman because we think that someone is deliberately holding on to the results with a view to denying us this important piece of information.

As to the reasons why this is being done only they can tell.

Another subject which is denting the image of government and the Police is the Agbogbloshie murders.

Many days have elapsed since the gory incident took place yet nobody has been arrested by the Police.

We are aware that those in their hospital beds at the Police Hospital disclosed names of persons who inflicted wounds on them; yet none of them has been apprehended and it does not seem that any of them would ever be.

We are getting worried and even scared about what our country is turning into. A situation where some citizens can take the law into their own hands and go scot free because they belong to a particular political party cannot be acceptable.

Africa’s failed states showed such symptoms of degeneration in the early days of their decay and so it would be in our interest to avail ourselves of the lessons from such historical notes.

We are fed up with lengthy PR releases from government and the Police when basic policing requirements are left undone.

We are watching and would return to this subject if the authorities fail to respond to the concerns raised". Source: Daily Graphic Editorial of 10th September 2009