Kids in Ghana learn quickly with e-reader Kindle

The Worldreader programme studies the effects of bringing hundreds of e-readers like Amazon's Kindle into sub-Saharan Africa. They've published the results of a year-long pilot study in Ghana, and there's a lot to like about the idea.

The study put 600 Kindles into the hands of kids and tracked how they were used, how they changed teaching in the area, and how they affected literacy. The results were immensely positive, though not without caveats.

Teachers were able to create much more appropriate lesson plans and get up-to-date textbooks and resources. Kids were able to learn how to use the devices quickly and adapted to them very well, leading to improved test scores and literacy in general. And amazingly, only 2 of the 600 devices were lost or stolen.

On the other hand, the richly-featured devices (compared to books, that is) created the threat of constant distraction in the classroom, with some kids being attracted to the music and games functions more than the books. It's a familiar problem, and one that has no easy solution.

Perhaps the biggest problem was that the Kindles the programme distributed broke rather easily. The breakage rate was a troubling 40.5 percent at the end of the year, and unlike a city-dwelling consumer, kids in Ghana can't bring theirs to the local Best Buy for replacement.

Despite these minor setbacks, the programme must be considered hugely successful, and studies like this will hopefully drive home the need for literacy aid in impoverished countries. It also lends some legitimacy to programmes like One Laptop Per Child, which plans to distribute its new low-cost tablet far and wide in an effort to reproduce the effects of this study at large.

The whole study can be read here (PDF), and you can read about their work in Ghana and Kenya at their blogs.

Credit: Devin Coldewey (msnbc.com or coldewey.cc)

Woyome’s Body Guard Joins Prez Security Team?

Tongues are wagging among National Security operatives especially within the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) over how, one William Attiku, an aide or a body guard of Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the NDC’s self-styled financier who was given a booty of GH¢52 million judgment debt finds himself in the security hierarchy of the nation.

Mr. Attiku, a claimed US Marine, was seen with the presidential security team in Togo when President John Evans Atta Mills visited the West African country recently to have bilateral discussions with the Togolese president who has also dissolved his father’s RPT party and formed a new one.

He was also seen at the National Prayer and Thanksgiving service held at the Independence Square recently.

His involvement in various functions is causing some kind of apprehension since it is believed among the intelligent officers that the man in question has not only a dodgy character but also a questionable one.

According to our information, the grumbling of the security officers have reached a crescendo and plans are advanced to alert authorities to smoke him out before he damages the reputation of the President.

This paper has gathered that Mr. Attiku who is said to have a questionable and dodgy character parades himself as a security intelligence and works in collaboration with one Ex-W.O Nicholas Gbeku of the National Security.

Furthermore, this paper gathered that during various and important functions, William Attiku who was arrested alongside with Mr. Woyome on that fateful day and was released immediately, most often carries himself as an operative of the National Security.

Scores of security officers calling for his removal from the team revealed how William Attiku was constantly seen at the premises of the National Security Annex with his pal, Nicholas Gbeku.

“Some of us are getting worried and are asking why was this guy allowed to join Presidential security? If the National Security wants to recruit people, they should check the background of the people. This guy has a questionable character and must be checked or removed,” a serious minded officer told this paper.

The agitation among the security operatives reveal that the way and manner Woyome’s boy metamorphosed to a security team of President Mills is a source of worry to them.

Another source at the BNI told this paper that frantic moves are being made to smoke him out because he has a character that is inconsistent with what the security operatives do.

“We are worried and want to know whether he is part of president’s security team?" the source asked.

It is recalled that during the trial of Mr. Woyome, William Attiku is seen at the court’s premises protecting him (Woyome) which has set tongues wagging.

Source: The Publisher.

Do animals reincarnate?

Many people especially those who believe in creation think that the human being comprises the body, the spirit and soul. The body dies but the spirit and soul which is the breathe of God never dies. This attribute of creature is supposed to apply to only human beings. All other creatures die and that is the end. Well, maybe it was about time you reconsider that view if that is your position as the following story culled from AP illustrates.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — There is an afterlife for animals at the Khan Younis zoo in the impoverished Gaza Strip.

Animals who die in the dilapidated park return to be displayed as stuffed creatures, giving visitors the unusual zoo experience of petting a lion, tiger or crocodile. But because taxidermy in the largely isolated Palestinian territory is not advanced and expertise and materials are in short supply, the experience can be grim.

 

 

Flies swarm around some of the 10 animals that have been embalmed so far. The makeshift cages housing the exhibits — fashioned from fencing salvaged from Jewish settlements that Israel dismantled in 2005 — are littered with empty soda cans and other trash.

An emaciated-looking stuffed lion, its coat patchy and mangy, lies on an exhibit cobbled together from crates and shipping pallets. A monkey had missing limbs. A porcupine had a hole in its head. The zoo's 65 live animals, which include ostriches, monkeys, turtles, deer, a llama, a lion and a tiger, don't fare much better. During a recent visit, children poked chocolate, potato chips and bread through the wire. There's no zookeeper on the premises. Gaza has no government body that oversees zoos, and medical treatment is done by consulting over the phone with zoo veterinarians in Egypt.

Still, the zoo is one of the few places of entertainment here in Khan Younis, a city of 200,000 people at the southern end of the Gaza Strip. It's one of five zoos in the Gaza Strip, a densely populated coastal enclave of 1.7 million people ruled by Islamic Hamas militants.

Owner Mohammed Awaida said he opened the "South Forest Park" in 2007, only to lose a number of animals during Israel's military offensive against Hamas that began in December 2008. During the three-week offensive, launched in response to rocket attacks on Israel, Awaida said he could not reach the zoo, and many animals died of neglect and starvation.

"The idea to mummify animals started after the Gaza war because a number of animals like the lion, the tiger, monkeys and crocodiles died," he said. "So we asked around and we learned from the Web how to start."

Formaldehyde and sawdust provided the basic tools, though Awaida acknowledges he is no expert. Gaza's zoos are used to resorting to odd ways to get by amid the territory's multiple woes. In 2009, a zoo in Gaza City exhibited white donkeys painted with black stripes to look like zebras because it was too expensive to replace two zebras who were neglected during the Israeli offensive.

Since Hamas violently took control of Gaza in 2007, Israel has blocked Gaza's ports, waters and all but one border crossing into Israel. Egypt has also restricted movement through its border crossing, meaning new animals must be smuggled at great expense through an elaborate network of underground tunnels on the Gazan-Egyptian border.

Awaida said all of his animals except the birds came through the tunnels. Preserving dead zoo animals is not new to Palestinians. In the West Bank city of Qalqilya, zoo veterinarian Sami Khader turned to taxidermy nine years ago when a giraffe named Brownie died during the second Palestinian uprising against Israel.

Khader, who had extensive training and experience in taxidermy from years working in Saudi Arabia, stuffed Brownie and moved him to the zoo's museum. Today that museum includes a hyena, wolf, birds, camel, raccoons and a tiger.

Fighting with Israel has since subsided and the zoo maintains close connections with the Ramat Gan Safari outside Tel Aviv. But administrators say that Israeli restrictions still make it cumbersome to get new animals.

"We have more variations and different species as preserved animals than we have living," said Amjad al-Haj, the zoo's financial director. "If there will be more restrictions we may end up calling it preserved animals zoo."

Conditions in Khan Younis — and its zoo — are far worse. Whereas Khader is a veterinarian and professional taxidermist, Awaida is untrained. "I use many ingredients for the embalming, not one or two, and the ingredients and method will vary from animal to animal," Khader said. "It's not enough to just go read on the Internet."

And Awaida does not have the contacts with Israeli zoos that Qalqilya has, a reflection of Gaza's near-complete separation from Israel. Like the other zoos in Gaza, the Khan Younis facility is virtually unsupervised. There is no animal rights movement in the territory.

Hassan Azzam, director of the veterinary services department in Gaza's ministry of agriculture, said, "We have humble capabilities," but the ministry encourages zoos. However somber the Khan Younis zoo, it does offer entertainment to children.

Samir Amer, 14, snapped pictures of the animals with his mobile phone. "I have been to this place before years ago but this is my first time seeing mummified animals," he said. "They look like they are asleep. I will print out the pictures of me standing next to the lion and put it on my wall. It will be fun to show it to my younger brothers."

Dalia Nammari in Ramallah and Daniella Cheslow in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Agyapong Arrest Seen as Pursuit of 'Political Vendetta'

Outspoken ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) activist David Annan has confirmed the suspicion of many that the arrest of Kennedy Ohene Agyapong and his continued detention beyond the legally mandated forty-eight (48) hours has more to do with the pursuit of political vendetta than the rule of law. The Police CID requested the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, last Saturday 14th April 2012 to report to its head office in Accra the following Monday 16th April 2012 at 9 am. The invitation was in connection with inflammatory remarks the MP allegedly made on Oman FM radio station the previous day. When he reported as requested, he was kept in detention and only put before a court of competent jurisdiction seventy-five (75) hours later contrary to the constitutional injunction that no suspect can be kept in police detention beyond forty-eight (48) hours.

Speaking on Okay FM, an Accra-based radio station, on Thursday April 19, 2012 morning, David Annan, who described himself as a member of the NDC legal team, arrogated unto himself the role of a spokesman for the Attorney General's Department, explaining the actions of the prosecution, including the rationale for the choice of the court of trial in Wednesday's (April 18, 2012) botched attempt to initiate court proceedings in the matter in which the beleaguered Member of Parliament for Assin North, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, is accused of treason felony, among others.

David Annan, who officially is not an employee of the Police CID and holds no official position in the government, said: "contrary to the position of the defence lawyers, the charge we (Mr Annan and his team) have proffered against the Assin North MP are sustainable."

He explained that the defence team is looking at only one section of the Constitution - article 3, which states in subsection (a) that, "Any person who by himself or in concert with others by any violent or other unlawful means, suspends or overthrows or abrogates this constitution or any part of it, or attempts to do any such act; or (b) aids and abets in any manner any person referred to in paragraph (a) of this clause, commits the offence of high treason and shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to suffer death." But, they (the prosecution team) are looking at other article including article 17, which talks of levying war against Ghana or assisting any state or person or inciting or conspiring with any person to levy war against Ghana..." He therefore invited the defence team to revise their notes.

On the botched attempt to commence trial, Mr Annan argued that the Adjabeng Magistrate court erred in declining jurisdiction over the matter. He said the stipulated procedures permit such trial to begin at the level of the Magistrate court. The sitting magistrate however cited a circular from the Chief Justice's outfit which directed that all first degree felony cases such as murder, treason, rape, drug offences, etc. should be referred to the Chief Justice, who will appoint or empanel judges to sit on the cases. Mr Annan was not the least enthused about the said circular, vowing that they, the legal team, will challenge any attempt by the Chief Justice to empanel judges to adjudicate the matter of the Republic vrs. Ohene Agyapong. In a veiled threat, he cautioned that if that happens... "asem be ba d'abi", meaning trouble will break out.

Referring to a previous incident in which he was reported to the General Legal Council for allegedly impugning the integrity of judges, he urged the Chief Justice to act transparently and above board to dispel any suspicion of bias. He said even though the problem between him and the General Legal Council has been resolved, he was still wary of possible manipulation of the legal process to the disadvantage of the NDC.

Asked whether in his view, the charges against Mr Agyapong would be dropped if he were to apologise for his supposed offensive comments, Mr Annan answered in the negative, arguing that if an apology from Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome will not lead to an abatement of the proceedings against him, then he sees no reason why an apology from Mr Agyapong should have that effect. Using Woyome's treatment as the standard for measuring Police professionalism, Mr Annan sought to justify the detention of Mr Agyapong beyond the legally mandated forty-eight (48) hours on the grounds that similar treatment was meted out to Mr Woyome.

Meanwhile, Mr Agyapong's defence team has complained about the prosecution's handling of the legal processes relative to their client. A member of the team, Mr Andy Appiah Kubi told the media in Accra on Thursday April 19, 2012 that information on the court where their client was to be arraigned and the time were deliberately withheld from them, in an apparent move to deny their client the right to legal representation in court. The allegation, married with Mr Annan's submission on Okay FM's morning show, buttresses the point about an apparent NDC orchestrated political vendetta against Mr Agyapong.

Information at press time suggests that the tensions that have mounted over the past few days across the country, following the arrest and detention of Kennedy Agyapong, have been momentarily defused by the release of the suspect  on 19th April 2012.

Credit: Public Agenda newspaper (editorial for 20-04-2012)

There are more questions than answers for Electoral Commission of Ghana

There are more questions than answers
Pictures in my mind that will not show
There are more questions than answers
And the more I find out the less I know
Yeah, the more I find out the less I know

I've asked the question time and time again
Why is there so little of a moment
Oh, what is life, how do we live
What should we take and how much should we give
There are more questions than answers

The less I know
So little, so
The less I know 

(Johnny Nash).

Yes there are more questions than answers and how aptly Mr. Nash's lyrics quoted above fits in the unfolding drama in Ghana. The report that a 47-year old Archibald Laryea has been picked up at the Naroda polling station at Sakaman in the Ablekuma North Constituency in Accra, Ghana on Tuesday 17th April 2012, for attempting to register for the 16th time in the on-going biometric voters registration (BVR) exercise raises more questions than answers.

The names Mr Laryea used in his registration were: Gufhid Quist Jox Provencal, Qusitjox Danfo Kwetey, Epicurus Ahenu Tarlo, Justice Fred Provencal, Philip Obletey Tackie, Victus Wilfred Juqwyjbusu and Anthony Akote.

The rest are Victor Wilfred Abety Moux, Victor Gloveuched, Victor Wilfred Nampty, Provencal Kwetey Buzim, Laryea Archibald, Emmanuel Nii Laryea, Job Maxwell Auashong. He used different ages on all his registration cards.
A search by the police at his Dansoman residence also revealed a startling 13 old registration cards and some toy revolvers under his bed.

The questions that need answers include the following:

1. How indelible is the so-called indelible ink applied to the left index finger?

2. What is his reason (s) for engaging in multiple voter registration?

3. Why did it take the 16th attempt before he ran out of luck?

4. What is the assurance that the BVR is capable of arresting the challenge of multiple registration which occasioned its adoption in the first place?

5. How many more people have engaged in this act and gotten away with it?

6. Do you as a patriotic Ghanaian have any level of confidence in the system's proof of citizenship test? 
The future security and peace of Ghana depends to a large extent on the credibility of this BVR and for God's sake, the Electoral Commission must provide answers to the questions. There are more questions than answer....

Ghana's military expenditure down by 23% in 2011

Ghana spent an amount of $98 million at current prices on its military in 2011, according to new figures published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) April 17, 2012.
But in real terms, the Institute indicated that the country’s expenditure on its military in 2011 was $96 million, declining 23% from $125 million it spent in 2010.
The 2011 military expenditure was 0.4% of the 2010 gross domestic product (GDP), SIPRI figures indicated adding that Ghana spent $26 million on the military in 1988.
According to SIPRI, world military expenditure in 2011 totalled $1.74 trillion, almost unchanged since 2010 in real terms.
“The small rise of just 0.3% in 2011 marks the end of a run of continuous increases in military spending between 1998 and 2010, including an annual average increase of 4.5% between 2001 and 2009,” the Institute said in a statement accompanying the report.
The SIPRI observed that six of the world’s top military spenders—Brazil, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the United States—made cuts in their military budgets in 2011 as part of attempts to reduce budget deficits but nations such as China and Russia increased their military spending markedly.
“The after-effects of the global economic crisis, especially deficit-reduction measures in the USA and Europe, have finally brought the decade-long rise in military spending to a halt—at least for now,” said Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, head of the SIPRI Military Expenditure Project.
African countries spent $32.2 billion on their military during the year 2011 as the SIPRI said most of the regional increase of 8.6% was accounted for by a 44% ($2.5 billion) increase by Algeria – partly due to concerns over the conflict in Libya.
While North Africa’s expenditure was $13.1 billion, sub-Sahara Africa’s was $19.1 billion.

Culture of political intolerance, agye gonn

"Everyone is crying out for peace yes
None is crying out for justice
I don't want no peace
I need equal rights and justice
Got to get it
Equal rights and justice ........

Everyone is talking about crime
Tell me who are the criminals
I said everybody's talking about crime, crime
Tell me who, who are the criminals
I really don't see them
There be no crime
Equal rights and justice
There be no criminals"

(Peter Tosh - Equal Rights).

I have taken a certain position to usually not to write on partisan bickerings especially involving the two main political parties in Ghana National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) because I consider that many of the heated exchanges between them are much ado about nothing. In fact I dare say herein that in a number of instances, it is orchestrated by either of them to divert attention from serious scandals rocking their parties. I am not doing this simply because I fear to incur a considerable risk of being the object of mass political censorship. Today I have decided to write on subject dear to my heart and I believe many of my readers as well.

The uncompromising provisions of the right to freedom of speech and expression in our 1992 constitution is a clause that all of us must fearlessly cherish and defend. The right to express our opinions without fear of arrest and intimidation is however to be contained within the borders of responsible behaviour. Let me say here once that I condemn any hate speech. 

Political intolerance has typically been conceptualized as an unwillingness to extend expressive rights to disliked groups or individuals. When intolerance is conceptualize  multidimensionally, there is the need to make a distinction between generic and discriminatory intolerance. While the former stems from an unwillingness to permit the expressive act (such as holding a rally) regardless of the actor, the latter is reserved for an unwillingness to permit the act only when performed by a noxious group. One problem with this conceptualization is that, when a given percentage of individuals in a polity is found to be intolerant, it is not known if these respondents are intolerant because of the act or because of the actor.

Unfolding recent events  in Ghana give cause for concern. While it is condemnable to speak bad or even evil of the President, it is equally obnoxious to cure such mischief with disproportionate high handedness. This is tantamount to killing a fly with a sledgehammer. Ghana repealed anachronistic law Criminal Libel Law which criminalised speech and expression. With its repeal, it was envisaged that people who felt slandered or libeled by another can seek cure through the civil courts for defamation. 

Unfortunately, the police lately have sought to revive a moribund law called 'causing fear and panic.'  It all began with the arrest of Nana Baafi Danquah over his comments on the cause of the fire outbreak at ex-president Rawlings' house on Valentine Day, then High Priest, Herbert Mensah, Ernest Owusu Bempah and now Kennedy Agyapong. In all these instances, there were two basic problems. Firstly, all the culprits were of the minority and secondly no successful prosecution has taken place except to intimidate and cow those perceived to be opponents into silence. The danger to our embryonic democracy is that the unfolding drama is one of the primary causes of political repression which focus mass intolerance on a specific unpopular political minority. To the extent that intolerance becomes focused, it is capable of being mobilized. Mobilization results in demands for political repression, demands to which policymakers accede. If we are not careful, we risk the situation where the police becomes a tool in the hands of the powers that be and thus lose the public trust reposed in them. In this case, the police risk becoming incapable to maintaining law and order in Ghana. Since water will always find its own level, vigilantism will definitely fill in the vacuum which will not augur well for governance in Ghana and she stands losing her international reputation and image. This culture of political intolerance and display of complete bias by the police must end once and that time is right now or never. Things fall apart and the centre cannot hold, agye gonn!
This is the time all concerned groups must call a spade a spade and must not wait till vigilantism takes root in our system. Mob injustice has already caused so much harm to many people. I call on all religious groups and civil society groups to take the bull by the horn. Playing the ostrich will only worsen matters. They must speak the truth and stop this hypocrisy prevailing all over. The National Media Commission must let the axe fall. Taxpayers ought to hold the IGP accountable and stop this inconsistency or selective justice of the men in uniform. To the political parties, this country does not belong to you, all of us have stakes in it and under no circumstances must they be allowed to hold the good people of Ghana to ransom. This scare tactics and intolerance and repression should be nipped in the bud.

It is easier said than done!

The holy scripture in St. Luke 6:44 teaches that each tree is recognised by its own fruit: "For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush." In a commentary, Gill explained that "good and bad preachers are known by their doctrines, the one being agreeable, the other disagreeable to the word of God; and good and bad men are known by their lives and conversations: the grace of God revealed to good men, and wrought in them, teaches them to live soberly, righteously, and godly; a holy life is the fruit of grace, and an evidence of it; and the wickedness that is in the heart of unregenerate men, and even the hypocrisy of formal professors, will show themselves in the common and ordinary course of their conversations." 

 

A speech delivered by His Excellency John Evans Atta Mills, President of the Republic of Ghana, at the 66th General Assembly of the United Nations, on Friday 23rd September, 2011 in part captured the following assurance to the international community on his pledge to ensure violence free, free and fair elections.  "On the political and security fronts, Ghana recognizes the paradigm shift, or at least a shift in emphasis from national security to human security.
It is human security targeted interventions that would help best define our national security.
We are therefore pursuing relevant action to concretize this concept through appropriate legal institutional and operational reforms.
We are also committed to the global norm of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and will continue to work closely with member-states, UN Friends of R2P, and the UN as a whole.
The Government has taken measures to strengthen the rule of law by enacting appropriate legislation to promote accountability and good governance, protect human rights, ensure the independence and integrity of the judiciary, free and fair elections, and the freedom of the media. 

Mr. President,
A year from now, Ghana will be going to the polls to elect a President and Members of Parliament for another 4 year term.
To ensure that Ghanaians enjoy an election which is peaceful, free and fair, the Electoral Commission, which has successfully conducted the last three elections, since 2000, has put in place measures that will safeguard the rights of the people to elect a government of their own choice.
Ghana’s democratic credentials stand tall, and we intend to keep it that way.
Mr. President,
Just as the United Nations and the international community kept an eye on the 2008 elections in Ghana, it is our hope that the same thing will be done next year."

As the adage goes 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating'. The evidence that demonstrates a truth of President Mills' assurance came seven months down the line, when he addressed a durbar of chiefs in the Central Region to inspect the ongoing biometric voter registration exercise on Friday 13th April 2012.  

"There are some who also think that the President should be directly in charge of  enforcement of laws. Indeed, unfortunately the President is not a law enforcement officer. The President cannot be a prosecutor, these are not powers which are conferred on the President. The President's responsibility is to ensure that the security agencies are in a position to perform their given assignments. It is important that we all deal with one another in an open manner and in the best of faiths." 

Generally speaking, business is based on performance, that is the real world and so he who hires also fires. The question is, was the assignment given to the student or to the parents? On 7th January 2009, was it the IGP, Attorney-General, CDS or the President who was given charge of Ghana? Who appointed who to position of trust? Can any Ghanaian sack the policeman for non-performance or only few privileged Ghanaians? Your Excellency Mr. President, you have the mandate and the bulk stops at your door. If the man you trusted with the responsibility to keep peace is failing, you exercised wrong judgment and fortunately for you, you have the opportunity to remedy the situation. It is absolutely unthinkable for you to shirk responsibility. It is a sign of a weak leader and there had been too many of such instances where you have unsuccessfully sought to conveniently excuse yourself from blame. The reason your party founder was called Junior Jesus was his willingness to die in place of all his colleague conspirators during the 15th May 1979 foiled uprising. He aired the grieves of all the people in the country when he said they should let all his peers go and hold him accountable. It was the trial that generated the momentum and inspiration for junior officers, led by Captain Boakye Djan to plan another mutiny. Your oath of office enjoins you to be the number policeman in Ghana considering that you are the Commander-in-Chief and you surely do not need any reminder of your roles.  In case you slept on the job, this is free education.

South African President to wed fourth wife in sixth marriage

A leaked secret cabinet memo during the white minority rule (apartheid era) in South Africa revealed how the black man was viewed regarding his sense of achievement and self-actualization. These greedy bastards were plotting strategies on how to keep black people in that country under their perpetual control. The leaked document showed that black has only three ambitions in life: food, wine and sex. This is however highly debatable but the behaviour exhibited by many African leaders leaves much to be desired when viewed against these assertions. For me, silence is golden, speech is silver!

South African President Jacob Zuma will marry his fourth wife next weekend, his spokesman confirmed on Sunday 15th April 2012.

Zuma will tie the knot at his family homestead in Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province, said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj.

Spokesman Maharaj said "I can confirm that President Zuma will formalise his relationship with his fiancee, Ms Bongi Ngema, in a private traditional ceremony at Nkandla this weekend."

Zuma (seen here with Ngema) will be married the sixth time (AFP/File, Romeo Gacad)

President Zuma, a known polygamist, will be married the sixth time. He divorced Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa's candidate for the African Union top post, in 1998. Another wife, Kate, committed suicide in 2000.

Maharaj said "the president currently has three wives. This will be his fourth wife." 

The president, who turned 70 last Thursday April 12, 2012, is believed to have fathered around 20 children.

Ngema, who accompanied Zuma on a state visit to the G20 summit in South Korea last year, has a three-year-old son with him. She has a business degree among other academic qualifications.

Nkandla was recently renovated for 64 million rands ($8 million, 6 million euros), the Sunday Times reported.

Zuma's adventures with women have often sparked controversy. In 2006 he was acquitted of rape charges after having consensual sex with an HIV-positive activist and family friend. He famously told the court he had taken a shower to protect himself against infection.

In 2009 he fathered a child with the daughter of 2010 World Cup local chief Irvin Khoza on the eve of the global event.

Asked at his birthday party Friday whether he was done with marriage, Zuma replied, "I think so."

Zuma comes along a long list of African presidents/heads of states with similar records even those who opted for ordinance marriage.

Meet third African Woman President

Sirleaf is the first elected female head of state in Africa. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf  is the 24th and current President of Liberia. she was elected President in the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006. She successfully ran for re-election in 2011. The next two were placed in those positions purely by destiny.

The second African woman president is then Senate Speaker Rose Francine Rogombe who was sworn in June 2009 as Gabon's first woman president for a transitional period at a ceremony in Libreville, after the death of Omar Bongo Ondimba. She became president by virtue of being the Speaker of the Gabonese Senate. She was constitutionally ineligible from standing in the presidential poll due within a timeframe of between 30 and 45 days and won by Ali Bongo.

President Joyce Hilda Banda of Malawi

The third African woman president is Joyce Hilda Banda who is a Malawian politician and has been the President of Malawi since 7 April 2012. An educator and grassroots womens' rights activist, she was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009 and Vice-President of Malawi from May 2009 to April 2012. Banda took office as President following the sudden death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. She is Malawi's first female president and was the country's first female vice-president. 

She was also Member of Parliament and Minister for Gender, Children's Affairs and Community Services. Prior to an active career in politics she was the founder of the Joyce Banda Foundation, founder of the National Association of Business Women (NABW), Young Women Leaders Network and the Hunger Project. She was listed in Forbes Magazine 2011 as the third most powerful woman in Africa.

She is the founder and leader of the People's Party created in 2011, and prior to Bingu wa Mutharika's death was considered likely to contest the Presidency of Malawi in the 2014 general election. The People's Party is scheduled to have a convention later this year, with Joyce Banda likely to be confirmed as party leader.

Banda comes from Malemia, a village in the Zomba District of Malawi. She has a Cambridge School Certificate, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Early Childhood Education from Columbus University and a Diploma in Management that she received in Italy. By age 25, she had three children and was living in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1975, a growing women's movement in Kenya provided Banda the spirit she needed to take her children and leave an abusive marriage. Between 1985 and 1997 Banda managed and established various businesses and organisations including Ndekani Garments, (1985), Akajuwe Enterprises (1992), and Kalingidza Bakery (1995). Her success moved her to help other women achieve financial independence and break the cycles of abuse and poverty.

She is sister to Anjimile Oponyo, CEO of the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls founded by Madonna.

She is married to Richard Banda, former Chief Justice of the Republic of Malawi.

 Public Offices (2004–2009)

Prior to becoming Malawi's first female Vice-President and later first female President, she was a Member of Parliament for the Zomba-Malosa constituency. She was also Minister of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services before being appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs by President Bingu wa Mutharika on 1 June 2006. As Minister of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services she fought to enact the Domestic Violence Bill, which had failed for seven years previously. She designed the National Platform for Action on Orphans and Vulnerable Children and the Zero Tolerance Campaign Against Child Abuse.

Vice President (2009–2012)

Banda campaigning with Mutharika as Vice President and President respectively

Banda ran as the vice-presidential candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the May 2009 presidential election, running alongside Mutharika, the DPP presidential candidate. She served as Malawi's first female vice-president, before becoming the country's first woman president on Mutharika's death. In a surprise move by the DPP, Joyce Banda and second vice president Khumbo Kachali were fired as the vice Presidents of the DPP on 12 December 2010 for undefined 'anti-party' activities. In attempts to ostracize her, the president had continued to give roles that were previously held by her to Callista Mutharika who was included in the cabinet in September 2011. The court had blocked attempts by Bingu wa Mutharika to fire her as Vice-President on constitutional grounds. This included attempts to seize her official government vehicle and to block her from registering her new party. On 8 September 2011, the role of Vice President was left out in a cabinet reshuffle. However, she was still the legal Vice-President of the country as mandated by the constitution. She was urged by DPP spokesman Hetherwick Ntaba to resign as Vice-President.

Factions in DPP

The relationship between her and the previous President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika had become increasingly tense because of Mutharika's attempts to position his own brother, Peter Mutharika as the successor of the party and as the next president of the country. Although she was fired from the position as Vice President of the DPP together with second Vice President Khumbo Kachali, she continued to serve as Vice-President of Malawi as stipulated in the constitution of the Republic of Malawi. This move led to mass resignations in the DPP and the formation of networks that supported her candidacy to become President of Malawi in the 2014 general election. The DPP denied that mass resignations had occurred and insisted that they were only a few.

People's Party

Joyce Banda is the founder and leader of the People's Party, formed in 2011 after Banda was expelled from the ruling DPP when she refused to endorse President Mutharika's younger brother Peter Mutharika as the successor to the presidency for the 2014 general election.

The Green Book (Unprecedented Achievements) Blues

The name Green Book alone is enough to pinpoint the exercise underway; propaganda. Please do not get it wrong by associating the Green Book with deceased despotic Libyan Moammar Al-Kadhafi. This is the Green Book invented by Professor John Evans Fiifie Atta Mills, the president of the Republic of Ghana. Another name for this book is Unprecedented Achievements. President Mills has been at the helm of affairs for nearly three and a half years and is seeking to renew his tenure which ends at the end of 2012 on the ticket of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Below are some of the claims made in the Green Book and reactions or analysis by the Danquah Institute (DI). DI is a think tank that has sympathy with the main opposition party in Ghana, the New Patriotic Party (NPP). DI mocked President Mills' mantra of making the country a “Better Ghana” as rather a “Bitter Ghana” era for Ghanaians and claimed "President Mills may very well go down in history as the worst constitutional leader Ghana has ever had."

This week, Vice President John Mahama launched the revised and expanded propaganda textbook, Green Book Chapter II. It highlights the ‘unprecedented achievements’ made under President Mills (though it fails to mention they are incidental to the current government). But behind the NDC government’s loud self-congratulatory parades is a Ghanaian public that is quietly questioning how our abundance of blessings has left us less connected to national opportunity than ever before.

The concerns that occupy Ghanaians are easy to discern in ten minutes at the market: rising unemployment (especially among the youth) and a rising cost of living; the falling standards of living and of education (especially at the JHS and SHS levels); collapsing healthcare and small businesses; low business and consumer confidence; and a national sense of hopelessness and despair because we have been here before and thought that we had shaken off such burdens.

To add insult to injury, the President and his orchestra of propagandists continue to tell us that the Mills-Mahama administration has achieved more than any other government in Ghana’s history and that Ghanaians have never had it so good. But the Better Ghana that they promised has become a bitter Ghana for the many and a better Ghana only for a privileged few.

So let’s take a closer reading of this textbook with an eye toward careful questioning of claimed successes. This can be quite instructive for all Ghanaian voters as we approach election season.

Claim: 13.7% recorded GDP growth, the highest in our history.
Real Story: Mills inherited an economy that had discovered oil in commercial quantities under the guidance of the previous government. Outside of the oil sector—notorious for needing very few workers and generating few local jobs—our economy isn’t so rosy when not relying on high commodities prices.

Claim: “Ghana secured a $3 billion loan from the CDB… The single largest loan to Ghana, an evidence of confidence in the Ghanaian economy.”
Real Story: Driven solely by the discovery of oil, the $3bn Chinese loan is tightly tied to Ghana’s share of Jubilee crude oil and revenues. So not only have we taken on significant debt, but we will make less from our future earnings from oil, even as prices soar.

Claim (proudly highlighted by the Vice President on Tuesday): “The country’s wage bill has more than doubled under the last 3 years from GH¢2 billion to GH¢5 billion. President Mills has, therefore, put money in the pockets of Ghanaian workers who are better off today than they were.”

Real Story: President Kufuor managed to more than double the wage bill during every year of his 8 year term, and he did it without the benefit of oil revenue or record price increases in gold and cocoa. In 2000, the total wage bill was GH¢200 million. By 2008, it was GH¢2 billion – a 1,000% increase. This translates into an average wage bill increase of 125% for each of the 8 years under Kufuor vs. 39% for each of the 4 years under President Mills.
Claim: In 40 months, the NDC has created 1,734,978 jobs.
Real Story: This would mean NDC has created 134,000 jobs since 2010, on top of the 1.6 million jobs the government said it created in their first 12 months. Further analysis shows this to be a stunning exercise in propaganda calculus.

News of the 1.6 million (phantom) jobs was broken by Okudzeto-Ablakwa, the Deputy Information Minister. His boss, not wanting to be outdone, invented details to substantiate the claim. President Mills was then challenged by a member of the press that is this unprecedented achievement were true, it should be listed in the top 50 achievements in the first Green Book. President Mills then gave the presidential seal to the lie that he created 1.6 million jobs in his first year—the same year that he froze public sector hiring and refused to pay contractors.

As comparison, US President Obama created the same number of jobs in his first year in office after introducing a stimulus package of $787 billion for a country that is more than 10 times bigger than Ghana. Obama cut taxes, offered grants and loans, and poured money into infrastructure projects to create “shovel-ready” jobs. Mills raised taxes and duties, reduced credit to the private sector, and raised the cost of borrowing—which led to lower business and consumer confidence (according to the Bank of Ghana surveys) and an inflated cost of contracts (which means fewer jobs for more money).

How can we really know how many jobs have been created or lost since the NDC took office in 2009? Going by the drop in the number of SSNIT contributors alone, one may be right in concluding that more jobs have been lost than created.

In listing the areas where jobs have been created, the Green Book added NYEP (National Youth Employment Programme) and LESDEP (Local Enterprises and Skills Development Programme). It lists the number of people engaged under LESDEP as 10,000 and 100,000 people employed under NYEP.

But when Mills took over, 110,000 people were employed under NYEP. The government laid them off and compiled an entirely new list of NYEP workers who were not ‘NPP boys’. But there are 10,000 fewer than in 2008.

The LESDEP is its own scandal in the making. The budget said it was allocating GH¢60 million for LESDEP (run by the company that has boldly undertaken a new corruption-ridden, jobs-for-the-boys scheme for the ruling party, Zoomlion). So while school administrators complain that they have not received any capitation grants or secondary school subsidies for the current term, LESDEP found itself over-financed at GH¢84 million.
GH¢8,000 for each of the 10,000 employed under LESDEP seems quite generous. But typical LESDEP applicants aspire for GH¢1,000 for their small scale enterprises. So where is the money going? Could this GH¢84 million, if properly applied, not create 6 times as many jobs?
These numbers don’t add up.

We all know the biggest challenge facing the promising youth of our country is unemployment, and yet our government has broken its promise to create 1.6 million jobs in their first year in office. In fact, more businesses collapsed that year, and the government put a freeze on public sector employment.

Three years since Mills took office, a focus group of 10 Ghanaians, picked randomly from the streets in any part of the country (excluding the Castle) and asked what they think of the Mills-Mahama administration, have learned this to be the standard practice of this government. Seven out of ten identify our current leaders with: weak leadership, incompetence, corruption, broken promises, lies and propaganda.

President John Mills and Vice President Mahama are leaders that have lost touch with the concerns of the ordinary people. Four years ago they asked you, “Where is the money in your pockets?” But with their own pockets feeling fuller from Woyome and other deals, they aren’t going to ask you this anymore.

While debuting the new textbooks, Vice President Mahama announced that if re-elected, the NDC would spend $250 million to establish 200 community senior high schools (SHS) within the next four years. The question to ask is this: how many schools would $250m build under a government that is not corrupt? 500? Perhaps we should do what Uganda did many years ago – post a sign on each school proclaiming how much money from the central budget has been allocated to each school, so the local population can understand whether and outrageous amount of resources is being siphoned to other purposes.

President Mills may very well go down in history as the worst constitutional leader Ghana has ever had because he has, through no effort of his own, been the most fortunate leader that Ghana has ever had since the First Republic, and thus the least aware of the responsibility of this bounty and the most able to waste the valuable opportunities presented to him and still sleep tonight.

He inherited a more democratic country, a middle-income economy, record prices in Ghana’s main export of cocoa and gold, and the first oil revenues.

But what has he done with all these blessings? Borrowed huge sums—$12 billion in foreign loans, leveraged against the oil—far more than all the previous governments put together managed to borrow since 1957. Ghana has become attractive for foreign investments through the vision and hard work of his predecessor, President Kufuor. No specific economic policy or programme initiated by the current administration has enhanced this image.

Ghana has been blessed, but the blessings are being squandered by a leadership of unprecedented broken promises, incompetence and corruption. Ghanaian voters should learn now that it is easy to write pretty promises in a textbook and far harder to deliver on those promises before another four years pass us by.

My Views of Accra and the future capital of Ghana

I am not an urban planning expert and I am not by any stretch of imagination claiming to be. I am writing this piece as a lay person based on my understanding of what constitutes attractive city from observations made during a couple of travels elsewhere. I am very much aware of the ramifications of the things I am about to write. It has both financial and historical implications and as such I appreciate the fact that things bordering on butter and bread as well as culture are always basis for arousing emotions. Forgive me if I am rather proving to behave like a stubborn cat by deliberately rattling Accra residents especially the powers that be's cage. We have no option however than to accept the assertion that the truth like a cork stands and irrespective of how we feel or react, unless the situation in question fundamentally changes, the truth won't change. The plain truth is that Accra which is the capital city of Ghana is unattractive.

I have lived in Accra continuously since 1996 but had intermittent stays from 1988. A lot of things have changed since that time. Most recognisable among these is the sheer growth as in spiral in numbers and physical expanse. Unfortunately these changes have not necessarily translated and impacted qualitatively  on the lives and living conditions of the residents of Accra. On the contrary, living conditions have being deteriorating or for want of a better word, they lag behind both in expectation and reality. Maybe it was about time we began to compare standards with the best, and not the worst. In Accra, the worst and the ugliest examples are visibly around us. Trying to measure cleanliness is about the degrees of comparison with similar places worldwide. Actually the superlative form of the adjective used here implies comparing three or more national capital cities.

What yardsticks or indicators are there to measure the attractiveness or otherwise of Accra? What does it mean to say a city is the ugliest? Are these parameters culturally or environmentally sensitive or responsive? The plain truth is Accra is just an ugly duckling with small chance to turn into a beautiful swan before relinquishing her status to Bui City, I am not hallucinating. Review the following lines and you can't but agree with me. Accra is crowded, dirty and just boring, and in terms of architecture she is simply unsightly. Obviously, some may find entirely planned suburbs like the East Legons, Sakumonos, Golden Gates, Ashongmans or a couple of others as fascinating or inspirational, but calling these dotted areas beautiful would be a bit of an exaggeration.

The truth of the matter is that Accra lacks or has inadequacies in terms of the most modern facilities and also qualifies as the most impoverished and uninhabitable area. Many parts of Accra look as a cesspool appearing and smelling like pure hell where you can't choose to eat else you do so at the peril of your health because in some of these areas eating food there is equivalent to garbage. There are no safety standards and all you know it could be a vulture dressed up as chicken and dished out at the 'chop bar' or the greenery but poorly treated vegetable garnishee was grown with water from the typhoid-infested drain or sprayed with pesticides just hours before harvesting them. You only need to be near Odaw river or properly called Odaw  garbage landfill to verify or collaborate this. The repulsive stench emanating from the channel alone will be enough confirmation of the extent of dirt and filth. This problem has two fold causation: attitude and incompetence or square pegs in round holes. If mosquitoes those cacophonous tiny insects that cause malaria are soldiers, Accra would have been the most impregnable place on earth. 
Regrettably, the city lacks constant flow of treated water. Residents endure what is termed 'water rationing' whereby total volume of water available at any point in time is shared according to a roster among residents. Even here, there is no assurance that water will run through the pipe at the stated dates and times. Consequently, a phenomenon has emerged where residents have developed their own unique coping strategies through which water is stored till luck comes smiling on them. A peculiar yellow jerrycan originally meant to store cooking oil is the preferred container for this purpose. It appeared on Accra landscape and many parts of Ghana during the reign of former President John Kufuor. People sarcastically named it 'Kufuor Gallon'. I am not so sure if it is still being called by same name or a new name has replaced it following the expiration of Kufuor's tenure of office. As a result of our inability to supply treated water, Accra appears to more vulnerable to cholera outbreaks than any other major city in the country. As for misdiagnosed water-borne disease like typhoid and dysentery as malaria, the least said, the better. Even the number hospital, Korle Bu is often not spared this agony and mismanagement facing Ghana. The sad thing is that Accra seems to be thirsty in the midst of abundant water. The supreme creator was so good to Ghana that the land is blessed with many streams and rivers many of which are perennial and ultimately have no option but to empty themselves into the Gulf of Guinea. We are not into water war with our neighbours unlike other nations at least for the foreseeable future. Indeed to buttress this point is the fact Ghana has just signed an agreement with its Togolese counterpart to export between 40,000-70,000 gallons of water everyday to Lome, the capital city of Togo. The Water Purchase Agreement with the Togo Water Company will enable that country get water from Sogakope through transition lines to the capital Lome. Besides, huge quantities of water from the Bagre Dam in Bukina Faso is released in which several communities in the three Northern regions have been inundated by perennial floods, affecting lives and livelihood of thousands of citizens of Ghana.    

Shantytown nature in parts of Accra today

The lay out in Accra if there are any are nothing more than 'Zongo lane' which is a metaphor for forest thicket in town. No wonder the Ghana National Fire Service is unable to deal decisively with the rampant fire outbreaks. There is often no passage to the disaster site or water hydrant has been built or encroached upon. And speaking of rampant fire outbreak is in itself a statement of the state of affairs about what Accra is made of. In the month of March 2012 alone, Ghana experienced three nationwide complete power outages on steamy equatorial nights. Many patients at the threatre under the surgeons knife were said to have lost their lives. Who is to blame? Well power play and blame game was at their wits end! The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) seems to have joined the circus by announcing telephone numbers for consumers to report directly to them. Can you imagine this? The regulator is making public admission that it has no independent means of monitoring the performance of organisations that come under its control. No one in Accra is accountable for their actions or inactions. Watch Tiger Eye's (Anas Areyaw Anas) recent exposé on Electricity Company of Ghana,  and you would have discovered shockingly that we use fourth grade electric cables from China. And to add insult to injury, every abode in Accra is completely barricaded like a maximum security prison building or the male slave dungeon at El mina. All for the fear of criminals (armed robbers) breaking in and causing physical harm or looting all possessions. Insecurity in Accra is legendary and often heightened by lack or better still malfunctioning street lights although electricity consumers are charged street lighting levy. No accountability. When you travel from Viana de Castelo to Ponte da Barca in Portugal at night, you think there is just one single settlement all the way. The street lights in various towns along the route merged to create a continuous view of one mega city when in fact there are just small farming cottages. Similarly, if you are airborne at night over cities like Porto, Lisboa (all in Portugal), Trondheim (Norway), Amsterdam (Holland), Casablanca(Morocco)  or Cairo (Egypt) [for these are the places I know, observed the phenomenon at night and can confidently speak to], you can clearly distinguish the streets on the ground by the street  lights along the routes but over in Accra you see dotted and isolated lights coming out from individual households.

Do you know that it is considered offensive to stretch your hand when giving direction in Portugal? On 14th August 2011, on a tour to Bom Jesus at Braga, a friend warned me and said hey, this is unacceptable behaviour here. Try to locate a place in Accra by asking for a guide from residents and they will  stretch the right hand to direct you to 'go straight ahead, forked off right at the T-junction 300 metres away and after two minutes walk you will see a lady roasting ripe plantain, ask her for your desired house or location'. For God's sake, health is not a permanent condition and the lady roasting ripe might have decided not to come to the spot on that day due to ill-health or some other considerations. But this is the reality in Ghana, no house numbers and functional street names. Informal area names that exist do not have signs and only typical locals know them. I am yet to see a block of skyscrapers, cobblestone pavements, metal sign boards, proper street names (not those flimsy ugly wooden structures) and of course overpass and bridges at intersections on high ways. Forget about streets and alleys or lanes. The few ones available are relics of the 19th century performing the functions of the twenty-first century. 

Accra's architecture is not impressive at all. The city centre is rather quite messy, dirty and chaotic continually congested and choked with human traffic. It has few historical monuments that can boast the title of UNESCO sites. In terms of architecture, Accra probably qualifies as the most boring capital along the Guinea gulf coast.

Today, Accra is an odd city and chaotic mix of a few modern constructions and a few remained yurt suburbs. It lacks the elegance of Vienna, passion of Paris or craziness of Berlin and if you are a nature lover, better head for the Brong Ahafo region where you will find some of the country's beautifully laid out and well kept towns, rather than spend your Cedis in the city of Accra.
Perhaps it is time we revisited the Bui City Project as an alternative future national capital. After all Bui is near Kintampo which was adjudged to be at the centre of Gold Coast prior to British Togoland ( now Volta region) joining the Gold Coast in a plebiscite in 1956 and this makes it ideal location for a future national capital. Further, the warmth and hospitable nature of the people in the Brong Ahafo enhances this advocacy. There is plentiful land unlike Accra crowded by over population. This move will also serve as an incentive to make investors relocate firms to help attain the objectives of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA). The SADA initiative is intended to help bridge the widening development gap to the northern Savannah areas, comprising the Upper East, Upper West and the Northern Region; as well as districts contiguous to the northern region in northern Brong-Ahafo and northern Volta region. Investments in agriculture, agro-processing, tourism, mining and services are expected to ensure that more than 90% of the jobs created will be long-term, sustainable employment, especially for the youth. Northern Ghana has been noted for poverty-induced violence conflict for many years. The SADA strategy makes peace and conflict avoidance a cardinal pre-condition for sustainable development in the area.

Bui site

The Bui city concept was to develop relevant infrastructure needed to support the establishment of a well-planned city within the Bui project area. The city complex would be located downstream of the dam on both banks. The Bui City Project is a nucleus of a metropolis which was conceived long ago in the 1920s by one Albert Kitson who had visited the gorge and declared the site suitable for a Hydro plant.


When completed, the Bui city will be one of the potential new growth poles for enhancing cross- border trade and tourism. It is envisaged that the Model City will be the Most Livable City in Africa, representing a human habitat to accommodate the influx of people seeking to take advantage of new opportunities offering
economic, tourism and educational opportunities.
The vision seeks to make this a world-class facility, leading in tourist attraction in the sub region characterised by value added features such as good jobs and economic opportunities, a new economic zone which embraces technology, effective and efficient infrastructure, diversified affordable housing options, as well as access to health care schools. The Bui city with its own university is also expected to accommodate over one million inhabitants in the next 30 years.
We should stop wasting our resources trying to modernise Accra with fanciful names as 'Ministry for the Modernisation of Accra' or the 'Millennium City' with very little chance to turn Accra into a beautiful swan. Names in themselves mean very little. To make matters worse, Accra is often plagued by various natural disasters like the May-July annual floods as it is a low-lying plain and at the same time, the dark side of the city, the numerous shantytowns, is home to places you would rather avoid. Indeed Accra stinks and the superlative ugliest may not be enough to describe Ghana's capital city.

Kwasi Appiah Appointed Black Stars New Head Coach

Former captain and assistant Black Stars Coach, James Kwasi Appiah has been appointed head coach of the Ghana national team, stepping up from the role of assistant boss.

Coach James Kwasi Appiah

Kwasi Appiah replaces Serbian Goran Stevanovic, who was sacked last month following the Black Stars' failure to reach the African Nations Cup final earlier this year.
A statement from the Ghana Football Association read: "The Ghana Football Association has appointed James Kwasi Appiah as the substantive head coach of the Black Stars.
"The executive committee of the GFA confirmed the appointment of the former international at a meeting in Accra on Monday April 9, 2012.
"The meeting was called to discuss the head-hunting exercise undertaken by the GFA to find a permanent Black Stars coach.
"Appiah will meet the Executive Committee of the GFA on Tuesday, April 10, to formalise the deal.''
Ghana made it to the African Nations Cup semi-final but went down to eventual winners Zambia. They then lost the third-place play-off 2-0 to Mali.

Kwame Nkrumah's unknown son surfaces

The age old saying that “Nkrumah never dies” seems to carry much more weight than many may think.

Just when almost all Ghanaians have come to accept that Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, has four children, a fifth child has surfaced and says he is a true son of Osagyefo.

His name is Dr. Onsy Anwar Nathan Kwame Nkrumah, a Saturday born (Kwame), whose birthday fell on March 17, 1957 - 10 days after Ghana attained independence.


Born in Egypt to an Egyptian mom by name Isis Nashid, the 55-year-old son of Osagyefo told Citifmonline.com he has been in and out of Ghana for the past 30 years and has now “decided to settle here in Ghana.”

At an ‘unveiling’ ceremony in the capital, Accra, several family members who had trooped in from Dr. Nkrumah’s hometown were full of praise for the new ‘Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’ who according to them had renovated and refurbished the family house which had been in a deplorable state for years.
He said when he visited his father’s hometown, he realised that the family house had no electricity and potable water, and took the responsibility to renovate it.

Dr Nathan Nkrumah said: “It is a great joy for me to discover my lovely family and I would have loved to live with them in Ghana”.
Conspicuously missing from the program were all the known children of Osagyefo. Dr. Francis Nkrumah, Gamel Nkrumah, Samia Yaaba Nkrumah and Dr. Sekou Nkrumah absented themselves for unknown reasons.

Asked why his siblings were absent from such a ceremony he said “well, you know that we’re from different mothers so we all somehow lead separate lives which is unfortunate, but that’s how it is… but we know ourselves, they know me, I know them. We relate by phone sometimes, e-mail with some of them like Gamel, I see him each time I pass through Egypt and I see him more than the siblings.”

He said his mother Nashid was first with Osagyefo before he was married to Fathia and he was the second child after Dr. Francis Nkrumah.

Meanwhile, Dr. Sekou Nkrumah has denied knowledge of his “brother” on social media network – Facebook.

In reaction to a post on the topic, Sekou said: “A free history lesson, Nkrumah married Fathia on 31st December 1957, their first son Gamel was born on the 18th of March 1959. Samia on 23 June 1960, and Sekou 1 December 1963.”

Clottey named world’s 8th best striker for 1st quarter of 2012

Berekum Chelsea striker Emmanuel Clottey has been named the 8th best striker in the world so far this year, surpassing the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid.

According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), the home-based striker has now been named Africa’s best marksman so far this year.

His five goals in international competitions catapulted him to the 8th position which he shares with Bayern Munich’s Mario Gómez and Dorlan Mauricio Pabón.

The statistics were based on the number of goals scored by players for their national team, club sides at continental level in this calendar year, a period within which Clottey has really flourished.

IFFHS takes into account the number of goals the player has also scored for his country.

Emmanuel Atukwei Clottey

Clottey hit a brace in their Champions League clash against Liberian side LISCR and followed that with a hat-trick against Raja Casablanca.

The Berekum Chelsea striker failure to get a national team call-up affected his ranking because of the seven players he tied with Gomez and Pabon had not scored for their countries.

Clottey beat the likes of Neymar, Salomon Kalou and Sergio Aguero who are all on four goals.

Lionel Messi heads the list with nine goals followed by Klass Jan Huntelaar on eight with Philip James of Phillipino side Loyola Meralco Sparks on six goals.

Emmanuel Atukwei Clottey (born August 30, 1987) is a Ghanaian professional footballer, who currently plays for Ghana Premier League club Berekum Chelsea and the Ghana national team.

Clottey began his career with Brazil Academy and then joined Mighty Victory Sporting Club, before in 2004 signed with Accra Great Olympics. In 2007 Clottey was top goal scorer of the Ghana Premier League and moved in January on a 6 month loan to Austrian Football Bundesliga club FC Wacker Innsbruck, his first club in Europe. Clottey then joined OB on loan and made his debut as a substitute against FC Amager in the Ekstra bladet cup. He later returned to Accra Great Olympics in January 2009 before being signed on a contract on 9 April 2009 with Eleven Wise. In June 2010 he joined Berekum Chelsea.

Source: MTNFootball.com & Wikipedia

Nana Oye Lithur should shut up and give us a break!!!

An American statesman, Benjamin Franklin nicknamed "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for unity and justice lived between January 17, 1706 and April 17, 1790 and is fondly remembered for writing the popular proverb "an empty barrel makes the most noise". It refers to an empty head or stupid person. We all will attest that when you knock on an empty barrel, it sounds loud, and when you knock on a full barrel, it produces silence or quietness. Implicitly, it means people who listen know a lot, and people who talk a lot know less. Indeed the most annoying thing about the sound produced from an empty barrel is that due to its hollowness, when you tap on it, it produces irritating noises unlike the result from tap on a full barrel which makes hardly any noise at all.  In practice, we observe that people with no smarts (EMPTY/block head) or not much intelligence/knowledge make the LOUDEST noises, ESPECIALLY when they speak on subjects they know 'nothing' about! They often end up exposing their ignorance. They often do so with the intention to attraction attention thereby gaining recognition which inevitably turns out to be useless and inimical to their own reputation.

On Friday 30 March 2012 a High Court in Accra reviewing the conviction appeal of Prophet Kofi Yirenkyi popularly known as Jesus Onetouch, founder of the Jesus Blood Prophetic Ministry, overturned his conviction. The sitting judge Justice Emmanuel Dzakpasu ruled the prosecution could not prove beyond every reasonable doubt that the girl’s hymen was broken by penis penetration and more importantly if it was the father who defiled her. Jesus Onetouch was slapped with a ten year jail term for defiling his own ten year old daughter by Circuit court presided over by Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa in November 2011. Among other reasons given were that two separate doctors’ reports tendered in evidence could not also vindicate the position by the prosecution while no evidence at all was tendered to support claims that Jesus Onetouch slept with the girl every Tuesday and Thursday and took the vaginal secretions in white handkerchief to perform miracles at church services. 

As it has now become the norm in Ghana, the media seeks reactions in order to fill their unprogrammed space and also get legal enlightenment on the implications for the development and enhancement of protection of child rights especially girls. We need to bear in mind that such cases portend great deal of repercussions for future trials of similar nature. It turned out that among the 'so-called learned friends'  to speak on the issue was a certain self-styled a human rights lawyer, Nana Oye Lithur. I carefully chose by words in the previous statement. It is not because I don't know or do not understand what a human rights lawyer does or is. I said what I have said because of the persona of Oye Lithur in the past and specifically about the remarks she made with respect to the current case. 

What did Nana Oye Lithur say? Basically Oye Lithur is unhappy and that is naturally expected knowing very well that her popularity and bread is derived from making such empty noises. “We are disappointed with the judgement… We are also very disappointed with the way the Attorney General’s office and the Attorney General and the State Attorneys have handled this case because they were not in court today. The case was called, they were not in court and the case was stood down and still they did not appear in court. So we have to look at how the Attorney General’s Department and the State Attorney on this case has handled it and whether or not this has contributed to the judgment we have today,” Oye Lithur is quoted by the media. To be honest, the above comments resonates with the thinking of a large section of Ghanaians who are very dissatisfied with the performance and attitude of the staff of the Attorney General's Department. I believe I do not need to remind anyone about the Woyomegate judgement debt, Waterville judgement debt scandal, CP tax waiver fraud and the list continues unabated. For this reason, I believe we do not need any legal luminary to educate us in order to come to that conclusion.    

The most damning and scandalous remarks uttered by Nana Oye Lithur has to do with the appeal evidence. The report said 'Lithur questioned how the two doctors’ reports were tendered in evidence on appeal and questioned who ordered the second test and challenged how it was done. She was convinced that with time the scars on the victim’s private parts and which was basis for the first ruling against Jesus Onetouch may have been healed which made a second test a fait accompli in favour of the accused person.' Did Oye Lithur really understand what an appeal process involves? I have never stepped inside a law lecture room and will claim no better knowledge of the legal process. However, my non-legal experience and knowledge tell me that an appeal process does not accept the tendering in of any new evidence. My illiterate non-legal mind can confirm this.

An appellate court, commonly called an appeals court or appeal court is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. The trial court (in this case the Circuit Court), initially hears cases and reviews evidence and testimony to determine the facts of the case to pronounce judgement while appeal court primarily reviews the decisions of the trial court.  It does not hear new evidence! This is a first year law class lesson that no accomplished legal practitioner should forget.

An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. This means Jesus Onetouch appealed to the Accra High Court to review the conviction of the Circuit Court rendered last November, 2011. This is of right on the assumption that judges though well learned and well verse in the rules of engagement are nonetheless vulnerable to making errors in the delivery of justice. Thus the petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision. The specific procedures for appealing and the nature of an appeal, including even whether there is a right of appeal from a particular type of decision, can vary greatly depending on the type of case and the rules of the court. Depending on the particular legal rules that apply to each circumstance, a party to a court case who is unhappy with the result might be able to challenge that result in an appellate court on specific grounds. These grounds typically could include errors of law, fact, or procedure. 

English jurist William Blackstone said “better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.” The ratio 10:1, now known as the “Blackstone ratio,” expresses the classic ideas of the presumption of innocence and (in so far as the statement speaks of “guilt,” “conviction,” “imprisonment,” and the like) the burden of proof “beyond a reasonable doubt”
that prevails in criminal law. Contrary to what Nana Oye Lithur would want the world to believe, Jesus Onetouch's appeal did not accept any new evidence. The contradictory evidence given by the two doctors for prosecution took place during the trial at the Circuit court. One doctor said the ten year old girl had had her hymen broken by penile penetration at least once while the doctor from the Police Hospital contradicted claim by saying the broken hymen even if caused by a man, then the small index finger was inserted.  Frankly speaking, I was really surprised that in spite of this obvious doubt, Justice Mensah-Datsa still thought the accused was guilty of the charges preferred against him. The conviction justly could not pass strict proof test. 

Readers would recall that this same Nana Oye Lithur vigorously campaigned for the arrest of the President of The Gambia, Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh. Nana Oye Lithur linked Jammeh with the reported 2004 massacre of 44 Ghanaian migrants and 10 other ECOWAS nationals. Though, the NPP government at the time denied the number of 44, Oye Lithur insisted without producing any identifications of the people allegedly murdered or any proof of her claims. Eventually, when the NDC, a party she is known to have sympathy towards and in which she and her husband have been given high profile and very lucrative appointments came to power from 2009, compensation was paid for mere four (4) Ghanaians by The Gambian government. Sadly, in what has become known as NDC BLOOD MONEY, Oye Lithur looked on unconcerned as officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immorally siphoned large portion of the compensation money and paying peanuts to relatives of the victims and failing to render proper and convincing accounts.

For being who she is, perhaps the only advice for her is please silence is GOLDEN, speech is silver. You, Betty Mould-Iddrissu are adding to the widely held perception that women lawyers in Ghana are empty barrels, incompetent, ill-informed though women lawyers like Professor Akua Kuenyehia and others give us reason to trust their competence, knowledge and expertise in the professional practice of lawyer by our women lawyer folks. Meanwhile Nana Oye Lithur please shut up and give us a break! As we approach the Passion, perhaps you need someone to remind you that “bias against punishment” has its roots in “the most famous of all miscarriages of justice: Jesus Christ’s crucifixion.” Maybe the coincidence of name, Jesus helped his vindication to give true meaning to the maxim that “better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.” You must recognise that Jesus Onetouch too is equally a human being like the ten year old girl and if you believe in true dispensation of justice as of right and not based on effusions, then the state has no business violating the rights of Jesus Onetouch simply to satisfy the parochial interests of so-called gender and child rights activists like Oye Lithur.  It is just and proper that the wrongful imprisonment he endured during the five months of incarceration must be now corrected by the Accra High that heard his conviction appeal case at least so long as doubt exists about his culpability in the case. 
I repeat that I neither personally know Prophet Kofi Yirenkyi also known as Jesus Onetouch in any connection nor ever worshiped at Jesus Blood Prophetic Ministry, the church he is claimed to have founded. I am simply writing this piece in the belief that Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa indeed erred during the trial at the circuit court and that legal redress must be available for any party that has suffered some injury irrespective of our personal beliefs or convictions. To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay right or justice. Let us all be "bold to defend forever the cause of freedom and of right, fill our hearts with true humility and make us cherish fearless honesty."