Announcer of one giant leap for mankind dies

The family of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, says he has died at age 82. A statement from the family says he died following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures. It doesn't say where he died. Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969. He radioed back to Earth the historic news of "one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong and fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on the moon, collecting samples, conducting experiments and taking photographs. In all, 12 Americans walked on the moon from 1969 to 1972.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong (AP Photo/NASA)

Armstrong was a quiet self-described nerdy engineer who became a global hero when as a steely-nerved pilot he made "one giant leap for mankind" with a small step on to the moon. The modest man who had people on Earth entranced and awed from almost a quarter million miles away. 

The landing capped the most daring of the 20th century's scientific expeditions. His first words after setting foot on the surface are etched in history books and the memories of those who heard them in a live broadcast.

"That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong said.

In those first few moments on the moon, during the climax of heated space race with the then-Soviet Union, Armstrong stopped in what he called "a tender moment" and left a patch commemorate NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had died in action.

"It was special and memorable but it was only instantaneous because there was work to do," Armstrong told an Australian television interviewer this year.

Thievery in the name of safety

A Kwahu man (one of the Akan ethnic groups of Ghana) invited his friends for his mother's burial. After lowering the coffin at the graveside, they put yam, rice, meat etc., into the grave.

A Hausa man (ethnic group from Nigeria and other Sahel regions of West Africa) asked why? The Kwahu man smiled and said, "according to our tradition, the dead go on a long journey hence need all the food items they can get". The Hausa man subsequently dropped a cash of GHS10,000 (ten thousand Ghana Cedis) inside grave and said, "when the food gets finished, buy more".

A Fante man (another one of the Akan ethnic groups of Ghana) also added GHS5,000 in cash and said, "add this in case it is not enough".

An Asante man (the single largest Akan ethnic group of Ghana) who was present at that time smiled, brought out his cheque book and wrote a cheque for GHS20,000. He dropped it in the coffin and took the GHS15,000 note cash as change, then said, "Eno Serwaa! withdraw this cheque when you reach Asamando (the Akan name for the world of the dead and ancestors)!...it is going to be a dangerous journey, we don’t know how many robbers are out there and no one will be there to save you so just manage the cheque"  Damirifa Due! Fare thee well!!

Who will save Africa's strongmen?

The Akans of Ghana have this proverb on the idea of the interrelatedness of life and death:
Nyame boo owuo na owuo kum Nyame; na Nyame na ote nanka aduro nti odii owuo so nkonim interalia this translate laterally as:
this means:
The Akan believe that
The Creator created things;
When He created things,
He created Life;
When He created Life,
He created Death;
When He created Death,
Death killed Him;
When He died,
Life came into Him and woke Him up;
Thereafter, He lived forever.

For certain is death for the born. And certain is birth for the dead; Therefore over the inevitable. In the course of the year 2012, the icy cold hands of death has claimed four of Africa's leaders. It appears that inspite of all the wealth and power at their disposal, they were no match for the power of death. Regardless of who you are or where you're from, death is certain. But what is funny is that even though we know it's coming, we fear it including the so-called strongmen of Africa.

Guinea Bissau (Malam Bacai Sanhá 64; 9 January 2012)

Malawi (Bingu wa Matharika 78; April 5, 2012)

Ghana (John Atta Mills 68; July 24, 2012)

Ethiopia (Meles Zenawi Asres 57; 8 May 1955 – 20 August 2012)

All these death coming within the first eight months of 2012 I believe had dwarfed Prophet TB Joshua's prophesy that one African leader was going to die in 2012. The big question I am running through the minds of Africa's strongmen still alive is:

Who will be the next to go?

 and or ?

Why ordinary African civil and public servants have to retire mandatory by age 60 years old but the 54 African Chief Civil servants are not subjected to same rule? Africa will learn to escape this fate.

'Reinvent the Toilet Competition'

A toilet challenge sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has highlighted new Toilet Tales where we see health gains without wasting water or excrement. The outcome from the Fair revealed that we are capable of utilising everything connected to excreta, either literally or figuratively. Researchers from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom snagged the prizes, at the Reinvent the Toilet Fair, where innovations in sanitation were displayed at the foundation's headquarters in Seattle.

There were excrement eating worms, toilets that separated out the urine to recover water and carbon dioxide, others that turned feces into pellets for fertilizer or fuel, and some that converted excrement into biological charcoal.

The foundation issued a challenge to universities one year ago to design toilets that can capture and process human waste without piped water, sewer or electrical connections. The toilets should also be able to transform human waste into useful resources, such as energy and water, at an affordable price.

California Institute of Technology in the United States won the 'Reinvent the Toilet Competition' with this model designed to be a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen and electricity.

The first, second and third place winning prototypes were recognized for most closely matching the criteria required. The goal, which is ongoing, is to develop technology that can deliver safe and sustainable sanitation to the 2.5 billion people worldwide who lack it.

Poor sanitation leads to transmission of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. Some 1.8 million people die from diarrhoeal diseases annually, most of them children under five, according to the World Health Organisation. It estimates there are four billion cases of diarrhea annually, and 88 percent are attributed to unsafe water, poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation.

Ghana's Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo said poverty prevents construction of proper sanitation facilities.

"In rural areas it is very difficult for people to put up decent houses, let alone decent toilets," he said. "When you don't have a decent house and [a place] to lay your head, a toilet becomes a secondary matter."

But he said it was not only a question of health and development, but also one of human dignity.

"If you can have a decent place to attend to nature's call, it is one of the best things you can do for your people," he said. "In Ghana, when you are traveling on public transport … sometimes you have women doing it in the open because of the absence of facilities. It doesn't dignify the status of women and how they should be treated."

Sierra Leone recently declared a state of emergency because of mounting cases of cholera in the capital and outlying areas. In Zimbabwe, the government has come under pressure to deal with an outbreak of typhoid. And with worldwide depletion of water sources, experts say wealthier countries will be forced to transition their own water-dependent sewage systems in favor of more sustainable sanitation solutions.

Charity Kaluki Ngilu, Kenya's Minister of Water and Irrigation, toured the toilet fair in Seattle, along with government ministers from Benin and the Central African Republic, to bring ideas back home.

"We have a serious problem of lack of sanitation," Ngilu said. "You still have a lot of people in the country who go for open defecation - they just don't have latrines or toilets."

A member of parliament since Kenya's first multi-party elections in 1992 and a former minister of health, Ngilu says Kenya's government should do more to improve sanitation. "The priorities are wrong," even if the main focus is the economy, "because as long as you have sick people, they cannot be productive. And, therefore, you cannot achieve development and there cannot be economic growth."

Ngilu has been mentioned in Kenyan media as a potential presidential candidate in elections scheduled for next March. If she were to run, she said, it would be on a "development" platform to address issues of poverty - which she would like to do because she said she knows where strategic investments can lead to rapid progress. She cited a World Bank report estimating that "every year the government is losing $324 million dollars to treat people who are sick due to lack of sanitation, and clean, safe drinking water".

That money, she said, "should be spent to prevent the diseases - much more than treating the diseases when they happen - by providing safe, clean drinking water and sanitation to the people".

In some cases it's a matter of safety.

Doulaye Kone, senior Programme Officer for Sanitation and Tools at the Gates Foundation, grew up in rural Cote d'Ivoire and experienced first-hand what it was like to live without a latrine. It is especially difficult at night, he said, and children are often frightened. But frequent diarrhea experienced by children in areas of poor sanitation gives them no choice.

"You don't know where you're sitting when you go out in the night, and you don't know what you're risking … snakes, other animals, pigs who may come and attack you because they feed on human excreta."

Kone said African governments were doing a lot to improve sanitation to achieve Millennium Development Goals by 2015 - international targets agreed at the United Nations to reduce severe poverty and disease. But he said progress could accelerate through expanding efforts in the private sector.

"Private entrepreneurs can play a tremendous role," he said. "They just need to be structured, and governments have to provide the right incentive, the right regulatory environment, so these entrepreneurs can flourish."

Freeze on Better Ghana - Mahama Kicks Mantra to Touch in Maiden Address

Political pundits and keen observers of the way development has been served to Ghanaians under the so-called Better Ghana Agenda, by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), are beginning to question the relevance of the mantra, after over three years of its initiation.

The Better Ghana Agenda mantra first found expression in the NDC's 2008 Manifesto, developed under the theme: "Building a Better Ghana", where an elaborate programme of intent to invest in people, jobs, the economy, and ensuring a transparent and accountable government, was conceived .

Three years down the line, critics of the government say the tenets and ideologies underpinning the "Better Ghana Agenda" have been served Ghanaians on naked lies and pure propaganda, with very little to show for it.

The critics point to the current state of the Ghanaian economy, with the free fall of the cedi, as nothing any government should be proud of.

On Wednesday August 15, 2012, when the new Head of State, John Dramani Mahama, who was sworn into power on July 24, 2012, the evening after the late President John Evans Atta Mills had joined his ancestors, addressed the nation in his new capacity without a word of the Better Ghana Agenda of his former boss, political pundits began to curve eye brows.

In his maiden address to the nation, President John Dramani Mahama pledged, among others things, to maintain the peace and serenity of the country, during and after the December 7 elections.

He also paid glowing tribute to his former boss, and asked all to rally around the idea of peace that was well propagated by his former boss.

Interestingly, Mr. Mahama served notice that he would in the next weeks introduce new policy directions on the way forward for national development under his stewardship that would expire in December, when Ghanaians decide at the polls.

"Fellow countrymen and women, in the next two weeks, I will present an agenda to the nation on some policy measures we must take to consolidate the progress we have made as a nation," he hinted in his maiden address to the nation.

Some have inferred to this statement as a subtle admission that the Better Ghana agenda of the NDC had lost its lustre. The fact that he never mentioned 'Better Ghana' once in his broadcast was being interpreted as the beginning of the end of the mantra of the government policy.

Earlier in the week, the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) challenged the government to point to the much-touted developments it had chalked under the so-called 'Better Ghana' agenda in the last three years.

The NPP pointed to a falling Cedi, broken promises of the NDC, and an overall mismanagement of the Ghanaian economy, as indicators of the failure of the NDC government, and that the 'Better Ghana' concept had remained a paper guarantee of abstract deliveries.

Dr. Mamudu Bawumia, running mate to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the December general elections, has been offering some explanations as to the reason for the free fall of the Cedi.

According to the renowned economist, the Cedi was falling in value against the major currencies, because of the incompetent management of the economy by the government, which is eroding confidence in the local currency.

The government had blamed speculators, NPP traders, and even the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure, as responsible for the around 80% Cedi depreciation to the dollar, since 2009.

On the issue of corruption, the current government has often been referred to the whopping GH¢642 million in the payment of so-called judgement debts, with records showing that a majority of these payments were procured by fraudulent means, and also through arbitrary settlements.

The handling of the controversial GH¢51.8 million paid to NDC bankroller,Alfred Agbesi Woyome, as judgement debt, continues to be an albatross hanging around the neck of the NDC, and spites their fight against corruption in the face.

On December 7, the NDC's Better 'Ghana Agenda' or remnants of it, if any, will stand trial for Ghanaians to pass their verdict on its success, or otherwise. 

Opinion By Daniel Nonor, 17 August 2012 - Copyright © 2012 Ghanaian Chronicle.

No New Constituencies for Elections?

Though the controversial, corrected Constitutional Instrument (C.I. 73) for the creation of 45 new constituencies laid before Parliament will satisfy the constitutionally-mandated 21 sitting days in September and become law, there is uncertainty surrounding the existence of the constituencies for the December elections as a result of pending court cases and inadequate time.

The first uncertainty arises from the legal implications and effects of pending judgments of cases before the Supreme Court and the High Court on the fate of the proposed creation of 45 constituencies by the Electoral Commission (EC) and the creation of 45 Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) by the government.

If by their decisions the Supreme Court and/or High Court nullify the creation of the constituencies and MDAs, then the 45 additional constituencies will not be available for the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, contend legal experts. The nullification of C.I. 73, and by extension the 45 constituencies, by the courts will affect the legality and operations of the MDAs since every district must have a constituency. Similarly, if the courts illegalise the newly-created MDAs, going by the legal requirement that every district must have a constituency, then it implies that the new constituencies cannot exist.

The court cases likely to affect the creation of the constituencies and the MDAs include a writ filed by Messrs Richard Odum Bortier and Daniel Quaye at the Fast Track High Court in Accra on May 28 restraining the EC from creating the new constituencies. The High Court, however, stroke out a contempt case against seven commissioners of the EC on Thursday. In an affidavit to supporting the contempt motion, the applicants stated that "the respondents were aware of the other reliefs seeking an order to restrain the Electoral Commission which acts through them, from creating new constituencies except upon publishing a Constitutional Instrument setting forth clearly the bases, process and methodology by which it does its work.

"Yet the commission acting through the respondents had proceeded to create the new constituencies with abandoned nonchalance which conduct is aimed at prejudicing and interfering with the administration of justice."

Also, four opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) lawyers, namely Nii Ayikoi Otoo, Captain Nkrabiah Effah-Dartey(rtd), Frank Davies and Samuel Atta Akyea, in separate suits, have dragged the EC to the Supreme Court over the creation of the 45 constituencies and the 45 newly inaugurated districts.

The controversy over the creation of the new constituencies and MDAs is even murkier as a group calling itself Concerned Citizens of Ghana (CCG) led by Mr Frank Davies, a former Greater Accra Regional Bar Association President and an NPP constituency executive in the region, took the EC and the government to the High Court over the creation of the MDAs and constituencies. The CCG claimed in a writ of summons that the government failed to address the associated problems of equity and fairness, by ensuring equal representation in the re-alignment exercise. It claimed the creation of the new districts was in contravention of the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1993 (Act 462), describing the creation of several of the new districts and municipalities as illegal. The plaintiffs are seeking an order declaring the MMDAs and constituencies null and void.

Prior to this case, Nii Ayikoi Otoo, an ex-Attorney- General and Minister of Justice under the Kufuor administration, also filed a case at the High Court on behalf of the a group who want the newly created MMDAs and constituencies declared null and void. Ayikoi Otoo also sued the EC over the creation of 45 new constituencies. He said: "Under our Constitution - Article 47 (3) provides that the boundaries of each constituency must be such that the number of inhabitants in a constituency is as nearly as possible equal to the population quota. It is our view that this population quota is not being adequately addressed."

He noted: "If you look at the Constitutional provision, it enjoins the Electoral Commission to by Constitutional Instrument make regulations for effective performance of its functions, yet the EC has never published any Constitutional Instrument by which they over the years have been reviewing and creating constituencies in Ghana."

Majority Leader Cletus Avoka laid the C.I.73 before Parliament on Wednesday after he withdrew the error-ridden first instrument one which was laid before the House on July 17 and was due to come into force by the end of Wednesday. The corrected C.I. 73 needs 21 parliamentary sittings to take effect. Mr Avoka, therefore, before laying the C.I., informed the House that the Majority and Minority leadership, in conjunction with the Parliamentary Speaker, would find an appropriate date for Parliament to reconvene after it goes on recess on Thursday.

He explicated that although the EC had wanted to correct the C.I, it was impossible for it to do so as a result of some constitutional and Supreme Court rulings. "Confronted with this challenge, the only option opened to it was for the EC to withdraw the original C.I 73 and substitute it with the corrected version."

Mr Avoka said some mistakes detected in the new version of the C.I 73 had already been corrected to avoid the repetition of the situation in which the House found itself now. He said he asked the permission of the Speaker of the House, Mrs Joyce Bamford-Addo to recall Parliament, due to go on recess, to allow for the 21 days for the legislation to mature

On Tuesday, the Majority and Minority in Parliament and the EC agreed to withdraw the first C.I. 73 for rectification after exchanging heated differing arguments on the relevance and effects of the CI, and on the procedures and processes involved in husbanding and transforming it into a statute. The parliamentary leadership withdrew the C.I. because of what some Members of Parliament (MPs) described as "errors," "omissions" and "corrections."

Serious disagreements greeted the deliberation of CI 73 when it introduced to the House. MPs mainly from the governing NDC and the opposition NPP met to consider arguments for and against the withdrawal of the C.I. That was after the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation of Parliament found fault with several aspects of the ill-fated C.I. Many grammatical and typographical errors occurred, factual mistakes such as the misplacement of some electoral areas in certain constituencies irked the members of the committee to approve and recommend the rejection of the CI.

The second uncertainty with the coming into existence has to do with the inadequate time for the new constituencies to partake in the exhibition of the biometric voters register by the EC which takes on September 1-10. Political watchers ask: what happens to the new constituencies which are to come into being after that period?

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the NPP, Mr Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, has accused the EC Chairman Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan of yielding to the governing National Democratic Congress's (NDC) manipulation to take advantage of the new constituencies which is tantamount to gerrymandering. According to Mr Owusu Afriyie, the several decisions by the EC including creation of 45 new constituencies gives backing to the NPP's claim.

Despite the uncertainty hanging on the creation of the constituencies, some parties are vetting parliamentary candidates for the proposed constituencies, while others are adopting a wait-and-see approach. The NDC has already started interviewing person to represent the yet-to-be created constituencies. The NPP says it awaiting the court decisions on the creation of the constituencies whilst the Convention People's Party calls for annulment of the creation of the new constituencies.

According to a report by The Ghanaian Times, the Subsidiary Legislation Committee considered petitions from some Ghanaians and civil society groups such as the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), a policy and governance think tank, gave about four reasons why the creation of the new constituencies must be stopped.

CDD observed that the EC appears to have misinterpreted the law that grants them power to review constituencies to mean increase in the number. For them, review means altering boundaries of constituencies and not necessarily to increase the number. Another reason put forth by CDD was that a subtle perception exists that the EC was favouring the NDC in creating the new constituencies. CDD also said MPs are currently without logistics and research assistances, noting that adding more will only worsen the situation. The CDD maintained that the existing ones must be maintained and well resourced instead. 

Credit: Public Agenda

Methodological God at Work

The Methodist Church at New Weija, determined not to cede an inch of its land encroached on by the Assemblies of God, has perforated the original wall of Assemblies of God auditorium to erect their own fence wall in order to methodologically secure their land.

The space in contention is less than two feet and residents of New Weija in Accra, are wondering what may have compelled the Methodist Church to break and build through the Assemblies of God walls for encroaching on just less than two feet of their three plots of land.

Even though the leadership of the Assemblies of God admitted to an architectural error on their part and made various overtures to the Methodist Church to solve the issue amicably, their pleas were not considered.

A lay preacher of the Methodist Church, Jerry Mpraim on July 4, 2012 led some members of the church who ignored petitions from colleague pastors from the other church, to perforate portions of the Assemblies of God Church and constructed a fence wall about 9 feet tall through the church of the Assemblies of God at night.

A frustrated Rev. Justice Akwasi Agyei, Head Pastor of the Assemblies of God church, Power Centre at New Weija, expressed shock his colleague ministers and fellow Christians took such drastic measures. “It’s rather unfortunate that this thing is happening here, most especially, in the house of the Lord,” he said.

“The portion that they are demanding now is less than two feet, we spoke to them in so many ways but still they chose to do their own thing.”

Residents described the incident as “shameful and disturbing”. And for a church of the standing of the Methodist faith to take such an “inappropriate” measure to resolve such a ‘harmless’ miscalculation involving another church, some residents have even threatened to prevent their friends and relatives in the area from worshiping with the Methodist Church there.Expatiating on the issue, Rev. Justice Agyei, admitted that the architect they contracted to work on their church building made a “genuine mistake” and encroached on about two feet of Methodist Church’s plots. The two churches sit on a four plot of land: one for the Assemblies of God with the remaining three belonging to the Methodist Church.

Immediately the attention of the church was drawn to the encroachment when they were about roofing the building, he said, he and the leadership of the church quickly made proposals to the Methodist Church to enable them to coexist, but to no avail.

“We agreed [that we have encroached on their land] and since we are all Christians and on the same land, there shouldn’t be any problem, we have to solve any problem amicably. They came to us and we also went to them, and then we presented our options to them: either we compensate them or they should allow us to stay on the land because in the next two or three years the building would be broken down and a new one put up. Or they should lay their wall to close our main door that opens to their land or they should lay the wall so that people would not know that we have encroached into their land.”

He said not even the intervention of the Regional Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, Rev. George Annan, and another senior pastor Rev. Theresa Klottey could persuade the Methodist Church to tempter justice with mercy.

Appeals to the Superintendent Minister of the Methodist Church Dansoman Circuit, Very Reverend George Mensah, who has a supervisory role over the branch of the church at New Weija, for an intervention to save the situation did not yield any results.

Members of the Methodist Church connected light from their church to the Assemblies of God church, broke the padlock to the rear door of the church and entered the building. They then broke the two sides of the church building and laid their wall through on July 4, 2012.
They did not demolish the portion of the church sitting on their land; the builders only cut through the wall of the Assemblies of God auditorium and raised their own wall. The greater portion is where they worship now and the other inaccessible part - which is just about a foot-long - still standing on the Methodist land.

The Steward of the Methodist Church, New Weija, Yaw Boateng explained that his outfit started discussion with the Assemblies of God over a year before taking that step.

“We asked the Rev. of the Assemblies of God to remove the portion so that we can fence the [part] that belongs to the Methodist, and the Rev. told us he doesn’t have problem at all, so we can do it [in a manner that] will bring peace.”
He said the action was a unanimous decision by the entire church: “Even Rev. Justice went to our headquarters to apologise that we can leave that portion for them, but you see it can’t be possible like that. The church is not for one man, the church belongs to the majority, so when we discussed issue like this and majority agree that we use this or sell the portion for the Assemblies, I don’t have nothing to do. So we all agree to fence our fence wall which belongs to the Methodist.”

A step in the right direction but...

Nothing has changed and nothing will change until the people use their innate power to bring about the desire changes. As Ghanaian voters ready themselves to choose a new set of leaders to shape the destiny of the population on December 7, 2012, people who have either personally put themselves up or have been nominated by political groups to contest, the question of free, fair and transparent process comes up. One of the main criterion for assessing and establishing a level playing field for all contenders in the political arena is the abuse of incumbency.  It is a referendum on the maturity of Ghana's democratic experiment.

The phrase abuse of incumbency refers to the use of government resources, not available to any other candidates, to aid an incumbent running for reelection. There are many ways political appointees in Ghana use their positions to further their election campaigns. This includes the use of government funds to pay campaign expenses, including travel costs, publications, salaries of campaign staff, sending campaign literature to constituents at government expense, as well as manipulating government statistics to make the government look better than the situation actually is. Acts of abuse of incumbency also include actual or threats to transfer or even fire non-supporters and coercing state and local leaders to support the incumbent government’s bid for re-election with state funds. Theoretically, the political process can check abuse of incumbency because challengers may make the unconstitutional acts a major campaign issue. Such an initiative to curb the practice is the ongoing 'naming and shaming' exercise by three civil society organisations. On Thursday August 16, 2012, the three non-partisan, non-profit civil empowerment organisations focused on the delivery of essential themes necessary for the creation of a national anti graft system reported the outcome of a survey in progress in this regard. The organisations are Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Centre for Democratic Development Ghana (CDD Ghana) and Ghana Anti Corruption Coalition (GACC). The activities under this project are aimed at promoting electoral integrity by engaging the electoral process in order to enhance election transparency, equality of opportunity, credibility, and peace. The Coalition seeks to use this monitoring project as an early warning mechanism where findings of electoral impropriety will be passed on to electoral stakeholders and the general public for prompt action. The overarching goal of this project is to initiate a set of interventions that will ensure that the 2012 elections are conducted in a peaceful and fair atmosphere. 

The survey covering the period of the months of May and June 2012 cited Ghana's ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) over its penchant for wanton abuse of incumbency and power for electoral gain and at the expense of the Ghanaian tax payer. The survey found Brong Ahafo, Volta, Western, Eastern and Central Regions were predominately notorious for such abuse of incumbency. Political corruption was also ripe according to the survey findings. Political corruption is the misuse by government officials of their governmental powers for illegitimate (usually secret) private gain. It refers to behaviour by public officials, elected or appointed, which violates social or legal norms regarding what is or is not legitimate private gain at public expense. From civil/public officers to politicians, laws are circumvented to obtain riches and/or win and stay in power. Political corruption threatens democracy and good governance, undermining the legitimacy of government and democratic values. The findings, based on groups' monitoring report further faulted NDC appointees for claiming credit for projects undertaken with the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF). As if this was not enough, NDC party officials in government were also cited for buying votes and using their positions to compel people to support the party.

To a number of Ghanaians who follow the political game in the country over the course of 20 years of the 4th Republic, this sounds like nothing new. What is new is the attempt by the group to document the much-talked about but often grossed over, hard evidence. According to the group, they have photos and other forms of electronic evidence to back their claims. As the group itself acknowledged, it does not have the constitutional mandate to take action against official abusing of incumbency, but by such public disclosure exposing the rot in the system and the culprit officials, a step in the right direction has been taken. This has many implications for the public to make their own judgment as well as providing ammunition for constitutionally mandated bodies such as the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to act.

Democracy envisions rule by successive temporary majorities. The capacity to displace incumbents in favour of a representative of a recently coalesced majority is an essential attribute of the election system in a democratic republic. Consequently, both all ordinary Ghanaians including civil society groups and courts encompassing every constitutional entity charged with the responsibility of securing free, fair and transparent elections should be chary of efforts by NDC appointees to control the very electoral system which is the primary check on this power through abuse of incumbency. Few prospects are so antithetical to the notion of rule by the people as that of a temporary majority being NDC entrenching itself by cleverly manipulating the system through which Ghanaian voters, in theory, can register their dissatisfaction by choosing a new leadership on December 7 election day. Going forward, Ghana must legislate that all ruling party appointees who win primaries to contest an impending national election at any level  and at any time must be made to stand down their positions. Although this may in the short run deprive the nation of the services of some very competent appointees, the country stands to gain in the long that what is immoral and undesirable is removed and a sense of legitimacy bestowed on the very elected. We should never again allow ourselves to be taken for granted by citing similar wrong doings committed in the past as history can only offer us one valuable lesson; guiding us against repeating past errors. We should be bold and take the bull by the horn.

Greater success is within Ghana's grasp

In his first nationwide address since assuming the highest office of Ghana on July 24, 2012, President John Dramani Mahama has admonished his fellow country men and women to remain united while he promises policy initiative in two weeks. The broadcast basically sought to inspire before his tenure expires as a stand in President in accordance with Ghanaian tradition.

"I will ensure we protect our unity in diversity. Lets build on the legacy left behind by the late President and those that served before him. Everyone must take ownership of the country" by erasing negativity and petty name-calling. Ghana is yet to achieve its greatest achievement. The best we can offer lies ahead of us and not behind us.Greater success is within Ghana's grasp."

The question is what policy can achieve in just three months to the end of his tenure of office which he and his ex-boss, the late John Evans Atta Mills could not do in 44 months? President Mahama, it would be recalled was sworn in as president of Ghana following the demise of JEA Mills on July 24, 2012 who was finally interred at the Asomdwee Park in Accra on Friday August 10, 2012. 

"GOD, I GIVE IT ALL TO YOU"

And so the controversy ranges on since the late President of the Republic of Ghana, Professor John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills reportedly died at the 37 Military Hospital, on Tuesday 24th July, 2012 after being rushed there. Many are those propounding their own conspiracy theories.

In rendition of the vote of thanks at Mills' burial on Friday August 10, 2012, Dr Cadman Atta Mills, the late President’s brother and also a member of the Mills-Mahama’s Economic Management Team said, 'President Mills’ final moments, were marked with a submission to his Maker'. He said President Mills raised his hand and said his last words: "God, I give it all to You."Dr. Cadman Atta Mills had earlier revealed that the late President suffered a stroke before he was pronounced dead at the 37 Military Hospital. Speaking at the grave side on behalf of the family, Dr. Mills said doctors together with some family members tried their very best to resuscitate the President without success. It is very instructive to note that a person who had suffered 'massive stroke' could lift his hands and open his lifts to utter his last words. The cause of Prof. Mills' death has generated lot of controversy with some sections of the public advocating a Coroner's Inquest to establish the cause of death of the late President. Dr. Cadman Mills' revelation of the cause of death on Friday August 10, 2012, was the first time the family of the late President was publicly speaking on the issue. The inconsistency in his account of events leading to the demise of the late President has rather rekindled the desire of the doubting Thomases to demand inquiry into the death.

Firstly, one fact that has been acknowledged by his image makers, is the tribute attributed to him as his last written autotribute as appeared on page two of his funeral 'Tribute' and 'Journey' booklets. People are questioning the authenticity of this claim. Some say the signature was forged. Others argued that if indeed the late president authored the suppose last message, then he knew he was about to die, contrary to his continuous denial about his ill-health. Was the late president evasive or lying to Ghanaians? The question is what was his reason for concealing his ill-health which in any case was something already in the public domain? Was he also the one who put together music video clip showing on TV indicating that he is sitting on the right hand side of God interceding on behalf of Ghana and Ghanaians?  On hindsight, sober reflection would show that it is getting absurd.

Secondly, the sheer coincidence of the launch of President John Dramani Mahamathen the veep's book called "My First Coup d'Etat: And Other True Stories from the Lost Decades of Africa." The book published on July 3, 2012, chronicles the coming-of-age of John Dramani Mahama in Ghana, who unbeknownst to him or anyone else, would grow up to be president of his nation. Was he a fortuneteller or was there 'a crystal ball' he was reading? I hope and pray this book was not a prelude to some palace coup d'etat in the offing. While not suggesting that the current president had a hand in the dispatch of the late president to the other side, this sort of premonition appears to be too real. Maybe as already written 'Mahama's is a rare literary voice from a political leader, and his personal stories work on many levels'- stories in this book "rise above their specific settings and transport the reader into a world all their own, one which evokes a time lost and explores the universal human emotions of love, fear, faith, despair, loss, longing, and hope despite all else." How does this premonition fit into the Informer newspaper's editorial of Monday, June 25, 2012, that exposed compelling signals of power game at the Castle of some apparent infighting between loyalists of President Mills and a faceless group purported to be aligned to Vice President John Mahama? The newspaper stated in its editorial that "an intel picked from the Osu-Castle pointed to the fact that the latest news of another death of President Mills emanated from the Castle itself. The NDC is, arguably, becoming escalated bits of self-destruct individuals with personal interests to safeguard than a political party with a common purpose, industry and destiny.”

Thirdly, people question what prompted his entire family from Cape Coast to visit on that fateful Tuesday July 24, 2012 considering that the President had earlier told Parliament he was travelling to Nigeria on the said day. Was there no communication between the President and his family in Cape Coast before the set off? Was it the President himself who wrote the notification and permission to travel letter to Parliament? How come it was one of the late President's sisters who had to go and procure a neck collar for the late President when according to the same sister doctors were treating the late President when they arrived? People are ill at ease with what prompted the letter written from the Castle to the House of Parliament seeking to inform the House on a purported trip to Nigeria, where fallen President Mills was to confer with Goodluck Jonathan, Head of State of the Federal Republic, on the very day that he died. 

Lastly but not the least, is it true that for well over 30 minutes, the key to the ambulance used in transporting President Mills to the 37 Military Hospital could not be found?Is the DAILY GUIDE report that "there are strong indications that former President John Evans Atta Mills choked on his own blood after suffering a rupture of a major blood vessel" true? Is it also true that "the late president died before reaching the military hospital some two hours earlier"?Why did the people around the late president like Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah his National Security Advisor refuse to let him resign as he and his wife Ernestina had wished? "He (Mills) told me General, 'my wife has advised me to step down', but I (General Nunoo-Mensah) told him that God is in control and has put him there...so he can't leave and abandon his people," Nunoo-Mensah said. Could he have lived longer like the first president of Caremoun, Ahidjo Ahmadou? In November 1982, President Ahmadou Ahidjo of Cameroon who had ruled the country since independence in 1960, abruptly resigned and handed over power to the Prime Minister Paul Biya ostensibly with only few days left to live. Ahidjo Ahmadou however survived and lived on for seven more years till his death in 1989. Was ex president Jerry John Rawlings right when he asserted that “quite frankly, I think had he been advised and done something wiser earlier on, he could probably have survived for another six, seven months, I guess?”

Indeed death is the inevitable end of all mankind. For this reason, I cannot but trust in the Lord as the giver and taker of life, and that the late president was called by his maker. Nevertheless, like many other well meaning Ghanaians, groups like the Ghana medical Association and as is done in any civilised community of nation, I hold that the circumstances surrounding the death of President Mills call for fuller explanation than the piecemeal releases being offered by officialdom. The whole episode of the President’s death sounds like a comedy hence warrants proper investigation that will tie up all the loose ends. GOD, GHANAIANS GIVE IT ALL TO YOU. WEEP NOT, FOR MILLS IS NOT DEAD, HE IS ALIVE AND AWAKE IN THE LORD. MILLS CAME TO SERVE; HE HAS FINISHED HIS TIME HERE ON EARTH AND HAS MOVED ON TO EVERLASTING REST AND CELESTIAL DUTIES WITH HIS HEAVENLY FATHER. Everlasting beatification message!

A Rare Ugandan disease that gives people a sense of hopelessness and helplessness

Augustine Languna's eyes welled up and then his voice failed as he recalled the drowning death of his 16-year-old daughter. The women near him looked away, respectfully avoiding the kind of raw emotion that the head of the family rarely displayed.

"What is traumatizing us," he said after regaining his composure, "is that the well where she died is where we still go for drinking water." Joyce Labol was found dead about three years ago. As she bent low to fetch water from a pond a half mile from Languna's compound of thatched huts, an uncontrollable spasm overcame her. The teen was one of more than 300 young Ugandans who have died as a result of the mysterious illness that is afflicting more and more children across northern Uganda and in pockets of South Sudan. 

The disease is called nodding syndrome, or nodding head disease, because those who have it nod their heads and sometimes go into epileptic-like fits. The disease stunts children's growth and destroys their cognition, rendering them unable to perform small tasks. Some victims don't recognize their own parents.

Rare nodding disease afflicts young Ugandans

Ugandan officials say some 3,000 children in the East African country suffer from the affliction. Some caregivers even tie nodding syndrome children up to trees so that they don't have to monitor them every minute of the day.

As a result, Uganda is hosting a four-day international conference on nodding syndrome that health officials believe will lead to a clearer understanding of the mysterious disease. World Health Organization officials in Uganda said the conference will be attended by about 120 scientists from all over the world. Anthony Mbonye, of Uganda's Ministry of Health, said the conference will allow scientists to share knowledge about the disease.

Scientists are working to find the cause of the disease, which is stretching health care capacities here and testing the patience of a community looking for answers as to why it attacks mostly children between the ages of 5 and 15, why it's concentrated in certain communities, and whether it is contagious.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has been investigating nodding syndrome at the request of the Ugandan government, has ruled out 36 possible causes since 2009 and is carrying out a clinical trial for potential treatments. In mid-February the lead investigator said on a visit to Uganda that there is now "clear evidence that this is an epidemic" about which very little is known.

"We did repeated exams on several of these children and found that some of the children had stayed the same, some of the children had gotten worse, none of the children had improved," said Scott Dowell, director of CDC's Division of Global Disease Detection and Emergency Response.

Researchers are focusing on the connection between nodding syndrome and the parasite that causes river blindness, Dowell said, though it is not yet clear there are any links. Onchocerciasis, or river blindness, has been around for a long time, but nodding syndrome is somewhat new, he said. "And we also know that there are many parts of the world that have onchocerciasis but have no evidence of nodding syndrome."

Many residents here in the northernmost reaches of Uganda, nearly 300 miles from Kampala, say they think the disease is rooted in violence. Locals have said it's the only explanation for the disease's prevalence in places most affected by the legacy of a brutal war carried out by Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group. Kony and the group have waged a campaign of murder, rape, and the abduction of boys and girls who go on to become killing machines or sex slaves.

"We the Acholi have suffered a lot, and I am asking why," said Benjamin Ojwang, an Anglican bishop in the area. "In the absence of Kony, we were beginning to find relative peace. When are our people going to rest?"

A disease as strange as nodding head gives people a sense of hopelessness and helplessness, said N.K. Okun-Okaka, a retired veterinarian who has the status of a village elder. "They can only do something about it if they know the cause, how it is spread. My heart goes out to these children. We feel very sorry and we feel like we do not live in the modern world," he said.

Ugandan health officials have known about the disease for nearly 10 years. By 2006, after Kony was repulsed from Ugandan territory, health care providers had diagnosed several cases of epilepsy without stopping to ask why.

"This thing is old," said Emmanuel Tenywa, a World Health Organization official in northern Uganda. "After the war there were so many cases of epilepsy. That's how this thing started." Yet serious steps to manage the disease were taken only in the last year after a group of parliamentarians accused the authorities of criminal negligence. The government then announced a $2.2 million plan. But the cash has been slow to reach treatment centers.

Sick children have remained stuck in villages where biting poverty sometimes combines with the inattention of caregivers. Children have been badly burned after falling in fires. Others have died falling into water, like Languna's 16-year-old girl. And it is common to see children tethered to trees by caregivers too busy to look after them.

In Languna's household alone, eight children suffer from the disease, including a 12-year-old boy whose growth is so stunted he looks half his age. Languna has given up on all of them. "We lost a child who was so promising," he said. "But what pains us more is that these ones you see are destined to (die)."

Investigators said they are not certain the disease is non-communicable, but they advise against alarm. In the absence of definitive answers, some here have been taking matters in their own hands by isolating the sick. At the Okidi primary school, which Labol attended before she drowned, teachers once attempted to segregate the children and then dropped the idea after being criticized. Since 2007 there have been 141 cases of nodding disease at the school, with seven ending in death.

Now sick children rarely come to school, science teacher Paska Atto said. Luke Nyeko, the Kitgum chairman, is frequently stopped by parents demanding to know what exactly their children are suffering from or why they cannot be cured.

"I feel very bad, very bad," he said of encounters with distressed parents. "It's a bit tricky because you can't go and lie to them. We just tell them that we don't know the condition."

President Mills died two hours prior to arrival at 37 Military Hospital

The Accra-based tabloid DAILY GUIDE newspaper at the beginning of the three-days official funeral memorial of late President John Evans Atta Mills is reporting that it has intercepted a copy of the autopsy report on the cause of death. The post-mortem, according to the DAILY GUIDE, rather than settling the issue of the cause of death of the former president, is likely to raise other issues, especially since the government has kept quiet on it, rather referring it to the family. This is because though "there are strong indications that former President John Evans Atta Mills choked on his own blood after suffering a rupture of a major blood vessel," the fact that there was "there was nobody by his side to render a helping hand or even engage medical assistance when the danger signs were manifesting" brings to the fore the demands by groups such as the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) for a coroner's inquest.

"The report also showed that the late president died before reaching the military hospital some two hours earlier, a revelation which further throws a question about the veracity of previous reports of whether he died at the hospital or at the Castle. The report has provided more grounds for those agitating for a post-mortem to proceed with their demands, especially since the autopsy shows that there are still gray areas in the management of the late president’s situation. Why was the deceased left unattended to when it was obvious that he was suffering from a terminal ailment and so could not be left alone without attention? At the time that he was struggling to breathe because of the blood getting in the way of his air passage, someone in attendance could have raised the alarm for an expert attention to be sought immediately. The report brings to the fore, once more, the inconsistencies regarding where the late president died. While some claim he died at the Castle, others want us to believe that he passed away upon reaching the military hospital at 2:15pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012," the DAILY GUIDE reported.

The post-mortem report DAILY GUIDE chanced upon it claimed revealed that the remote cause of death, which has been in the public domain for a long time yet disputed by the deceased’s handlers, is throat cancer. The immediate cause of death however has been attributed to the choking resulting from the ruptured blood vessel.

The only known child of the late president, Samuel Atta Mills paying his last respect

The cancerous growth, according to the report, metastasized or spread to his sinuses, that is the cavity of the nasal passage, which perhaps accounted for his altered voice in his last days. The inflammation or diseasing of this part of the body is referred to as sinusitis. It would be recalled that the deceased, in the heat of questions about his health when he sought treatment in a South African hospital, said he was suffering from sinusitis.

The autopsy report explained that the tumor or growth ruptured his carotid artery, a major blood vessel so he bled profusely and with no assistance at the time, he suffocated, which was what was referred to by those who set eyes on him when he was brought to the military hospital on that fateful day.

The loss of blood from his nostrils led those agitating for a post-mortem to suspect poisoning because in their estimation, bleeding was consistent with the symptoms of poisoning, especially when the deceased had said for the umpteenth time that he was not sick.

"The position taken by government is seen as hypocritical, especially when it has told the family that the departed president was a state asset since he died in office," the DAILY GUIDE stated.