WAEC releases results of 2010 BECE

Source: GNA

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Accra, Aug. 2, GNA - The West African Examination Council (WAEC), on Monday said it had released provisional results of the April 2010 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

A statement issued in Accra and signed by Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, Principal Public Affairs Officer of WAEC, said that the results of various schools would be despatched through the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directors of Education.

It said that candidates might access their results online from tomorrow, Tuesday, August 3. 

The statement said 1,075 candidates had their subject results cancelled while 76 candidates had their entire result cancelled.

The affected candidates were involved in various examination irregularities.

These include bringing foreign materials into the examination hall, seeking/receiving help from non-candidates such as invigilators, supervisors and tearing parts of their question papers and answer booklets and collusion.

Ex- President Kufuor to be hauled before Bui Power Authority

By Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/Citifmonline.com | Mon 16th August, 2010

Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor may soon be hauled before the Bui Power Authority to account for his stewardship as the past Board Chairman of the authority.

General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress Johnson Asiedu Nketsia made this known to Citi News in an interview.

According to Mr. Asiedu Nketsia, the former president who opted to steer the affairs of the authority after ‘‘he had forced parliament to pass a law approving his appointment’’, has questions to answer regarding monies he(Mr. Kufuor) claimed were voted to construct a Bui city.

Until the constitutional provision was amended, a sitting president could not chair any State Owned enterprise.

Government signed the contract with the Chinese engineering and procurement organization, Sinohydro in April 2007, to construct the long awaited dam that would add 400 megawatts of power to the national grid. The project commenced in April 2008.

The construction of the Dam is costing the government of Ghana $60million out of the total project cost of $622m, largely funded by the Chinese government. It is expected to be completed and commissioned in December 2012.

Reacting to Mr. Kufuor’s recent criticism of the NDC administration as one that endorses corruption, Mr. Asiedu Nketsia stated that Mr. Kufuor was the most corrupt leader Ghana had ever produced.

 “Kufuor is the first president of this country who requested to be the chairman of a state owned enterprise as a sitting president. He insisted he wants to be the Chairman and it went to Parliament and it was passed. We have taken over from him and we discovered to our amazement that the first six months that Kufuor was the Chairman, not a single sentence by way of minutes of all the meetings they have attended could be found. All the decisions that were made were done arbitrarily and implemented in a very haphazard manner''.

''President Kufuor told Ghanaians that they were going to build a Bui City with a University and Airport as part of the project. Indeed they made a pictorial representation of how Bui City looks like, and then we took over and realized there is no single word about the Bui City in everything that is being done there''.

''There is no pesewa meant for Bui City and you told us that you have brought money from China to build the dam and build a city. If it were any other person, he would have called that person to account for that, and very soon we would have to invite President Kufuor to come and show us where he lodged the Bui City money because we are taking over from a former board, and we have the right to invite the former Board and their chairman to account for their stewardship’’ he added. 

Castle fraud…INTERPOL impounded cars mssing

Source : Today/Ghana | Tue 17th August, 2010

Today has uncovered a vehicle-stealing syndicate currently operating at the Castle, the seat of the Ghana government. The cars, this paper established, were impounded at the Tema Port by the Ghana section of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL).

INTERPOL officials went on a virtual goose chase at the Castle recently when they embarked on a routine search for about six cars that INTERPOL officials say were in the possession of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Alex Segbefia. The cars, believed to be stolen from overseas countries by some Ghanaians, were impounded by INTERPOL last year.

Mr. Segbefia, the paper’s finding established, could not tell the police officers exactly where the impounded cars had been sent to compelling the INTERPOL Ghana to give up the chase. When contacted on the subject, this is what Mr. Segbefia had to tell this paper in a text message response: “All impounded vehicles from the port are under the jurisdiction of national security. Please contact them for a response. Thank you Alex.”

As directed by the deputy chief staff, this reporter who is also our deputy news editor, sent a text message to Mr Korsivi Degbor, a deputy to the National Security Coordinator, col. (Rtd) Gbevlo Lartey, to react to the story but was never forthcoming.

The INTERPOL officials had apparently gone to the Castle to take the cars back to its origin, the United States of America (USA), but shockingly could not trace the cars. Checks conducted by this paper revealed that the six posh cars included Toyota Highlander-2008-model; Range Rover vogue-2009 and 2008 models, Mercedes Benz E-350-2008 model and two Jaguar XF 2009 models.

Further investigations by the paper revealed that the six cars were among 44 other cars which were imported into Ghana by Kudi Cargo Incorporated from Jamaica in July 2009.

Sources close to the Custom Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) at the Tema Port hinted this paper that Baj Freights Limited and Salpholda ventures based in Tema were the companies that facilitated the clearance of the cars.

Today gathered that the two companies paid an amount of GH¢77,742,70.00 as duty fees in order to clear the goods until officials detected that the cars were stolen from the USA.
Some top anonymous CEPS officials who spoke to Today recalled that when the cars were impounded, a group of people from the Castle brought some documents to the port that the stolen cars were on transit to Togo and claimed that it originally belonged to the Guinea Embassy Consulate in Togo.

“They indicated that the cars were imported in the name of one Madame Cherif Marian Diop, a Senior Staff at the Guinea embassy Consulate in Togo, and had to be taken to Togo. The cars were not even examined before they were given to the group led by some top officials at the Castle from the deputy chief of staff’s office to be taken to Togo as they claimed,” a source at CEPS told Today.

However, when Today inquired from the Guinean Embassy in Ghana to find out if the stolen cars indeed belonged to the Guinean Embassy Consulate in Togo, the Secretary to the Guinean Ambassador to Ghana, Mrs Martin Bogue, exposed the Castle syndicate.

She told Today that they had an embassy in Togo but all the administrative work is done at the Ghana office of the Guinean Embassy so there I no way cars would be sent to Togo for administrative purposes.

“The name Madame Cherif Marian Diop does not exist here at our embassies in the sub-region. We have records and names of all staff who work at our various offices across Africa and those cars do not belong to the Guinea embassy as those people claim,” disclosed Mrs. Bogue.

NDC Minister Denies Grabbing Billionaire Mansion

The Eastern Regional Minister, Hon. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, is threatening legal action against the Editor of the Searchlight newspaper for a publication that the Minister says defames him. The Daily Searchlight in a publication on Thursday August 12, reports that "at a time when Ghanaians are struggling to make ends meet, amidst strong protests of suffering from all quarters, officials of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government are grabbing properties left and right as if there is no tomorrow. They are building as if building materials are going to run out in the very nearest future!," claims the newspaper. According to the Daily Searchlight, one such government official is the Hon. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, who it alleges, has put up a magnificent 8 bedroom mansion situated behind the Housing Finance Company (HFC) at Baatsona on the Spintex Road, barely two years as a public official! But in an interview with Alhassan Suhini, host of Radio Gold's Morning Show programme, the Eastern Regional Minister labeled the publication as a "pack of falsehood". Whiles admitting that he is indeed putting up a housing facility in the area, Mr. Ofosu Ampofo explained that it was a 6 bedroom not an 8 bedroom house. According to him, in 1998 when he bought the land, the place was covered with Nim trees and he began laying the foundation in 1999. ".there are witnesses who can testify that the building had reached roofing level before the NDC came to power," he added. The witnesses, he said, included the Baatsona Home Owners Association. According to him, the building at the centre of controversy is not tiled neither had any painting job been done on it, adding that it was strange someone "could do such a publication in his wildest imagination." ".not even my ex-gratia awards can complete the building within the time frame Ken Kuranchie speculated. I have asked my lawyers to standby and I am waiting for him to retract and apologize to me," Mr. Ofosu Ampofo said. The Hon Minister disclosed that currently, he resides in a rented apartment, and questioned if putting up a home was such a wrong thing to do. He threatened to haul Mr. Ken Kuranchie to court for defamation if he "does not retract the lies he published," adding that the Searchlight Editor had acquired the penchant of going round "ruining the reputation of people who have worked hard." Source: Peacefmonline

Man of God is NPP activist - Ablakwa

Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto  Ablakwa: Does not agree with  Rev. Asante-Antwi's positioning Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has expressed surprise at the blatant self-identification with partisan politics by a minister of the Gospel of Christ, Rev. Samuel Asante-Antwi of the Methodist Church in Ghana. Rev. Asante-Antwi on Saturday 'painted' himself in the colours of the New Patriotic Party while officiating at a thanksgiving service at the Ridge Church in Accra attended by leading members of the NPP, including its newly elected flag-bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. "Let us put in the appropriate measures that we are the alternative government. The key word is alternative", Rev Asante-Antwi urged the NPP, saying "We have forgotten a lot of people in this country…". He also urged the party to do more for the plight of the deprived and not to wait till it comes to power. "You must continue to press them, (government) press them because there are still children going to school under sheds; they say that we didn't do well, what have they done about those things, what about the roads…?" Read story here. But Okudzeto says that is a sad indiscretion from the priest and a worrying deviation from a cardinal principle of the flock head who should position himself so as to embrace all who need his counsel and prayer. The deputy minister said it is the norm for men of God to point out the government's shortcomings, especially so when its officials ask for their prayers for God's blessings, but indulging in partisan politics was a gospel 'nay'. "If you listen to Rev. Asante-Antwi, he uses the expression 'we, we' so many times. He says that 'when we were in government the things that we did'; then he says that 'we need to show Ghanaians that we are the alternative government and that the NPP is a blessing to Ghana. "Quite clearly he then wears political clothes. It is clear that he speaks as an activist of the NPP and engages in campaigning for Nana Addo. "My understanding of the Great Commission if you look at the Matthew 28:19 where Christ said 'Go ye therefore and teach All Nations…you look at Mark 16:15 Christ said 'Go ye into all the world and preach the word to every creature; then you look at James 2:1-13, where we are admonished against favouritism and partiality once in the priesthood or in the work of God and if you also remember Edmund Burke's statement that 'politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement', you come to a certain conclusion that it is not appropriate for men of God and for a high level person like the former president of the Methodist Church to descend into partisan politics because it will be our wish that whether you are NPP, NDC, CPP, PNC - once you are a Christian - you can go to men of God for prayers and rely on their direction and their support but when men of God like Rev. Asante-Antwi descend into partisan politics, I think that it is worrying for our country." Okudzeto also condemned as unfortunate, a comment by Rev. Asante Antwi that Ghanaians were ungrateful for voting the NDC into power at the expense of the NPP. "…it's clear that Rev. Asante-Antwi is a member of the campaign team of Nana Addo and NPP and so is speaking from that perspective", he said. Okudzeto Ablakwa also told myjoyonline.com that the "Priesthood must be agents of uniting us as a nation and not dividing us because it is certain that in every congregation you are likely to meet members from varying political persuasions and certainly, we do not want to get to where Rwanda got to where thousands of Christians who ran to a priest to seek refuge at his parish were burnt to death." Story by Myjoyonline.com/Ghana

Priest damns Mills, NDC and hails Nana Addo for 2012

Rev Samuel Asante-Antwi: Says the NDC government has failed         A former President of the Methodist Church in Ghana, Rev. Samuel Asante Antwi has endorsed the candidature of NPP flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo as the best to win the 2012 presidential elections, saying Mills has failed. Rev. Asante Antwi says the Mills administration has failed to improve the lives of Ghanaians as promised during the party’s electioneering campaigns and wants Ghanaians to reject the NDC and vote for Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2012 polls. “Let us put in the appropriate measures that we are the alternative government. We have forgotten a lot of people in this country. At times we don’t notice them as human beings and need to be cared for. "...They said that we (NPP) didn’t do well, what have they done about those things? What about the roads? Now the road toll has been increased how many per cent?… more than a thousand per cent. What have they done with the monies collected? Water, electricity? “Nana as I said, you have said it all, I am only trying to summarise. "The mounting indiscipline in this country, the vice president was the champion for that, Alhaji, (former vice-president Aliu Mahama) I hope you will pick it up again (fighting indiscipline) for this country," he said. Rev. Asante Antwi who was addressing a thanksgiving service attended by the NPP flagbearer and leading members of the party in Accra, also lamented what he says are the poor implementation of social interventions like the National Health Insurance Scheme by the government, as well as the continued schooling of some children under trees. He called for unity among NPP party supporters especially high ranking members. Source: Joy News/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana

Rot at STC: GH¢81million used for bribery

A committee of inquiry set up by the government to investigate alleged financial malfeasance at the Intercity STC (ISTC) Coaches Limited has revealed that an estimated amount of GH¢81 million collected from passengers as clearance fees from 2000 to 2009 cannot be accounted for by the management. The clearance fees are paid by passengers to and from Abidjan, Cotonou and Ouagadougou, in addition to the normal fares charged by ISTC, to facilitate their smooth and quick movement through the many borders and barriers on the company's international routes. According to the report of the committee made available to the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, although the fees had been collected in the name of the company, there was no record of receipts, nor could the money be accounted for by the management. The three-member committee, under the chairmanship of Mr Abu Millah, a financial consultant; said the clearance money was "money used to corrupt international public officials along the company's international routes". "We believe the company can use other genuine means to get clearance on these routes and save passengers huge sums of money," the report stated. The committee identified some major areas of financial malfeasance, including the sale of tickets jn foreign exchange and their conversion into cedis, the purchase of second-hand engines and parts, the-use of management imprest and questionable payments by management between the period under review. Giving the breakdown of the estimated sums collected by management between 2000 and 2009, the report said GH¢2 million was stolen in 2000, GH¢4 million in 2001, GH¢4 million in 2002, GH¢6 million in 2003 and GH¢7 million in 2004. The rest of the collections were GH¢8 million in 2005, GH¢8 million in 2006, GH¢9 million in 2007, GH¢11 million in 2008 and GH¢12 million in 2009. The report noted that "the fact that these monies are not accounted for represents a serious control weakness which could facilitate fraud". The committee, which also had Mr Francis Sey and Mr Eric Tetteh as members, recommended that the collection of clearance fees from passengers should, be stopped immediately because it gave Ghana and the company a bad name in the international setting. It observed that the practice adopted by the company in respect of foreign exchange transactions also lacked transparency and accountability, which left room for corruption, which had resulted in the company suffering exchange losses. It said by virtue of its operations in Burkina Faso, Benin and Cote d'Ivoire, the company received foreign currency, mainly CFA, from the sale of tickets to passengers. From time to time, the company exchanged the CFA for local currency but did not keep records of the rates at which the exchange transactions were carried out, it noted. The committee further observed that due to lack of procurement and stores managers from 2000-2004 and in 2008 and 2010, there were no proper internal controls over purchases of stores and materials running into huge sums of money. It said the financial effects of the lack of an appropriate procurement arrangement at the ISTC could run into several millions of Ghana cedis. It recommended that the Managing Directors and General Managers of Finance and Administration of the company from 2000 to 2009 should be held liable for the lapses. On management imprest, the committee observed that all reimbursement made did not pass through pre-audit checks before cheques were written, a situation which was worrying. To enhance transparency on road clearance funds, it said tickets issued to passengers on international routes should be divided into two parts - normal fares and road clearance fees - on the same ticket issued, with separate bank accounts. For purposes of transparency and accountability in the handling of foreign currency, it recommended that all foreign exchange earnings or receipts should be converted through the banking system and that the company should open a foreign currency account for foreign currency earnings and receipts. "And any time local cedis are required for the company's operations the bank should be requested to convert the foreign currency into cedis for the country’s use,” it noted. Turning the spotlight on the SVANI contract which was entered into without a written agreement, the committee recommended that all transactions between the company and third, parties should have contracts signed to safeguard the company from embarrassment and unnecessary litigation. It expressed regret at the financial weakness of the ISTC and asked the management to find a more reliable means of generating additional revenue. When contacted, the Head of Business, Marketing and Public Relations of the company, Ms Gabriella Tetteh, confirmed that the Ministry of Transport had instituted an enquiry into the clearance fees being collected from the passengers by the ISTC,reports Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah She conceded that the clearance fees were "bribes" paid by the company to officials at barriers and borders on the company's international routes. Ms Tetteh, who showed a copy of the report of the enquiry on her laptop, explained further that at first passengers on board the company buses used to pay those monies to the police and other officials themselves. Later on, she said, officials of the ISTC had to collect the monies from the passengers when the bus was full for onward payment to officials manning the various barriers and boundaries on the Abidjan, Ouagadougou and Cotonou routes. Asked whether the company was still collecting the clearance fees, Ms Tetteh said the system had now been streamlined. She said currently clearance fees, collected from passengers were indicated on their tickets and given to the drivers as imprest, which was accounted for on their return. Asked whether anybody had been punished as a result of the outcome of the enquiry, Ms Tetteh said she was not aware of any such action but indicated that senior management members of the company had been asked by the board to proceed on their accumulated leave. Source: Daily Graphic

Ghana: Making Sense of our Democracy

The status of Ghana as an emerging democracy has been acknowledged the world over. The opposition New Patriotic Party’s unprecedented flagbearership election on August 7, 2010 that saw the re-election of Nana Akuffo Addo as the party’s candidate for the 2012 elections has added a new and positive dimension to the credentials of Ghana as the pacesetter of Africa politics.  It is fair to say that Ghana’s current democracy which begun in 1992 has come with peace and stability that has made Ghana the darling of her neighbours and the international community. The recent outstanding performance of the Black Stars in the 2010 Fifa world cup in South Africa has added momentum to the worldwide view that Ghana is on the path of greatness.

The essence of democracy is to elect leaders who will manage the country to provide security, energy, housing, education, transport, health and telecommunication infrastructures that the citizens can take advantage of to improve their living conditions. Many who have engaged in the democratic process in Ghana have done so with the hope that democracy will usher in not only liberty, rule of law, political stability, freedom of speech and assembly but also economic prosperity. But the people who have been ruling Ghana since the day the Fourth Republican Constitution came into force seem to have forgotten this simple meaning of democracy.

More than seventeen years since the first ballot was cast and 53 years after independence the life of many Ghanaians has stagnated if not retrogressed to pre-independence levels. A critical look at the economic situation of the people suggests that the stability and peace that democracy has brought the nation has not translated into economic and social development. The various governments that have governed Ghana since 1992 have not been able to take advantage of the peace and stability to formulate and implement the necessary policies needed to transform Ghana’s economy to enable Ghanaians benefit directly. A critical look at the country’s sectors: education, energy, transportation, health and waste management reveal a state of organised disorder.

The CIA’s 2010 world ranking of countries with higher life expectancy puts Ghana at 186^th position (60.55 years) out of the 224 countries polled. Today two-thirds of the population still live on two dollars a day. The inequality and the poverty gap between those who govern and the governed is widening every year. This is evidenced in the number of people working as street vendors including children who work as head potters in our cities instead of going to school and the high number of children being trafficked to work in various parts of the country. There is a sense of anger and frustration among the populace as is indicated by the growing number of unruly behaviour of the so called foot soldiers of the NDC youth with their incessant seizing of public toilets, locking up National Health Insurance Service and National Youth Employment Programme offices and constant calling of District Chief Executives to be fired. These activities suggest that the people are not benefiting from our democracy and are getting increasingly disillusioned, a situation that can easily be nurtured to cause political instability in the country. 

The only people who seem to have benefited from our democracy are the politicians who go home every four years with fat ex-gratia payments while majority of the people live in squalid conditions. Take E. T. Mensah for example. Since 1992 he has been representing Ningo Prampram as an MP and going home with ex-gratia every four years while many people in his constituency can neither read nor write and lack the basic necessities of life including water, electricity and housing.

The expensive and cosy sport utility vehicles (Land Cruisers etc) that has come to represent the taste of NDC and NPP politicians do not reflect the harsh economic life being experienced by majority of the people especially those in the rural areas who live in mud houses roofed with raffia and bamboo leafs and without water and electricity. This is unacceptable and is very dangerous for the continuous existence of democracy itself. People cannot continue to cast their votes every four years and continue to live in the same pre-independence conditions without jobs, proper housing, electricity, roads, farming equipments and access to water and sanitation. People cannot vote every four years while they continue to live on two dollars a day. That is slavery, not democracy. Democracy must come with liberty, economic empowerment, social development and improvement in the overall quality of life of the people. This has not happened in Ghana more than seventeen years of democratic governance and over fifty years of self rule.

Slowly we are missing the opportunity to develop as a nation and to add quality and value to the lives of our people. Despite promises of a better Ghana and jobs for the youth nothing seems to have changed, courtesy the politicians who are trapped in their narrow view of state management and who are going round the circle unable to work out a solution for the nation’s many problems. Slowly many of the people who have placed so much hope in democracy are being betrayed not by democracy as a system but by those elected to lead them to economic freedom. This cannot continue forever.

The people who vote must have something to live up to if they can continue to support the democratic efforts of the state. Therefore, the promises and pledges that characterise our elections must be transformed into actions and deeds. The broken promises and the politics of the same on the part of those who govern must stop before apathy sets in. Those who rule Ghana must recognise that their performance is not measured by what they say but what they do. Therefore we must act now and make good use of our peace, stability and democracy if we want to avoid any cataclysmic political upheaval in future.

In light of the abysmal economic performance of the nation and her inability to reduce poverty, I strongly believe Ghana needs strategic counselling and I want to offer my suggestions here.

First of all, Ghanaians need strategic leaders with the ability to vision and ability to bring the vision into reality; leaders who can turn aspiration into reality and inspire the people to great heights and help build a new Ghana that all of us can be proud of. Those who manage state institutions must be strategic thinkers who can formulate good policies and implement them to bring positive change. The begging mentality (i.e. the focus on aid as a development model) that continues to permeate those who live in the Osu Castle must give way to a more ingenious ways of state management that has as its focus the attraction of foreign investment, promotion of trade, support for indigenous producers, farmers, the promotion of local entrepreneurial development and the building, renovating and expanding the economic and social infrastructures in the country i.e. energy, roads, rail lines, harbours, telecommunication, silos, canals, schools and hospitals. It is unacceptable that while other nations are going outer-space to discover new planets we are still struggling to feed ourselves. Therefore the politics that has come to define our education (3 years for NDC, 4 year for NPP) must give way to a non-partisan approach to problem solving.

Secondly, evidence from Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and China has shown that a country’s economic growth, human development and her ability to reduce poverty are dependent on her technological development. Therefore, if we are to make sense of our 53 years of independence and over seventeen years of democracy; if we are to take advantage of the current favourable political climate and make it a force for good and a force for development, then a ground work for export-driven industrial economy must be laid through the adoption of a comprehensive export-driven industrial strategy. Such a strategy must make the development and acquisition of advanced technologies a priority so as to take advantage of the huge unexploited natural resources in the country, to increase production, and create wealth for the people. Why should our child-bearing women continue to carry their children on their back in this African heat when we can adopt technology to build pushchairs/prams for them? Why should we continue to wash our cloths with our hands when we could adopt the technology to build washers to save us precious time? Why should we continue to sleep in darkness when we could adopt the technology to convert solar energy into electricity? Why should our farmers continue to farm with cutlasses and hoes when we could adopt advanced farming technologies to increase yield and reduce hunger and poverty in the country? And why should we continue to carry things on our head when we could use technology to do it?

China and India’s development of their own technologies and their acquisition of technologies from the West has shown that it is possible to move hundreds of millions of people from poverty through technology acquisition. I believe that nations that turn away from the development and use of science and technology are bound to remain primitive and face extinction, and even if those nations survive extinction they will probably remain slave to others with superior technologies. Ghana cannot afford to remain technologically backward while our independence peers in Asia are moving forward scientifically and technologically and the earlier the policy-makers in Ghana look into technology acquisition the better.

Added to the above point is the fact that Ghana cannot continue to depend on the export of some few raw materials while the population continues to increase almost exponentially. Ghana cannot remain agrarian if we are to solve the teeming unemployment problem, eradicate poverty, hunger, malnutrition, malaria and improve the overall quality of life in the country. The policymakers must device ingenious schemes and work assiduously to diversify Ghana’s economy by shifting emphasis from the current reliance on raw material export to manufacturing, service, and knowledge based economy. The diversification of the economy will not only help the nation expand her revenue base but will also lead to increased production, create more jobs and protect the country from the shocks that always threaten the vivacity of our economy.

Lastly, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning must be told in plain language that lowering inflation alone will not meet the aspirations of unemployed Ghanaians who are looking for jobs. The National Development Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning must live up to their names and build some credibility for themselves as institutions tasked with planning the nation’s development. Ghana deserves better fiscal policies/financial management than it has been offered by Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. These institutions must think strategically and device strategies with inbuilt policy priorities to stabilise the nation’s financial market, revive the defunct firms, create jobs and put money in the pockets of the people.

I want to conclude by saying that if Ghanaians are to make sense of democracy, cherish its values and ideals; if indeed democracy is to thrive in Ghana, and if Ghana is to continue to serve as the guiding light for the rest of Africa, then more must be done to improve the economic well-being of the people, for democracy without economic and social development is a catalyst for chaos.

By Lord Aikins Adusei*

*The author is a political activist and anti corruption campaigner. His e-mail is politicalthinker1@yahoo.com