22.03.99

The Dispatch
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The Dispatch in a front page story on the bye-election at Ablekuma Central in Accra, says Ghanaians will know the new Member of Parliament for the constituency by 19.30 GMT on Friday, March 26. The paper names the candidates as: Ismail Bawa (NDC), Victor Okulley Nortey (NPP), Hajia Fati Suraju (Convention Party), Solomon Bayugo Sulemani (Independent), who is backed by the Reform Movement, and Musah Nartey (PNC). The Dispatch says Ablekuma Central is one of the two constituencies in the Greater Accra Region (the otheris Ablekuma South), where the NDC?s Presidential candidate, President Jerry Rawlings won, with the party losing the Parliamentary seat, in the 1996 elections.
According to the paper, Friday?s bye-election will be very tricky, as electorate throng the 106 polling stations in the five electoral areas to cast their votes. The Dispatch surmises that given the expected intense campaigning this week, it is hoped that there will be an improvement on the 1996 voter turn-out of 80 per cent, close to 90 per cent this time round, with about 80,000 valid votes cast. GRi../
Ghanaian Times
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?Asantehene lies in state?, says the Ghanaian Times in a front page story. The story is accompanied by a picture of Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, the late Asantehene, riding in a palanquin and resplendent in gold and donning a rich kente cloth. The story says the President Flt-Lt Jerry John Rawlings, will be the first to pay his last respect today to the late Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II. Otumfuo?s body will lie in state at the executive lodge of the Manhyia Palace until Thursday March 25. According to the paper, the president will be followed by paramount chiefs of Ashanti and the Kumasi Traditional Council. Next will be members of Parliament, who will also pay their last respects. There will be general wake-keeping throughout the night, with church choirs and traditional drumming and dancing in attendance. Men are expected to be in traditional black mourning cloth ?kuntunkuni? while women wear ?dansinkran and ?kaba? The Times says billboards and banners have been mounted at vantage points of the Kumasi metropolis, including the Manhyia Palace, expressing condolences to Asanteman. GRi../
In another front page story headlined: ?Okyeman announces Kuntunkununku?s death?, the Times reports that the large crowd of chiefs, queenmothers, politicians and well-wishers, who filled the Great Hall and corridors of the Ofori Panin Fie (the Palace of the Okyehene) at Kyebi in the Eastern Region at the weekend, could not hold back their tears when it was officially announced that the Okyehene, OsagyefoKuntunkununku II, was dead. OsabarimaKena Ampaw, Adontenhene and acting president of Akyem Abuakwa Tradditional Council, is reported to have announced the death The paper says the Adontehene then provided six cartons of schnapps and six rams for the performance of the necessary rites. Libation was poured on a shrine at the forecourt of the palaceand two of the rams were slaughtered amid the chanting of war songs by the Asafo Company. Osagyefo Kuntunkununku is reported to have suddenly taken ill and was taken to the 37 Military Hspital in Accra last Tuesday evening. He is said to have been pronounced dead at dawn the following day, by the doctors at the hospital.
Daily Graphic
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The Daily Graphic also carries on its front page a story that the President, Flt-Lt J.J. Rawlings, will be the first to pay the last respect to the late Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, today. The paper says the Asantehene, who died on February 25, was laid in state at the executive lodge of the Manhyia Palace at midnight. He was 80, and ruled for 29 years. The Graphic says the President will be followed immediately by paramount chiefs of Ashanti and chiefs of the Kumasi Traditional Council. It says members of parliament will also pay their last respects the same day, after which members of the public will take their turn. The paper quotes a programme released by the burial committee in Kumasi as saying that there will be wake-keeping throughout the four-day burial ceremonies. The Graphic says early yesterday, heavy police and military presence was noticed at the foregrounds of the Manhyia Palace to provide security and order during the ceremonies.
In the main story on the front page, the Graphic reports that the President, Flt-Lt J.J. Rawlings has challenged the country?s universities to produce the relevant ideas and human resources that would enable Ghana to cope with global competition in the nation?s effort to become a middle-income country by 2020. This, he said, is totally a different mission for the universities from the original one upon which they were founded. president Rawlings is reported as making the call when he addressed the 50th anniversary congregation of the University of Ghana, Legon last Saturday. He said when the university was founded, the major motive of both the colonial administration and the pioneer students was the training of graduates and professionals to fill what were then termed ?European? positions, especially as the movement towards independence accelerated. The President is quoted as saying that students who still think that a degree ?is an automatic meal ticket?, now have to face the hard realities of competitive job market dominated by a cost-efficient, conscious private sector. The Graphic says President Rawlings stressed that marketable skills, initiative and creativity are at a premium, and an entrepreneurial spirit which enables graduates to pioneer new products and services is even more valuable now. ?Perceptions of university education, therefore, must be adjusted to keep up with the new realities of today?, he is reported as saying. He said:?Globalisation, rapid technological changes, a dynamic private sector drive by research and development, all these factors pose new challenges to universities all over the world?. GRi../
The Ghanaian Democrat
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?NDC to recapture Ablekuma Central...Two-thirds majority in the offing?, says the Ghanaian Democrat in a front page banner. According to the paper, the die is cast and come Friday, March 26, the battle for Ablekuma Central would have been won and lost. The paper says from all indications, and judging by the mood of the electorate, the good people of Ablekuma Central, whether in Mataheko, Zongo Junction, Lartebiorshie Sukura or wherever, have made up their minds, ?and the pendulum is going to swing at the right direction and it is going to be Honourable Ismail Safianu Bawa, the NDC candidate?. The Democrat says the NDC has fought to ensure victory next Friday and that the election of Mr Bawa will give the ?party of the people? a comfortable majority in Parliament, the dreaded two-thirds majority that is sending shivers down the spines of the opposition. ?The NDC has worked hard to annex the Ablekuma Central constituency and to reclaim the seat that rightly belongs to the ruling party?, says the paper. GRi../
Africa Sports
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?Kotoko fly out on Friday for test of life...A task to pay most poignant tribute to their father Otumfuo Opoku Ware II?, a front page banner headline of the Africa Sports says. The accompanying story filed by the Editor of the paper, Kwabena |Yeboah, says Kumasi Asante Kotoko fly to Gabon on Friday with knuckles frighteningly bared to punch Nzimba FC of Gabon through the noseas a poignant tribute to their father, spiritual leader and life patron, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, who is expected to be laid to rest this week. The paper says the ?Porcupine Warriors? managed a 2-0 victory over Nzimba in the first leg at the Kumasi Sports Stadium through Ernest Boateng and Prince Adu- Poku, a victory many in the packed stadium felt was unconvincing. But the Africa Sports says coach Ebo Mends, whose selection and tactical disposition will shape Kotoko?s destiny in the Cup Winners? competition, holds a totally different opinion. According to the paper, coach Mends is not oblivious to the point that his team failed to live up to expectation n the first leg but is quick to add that his boys will definitely qualify for the next round of the championships. GRi../
Public Agenda
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The paper says less than two years to the next general elections, the Ashanti Regional branch of the NDC seems to be in deep trouble. According to the Public Agenda, this was forcefully brought to the fore last month, when the party?s functionaries in the region reportedly took advantage of a meeting of their party?s regional caucus to voice out deep-seated discontent that has bee building up since the last elections. In a front page banner headline: ?Ashanti NDC faces revolt?, the paper says the party General Secretary, Huudu Yahaya, the Regional Minister, Kojo Yankah, Presidential aides from the Castle and other big wigs in the region and Accra, who attended the meeting in Kumasi, came under an unexpected barrage of frank and hard talk as the functionaries complained bitterly about the lack of recognition and remuneration for their contribution towards the NDC?s achievements in the region, where it records the worst electoral performance. According to the paper top on the agenda of the meeting held on February 28, was how to re-organise the party in the Ashanti Region towards the the year 2000 elections. The Public Agenda quotes reports as indicating that the meeting held at the residence of the Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Nana Akwasi Agyeman, currently embroiled in a struggle to succeed the late Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, had its fair share of fireworks as functionaries insisted that they had sacrificed for far too long and made it clear that they would no longer do any organisational work for free.