Centre of the world prepares for millennium bash

Tema (Greater Accra), 3rd May ?99

Commodore Steve Obimpeh, chairman of the Ghana National Millennium Committee, on Saturday inaugurated the Tema Millennium committee at the Tema Presbyterian church, situated on the Greenwich Meridian where longitude zero degree passes.

The 28-member committee is under the chairmanship of Nii Armah Ashietey, Tema municipal chief executive. It is to assist the national committee to raise funds for activities to mark the entry into the next millennium.

Cdre. Obimpeh noted that Tema occupies a very unique position in the world as the only human settlement nearest to the centre of the world.

He said Tema also lies at the end of the landmass north of the equator which the Greenwich Meridian transverses.

Beyond Tema, the longitude zero degrees does not touch any other landmass until it reaches the south pole.

With these cardinal features, Tema qualifies to be the centre of the world, particularly where human beings live.

Cdre. Obimpeh said it is for this reason that government has directed that activities to mark this great event be in reference to the Greenwich Meridian.

The occasion was used to plant 200 trees along the Meridian near the Tema port, and a libation poured at the sacred grove of the people, as part of the inaugural ceremony.

Nii Armah noted that the millennium celebrations was a non-partisan affair and urged all residents of Tema to take part in the celebrations.

He said anyone who plants trees will have his name recorded in the Tema millennium register "which will be kept in a safe for years." The being carried out under the Millennium Tree Planting Project that will link 15 other districts in five regions of the country.

The regions are the Greater Accra, Eastern, Volta, Northern, and Upper East.