Print Media Monitoring

DAILY GRAPHIC – TUESDAY, 20TH JANUARY, 2004

1. RENOVATION OF PRESIDENT’S RESIDENCE …. CHRAJ DISMISSES CASE. FOR LACK OF PROSECUTION – PGS. 1 & 3

According to the paper, CHRAJ has dismissed a case in which the Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr. Alban Bagbin, had filed a case against the President for having accepted a monetary offer from a farmer for the renovation of his private residence in Accra.

The case was dismissed on grounds of lack of prosecution or unwillingness on the part of the complainant to continue with the hearing of the case.

Mr. Bagbin had complained that the ?41 million, which was made available by a Kumasi-based farmer, Opanin Kwame Marfo, for the renovation works on the President’s house, was to open the President’s office to influence.

2. IMMIGRATION PERSONNEL ASKED TO MONITOR FOREIGNERS – PG. 20

Mr. J.B. Aidoo, Western Regional Minister, has charged personnel of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to monitor foreigners who enter the country as visitors but ended up committing various crimes against the people.

He said the nation had entered a sensitive election year which called for strict vigilance and intensive scrutiny of foreigners who come into the country.

Mr. Aidoo noted this in an address at a dinner organized by the GIS in Takoradi.

He said as a result of the crisis in the cote d’Ivoire and Liberia, 150,000 displaced people had passed through the borders of the Western Region into the country.

3. GOVT. INFORMED OF DEATH OF TECHIMANHENE – PG.20

A delegation from the Brong Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs and the Techiman Traditional Council, has formally informed President Kufuor and the government of the death of Osabarima Dotobibi Takyi Ameyaw ll, the Paramount Chief of the Techiman Traditional Area.

According to Nana Asa Akompanin, the chairman of the funeral planning committee and Kyidomhene of Techiman, the burial rites for the late chief, will be held from February 20 to 24, this year, at Techiman.

4. PRESIDENT APPOINTS NEW FORESTRY C’SSION CHAIRMAN – PG. 21

According to the paper, President Kufuor in consultation with the Council of State, has appointed Mr. Francis Wellington Addo as the Chairman of the Forestry Commission.

Official statement issued by the sector Ministry, said the appointment takes immediate effect.

THE ACCRA DAILY MAIL – TUESDAY, 20TH JANUARY, 2004

1. DON’T BEG US FOR MONEY. MP PLEADS WITH PUBLIC TO STOP HARASSING THEM FOR MONEY – PGS. 1 & 8

Mr. Adu Gyamfi Poku, Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe, has asked the public to desist from chasing MPs for money when they visit constituencies.

He said with the 2004 elections barely 11 months away, the issue of money is going to be of paramount importance for all political parties.

Even in normal times, Members of Parliament are expected to dole out money to their constituents for one thing or the other school fees, funerals among others.

He said people were under the erroneous impression that, the MPs share of the common fund was given to them in physical cash.

The paper says Mr. Gyamfi Poku, explained that the MPs do not handle their share of the fund in cash but that it was kept at the assemblies where an MP instructs the assembly to assist a community with a specific amount for a project after satisfying himself of the viability of the project. Even with that verification, the community is not given cash but materials to the tune of the money.

He was speaking at the end of year dinner-dance and fund-raising of the Bosontwe Constituency of the NPP for the Construction of the Party’s constituency office at Petrensa.

2. ELECTION “BE CRITICAL AND FAIR” 2004 – PGS. 1 & 3

The paper reports that, the Programme Manager of the International Institute for Journalism (IIJ) in Germany, Mr. Werner Eggert, has advised Ghanaian journalists to be critical and fair to all political parties in their reporting of this year’s Presidential elections.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the paper in Accra at the weekend, Mr. Eggert said in spite of the fact that journalists and their editors have the right to have political preferences it would be unethical to let those preferences deflect objective reporting.

In this regard, he asked journalists not to gloss over the defects of their political friends.

“But when it comes to their political friends they should be critical. They should not leave out the bad deeds of their political friends because that is when they gain credibility with their readership. And it is by credibility that the private press would survive.”

Mr. Werner Eggert is in the country with his other colleagues to preside over a two-week workshop on ECOWAS.

THE INDEPENDENT – TUESDAY, 20TH JANUARY, 2004

IMPOSTER IN STEVEDORE INDUSTRY – PG. 1 & BK. PG.

The paper says a foreign imposter virtually won the hearts of GPHA officials with his fictitious credentials and was thus given a Stevedore license within a week. The said imposter is currently at the forefront of Stevedore activities at the expense of native Ghanaians.

The paper, therefore, questions who this imposter is, which particular person granted him and which means possible could he have used to obtain the Stevedore license.

It further asked if there was any due diligence by the GPHA on the background of this imposter, and who is that son of one of the foremost politicians of the motherland who fronted for the imposter to get the Stevedore license?

THE GHANAIAN TIMES – TUESDAY, 20TH JANUARY, 2004

1. ILLEGAL NURSES SCHOOLS IN K’SI – POLICE CAN’T STOP THEM – PGS. 1 & 3

Reports say that, two illegal nursing training institutions in Kumasi are still operating despite warnings issued to them by the Nurses and Midwives’ Council to close down.

They are the “Lyceum School of Nursing” and the “Premier Nursing College located in different suburbs of Kumasi.

According to the Council, it sought assistance from the Ashanti Regional Police Command early in December, to close down the institutions, but the police said they could only do that with a court order.

Mrs. Ruth Gyang, Registrar of the Council, told the paper in an interview in Accra yesterday that “As far as we are concerned, neither of the two private nursing training institutions has been accredited to admit students for the State Registered Nurse, Enrolled Nurse or Ward Assistant Programmes. Any private institution that admits students for the afore-mentioned programames, without our accreditation, is doing so illegally.”

However, the Director of Human Resource Division of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Ken Sagoe, was of the opinion that the institutions have every right to train nurses if they go through the proper processes as required by the law.

2. PRIVATE SCHOOLS DON’T TRADE IN TEXTBOOK – GNAPS – PG. 1

The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) has denied that its members have been selling textbooks supplied to its member institutions by the Government for free distribution.

This was in reaction to a story in the January 15, issue of the “Times” in which the Supply and Logistics Division of the GES warned management of private schools against charging pupils for the use of free textbooks supplied by the Government.

Mr. Ben Cronze, acting Director of the Division, who gave the warning, stated that the textbooks provided by the government should be given to all the pupils free of charge adding “as far as GNAPS is concerned, the scheme has been working satisfactorily to the benefit of the children.”

He said that sometimes, the free textbooks supplied were not enough to meet the demands of parents who wanted their wards to take them home for studies.

“In this regard, the parents or guardians are advised to go and purchase those prescribed text books from the open markets. So if such supplies are obtained from the open-market, it cannot mean that the Government’s free supplies are being sold to the pupils.”

3. NKORANZA GES TAKES ACTION – PG. 1

The Nkoranza District Directorate of the GES is to organise a mock examination for all final year students in Junior Secondary Schools in the districts as part of their preparation towards this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

The move is also to stem the tide of poor performance by the schools in the area.

Mr. Jarvis Agyeman-Badu, District Director of Education, announced this at a meeting at Nkoranza.

He said the exercise is one of the Directorate’s interventions to ensure that the students obtain better grades and to help improve the standard of education in the district.

The district placed last in the region and 102nd out of the 110 districts nationwide in last year’s BECE.

4. BOSOMTWE DISTRICT’S POVERTY FUND FROZEN – PG. 1

The paper reports that, owing to the high default in repayment of loans of the Poverty Alleviation Fund, the Bosomtwe-Atwima-Kwanwoma District’s share of the fund for last year has been with-held.

Mr. Bright Addai Mununkum, DCE, said the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning took the action because some of beneficiaries who had since 1998 failed to pay back, thereby preventing others from accessing the loans.

Responding to a question on the fund at the People’s Assembly at Kuntanase at the weekend, he said, the fund was a revolving one, which was supposed to service as many people as possible, but many of the recipients had been reluctant to repay the loans.

He warned that the assembly would institute legal action against the defaulters; saying that letters had already been dispatched to them and the assembly was expecting their quick response.

THE STATESMAN – TUESDAY, 20TH JANUARY, 2004

1. $200,000 GFA BRIBE SCANDAL – PG. 1 & BK. PG.

The paper reports that, the smear campaign against the incoming coach for the national football team, Mariano Barreto, is a $200,000 (?1.9bn) attempt to bribe both the Chairman of the Ghana Football Association, Ben Koufie, and the Minister of State in charge of Sports, Rashid Bawa.

The Friday, January 16 edition of the Soccer Express alleged serious questions over the status of Prof. Barreto, 46, as a coach. The paper alleged that he was only in charge of physical training in his previous job with Lokomotiv Moscow; that the Soccer Express “did not encounter one instance when Barreto had been head coach of any significant football entity”, that at German club Borussia Dortmund he was merely a translator and physical trainer for Portuguese Star, Paulo Von Soussa, which the paper said was “confirmed when Petra Stuker of Borussia Dortmund in response to a Soccer Express query confirmed that Barreto was the personal trainer of Soussa.

2. NPP WILL WIN ELECTIONS WITH OR WITHOUT NEW CONSTITUENCIES – AKUFO-ADDO – PGS. 1 & 2

According to the paper, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and MP for Abuakwa, Nana Akufo Addo, has said that no matter what happens to the Electoral Commission (EC)’s decision to create more constituencies, the NPP is ever prepared for the struggle to win the general elections.

He said, “whatever the case may be, we are going for a big victory in the election and this time we are not going for a second round. Kufuor is going to win by a big margin”, he stated this when he met 225 polling station executives drawn from the Abuakwa Constituency at Kukurantumi.

He said the NDC belonged to the past and described those leading the NDC as men of the past.

Nana Akufo-Addo said whilst looking at what the government has been able to achieve within three years in office and what it is still doing, “we have a good story to tell Ghanaians”.

He added that for the first time in the history of this country, 70 per cent of the cocoa price on the world market is going to cocoa farmers and for the first time in Ghana the cocoa price has been increased five times within two years.

THE GHANAIAN CHRONICLE – TUESDAY, 20 JANUARY, 2004

WE ARE NOT AT WAR – NUNGUA LEADERS – PGS. 1 & 3

Nungua Traditional leaders say the perception that Nungua has become a security risk is “wicked and baseless” and it will not help the cause of good governance or social cohesion.

The “Wulomo” and spiritual head of Nungua, Wor-Lumo Borketey Lawer, and the Gyaase Tse (Kingmaker), Nii Afotey Odai IV, were speaking with the paper on the botched National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) launching at Nungua and its fallout.

They said, “we are not at war, there is no conflict here. If there are any simmering chieftaincy problems, they exist in the minds of those who are creating it. The problem therefore lies with those creating the fears and tension and those buying the lies, the subversive elements are churning out”, they lamented.

They stated again that, the last time the President was in Nungua on his Greater Accra working visit, nothing of the sort happened. “Everything went on well and both Nungua and the ruling government were thrilled and excited. No bad blood: no suspicion. Everything went on fine”, they explained.

DAILY GUIDE – TUESDAY, 20TH JANUARY, 2004

RAWLINGS IN TIGHT CORNER – AS HE REMAINS IN SELF – IMPOSED EXILE – PG. 1 & BK. PG.

According to the paper, any thought that former President Rawlings was buying time in order to escape making an appearance at the NRC, has been put to rest.

The former President, who has been away in Exeter, UK, for the past 12 weeks, is reported to be getting ready to land in the country on February 1, 2004, from what appears to be his longest stay outside Ghana since he left office.

Making the announcement on “Kokrokoo Morning Show on “Peace FM” yesterday, Mr. Victor smith, Director of Public Affairs, of the Office of the former President said in view of ticket costs and frequency of his travels, the former President had decided to make his current trip outside the country, a long-haul one. The visit, according to sources, has since taken him to The Hague (Netherlands), US, Niger and other places.

Mr. Victor Smith, dismissed suggestions that Rawlings had chosen to stay abroad in order to avoid going to the NRC.

He therefore accused the Commission particularly its Executive Secretary, Dr. Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah of deliberately using certain witnesses to malign the former President.