Ghana Broadcasting Corporation

Ghana yesterday celebrated the success story of the hang up campaign which has seen the distribution of more than 12 million treated nets between 2010 and 2012.   Perhaps the 1st Lady  Mrs Lordina Mahama hit the nail right on the head when she entreated people with the treated nets not to make  them a show piece but use them for the intended purpose, in order   to prevent contracting malaria and possible deaths.  Indeed the interventions rolled up by the  National Malaria Control Programme and partners are yielding some results in that records are now showing  reduction in malaria deaths.  The WHO says 16 thousand deaths have ben averted nationwide.  Again according to the Multi Indicator Cluster Survey ,malaria prevalence in children has also reduced.  All these are as a result of multi faceted interventions.     The interventions are the hang-up campaign where insecticide bed nets are hun...

PEACE is only a five letter word and yet, how powerful is its influence! Peace is an indispensable ingredient in development. Peace in the home between family members - what a blessing! Peace in the neighbourhood - how desirable! Peace at the workplace - how refreshing! Peace in our schools - what a catalyst for academic progress! And peace within the nation - how priceless! It has been said that we do not appreciate what we have until we lose it. May this never be true of Ghana. Investors from around the world are flocking in to Ghana. Some multinational companies are already making Ghana their West African headquarters. Tourists continue to arrive within our borders in their numbers. Why are they all converging on Ghana, from President Barack Obama of the US, through business tycoons, to the globe-trotting tourist? ...

The  Mahama-Amissah Arthur administration seems to be redefining leadership in the country as per some decisions taken in the area of corruption and arrogance in public service. President Mahama and Vice President Amissah-Arthur are fast establishing themselves as people who can be counted upon to clean the stables with regard  to safeguarding the public purse in the pursuit of probity and accountability.  Recently the Chief Executive of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre, MASLOC, Mrs. Bertha Sogah was asked to proceed on leave to pave the way for investigations into allegations of conflict of interest levelled  against her.  Mrs Sogah was alleged to have taken 500 thousand Ghana cedis from the accounts of the State-run organisation and  given it to a private company owned by her husband. Also in the news is government setting up a five member committee to investigate  some corruption issues in the Ghana Youth Employment and Entr...

 The recent agitation, on the labour front, does not augur well for stability and cohesion needed  to build the  nation. Various worker organizations are on strike to back home their demand for enhanced service conditions as required by law, while others have also given signals of their readiness to withdraw their services. Though industrial actions are legitimate tools adopted by labour unions to press home demands, it is the last resort after exhausting all laid down rules. This is because of the negative consequences such decisions have on the nation’s socio-economic development. Human resource  is a great asset to every nation, as such it is important to do everything humanly possible to protect and preserve their interest at all times.  Even in situation where robots are  to be used for any activity, they are manipulated by human beings. Steps being taken to handle the industrial agitation by government and those concerned have not be...

Recent happenings on the industrial front makes one shudder as to whither the country is drifting in its development agenda.  Let us look at a scenario where some people have declared that the sitting President is illegitimate and therefore will not do anything to fester his Presidency, yet when that same President orders the payment of ex-gratia, they collect it with glee. There is another case where the ruling party is regularly accused of dissipating state revenue to the bones, yet when the same administration doles out laptop computers, the same people collect them with the best of praise.   Teachers go on strike for non-payment of Single Spine premiums. Some of them are alleged to have converted their vehicles to taxis yet expect to be given maintenance allowances on them. Striking medical doctors in government hospitals leave patients to their fate yet go on private practice to earn a living.  Government Hospital Pharmacists have withdrawn the...

One issue that may endanger the future prosperity of Ghana is the declining interest in reading among youths. Students are addicted to the internet and cellular phones which they believe are the best tools and excellent means of research and entertainment. Libraries throughout the nations’ institutions are poorly patronised. Unfortunately students describe most of the books as archaic. Indeed, we are living in an age where reading habit is fast becoming elusive. One will have expected that the advancement in technology should have enhanced reading  among the youth, but they are rather misapplying it. With the exposure of  students to video game, computers, television and now the internet, it is not surprising  that reading is dying away. Although, the use of the internet by students for research and studies in schools is not a bad thing, its misapplication can greatly undermine national development.  The use of the internet as a main tool for reading...

The choice of theme for this year's celebrations of World Health Day "High Blood Pressure" is most exciting because Cardiovascular ailments are the major  one causes  of death Globally, they account for about 17 million deaths in the world each year. Complications of high blood pressure, also called hypertension or BP for short account for more than nine million of these deaths including about half of all deaths from heart disease and stroke.  One in three adults worldwide has high blood pressure.  This proportion increases with age, from one in 10 people in their 20s and 30s to five to ten people in their 50s.;  This makes it imperative that appropriate and accessible preventive healthcare services are put in place to help reduce health risks to this segment of society especially those associated with hypertension.  This is against the background that old age and health are  key challenges  in the yet to be implemented National Age...

It is rather unfortunate Ghana is gradually consolidating an unenviable position where road accident is seen as a major cause of death in the country. That the number of lives perished on our roads is higher than those killed by malaria and HIV/AIDS gives credence to this assertion. It is sad that Ghana even though is not engaged in any conventional war with any enemy, the roads have been and continue to be the fiercest battle ground one can think of. That is to say, the carnage on the roads is the worst common enemy of Ghanaians. Some of the vehicles that ply our roads can aptly be described as walking chimneys. If one is unfortunate to trail one of them on a busy highway in a car without air conditioner over a long time, the amount of poison one will inhale can damage ones system more than what a life- long chain smoker will suffer. The causes of accidents o...

Poverty, disease, inadequate shelter, hunger, gender disparity, child mortality among others without doubt hamper development. Since the UN General Assembly began to set priorities to deal with these setbacks the Millennium Development Goals have proven to be worthwhile benchmarks for ensuring development. They are said to be the most broadly supported, comprehensive, and specific poverty reduction targets the world has ever established. For the international political system, the millennium development goals are described as the fulcrum on which development policy is based. For the billion-plus people living in extreme poverty, they represent the means to a productive life. The Goals point to targets of public investment, water, sanitation, slum upgrading, education, health, environmental issues among others. 2015 which is the target year for the achievement of the Millennium development goals is just around the corner. Ghana’s performance in striving towards these mill...

The Christian world celebrates Good Friday, the passion and death of Jesus Christ. Here in Ghana, many people attend church services and organize religious events to mark the day. As Christians go through these spiritual activities and try to relieve the most significant event in the life and ministry of Jesus, they should endeavour to manifest the effects of Jesus sacrificial act in their lives, so that it reflects on the rest of the Ghanaian society. After all, nearly seventy percent of Ghanaians identify themselves as Christians. One can only imagine what blessings will come upon our land if all Christians in Ghana would truly live by the teachings of Jesus. The significance of Jesus death on the cross, a wooden construction made up of a vertical and a horizontal beam, that intersect is that, Jesus has restored the link between God and humanity, and the divi...