Ghana Broadcasting Corporation

It is not in doubt that the quality of life of human beings all over the world has a direct correlation with the quality of water they consume. It is against this background that the saying goes, water is life. It is therefore not surprising the level of apprehension among Ghanaians after the media published a report on a research conducted by the Water Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The report shows that the current treatment regime operated by the Ghana Water Company Limited at its Weija Dam site is incapable of removing algae toxins in the fresh water sources. The Researcher, Dr Gloria Addico stressed that the Weija Water is increasing in blue-green algae. This is serious because algae toxins have devastating effects on the lives of consumers. Of course, the algae toxins can cause problems to the kidney, liver, heart and the nervous systems of animals including humans. It is therefore premature on the part of the Ghana Water Company Limited...

The Institute of Economic Affairs, which is a renowned Public Policy Institute, has announced its intention to organize three Presidential debates in a segregated format. The first will be for parties with representation in parliament, followed by parties without representation in parliament and finally a two horse race between President John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress and Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo of the New Patriotic Party. The decision was taken without consulting the political parties concerned. The IEA would like Ghanaians to believe it is committed to deepening and consolidating multi-party democracy, and the promotion of issue-based elections in Ghana; yet they find nothing wrong with segregating Presidential debates. Why has the IEA not consulted the Electoral Commission of Ghana to determine which of the political parties has fulfilled the requirement of the Political Parties law, Act 574? The introduction of “political parties with representation i...

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron reportedly made the remarks in a conversation with the Queen. He was caught on camera and a spokesperson told the press that Mr Cameron was aware. That make it clearest that the British Prime Minister had thought well of it previously. It is all about this week's anti-corruption summit in London. According to the report, Mr Cameron said substantively we have got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain. Nigeria and Afghanistan, possible the two most corrupt countries in the world. Next the responses said he apologized to the Queen for the remarks but the same spokesman said that the Presidents of Nigeria and Afghanistan had ‘acknowledged the scale of the corruption challenge they face in their countries.’ The latter is an obvious diplomatic fudge to blunt the British Prime Minister's insult on the two countries. First, the error, No country is corrupt. It could be some people in any particular country...

The May Day celebrations are over. The speeches have been made. The workers have been celebrated for contributing to the development of mother Ghana even as they continue to wallow in poverty while the country marches towards HIPC once again. The minimum wage is GH¢8 per day! With the smallest ball of Kenkey at one Ghana cedi, a man with a wife and two kids can afford barely one round meal of Kenkey and fried fishlets with pepper. The problem is even worse if he went to work that day and paid for ‘trotro.’ A basic school teacher takes home about GH¢830 - barely a tenth of the GH¢7000.00 his MP takes home, which is more than twice what a Doctor takes home. This is in sharp contrast with the situation in the United States of America where most Doctors make more than their lawmakers. It is baffling that in Ghana, what an MP gets as his or her end of service benefit, after serving one term of four years, is outrageously higher than that of a teacher who has worked for 40 years. It is ridic...

The Electoral Commission brought its ten day limited voters' registration exercise to a close May 8. The exercise gave people who have just turned 18 years or those older but could not register previously, the opportunity to register to enable them to exercise their voting rights during the upcoming general election. The exercise was marred with some incidents of violence most of which had to do with the eligibility of some registrants being challenged by the two major political parties, NDC and NPP. There were also issues of low turnout as a result of poor publicity, inadequate registration centres and length of the registration period. In the first phase of the exercise for instance, there was error on the date in the setup of the registration machine. In fact, even though the exercise started on the 28th of April, the ID cards issued to registrants in two centres on the first day, recorded 27th of April. Though, the Commission explained that the irregularities were due to operat...

Ghana has chalked up another milestone in its criminal justice system when the apex court of the land, the Supreme Court in a five two majority decision, struck out section 96 sub-section 7 of the Criminal Procedure Act, Act 30 of 1960. By the provisions of this Act, the courts shall refuse to grant bail to persons accused of treason, subversion, murder, robbery, hijacking, piracy, rape, defilement and escape from lawful custody. The law was later amended to include persons accused of dealing in narcotics and those being held for extradition to a foreign country. One key principle in the administration of justice is the presumption of innocence, where a person accused of any crime is presumed to be innocent, until proven guilty in a court of competent jurisdiction or when he or she pleads guilty. The concept of some offences being non-bailable is alien to the constitution and a flagrant violation of the fundamental Human Rights of accused persons. Why? Even when police arrest people in...

The Former Minister of Transport, Mrs. Dzifa Attivor has re-opened the door to one of Ghana's enduring challenges; ethnic politics, and the reactions have been something to behold. In all sincerity, Mrs Ativor cannot be right in suggesting that the erstwhile Kufour regime targeted only Voltarians for prosecution. However, to be fair to her, she was only following a well-trodden path in Ghana's politics. The hypocrisy on both sides of the NPP ---NDC divide in reaction to Mrs. Ativor's outburst to say the least, has been disgusting. The NPP that is so outraged about Mrs. Ativor, for the most part found nothing wrong when Ken Agyapong urged that Ewes and Gas be chased or when Osafo Marfo said people from some ethnic groups did not deserve to rule Ghana. Of course, those throwing rocks or defending blindly never read about Jesus'dare for whoever was sinless to cast the first stone against the woman in the Bible. Indeed, while the NPP is praising Rawlings for condemning Mrs ...

With the Limited Registration now under way, the preparations towards Ghana’s November 7 General Election have started in earnest. Under the 4th Republican Democratic dispensation, Ghana has emerged as a reference, a good example with an admirable track record as an African Democratic State. The peace and stability Ghana has been enjoying over the past two decades has sustained inclusive growth and enabled a reduction of poverty rates by more than half. Whereas Ghana’s transition into the 4th Republic was smooth, building on that smooth transition and developing a political culture underpinned by democratic values has been challenging. The narrative and the bitterness of political victimization in which some former government appointees were apprehended and incarcerated still linger deep. The political polarization has deepened. Even worse is the mind-set that sinister maneuvering outside the ballot box can win an election. All these have increased politica...

The Electoral Commission per its five year strategic plan wants to be branded as functionally and legally independent in the conduct of credible elections. Among other things, the plan seeks to achieve improved integrity, honesty and transparency in the country's electoral processes. These are laudable ideas which when achieved, would go a long way to improve Ghana's electoral processes and boost the credibility and image of its Election Management Body. In the quest to achieve transparency, the Electoral Commission must endeavor to move beyond the Inter Party Advisory Committee and ensure that the citizenry are regularly made aware of its activities. For now, it appears that many issues are discussed at IPAC and agreements are reached on them, yet, both the EC and the Political Parties who have the mandate under the constitution to ensure political socialization among the citizenry have failed to communicate such consensus and agreements that are reached t...