Ghana Broadcasting Corporation

The 2016 Basic Education Certificate Examination started on a good note and ended successfully. The examination attracted the attention of the entire nation. Parents, Guardians and other Stakeholders in education were on tenterhook during the period of the examination. They continued to pray against any leakage of examination questions which has been a source of worry and embarrassment to the whole nation. Those fears, worries and anxieties now belong to history. The West African Examinations Council took the bull by the horn. Its resilience and capacity to rise to the occasion is no longer in question. Doubting Thomases have been proved wrong. Security measures put in place by WAEC in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to forestall leakage of examination questions paid off. The examinations passed off unscathed and it is appropriate to congratulate WAEC. Other stakeholders in education like parents and guardians must also be commended for thei...

In a world where violence forces hundreds of families to flee their homes each day, it is about time the global community showed concern about the plight of refugees. According to the U.N. Refugee Agency, as at the end of last year, there were about 65.3 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. This is an increase of 5.8 percent compared to the year before. About two-thirds of this number was categorized as internally displaced people, that is those who left their homes but stayed within their own country, while almost a third or 21.3 million were classified as refugees. The remaining 3.2 million people were waiting for their asylum applications to be processed, mostly in Western countries. The striking fact about these figures is that more than half of the world’s refugees are children. The figures may mean nothing to some, but considering that, the size of the world refugee population is almost the same as the population of the United Kingdom, or the fact that if it were a countr...

President Mahama has come under severe criticisms from a section of the public for accepting a gift of car from a Burkinabe contractor. Listening to the arguments so far, it is clear that, this is a frantic effort to accuse the President of corruption. It is therefore not surprising that the minority and some so called anti-corruption crusaders have jumped into the fray, calling the President all sorts of names. But there is the need for a proper evaluation of all the facts. It is stated that the said contractor, Djibril Kanazoe, undertook the $650,000 Ghana Embassy Wall in Ouagadougou as well as the 64.4 kilometre Dodo Pepesu -Nkwanta section of the Eastern Corridor road. The argument is that, the President by accepting this gift from the contractor has put himself in conflict of interest. Really? It is baffling how a conflict of interest arises in this situation. First of all, the point must be made that the President has no role to play in the award of any contracts in the country, ...

It is disappointing that political parties have over the years used their manifestoes as a decoy to win political power. After the election, the winning party most often fails to fulfil the greater part of its manifesto. The current state of not placing any obligation on the political party which eventually wins power to implement the manifesto it promised has reduced election manifestos to a mere rhetoric to hoodwink unsuspecting electorate. There is the need to make it mandatory for political parties to demonstrate how they intend to implement plans of the National Development Planning Commission and Chapter six of the 1992 Constitution, so that this becomes constitutionally and legally binding on the political party which shall emerge victorious after the election. For the avoidance of doubt, Chapter Six of the Constitution operationalizes Articles 34 to 41 by pigeonholing state policy in terms of Economic, Social, Educational and Cultural Objectives. Article 34 says “the directive ...

The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation has taken the lead to launch a policy guideline to regulate its coverage of this year's general election. GBC, being the first and by far the only public or state broadcaster is obliged to give coverage to all registered political parties. Indeed, article 163 of the 1992 constitution states that all state owned media shall afford fair opportunities and facilities for the presentation of divergent views and dissenting opinions. In the famous Supreme Court case, NPP vrs GBC and Attorney General, the court made it abundantly clear that fair in this context means equal. In other words, GBC cannot be selective about which political parties or candidates it offers the opportunity to present their views on critical national issues. In the same vein, the Corporation is equally under constitutional injunction to cover rallies and other political activities of every party or candidate. Having said that, emphasis must be placed on giving the parties and cand...

The annual Basic Education Certificate Examination is here with us again. From June 13 to the 17th of this month, the nation's attention will focus on this all important and crucial examination which will select qualified candidates with aggregates between 6 and 30 to enter Senior High as well as Technical and Vocational Institutions in the country. In all 461,013 pupils will sit for this year's examination at 1,598 centres. As usual, pupils will be examined in the following subjects: English Language, Mathematics, Integrated Science, Social Studies, Religious and Moral Education, Basic Design and Technology, Information and Communication Technology, Ghanaian Language and French which is optional. The need for a smooth conduct of this year's BECE cannot be over emphasized. It is a national exercise which must be devoid of leakage of examination questions, unnecessary suspicions, rumours, and rancour which may put the whole exercise into limbo and dent the high reputation of...

Death has once again robbed the world of a worthy citizen, Mohammed Ali, aged 74. Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, Ali, took the world by storm when at age 22, he defeated the then reigning champion, Sony Liston in 1964 in what appeared to be a David and Goliath fight. Among athletes particularly boxers, he was certainly ranked among the elite, having won the heavyweight title three times in his 21-year career. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he was involved in several historic boxing matches. Notable among these were the first Liston fight, three bouts with rival Joe Frazier, and "The Rumble in the Jungle" with George Foreman, in which he regained titles he had been stripped off seven years earlier. Ali was of another age, and yet he was ageless. The battles he fought in and out of the ring probably seem like ancient history to some who only know him through archival images and film. But for those who were lucky enough to have witnessed him in his prime, his presence was ...

There has been a disturbing development of late on social media, especially a rise in nudity. It is baffling the rate at which especially young ladies expose their bodies on social media without any shred of shame. Also gaining currency on social media is sex videos. There have been numerous instances where young men and women film themselves having sex and later post it on social media such as facebook and whatsapp. It is true that in some instances, the videos are posted without the consent of the other partner ostensibly to blackmail them or bring them to public ridicule. But again, evidence abounds that some of the videos are posted by the people themselves. One can recollect an aspiring SRC President of the University of Cape Coast, who allegedly posted nude pictures of herself on social media as well as a female radio presenter who was allegedly gang raped and taped, which eventually turned out that the lady herself was complicit in the posting of the videos. No matter how one lo...

Exactly a year ago, what was supposed to be an ordinary wet Wednesday evening turned out to be a tragic one. The Goil Filling Station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra became the site of a cruel catastrophe after a gas explosion claimed the lives of many people who had sought refuge from the floods in the area. Hundreds of Ghanaians of different status, men, women, children, adults, nurses, food vendors, commercial drivers among many others were caught up in the disaster. Many escaped but more than 150 lost their lives in that unprecedented disaster to have ever occurred on Ghanaian soil, at least in recent history. The 37 Military, Police, Korle Bu and Ridge Hospitals were overwhelmed with the disaster victims. The unfortunate event left many survivors with psychological trauma by way of unpleasant memories, while physically some have had to live with very grave scars all over their bodies. Government released about GH¢60 million to cater for the hospital bills of the victims. The ...

Once again, a social media sensation on an arrest of political person has divided the country along partisan lines, nothing new really in the country-context, except that the issues it raises are very fundamental to national security, press freedom, professionalism and the future of the social media here. The social media can be described as an unstructured press and usually anonymous news leaks monger. It is in its finest operation, an important adjunct for mainstream media which would ignore it at its own loss. However, the traditional media need not become its appendage as seems to be becoming in this country where they appear prepared to crawl on broken bottles to carry what the social media report wholesale in flagrant breach of an absolute professional ethic which is check the story. It is this very pragmatic routine lapse becoming regular that has alerted national security to worrying and on collision course with the advocates of press freedom and or indeed free speech right. Ho...

Ghana joined other members of the UN May 29 to observe International Day of UN Peacekeepers at a ceremony at the forecourt of the State House. As part of the observance of the Day, five senior high schools in the nation’s capital-Accra, namely Labone, Accra High, St. Thomas Aquinas, Achimota and Accra Girls provided 40 students each to join the official ceremony. This was replicated in all the ten regions as a way of inculcating in the youth, a sense of peaceful coexistence and unity of purpose, so that when they grow up they will not depart from it. The theme for this year’s event “honoring our heroes” is indeed reflective of the sacrifices of the gallant men and women of the Ghana Armed Forces more than three decades ago and the Ghana Police Service in recent years. The Day was so designated by UN General Assembly Resolution 57/129, on December 11, 2002, after an official request by the Ukrainian Peacekeepers Association and the Government of Ukraine to the UN General Assembly an...