Ghana Broadcasting Corporation

Recent happenings on Ghana’s roads, particularly within the last few months or so, give many well-meaning Ghanaians a cause for worry, anxiety and frustration. Many believe that the time is more than ripe for Government, road users and all citizens in general to begin to exercise the necessary caution and responsibility to stem the tide of road traffic accidents in Ghana. For a long time now, road traffic accidents have become one of the leading causes of deaths in Ghana. Within the last two months alone, disturbing reports of road traffic accidents and related deaths have been recorded in many places across the country including Bonsaso, Aboadze-Takoradi, Gomoa Mpota, Nsawam-Ofankor, Tetteh-Quarshie-Adenta, Michel Camp-Afienya and Mataheko. The multiple accidents and deaths that have occurred on the Madina-Adenta highway since the beginning of the year eventually led to angry protests by residents when the latest victim, a first year SHS student of West African Senior High School...

Discipline can be defined as the training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produce moral and mental improvement. It can also be said to be a set of rules or methods as those regulating the activities of a group of persons. School discipline, therefore, is the system of rules, punishments and behavioral strategies appropriate to the regulation of students and the maintenance of law and order in schools. Its aim basically, is to control the activities of students in the various schools. To ensure effective and efficient disciplinary actions in schools, there are committees charged with the responsibility of ensuring discipline. These committees adjudicate cases brought before them and met out appropriate sanctions to culpable students. The committees use the Ghana Education Service, GES codes of conduct as the primary source of reference and so are expected to follow it. In most cases, the committees leave up to expectation. In re...

Sports in an area without the requisite infrastructure and equipment is like a human subsisting on an unbalanced diet, indeed growth for that human would be sloppy. So therefore, sporting activities in that area would be sloppy. The lack of sporting infrastructure represents a major setback for all round sports development in the Volta region. Sport is just not sports standing on its own. It impacts every sector of life. Sports facilities, therefore, could bring certain dynamics in the economy of the geographical area of location. There are fallouts in the social and environmental areas as well. There is also the aesthetic, feeling good and safe, whiles competing or cheering on, in a beautiful scenario. Sport is growing steadily so the approach towards sporting infrastructure development must tow same lane and pace. In the Volta region, it’s not so contenting to speak about sporting facilities, it is either the facilities are deteriorating or not there at all. The Ho Sports ...

The National Peace Council (NPC) is responsible for promoting peace in the country and by the NPC Act [Act 818] of 2011, it is mandated to establish Regional Peace Councils in the ten administrative regions of the country.  The eminent members of the maiden Regional Peace Councils have served their four year term, paving the way for the re-constitution of new Regional Councils.  It is against this background that the National Peace Council, beginning from today, November 6, 2018, is inaugurating the ten reconstituted Regional Peace Councils starting from the Central and Northern Regions. There is no doubt that the task ahead of the new members of the Regional Councils is very tough, considering the fact that their tenure of office would extend beyond election 2020 which could present very challenging hurdle for members to scale. However, what is reassuring is the fact that some members of the immediate past councils have been re-nominated by their respective institutions and ...

The 23rd GJA awards passed off successfully over the weekend. For the first time, it was held at the imposing Gold Coast Kempinski Hotel in Accra to at least give a new lease of life to the event. It was relaxing to see Media men treated to a good cocktail and interactive moments ahead of the start of the programme. Dinner also came in good time. This year’s GJA awards had a rather interesting theme coming in the wake of a number of investigative works by some media persons including Manasseh Azure Awuni and the undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas. It was “State of investigative journalism: boundaries of privacy and borders of the public interest”. This theme couldn’t have come at a better time as the Media and a section of the public are miles apart regarding what should be reported and what should not in the public interest. The debate got even hotter with Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ expose of the ‘rot’ at the Ghana Football Association under the leadership of Kwesi Nyantekyi. Many...

The Adjudicatory Chamber of the Independent Ethics Committee of the World football governing body, FIFA has banned Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi, former President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), for life from all football-related activities. The activities include football administration, ownership and any other sport related engagements both at national and international levels. It is not clear if Mr. Nyantakyi can even watch football games on his own Television set, visit the stadium or donate football kits to clubs or his community youth as the ban appears to be sweeping and restrictive. Many interpretations have been given to the ban when the news broke. Some discussants have argued that Mr. Nyantakyi should not even be seen either playing or observing gutter-to-gutter games or small pole marches among children in any community. The news on the ban has been received with mixed reactions. While some people believe the punishment which came into force immediately, was swift, timel...

In an era when quality education is a concern for education focused international organisations and dominates national debates, teacher quality must equally be a priority. The central role of the teacher requires quality teacher education to properly position them to help in achieving overall educational agenda. It is therefore commendable that government has decided to implement the Colleges of Education Act, Act 847, which was passed in 2012 to give legal backing to the new status of the training institutions. By that Act, Colleges of Education have been placed under the National Council for Tertiary Education the agency responsible for the regulation of tertiary education institutions in Ghana. With the upgrade of the training institutions to university Colleges a first degree will be the minimum requirement for teaching at any level of our education. Over the past forty years, teacher education in Ghana has gone through a lot of changes. The modifications were as a result of po...

UN Day marks the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter. With the ratification of this founding document by the majority of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, the United Nations officially came into being. 24th October has been celebrated as United Nations Day since 1948. In 1971, the United Nations General Assembly recommended that the day be observed by Member States as a public holiday but this recommendation is not been implemented in most countries. The United Nations Day marks the birthday of the founding Charter, the landmark document that embodies the hopes, dreams and aspirations of the peoples of the globe. In his 2018 UN Day message, the Secretary General António Guterres stated that quote “Every day, the women and men of the United Nations work to give practical meaning to that Charter.” Unquote. He stressed that despite the odds and the obstacles, the UN will never give up adding that extreme poverty is be...

A sound banking sector is very necessary for the economic development of a country. It helps to generate public confidence in keeping money in banking institutions, a practice that makes it possible for easy mobilisation of excess cash which is usually channeled into productive ventures in the economy. Deposits of customers with the banks ensure that idle funds are channeled into areas in the economy where they are mostly needed. This prevents individuals and organisations from keeping their money at home at the risk of the safety of such funds. It is for this reason that the banking sector ought to be rigidly regulated to perform efficiently in support of national programmes. When the banking sector does not perform efficiently, loss of confidence resulting from this disturbs the entire economy and throws business operations out of control. The regulator of the banking sector ought to apply all regulations as rigidly as possible to ensure that the financial sector is placed on a sou...

It is not uncommon to find derogatory expressions and remarks associated with the use of Tramadol on social media and other medium of communication. The unfortunate trend must not be allowed to continue unabated. Tramadol is an FDA approved prescription drug for the treatment of moderate to severe pain. It is a mainstream drug in Ghana health system for the management of pain. For the drug to be associated with derogatory comments in everyday Ghanaian communication should be a cause of worry. Tramadol is a synthetic opioid drug and like other opioid drugs interferes with the normal release of neurotransmitters. This could lead to drug dependence if it is abused. It may lead to drug dependance and tolerance. Drug dependence develops due to debilitating withdrawal symptoms and tolerance results when higher than normal doses are needed to elicit drug action. Affected individuals thus need a continued and higher than normal doses of the drug for comfort due to their altered system. Tram...

To maintain the gains made over the years to reduce measles infections, Ghana is heading towards eliminating the disease and Rubella also known as German measles in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal three target. This amongst other things is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being of all at all ages. There will also be access to safe, effective, quality and affordable medicines and vaccines for all, by 2020 in the African Region. Ghana’s immunization programme has achieved a number of successes recording more than 98 percent of immunization coverage during routine and mop up campaigns. Ghana has seen a reduction in confirmed measles and Rubella cases with no documented death from measles since 2003. Polio has also been out of the system since 2008. In the late 1980’s measles was a killer disease in Ghana and ranked second to malaria in disease burden in 1977. But thanks to vaccination, the burden is now redu...

International Day for disaster reduction was instituted in 1989 and celebrated on every second Wednesday of October. However, it was changed to the 13th of October about two decades ago. The importance of the day is to create awareness on any life disaster risks that may possibly befall us in our day to day activities. Among these disasters includes, environmental pollution, workplace hazards, transportation hazards and natural occurrences. Nonetheless, Ghana as a nation falls below average in all above groupings, in terms of performance standards, as far as the International disaster reduction is concerned. This is because Ghana has achieved little, when we talk about environmental pollution, workplace hazards, transportation hazards and natural occurrences.  Though Ghana still lags behind in reduction of disasters, some commendations should be given to the current Government for the strong fight against illegal mining practices, popularly known as “galamsey”. The initiative may ...

Ghana is sitting on a time-bomb that could take everybody by surprise. However, we seem not to be serious with the menace staring us in the face. This is not the first time the issue has cropped up but the usual Ghanaian attitude towards serious matters is at play here as the clock ticks. Political vigilantism continuous to bare its teeth at the entire nation, putting the very institutions that hold the land at risk. It all started as political activism, then metamorphosed into vigilantism before graduating into pure criminal action that saw a group of well-built men, entering a court room to free suspects standing trial for another act of violence. The severity of the problem appears not to have caught up with us as yet, thus the lackadaisical attitude towards curbing the menace. During the political season, it is a bit usual to find groups of peoples from different political parties, exchanging words and perhaps engaging in some fisticuffs when the tension mounts to some peak. B...

The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), is a statutory body established under section 51 of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act 2011 (Act 815) to provide an independent oversight of the collection, allocation and utilisation of the country’s petroleum revenues. It is mandated to monitor and evaluate compliance with the Act by government and key institutions charged with the responsibility to manage, use and invest petroleum revenues for the benefit of the citizenry. Since its establishment in 2011, PIAC has published seven annual and six semi-annual reports. It held public engagements in all regional capitals and about 100 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies. It also undertook project inspection tours across the country. The Committee made recommendations in its statutory reports which have guided both governmental and corporate policies in the Petroleum Sector. PIAC has discovered a number of anomalies in the management and utilisation of oil and gas rev...

Global Handwashing Day is observed on the 15th October each year. The international handwashing day is one of the United Nation’s critical health promotion observations. The Day is used to motivate and mobilise people around the world to improve their handwashing habits. The Global Handwashing Partnership formerly called “Public Private Partnership for Handwashing,” established Global Handwashing Day in 2008 to promote a global and local vision of handwashing with soap. Washing hands at critical points during the day and washing with soap are both important. The campaign raises awareness about handwashing with soap as a key factor in disease prevention. The significance of handwashing cannot be over emphasised, due to its benefits to disease prevention. According to health experts, respiratory and intestinal diseases can be reduced by 25-50 percent if hand washing is taken seriously. Though, no one will deliberately infest his or her hands with bacteria, it is vital for the hand to ...

It is exactly one year this month when the very horrific fire occurred at the Atomic Junction on the 7th of October, 2017 killing about seven persons and injuring over 130 people. Before the Atomic Junction incident we had the Trade Fair fire in Accra, the Tema medical stores among others. Apart from fuel stations disasters, many domestic dwellings and workplace fires were also recorded. On the 7th of this month which marks the exact one year anniversary of the Atomic junction incident, another disaster has befallen us. A whole Ashanti Regional Education Directorate in Kumasi was on fire. The severe outbreak reportedly burnt to ashes valuable documents, office gadgets, furniture and stationery. With the frequent outbreaks, one wonders what is wrong as far as fire safety education and awareness are concerned. It is important for the Ghana National Fire Service to be resourced to do more than it is doing presently to help reduce fire outbreaks. What has been the performance of the Natio...

Fresh water is a precious resource essential for sustaining life and undertaking many productive activities. Unfortunately management of this precious natural resource has often left much to be desired. According to reports released by the Water Resource Commission not too long ago a total of 748 million people still lack access to portable water worldwide. It is no gain saying that there cannot be any efficient strategy to battle poverty in the absence of an enhanced system of managing water resources. Efficient management of water resources implies progress in all the three pillars of sustainable development namely, social, economic and environment. Ensuring access to safe drinking water is fundamental towards enhancing good health. Research findings have it that as a result of bad water management practices, water related diseases kill an estimated three million people a year in developing countries. It is important to note that one priceless life support system that is essential...