THE

GHANA captain, John Mensah’s headed goal was cancelled through another header by a Tunisian striker just at the stroke of half-time. The Stars qualification completed the semi-final haul with Mali becoming the third country to qualify earlier in the day after defeating favourite co-host, Gabon, 5-4 on penalties, after the two teams had settled for a one-one draw.

EARLY on Saturday, Cote D’Ivoire and Zambia became the first two countries to qualify for the semi-finals of the competition. On Wednesday, Ghana take on Zambia in the first semi-final clash in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, while Cote D’Ivoire play Mali the same day in the second semi-final match of the tournament.

WITH the victory, Ghana has on three times in succession, qualified to the semi-finals of the AFCON. The first was in Ghana 2008 when as host nation Ghana only managed a third position after losing the semi-final duel to Cameroun.

THE Stars repeated a similar feat in Angola 2012, after beating Nigeria to qualify to the finals to set up a crunch duel with Egypt. The Egyptians however beat Ghana to win a record seventh AFCON title, winning the last three of the AFCON tournaments.

MATCHES between Ghana and Zambia have over the years been played with keen aggression and the will to go the extra mile. The last time the two sides met in an AFCON competition was in South Africa 1996 when Ghana had in its fold top class performers like Abedi Pele, Anthony Yeboah, Nii Odartey Lamptey, Sam Johnson, Ibrahim Tanko among others.

AFTER losing 3-0 to host South Africa, Ghana squared off with Zambia for the third place which unfortunately the Stars lost by a lone goal. It was a match that the Black Stars although dominated, could not find the cutting edge to beat Zambia.

BUT perhaps the best of Zambia-Ghana matches were recorded in 1992 and 1978. In the Senegal ‘92 clash, Ghana beat Zambia by a lone goal. That was the era of Ghana’s football maestro- Abedi Pele, whose individual brilliance separated the two well-grilled sides that also had the dreadful Kalusha Bwalya as their key man.

WHILE Ghana boasted of Edward Ansah, Nii Darko Ankrah, Kwesi Appiah, Emmanuel Armah Senegal, Frimpong Manso, Stanley Aboraa, Ali Ibrahim, Nii Odartey Lamptey, Tony Baffour, Tony Yeboah and Abedi Pele, Zambia boasted as perhaps the best assembly of players in the country’s history. They included Efford Chabala, Wisdom Chansa, Fighting Somonkonde and Kalusha Bwalya.

THAT generation could however not realize the Zambian dream when they perished off the coast of Gabon in a harrowing plane crash. The only member of that squad to have survived the air disaster was Kalusha Bwalya, who decided to meet the team in Dakar, Senegal from his Belgium base. Kalusha was the key player of Belgian giant—Cercle Brugge.

BEFORE the ‘92 clash, Ghana had sweated out with Zambia during the opening of the Ghana ‘78 tournament in Accra. The Zambians took an early lead through danger man, Godfried Chitalu, before Golden boy, Abdul Razak and Opoku Afriyie to beat Zambia 2-1.

CHITALU, who later became the Technical Director of Zambia Football, was part of the team that perished in the plane crash. With the tightness of Ghana-Zambia matches, it is clear Ghana’s determination to break its AFCON failure will be put to real test by the well-knit Zambian side led by Christopher Katango.

THE great philosopher, Karl Max, once remarked that “Religion is the Opiate of the Masses.” That axiom is loaded with many wise interpretations. He believed with its sentimental and emotional attachment, religion is the medium that many use to gain strategic acceptability and recognition, or people in positions of authority use it to gain advantage over the people.

THAT wise saying has become so synonymous with and relevant to Ghanaian political situation today and some politicians are the culprits. The adamant way in which people hold on to their religion, and the often robust manner in which they rise up to defend it makes it very easy for cunning politicians to exploit it to their advantage. The reason is simple: Such religious zealots are prepared to die for their faith.

AWARE that such religious bigots, are very vulnerable when the issue is about their faith, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) —the two so-called big parties in the country— have set certain historical trends which easily give them up as groups that are only interested in exploiting such vulnerability and sentimental attachment in Christiandom to gain cheap political points.

AND they have benefited from such endeavours, because religious groups fail to analyze what seems to be the real intention of the politicians who so apply their (people’) belief, hence the people only judge such politicians on the face value of how their (politician’s) overtures could increase their congregation or the number of converts that such politicians can bring the church on a particular day, and possibly following the “august” visit.

BEFORE the 2000 elections, then opposition NPP candidate, John Agyekum Kufuor, virtually exploited the new craze in Ghanaian politics and it is believed that eventually helped the NPP to achieve electoral victory in the 2000 election. The NPP went ahead to win again the 2004 election, using virtually the new technique. And that necessitated the eight year reign of the NPP.

IN the run-up to the 2000 election, the NPP organised “All Nights” vigils all over the country with some of the biggest church services held at the Kumasi Sports Stadium with some top Gospel divas on parade. They included Cindy Thompson, who led what can easily be termed the NPP chorus orchestra to give a rendition of her all-popular worship song, Awurade Kasa.

THE mood at the last rally organised by the NPP at the INDADFA Park in Accra IN 2000, was a site to behold when candidate Kufuor refused to address the gathering, but rather called forth Cindy Thompson to lead the gathering in a prayer and worship, which was described as the second of liberation of the country from the shackles of the PNDC and the Rawlings dictatorship of 1981 to 2000.

INDEED, there is nothing wrong with seeking the face of God in a contest and asking for His guidance and direction in a party’s activities in an election year.  It is worth recognising His supremacy in all human endeavours and it is believed that the success of the NPP was largely due to the presence of God in the party’s programmes in the build-up to the 2000 election.

HOWEVER, the NPP government, through their acts of omission and commission, confirmed that they only used the religious vessel as a means to an end. In the end, the Kufuor administration left an unjustifiable legacy that could not have been what they bargained for from God throughout the trials of the 2000 campaign. It was a legacy that was not short of what the P/NDC administration left for Ghanaians.

CORRUPTION, which former President John Agyekum Kufour traced to the days of Adam and Eve, was pervasive in his eight-year administration. One-time chairman of the NPP, Haruna Esseku, confirmed that the presidency under President Kufuor received kick-backs at the Castle.

NPP Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, Hon. Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori, even accused his colleagues in the Legislature of collecting “envelopes” during the passage of the bill on Ghana Telecom, which is today VODAFONE.

THE deception of the Kufuor administration also manifested when candidate Kufuor after complaining about fuel prices during campaign for Election 2000 only to increase the price of the products a hundredfold soon after being sworn in as the President of Ghana. Ironically, throughout the eight-year rule of Kufuor, petrol prices constantly appreciated.

IN 2008, then candidate John Evans Atta Mills was virtually showcased as a Jesus re-incarnate when he toured the length and breadth of the country under the banner, Asomdwoe Hene and humble God-fearing person. As usual the call was to catch the attention of Christians and all other sects who also believe God is the Omnipotent. And presto with its large following, the NDC courted many religious sects to win the 2008 election.

AS an epitome of humility and perhaps the only presidential candidate to extol the Christian and Muslim value of humility, the religious sentiments came to play and that eventually made Ghanaians vote for candidate Mills to become the President of the Republic of Ghana, from 2009.

AT a point, it was even rumoured that President Mills had turned the Castle, the seat of government, into a prayer camp with Nigerian Pastor, T.B Joshua, in attendance to lead proceedings. That, in the opinion of we on Today, did appear to, in fact, raise the hopes of many Ghanaians that Mills’ reign is divinely ordained by God. However, it did not take long for Ghanaians to see through the true colours of President Mills and his NDC administration that they only deceived Ghanaians with their angelic attitude prior to the 2008 elections.

CONTRARY to his/their 2008 campaign promise to reduce the prices of petrol fuels “drastically,” President Mills and his administration, immediately they got into office, increased the prices “drastically.”

THE lack of the political will to complete the Sofoline Interchange in Kumasi, the Achimota-Ofankor and the Legon-Madina highways as promised by the affable, humble and God-fearing candidate Mills is enough portrayal of the grand deception staged by incumbent President Mills. Evidence on the abortive STX deal, which for now remains a big hoax, points to another lack of performance and deception on the part of the president.

PRESIDENT Mills has also recorded some embarrassing corrupt practices in his administration with junior ministers who ran for NDC primaries recently exhibiting affluence that, to us on Today, can be acceptable in the eyes of Ghanaians only when exhibited by wealthy business gurus such as Bamson and Asuma Banda, and these junior ministers did that only to sway votes of delegates in their favour.

AGAIN, Woyomegate, is a stinking scandal former Attorney-General, Martin Amidu, has termed a gargantuan crime of procuring money from state coffers by fraudulent misrepresentation, which has already cost one cabinet minister her position is playing out in this Mills term.  Mr. Amidu, who – upon assuming office as the A-G – saw rot and went to court to recover the GH¢58 million Woyome payment, resigning in protest, because President Mills will not allow him to do his job of prosecuting those involved.

THE president’s response to Muntaka’s “Kyikyinga and pampers” saga, and of using state cash to pay air fares for a woman he took on state-duty trips are indicative of how well the president, a supposed man of integrity and a Christian, has also endorsed corruption.  Indeed, when queried by a journalist on using state cash to pay air fares for a woman his minister, Muntaka, took on state-duty trips, President Mills, shockingly, asked: Is this the first time a minister has taken a girl on a trip?

TEN months from election 2012, the flag-bearer of the NPP has also sought to walk a similar path with numerous prayer camps being established at NPP regional offices nationwide. The climax of this chameleon act was when NPP gathered at the Essipong Sports Stadium, Western Region, on Sunday to hold what they called Thanks-giving Service. That meeting is, of course, a clear contradiction to the behaviour and actions of the NPP flag-bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo.

THE paper finds it extremely strange that the supposed God-fearing Akufo-Addo could virtually throw the country on the edge with his ‘All Die Be Die’ war cry.

WE are not saying that no one should vote for a Christian or someone who extols Christian values.  We are rather cautioning Ghanaians to be wary of lions in sheep skin. We are only trying to make Ghanaians strive to make a clear distinction between church leadership and secular leadership, and to make use of the difference in assessing politicians who come to us on magic carpets of religious platitudes, for, these only use religion to get what they want and then go on to do what they like.

THOUGH we all need God’s guidance in all our endeavours, we on Today are only cautioning Ghanaians to be wary of politicians who come wearing robes of religious piety, but only with clear designs to deceive voters.

WE also gathered from the news item that five cases of MRSA have so far been detected among children on admission at the ward. The good news, however, is that those children who have been diagnosed with the bacteria-infection disease are undergoing treatment.

ACCORDING to the report, the MRSA, a type of “Staph” bacteria, which is resistant to several antibiotics, is more difficult to treat. This, experts say, is because the strains of the MRSA do not quickly respond to antibiotics treatment.

ON that same Monday, January 30, 2012 Citifmonline.com reported that three children have died following the outbreak of the bacterial infection. And to compound matters, though the hospital authorities are doing what they can to contain the situation they appear to have no inkling on when the Children’s Emergency Ward would be reopened to the general public.

TODAY believes that those at the helm of affairs at the nation’s flagship hospital must do all they can to get the ward up and running. And though we also share in the belief that the closing down of the ward was appropriate, we also think that not telling Ghanaians when the ward will be reopened is most unfortunate.

IN FACT the current situation at the Children’s Emergency Ward means that a lot of Ghanaian families whose children have emergency cases would be compelled to seek treatment for their children at private hospitals and clinics.

THIS, we believe, would inherently be at an additional cost to families since they would have to attend private clinics or hospitals with similar expertise in child care.

WE on Today cannot fathom why an essential service provider such as Korle Bu should treat its dependants in such manner.

IT therefore comes as no surprise when a board member of Ghana’s flagship health institution, Stella Quaye, recently on an Adom FM morning programme called for the immediate dissolution of the governing Board of the hospital.

ACCORDING to her, the Board has failed in its core business which is delivering of quality clinical services to the hospital.

THE board member further explained that the board chairman, the CEO and the director for medical affairs are all Clinicians, yet the Board has failed to deliver excellent clinical services to the hospital.

SHE remarkably admitted “If these people are there and such things are happening at Korle-Bu, do you think we have done well, we haven’t.”

IT is very evident to us that the internal wrangling in the hospital which begun with the Board Chairman’s decision to lock up the office of the Administrative Director  with its resultant legal battles with the competent Administrative Director, Nelson Menorkpor, has affected quality health delivery.

WE believe Nelson Menorkpor, who according to the board member is “the only trained Director to manage the hospital,” was not allowed to use his vast knowledge to transform the hospital due to reasons best known to the powers that be.

KORLE-BU has thus become the source of its own perceived downfall: the powers that be a busy sparring each other in board room, fighting over who is qualified for an allowance or not to who has the right to use this car or not to who has the right to sack whom, instead of concentration on the very lives for which reason they have been put in office although transient to save, protect and care for.

BUT the good news is that all is not lost: if only the president would quickly put his house in order and do the obvious and answer his “listening president” mantra, then Korle Bu can get back to its glory.

FOR the best way to describe the hospital at present can only be found in Chinua Achebe’s novel, “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.”

THE great philosopher, Karl Max, once remarked that Religion is the Opiate of the Masses. That saying is loaded with many wise interpretations. He believed with its sentimental and emotional attachment, religion is the medium that many use to gain acceptability and recognition.

THAT wise saying has become so synonymous and relevant to Ghanaian politics and politicians. The often resilient and robust manner that people attach and defend their religious beliefs is such that it becomes very easy for cunning politicians to exploit it to their advantage. Such religious zealots are prepared to die for their faith.

AWARE that such religious bigots, are very vulnerable in their faith, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC)—the two so-called big parties in the country—have set certain historical trends which easily give them up as groups that are only interested in exploiting such vulnerability and sentimental attachment in Christendom to gain cheap political points.

AND they have benefited because religious groups fail to analyze what seems to be the real intentions of the politicians towards their belief and only judge the politicians on the face value of how their overtures could increase their congregation or the number of converts that such politicians can bring the church.

BEFORE the 2000 elections, then opposition NPP candidate, John Agyekum Kufuor, virtually exploited the new craze in Ghanaian politics and it is believed that eventually helped the NPP to achieve electoral victory in the 2000 election. The NPP went ahead to win again the 2004 elections, using virtually the new technique. And that necessitated the eight year reign of the NPP.

IN the run-up to the 2000 election, the NPP organised “All Nights” vigils all over the country with some of the biggest church services held at the Kumasi Sports Stadium with some top Gospel divas on parade. They included Cindy Thompson, who led what can easily be termed as the NPP chorus orchestra to give a rendition of the gospel singer’s all popular worship song- Awurade Kasa.

THE mood at the last rally organised by the NPP at the INDAFA Park in Accra IN 2000, was a site to behold when candidate Kufuor refused to address the gathering, but instead allowed Cindy Thompson to lead the gathering in a prayer and worship, which was described as the second of liberation of the country from the shackles of the PNDC and the Rawlings dictatorship of 1981 to 2000.

INDEED, there is nothing wrong with seeking the face of God in a contest and asking for His guidance and direction in a party’s activities in an election year.  It is worth recognising His supremacy in all human endeavours and it is believed that the success of the NPP was largely due to the presence of God in the party’s programmes in the build-up to the 2000 election.

HOWEVER, the NPP government, through their acts of omission and commission, confirmed that they only used the religious vessel as a means to an end. In the end, the Kufuor administration left an unjustifiable legacy that could not have been what they bargained from God. It was a legacy that was not short of what the P/NDC administration left for Ghanaians.

CORRUPTION, defined by former President John Agyekum Kufuor as something which began from the time of Adam and Eve was rampant in his eight-year administration. One-time chairman of the NPP, Haruna Esseku, confirmed that the presidency under President Kufuor received kick-backs at the Castle.

NPP Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, Hon. Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori, even accused his colleagues in the Legislature of collecting “envelopes” during the passage of the bill on Ghana Telecom which later changed to VODAFONE.

THE deception in the Kufuor administration also manifested when candidate Kufuor after complaining about the fuel prices only increased products a hundred fold immediately after being sworn in as the President of Ghana. Ironically, throughout the eight-year rule of Kufuor, petrol prices constantly appreciated.

IN 2008, then candidate John Evans Atta Mills was seen as God’s reincarnate when he toured the length and breadth of the country under the banner of Asomdwoe Hene and God-fearing. As usual the call was to catch the attention of Christians and all other sects who also believe God is the Omnipotent. And presto with its large following, the NDC courted many religious sects to win the 2008 election.

AS an epitome of humility and perhaps the only presidential candidate to extol the Christian and Muslim values of humility, the religious sentiments came to play and that eventually made Ghanaians vote for candidate Mills to become the President of the Republic of Ghana, from 2009.

AT a point, it was even rumoured that President Mills had turned the Castle, the seat of government, into a prayer camp with Nigerian Pastor, T.B Joshua, in attendance. That in fact raised the hopes of many Ghanaians that Mills’ reign is divinely ordained by God. However, it did not take long for Ghanaians to see through the true colours of President Mills and his NDC government that they only deceived Ghanaians with their angelic attitude before the 2008 election.

PRESIDENT Mills and his administration immediately increased prices of fuel instead of the drastic reduction in the commodity as was promised by then candidate Mills in 2008.

THE lack of the political will to complete the Sofoline Interchange in Kumasi, the Achimota-Ofankor and the Legon-Medina roads is enough portrayal of the grand deception of current President Mills and the affable and humble candidate Mills. Evidence on the abortive STX deal which has for now remained a big hoax is another lack of performance and deception on the part of the president.

PRESIDENT Mills has also recorded some embarrassing corrupt practices in his administration with junior ministers who ran for NDC primaries recently exhibiting affluence in order to sway votes of delegates. The Woyomegate scandal which has cost the two cabinet ministers their positions with its accompanying gargantuan crimes buttress how well the state coffers is being exploited for public gains. Not even the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice who sensed rot and his willingness to recover the GH¢58 million had been spared his position.

THE president’s response to Muntaka’s “Kyikyinga” saga is enough to tell how well he has also endorsed corruption as a Christian.

TEN months from election 2012, the flag-bearer of the NPP has also sought to walk a similar path with numerous prayer camps being established at NPP regional offices nationwide. The climax of this chameleon game was when NPP gathered at the Essipong Sports Stadium on Sunday to hold what they called thanks-giving service. This meeting is of course a clear contradiction to the behaviour and actions of the NPP flag-bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo.

WE are not saying that no one should vote for a Christian or someone who extols Christian values but we are cautioning Ghanaians to be wary of lions in sheep skin. Ghanaians should separate between church leadership and secular leadership, for if we want church leaders to lead us, then we should go for Bishops or Chief Imams to be presidents.

THOUGH we need God’s guidance, Ghanaians should be careful about politicians with clear designs to deceive voters.

THE national football team, the Black Stars, last Saturday beat Mali two-nil to virtually ease to the quarter final stage of the on-going African Cup of Nations (AFCON) co-hosted by Gabon-Equatorial Guinea. As per the tournament regulations, Guinea would have to beat Ghana 3-0, while Mali beat Botswana by the same margin tomorrow evening to deny the Stars qualification to the next stage of the competition.

WITH the steady progress of the Black Stars in the competition, it does seem to us that Ghana’s quest to end a 30-year-old drought in the continental football fiesta is well on course. The last time Ghana won the African Cup of Nations was in Libya 1982, when Emmanuel Quarshie led Stars to win Ghana’s 4th AFCON Cup.

SINCE then, the closest the Stars have come within the 30 year lull has been 1992 and 2010 when Ghana lost the finals to La Cote D’ Ivoire and Egypt respectively. After the team’s vintage performance at the last World Cup, where Ghana was the only African country to get to the quarter-finals, the pundits are not far from right in tipping Ghana as one of the teams to lift this year’s trophy.

AFTER two wins from all matches played, the Ghanaian dream seem to be on course; yet we believe it has not been all that vintage performance from the Stars, in the two matches played so far. And it took two individual brilliance from Asamoah Gyan and Dede Ayew to settle Ghana’s crunch second group stage match against West African neighbours, Mali, which fielded a fearsome side that featured the celebrated Seidu Keita of Barcelona, Cheick Tidiane Diabate and Modibo Maiga who plies his trade in French league 1.

WITH the pedigree as perhaps the team with the best character in tournaments, most Ghanaians are not particularly shocked about the progress so far made by the team in this year’s AFCON. The paper believes Ghana’s sloppy performance in the opening Group D match against debutant, Botswana, was largely due to the lack of training matches in the build-up to the tournament.

THE fact that the coach experimented with some of the players in makeshift positions, clearly showed how the technical team of the Stars was not sure about the first 11 players to start the tournament. Clearly it showed how the lack of enough practice matches affected particularly the team’s opening matches in our two opening matches played so far.

WHILE many of the participating countries, played many practice matches, Ghana drew with a makeshift South African national team- Bafana Bafana, and later beat South African club side, Platinum Stars—two nil.

WHAT made many Ghanaians edgy about Ghana’s participation was also about the non-playing time of many of the team’s top players with their club sides. Captain John Mensah had been a peripheral player in French side—Olympic Lyon; deputy skipper, John Painstil, has not been involved at Leicester City for close to three months while Jonathan Mensah and John Boye only came out of various degrees of injuries just at the nick of the tournament.

THERE are other young players like Mohammed Abu, Jordan Ayew and Masawudu Alhassan whose inclusion in the final 23-man team of the Black Stars raised a lot of eye-brows because of their inexperience and lack of temperament for such a big stage like the African Cup of Nations.

INDEED all these problems made many Ghanaians quite apprehensive about the chances of Ghana in the tournament and although the team is quite on course, so far, the Stars have failed to glitter as a team and indeed, it took the brilliance of Dede and Gyan for the Stars to beat a well drilled Malian side.

NO matter the result we get from the tournament, we believe the competition should teach us some vital lessons. The fact that so far players like Agyemang Badu, Dede Ayew, Kwadwo Asamoah and to some extent Anthony Annan, have upstaged the well established players in the team clearly shows how getting playing time at club level enhances the performance of players on national duty.

YES! John Mensah and John Paintsil have played quite well in the tournament, yet we believe their performances would have been within the bracket of top-notch performers, if they had had more playing time at club level.

AFTER the tournament, Ghana will begin with two-prone qualifiers for both the World Cup and AFCON ‘13 against improved Zambia and Sudan and we believe the mistakes that we made in the AFCON will inform proper selection of players for the national team.

FOR now, we can only wish the Black Stars well in the coming matches at the on-going AFCON tournament.

ACCORDING to the United Nations, the world’s largest minority is persons living with disability (PWD) whom it estimates at 10 per cent of the world’s population, or 650 million people. This figure is increasing through population growth, medical advances and the ageing process, especially in countries with life expectancies over 70 years, where individuals spend on average about 8 years, or 11.5 per cent of their life span, living with disabilities.

AMONG such a number is the eighty per cent (80%) who live in developing countries with the majority of them living in Africa. Per provisional estimates from the 2010 Population and Housing Census, we could say, are host to an estimated 2.4 million persons with disabilities.

IF we take it on a region by region approximation then each could be said to play host to about 240,000, and each household would stand a 6% chance of having a person with physical disability.

INTERESTINGLY, persons born without disability stand a greater chance of being maimed in countries with high levels of accidents, especially in developing countries, where rates of accidents are very high at both workplaces and on roads.

THUS our former President, John Agyekum Kufuor, stood a 99% chance of becoming a person with disability when his car was involved in a car crash on November 14, 2007. Sebe, if the former President had suffered any disabling injury, or had a part of his body dismembered, would Ghana have rejected the Gentle Giant as President on that basis alone?

SINCE Ghana would not have done such thing, why do the country and the society always shun people with disability? It is even worse when religious institutions, which are houses of an all-embracing non-discriminating God, forget about the existence of a blind Bartimaus whom Christ would have healed if he were here today.

HAVE we returned to the era when persons with physical disability in society were observed as epitomes of bad omen hence were treated as outcast? At the national level, we may not necessarily be treating our brothers and sisters as outcasts, however various state institutions after passing the Disability Act, 2006 ACT 751 are yet to make to their buildings the changes that will grant access to them.

HOW are we to describe that?

BEING aware of the sort of treatment meted out to PWD, Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities calls on “state parties to take appropriate measures to ensure persons with disabilities [have] access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas.”

THE objective of the act is to enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life. These measures, which shall include “the identification and elimination of obstacles and barriers to accessibility, shall apply, inter alia, to buildings, roads, transportation and other indoor and outdoor facilities, including schools, housing, medical facilities and workplaces; information, communications and other services, including electronic services and emergency services.”

IT is undisputable that this convention had tremendous influence on the passage of the Disability Act of 2006 which enjoins “[an] owner or occupier of a place to which the public has access [to] provide appropriate facilities that make the place accessible to and available for use by a person with disability.”

IRONICALLY, heads of institutions which formulated and must see to the implementation of the Disability Act of 2006 could be marked as liable to “[pay] a fine not exceeding 50 penalty units or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both” for breaching the very act they formulated. And that means their buildings have no such facilities for the physically challenged.

THE Ghana Federation of the Disabled (GFD) has had many causes to complain about the treatment meted out to their members whom they claimed struggle to cross major roads despite the presence of flyovers, but which do not make any provision for their members.

SHOULD PWDs continue to scream from the top of buildings that they are denied what they deserve as a right, even when there is a law that makes it obligatory on all to provide such facilities for them?

INDEED, many persons with disabilities are very productive in ways that are beneficial to many other persons, including able-bodied.  Hence to up opportunities to our PWD brothers and sisters is in the interest of Ghana and the world.

PHYSICALLY-challenged sports men and women have on numerous occasions lifted the flag of Ghana high by winning laurels on the world stage.  It is therefore imperative that the all arms of government take steps to provide the avenues and opportunities that allow them to enjoy the same right as everyone else; it is their fundamental human right.

THAT, in the opinion of us on Today, is a clear case of in the abundance of water on the continent there is none for us the citizenry to drink. Stakeholders in the oil and gas industry in Ghana have sought to place themselves strategically to benefit from Ghana’s production with traditional leaders from certain regions publicly advocating for their fair share of the revenues.

THE discovery of oil in commercial quantities and its subsequent drilling, which began in December 2010, is also the originator of the many conferences and seminars that the organisers intend to use to offer education and advice on how well we have to manage the black gold if we must use it to enhance our economic growth.

THE latest and most popular yet is the deliberations at the 68th Annual New Year School at the University of Ghana, Legon, where participants sought to review the benefits the exploitation of the black gold has bequeathed on Ghana after one year of exploitation. Issues of concern raised by participants among others included a call on government to create a special account where oil revenue could be deposited and also a publication of the revenues and expenditures from the oil industry in Ghana.

THESE, according to the school, would help ensure transparency in the management of revenues from the oil and gas industry. Though they did not make specific mention of regional allocations of the revenue, these solutions could also be applied to the demands made by chiefs of the Western Region and other regions on how well they could benefit from the black gold proceeds

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IT will be recalled that Parliament of Ghana, among other things, also extended its sittings to about 23:00HRS GMT on December 9, 2010 all in an effort to decide whether the country’s oil should be collateralized or not. There is an Akan proverb that says: “Baabi a Otomfour bo no, eho na ehia no,” literally: The blacksmith hits the part of the metal that interest him the most.

IF that axiom is anything to go by, then managers of the oil revenue must be careful in the management of oil revenues, because time and time again, experience has shown that public officials placed in gate-keeper and regulatory positions over our resources on this continent tend to think of their personal pockets rather than the good of all.

AND Ghana will do well to avoid that in the management of our crude oil industry and revenues.

That is why we on Today would add our voices to the many calls for transparency and accountability, which are always raised at the conferences and seminars and are some of the fundamentals on which various speakers always agree are necessary to ensure the development of both the sector and the country.

IF the vulture had listened to advice it would have been spared a bald head. Ghana must pay heed to the numerous advice and offered solutions before the worst befalls the country. There are too many examples of that for us to also go that same way.

THAT, in the opinion of us on Today, is a clear case of in the abundance of water on the continent there is none for us the citizenry to drink. Stakeholders in the oil and gas industry in Ghana have sought to place themselves strategically to benefit from Ghana’s production with traditional leaders from certain regions publicly advocating for their fair share of the revenues.

THE discovery of oil in commercial quantities and its subsequent drilling, which began in December 2010, is also the originator of the many conferences and seminars that the organisers intend to use to offer education and advice on how well we have to manage the black gold if we must use it to enhance our economic growth.

THE latest and most popular yet is the deliberations at the 68th Annual New Year School at the University of Ghana, Legon, where participants sought to review the benefits the exploitation of the black gold has bequeathed on Ghana after one year of exploitation. Issues of concern raised by participants among others included a call on government to create a special account where oil revenue could be deposited and also a publication of the revenues and expenditures from the oil industry in Ghana.

THESE, according to the school, would help ensure transparency in the management of revenues from the oil and gas industry. Though they did not make specific mention of regional allocations of the revenue, these solutions could also be applied to the demands made by chiefs of the Western Region and other regions on how well they could benefit from the black gold proceeds

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IT will be recalled that Parliament of Ghana, among other things, also extended its sittings to about 23:00HRS GMT on December 9, 2010 all in an effort to decide whether the country’s oil should be collateralized or not. There is an Akan proverb that says: “Baabi a Otomfour bo no, eho na ehia no,” literally: The blacksmith hits the part of the metal that interest him the most.

IF that axiom is anything to go by, then managers of the oil revenue must be careful in the management of oil revenues, because time and time again, experience has shown that public officials placed in gate-keeper and regulatory positions over our resources on this continent tend to think of their personal pockets rather than the good of all.

AND Ghana will do well to avoid that in the management of our crude oil industry and revenues.

That is why we on Today would add our voices to the many calls for transparency and accountability, which are always raised at the conferences and seminars and are some of the fundamentals on which various speakers always agree are necessary to ensure the development of both the sector and the country.

IF the vulture had listened to advice it would have been spared a bald head. Ghana must pay heed to the numerous advice and offered solutions before the worst befalls the country. There are too many examples of that for us to also go that same way.

THIS was the tragic end of Patience Sakpigi, a fifteen-year-old girl, who died at the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi, in the wee-hours of Friday, 20th January, 2012. She was but an anaemic patient who had been referred to the hospital for better treatment after a doctor had diagnosed that she needed blood to stabilize her.

THE innocent girl is just one of many who die or have been maimed in our hospitals due largely to negligence and a lack of medical equipment. Is it not sheer act of wickedness and negligence on the part of the lab technician on duty on that fateful day to have demanded a bribe of GHC60.00 (according to a news item on Myjoyonline.com which story had the headline ‘Girl, 15, dies… As lab technician denies her blood) before processing blood from the hospital’s blood bank?

HERE is a mirror of Ghana’s battle of corruption that is dealing a severe blow to the society and eroding the very foundation of a society once tagged as loving and welcoming for all including foreigners. We do in fact appreciate the lack of medical facilities as a major challenge to the delivery of health care in the country hence our resolve to make sure the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) do not collapse.

ALL medical officers should therefore sit down to reflect on how painful it is to have the likes of Nkrumah’s mother buried at a crossroad where the Metro Mass Transit stops outside the hospital. It would just mean robbing the society of great men and the human resource needed to make life better.

THAT is exactly what the laboratory technician who had been trained with the tax payers’ money has done; he has destroyed a whole generation of great men and women whose signature could have changed the course of history. The memory of the Presidential Commission which investigated the death of Inusah Fuseini’s wife at the Police Hospital in May 2010 is enough assurance that the president and the powers-that-be would take this issue seriously and do like-wise.

WE at Today resolve to continue monitoring how the story would unfold because Ghana is tired of redundant employees.

HOW is it like to groan and stroll from one side of a bed to another as you suck in the dry air that encases a caged bed? The journey of life seems to have come to a sudden end with all the hopes and ambitions of liberating a poverty-stricken family and a nation seem to be fast fading.

THIS was the tragic end of Patience Sakpigi, a fifteen-year-old girl, who died at the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi, in the wee-hours of Friday, 20th January, 2012. She was but an anaemic patient who had been referred to the hospital for better treatment after a doctor had diagnosed that she needed blood to stabilize her.

THE innocent girl is just one of many who die or have been maimed in our hospitals due largely to negligence and a lack of medical equipment. Is it not sheer act of wickedness and negligence on the part of the lab technician on duty on that fateful day to have demanded a bribe of GHC60.00 (according to a news item on Myjoyonline.com which story had the headline ‘Girl, 15, dies… As lab technician denies her blood) before processing blood from the hospital’s blood bank?

HERE is a mirror of Ghana’s battle of corruption that is dealing a severe blow to the society and eroding the very foundation of a society once tagged as loving and welcoming for all including foreigners. We do in fact appreciate the lack of medical facilities as a major challenge to the delivery of health care in the country hence our resolve to make sure the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) do not collapse.

ALL medical officers should therefore sit down to reflect on how painful it is to have the likes of Nkrumah’s mother buried at a crossroad where the Metro Mass Transit stops outside the hospital. It would just mean robbing the society of great men and the human resource needed to make life better.

THAT is exactly what the laboratory technician who had been trained with the tax payers’ money has done; he has destroyed a whole generation of great men and women whose signature could have changed the course of history. The memory of the Presidential Commission which investigated the death of Inusah Fuseini’s at the Police Hospital in May 2010 is enough assurance that the president and the powers-that-be would take this issue seriously and do like-wise.

WE at Today resolve to continue monitoring how the story would unfold because Ghana is tired of redundant employees.