“For me and the entire Asanteman, we will never forget you (referring to teachers) because your work is worth recognising”- Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

The teacher is one key professional society cannot do without. Apart from dispensing knowledge, the teacher also guides, leads, coaches and motivates students to learn. Even in the face of limited resources and support, the teacher is expected to serve learners. Actually, teaching is a demanding profession.

Educational policies and programmes are formulated for the teacher to implement. No matter how lofty an educational policy may look, its implementation is what matters most. The teacher is the hinge on which any education system revolves.

However, the modern teacher is faced with many challenges, including low motivation, lack of teaching and learning resources, inconsistency in school curriculum and inadequate infrastructure. Nevertheless, the teacher is supposed to merge academic prowess with professionalism to educate learners.

Ghana’s strive to provide quality, affordable education to citizens regardless of sex, age, socio-economic and cultural orientation as well as geographical location would be fruitless unless concerted efforts are made to ameliorate the challenges facing the teacher.

The crux of this piece is to invite compatriots to join me applaud Otumfuo Osei Tutu II for his contributions to the development of education in the country. His contributions to community development are enormous. He has positively influenced many lives across the country through his initiatives. He is a real visionary, selfless, peaceful and development-oriented ruler.

I do not think I have the capacity now to outline all the noble achievements of the overlord of Asanteman. For now, the focus would be on what his NGO, Charity Foundation, has done for teachers in the country. The Foundation has created the Otumfuo Teachers Awards Scheme which works in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service to identify and award hard working and dedicated teachers in deprived communities across the country.

Last year, about 200 teachers and educational administrators across the country were recognised and awarded at the premises of Manhyia. Many prominent personalities were at that ceremony. Otumfuo advised society to support the teacher to churn out quality education to students.

A few days ago, the same ceremony was organised at same venue. About 100 teachers, 10 from each region, and also the 10 regional directors of education were honoured. To qualify for the award, one is expected to have served diligently in a typical rural area for a number of years.

Beneficiary teachers had 24-inch television sets, solar-powered lamps, Wellington boots, machetes, wall clocks, undisclosed amounts of money and certificates.  Teachers from communities, such as; Twifu Kyebi and Nuanua No. 2 in the Central Region; Terhey and Tokpo in the Greater Accra Region; Temebaabi and Fahiakobo in the Ashanti Region; Kokosua and Asuoti in the Brong Ahafo Region; Wudese and Koru in the Volta Region; Dalun and Tong in the Northern Region; Kpalinye and Naame in the Upper West Region; Abrenya and Amenam in the Eastern Region; Abotarye and Swanzy in the Western Region and Nakoli and Zerogo in the Upper East Region were all awarded. What a beautiful showmanship of nationalism?

Aside from this, the Asanteman Council, through the initiative of its leader, has also set up the Otumfuo Educational Endowment Fund to support brilliant but needy students in school. Otumfuo, being a visionary leader, also lobbies development partners into the country. He has done well in developing schools in his area of control; typical example is the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

I think the Asantehene’s performance over the years is worth emulating. Our pace of development would gallop if other traditional rulers could follow the footsteps of the likes of Otumfuo. Chiefs and queenmothers must use their august titles to win local and foreign investors to the country, especially their areas of command. They need to eschew acts that are liable to breed misunderstandings and conflicts among their people. They should not try to interfere unduly in partisan politics. This however does not debar them from voting during elections.

Traditional rulers must pay courtesy calls to one another. For instance, the President of Ave Council of Chiefs in the Volta Region, Torgbui Nyamekor Glakpe IV, with his council members, could visit the Okyenhene, Amoatia Ofori Panyin for discussions on the development of their areas.

Now, society’s challenges are so daunting that it would be necessary for all stakeholders, including traditional rulers to go beyond just seeing themselves as custodians of lands to taking active part in developmental activities.

E-mail: amoatec27@yahoo.com

The Complete Encyclopedia of Babylon the Great Teaching them the truth

This article considers questions you may have raised and shows where you can read the answers in your Bible.

1. Is all religion good?

Many religious groups include sincere people who want to please God. He sees those people and cares about them. Sadly, though, some people have used religion for evil purposes. In the past, religious leaders have even tortured their opponents. (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4; 11:13-15) Today, according to news reports, some religious leaders have encouraged terrorism or supported war, or they have  been involved in child abuse.—Read Matthew 24:3-5, 11, 12. The Bible teaches that there are two types of religion— true religion and false religion. False religion does not teach the truth about God. Nevertheless, Jehovah God wants people to know the truth about him.—Read 1Timothy 2:3-5.

2. What is the good news about religion?

God does not want people to be deceived by religions that claim to love him but misrepresent him. In fact, adherents of those religions love being friends with the world that is controlled by Satan the Devil. (James 4:4; 1 John 5:19) God’s Word describes religions that give their allegiance to human governments rather than to God as being like a prostitute. The Bible calls this harlot by the name “Babylon the Great,” after the ancient city where false religion began after the Flood of Noah’s day. Soon, God will bring a sudden end to religion that deceives and oppresses mankind.—Read Revelation 17:1, 2, 5, 17; 18:8, 23, 24.

3. How will God bring joy to every land?

The coming judgment on false religion is good news. It will bring worldwide relief from oppression. Never again will false religions mislead and divide mankind. Everyone living will be united in worship of the only true God.—Read Isaiah 11:9; Revelation 18:20, 21; 21:3, 4.

4. What should sincere people do?

Jehovah has not forgotten the sincere people who are scattered among false religions worldwide. He is now gathering such people into unity by teaching them the truth.—Read Micah 4:2, 5.

Jehovah welcomes into his family those who want to serve him. Even if our friends and relatives are upset when we start to serve Jehovah, we gain much. We gain friendship with God, a new and loving “family,” and the prospect of having everlasting life.—Read Mark 10:29, 30; 2 Corinthians 6:17,18.—Watchtower

Paul Tawiah Quaye, Inspector of Police

This book has an identity problem. The author, the NPP politician and medical doctor, Arthur Kennedy states in the introduction that the book is “a work of fiction.” Five lines later he restates that “this book is fiction.” The author states that the book is an attempt to sound the alarm about the impact of drug abuse on Africa in general and on West Africa in particular, and therein lies the problem about the book.

The title of the book, The Drug Invasion of West Africa, is straightforward enough and can hardly be called “fiction” and I suspect librarians would know exactly where to place it in a library and it would not be among fictional works.

The first thing to note therefore in trying to understand the book is that it seeks to be a campaigning book about the menace of drugs and Arthur Kennedy has done a lot of research on drug trafficking and abuse throughout the ages and he states that while the book is a work of fiction, it is based on a lot of historical truths.

It is easy to see why Mr. Kennedy is so keen to cloak his work with fiction. His last book, Chasing The Elephant Into The Bush, which was an account of the 2008 elections in Ghana from his vantage position as the NPP Campaign Director of Communications caused such an uproar, he probably wanted to protect himself from charges of disloyalty again.

But he is equally keen to make his point about the drug menace and to display the amount of research he has made on the subject and that is where, I am afraid his skills as a novelist fail him completely.

The main story, the decision of Mexican drug barons moving to West Africa as a transit point is supposed to be based in the fictional Republic of Seguria, which is situated between Ghana to the east and Ivory Coast to the west. If you are trying to find similarities between The Republic of Seguria and Ghana, there are lots. “A rudimentary railway line built to transport cocoa to the coast by one of the country’s pre-independence governors had long since ceased to function”, we are talking about Seguria. The man who got independence for this fictional republic and became its first president was “The Anointed One,” Kofi Yundobo Kruman, it has also had a former President Djato and a former President Diwoku and when the story opens the president of the republic is a president Nta Mayo. A reader will have a lot of fun working out the historical and current equivalents of the characters in the story.

There will doubtless be a lot of excitement when people discover that as part of the storyline there is a presidential candidate who had been accused of dealing in drugs by his opponents and had lost an election. The excitement will mount even more when it turns out that the republic of Seguria has been chosen by the Santa Anna Mexican drug family as the new place for their operations. The amount of research Mr. Kennedy put into the writing of the book is evident when he is dealing with the Mexican part of the storyline; the characters come alive and the conversation sounds convincing and even the geographical settings are interesting. And indeed throughout the book, the scenes that are outside the republic of Seguria and West Africa as a whole are more vivid and more realistic. Hardly anybody in the Santa Anna drug family comes across as someone to be despised, not even when they send a team of female assassins to Cape Dedamia, the Seguria capital to kill a man that had dared to steal a consignment of their drugs. Where there are drugs, there will be law enforcement officials and this story has its share of policemen and other officials that are trying to always be a step ahead of the drugs dealers. There is the Seguria Chief of Police Kolo Buntey Waawa, a promisingly colourful man who unfortunately fades away inexplicably.

The same however cannot be said about Sir Lance Boyd, the man who “quite a few people considered the real-life James Bond”. He had been awarded a Victoria Cross for bravery in Afghanistan and been knighted on the recommendations of departing Prime Minister, Tony Blair. His interest in the drug war had developed from his devotion to terrorism. “He was worried that sooner or later, just as there would be a nexus between drugs and terror, there would be one between drugs and politics, forming an explosive and evil triangle.”

Somehow you just knew that with such a man being introduced to this particular war, the rest of us could sleep safely. But what kept Sir Lance awake at night, we are told, was the gap between rhetoric and action and this was why he was an ardent fan of former US President George W. Bush, who in Sir Lance’s opinion, was a man of action and he admired men on action. The author also is an obvious fan of former President George W. Bush, and laments that he has not been given enough credit for his work in establishing the Global fund for HIV/AIDS. Sir Lance (and Arthur Kennedy) agreed with the younger President Bush that “gathering threats must be confronted before they become imminent”, this is quoted four different times in the book. Sir Lance teams up with an American counterpart and friend, Colonel Ken Wiecker, a man with similar qualifications and between the two of them, the British and American governments are fully signed up to fight the drug menace in west Africa and by extension, on the streets of western capitals.

Those who would be wanting to see if this book is in fact a roman a clef, would be interested to know that the presidential candidate who is accused of dealing in drugs by his opponents and lost an election, wins the next election. Whilst the story moves from Cape Dedamia to London, to Washington DC, to Mexico, to Barcelona and Abuja and African Union summits in Addis Ababa, one thing is clear, Mr. Kennedy is as he says, as a family physician, trying to sound the alarm about the effects of drugs on individuals as well as on society.

Mr. Kennedy obviously wants to go as far as he can to make his book as controversial and titillating by aligning the names of the characters and places as closely to real life as he can possibly dare without libeling anybody and he succeeds in this. But the determination to mix fact with fiction which leads to the recounting of various true drugs stories in West Africa means that what would have been a great denouement, simply fizzles out.

In the end, we don’t have a novel and the title betrays the main aim of the author as wanting to write a serious work that draws attention to the drug problem in West Africa. But I have no doubt enough people will want to know what happens to President Quanda of Seguria and thus keep this book in the headlines for a while.—Ghanaweb.com

ARTICLE BY: ELIZABETH A. OHENE

I believe that if we fail to acknowledge the good deeds of our fellow human beings, we would find it difficult to show gratitude for God’s gift of abundant resources.

It is common for people to wrongly assume that anybody in our country who gains modest recognition for some good deed may have attended what is always described as first class high schools. I have always said with pride that I attended Nkawkaw Secondary School (Great KAWSEC) which I still consider as the best high school existing in our country. I am proud to be an old KAWSECAN and my school whose motto is “Education for Service” influenced my life greatly.

What makes KAWSECANS unique and so proud of their school?

The answer lies in the fact that the first Headmaster of Nkawkaw Secondary School, Rt. Rev. Victor BuerNartey-Tokoli, a highly respected priest of the Methodist Church, an Educationist par excellence, a great father, Counsellor and a dedicated public servant built the school on a strong foundation of truth, hard work and service to humanity.

In 1968 when the then Methodist Training College at Nkawkaw was to be closed down by the government, it took the ingenuity of the Rt. Rev. Nartey-Tokoli to accept the challenge of developing Nkawkaw Secondary School from the ashes of the Training College to serve the human capital needs of the Kwahu area and the nation. Rt. Rev. Nartey-Tokoli had the onerous task of starting Nkawkaw Secondary School with very poor facilities bequeathed to the school by the old Methodist Training College. He was driven by a strong desire to develop a secondary school that would provide social, moral and formal education to prepare the products of the school to serve mother Ghana.

The late Rt. Rev. Victor Buer Nartey-Tokoli went round from church to church, market places and schools convincing parents to enrol their children in the new Nkawkaw Secondary School. He marketed Great KAWSEC as a government school with great potential to provide a holistic   education to the many young people in the area who had not been able to further their education beyond the Middle School level. The first batch of students of Nkawkaw Secondary School included former pupil teachers, street hawkers, petty traders and those recruited directly from Middle schools without stressing so much on the Common Entrance Examination initially since that could have prevented many of the first batch of students from gaining admission. I would explain why I feel compelled to write this tribute to the memory of the Late Rt. Rev. Victor Buer Nartey-Tokoli.  I am filled with deep emotions as I write about my personal experience with him and I know many of my compatriots of Great KAWSEC feel the same.

I passed the Common Entrance Examination in 1970 and was invited for an interview in one of the schools on the Kwahu Mountain. I was successful at the interview and was provided an admission letter and a prospectus. The prospectus had a long list of items I needed to buy and the school fees which I had to pay within a short period. I realised that I had come to the end of my education because I knew my mother could not afford to buy the tall list of items on the prospectus and then pay the school fees. I burst out weeping and continued crying when we were descending the Odweanoma hill until I got to the market place at Nkawkaw where my mother was. The passengers in the vehicle with me probed into why I was in such deep sorrow but I was filled with too much grief to explain to them.

After a few consultations with some market women who had heard of Nkawkaw Secondary School through the campaigns of Rt. Rev. Nartey-Tokoli, my mother decided to go and meet the headmaster to make a plea for my admission. My mother and I walked about 5 km to the old site and we met Rt. Rev. Nartey-Tokoli waiting at the entrance of the school as if he was expecting us. My mother talked about everything including the sudden death of our father who was a Presbyterian priest and the efforts she was making to educate us. He listened attentively and started acting on the issue before my mother could complete her story. That was how I gained admission to Nkawkaw Secondary School as a day student in the second batch of students without any impediment. Interestingly, many students of Nkawkaw Secondary School have testimonies similar to mine.

The Late Rt. Rev. Victor Buer Nartey-Tokoli taught me the greatest lesson that one needed to be upright in public life.  My mother would not have been able to pay a farthing as bribe if the Rt. Rev. Nartey-Tokoli had demanded money as a condition for my admission and I have vowed never to receive bribe in the course of my work.  He encouraged all his students to uphold high moral standards and that is what has kept some of us through the difficulties of public service.

On 29^th April, 2012, about 60 old students of Great KAWSEC paid a visit to our father and mentor Rt. Rev. Victor Buer Nartey-Tokoli who had not been in good health for some time. Brigadier-General Yeboah Morphy ( first School Prefect) and Ms Stella Appiah-Nkansah of Vodafone (Secretary of the Old Students’ Association) in their speech paid glowing tribute to the  legend  of our great school and told him that though late, we were honoured and excited to interact with him. His face glowed with smiles and he looked very happy to have seen many generations of KAWSECANS who had gathered to pay homage to him.  We sang many Methodist Hymns together and we prayed for him.  Our father bid us good bye and we left his home very satisfied that we had accomplished an important duty only to hear that he died peacefully the next morning. It was as if he was waiting to see the generations of his children before passing over. Rt. Rev. Victor Buer Nartey-Tokoli changed the destiny of poor people to educationists, top military officers, successful business persons, medical officers, accomplished public servants, police officers, human relations managers, nurses, scientists, and economists etc. We owe him tons of gratitude.  May his soul rest in perfect peace!

BY DANIEL OWUSU-KORANTENG (an old student of Nkawkaw Secondary School)

In Ghana while inflation, interest rates and GDP growth are being touted by the government as some economic success, what is lost on them is the fact that literacy rate is dropping since independence. In 1960 the literacy rate was70%. That means 7 out of 10 people of Ghanaians then were educated to an appreciable level. I watched a BBC documentary on Ghana’s independence in which one of the visitors (a white guy) said what fascinated him about the then Ghana was that “everyone read the newspaper, even taxi drivers took time out of their schedule to read newspapers.”

The story after 55 years is however different. In today’s Ghana the literacy rate has slipped to 50%. The reasons for this slip are not very difficult to fathom. It is the result of years of neglect by successive governments, the unnecessary politicization of education, including cheap punch interference for short term political gains, the gestation period of basic education in Ghana and finally the curriculum being taught (even in the short time basic education) not geared towards giving the students employable skills.

While it has to be admitted that it has to take political action and will to drive educational policies in the right direction, we have to emphasise also that lack of these have been evident in many governments since independence. Since the massive push for mass education during the First Republic, which many Ghanaians now in positions of leadership are products of, there have not been any great governmental actions that have added value beyond the Free Compulsory Basic Education (FCUBE) and Girl Child Education implemented by President Kufuor. The other ingredient of Free School Feeding Program is equally commendable.

To move education forward and to push for the 70% we inherited from the colonial government and even break that glass ceiling, certain positive actions must be taken. The first is that schooling must end with adequate literacy. That means every child who goes to school must only exit when they can read with understanding, write with fluency and gain one employable skill. This can only be done if we redefine basic education and raise the threshold of basic education to at least Senior High School level. The longer they stay in school the better the chances of being able to read write and gain the employable skill.

The second is to revisit the curriculum content -what we refer to in Ghana as the “syllabus.” Not all children will be able to access science and arts aimed at higher level education. Those who do not have that academic acumen or interest must be given the tools to exit as SHS level or a college with a vocational skill. Technical and Vocational subjects, including ICT must be taught with the same vigour as the sciences and the arts subjects. The third and perhaps the most important action is the importance of the teacher to the whole literacy drive. We need to put the teacher at the heart and at the centre of the whole action plan. The training facilities, their conditions of service (including their medical wellbeing) must be looked at within the context of sustainability. A bottom up teacher training, including their continuous professional development must be created to ensure that that the teacher is well equipped, and well motivated to educate the students. This is a must and cannot be emphasised enough.

The fourth action and the biggest one for parents is the cost of education. The Vice-President, Mr John Mahama, recently seemed to imply that the problem of education in Ghana is not affordability but that of accessibility. This means the problem is where to find schools to attend and not the cost of school fees. I beg to differ strongly on that point. While governments must continue to build schools to meet the growing population, we must never lose sight of the fact that most students who drop out of school do so because of parents’ inability to fund their schooling. With high rate of poverty levels across the country, affordability is perhaps the biggest problem facing education in Ghana. With government absorbing school fees up to JHS with the Capitation Grant, the next step will be for the government to absorb school fees up to SHS, if it is to be made part of basic education. If we strip this argument of all political biases, it is an incontrovertible fact positive government action ought to go this way. School fees must be free across the country in all public schools and it is the least that we can do for the children of today as a testimony to the fact that we now produce and sell crude oil in commercial quantity.

In all developed economies, the main driving factors have been free education up to secondary or high school levels. In UK, as part of their Welfare State Package in 1948, the free National Health Service and Free Secondary Education became the main hallmarks. In USA, productivity shot up to unimaginable level when they introduced free education to High School level. In the recent State of the Union address President Obama gave an order that no child must be made to leave school until the age of 18.

Globalization and international trade requires countries and their economies to compete with each other. Economically successful countries will hold competitive and comparative advantages over other economies, though a single country rarely specializes in a particular industry. This means that the country’s economy will be made of various industries that will have different advantages and disadvantages in the global marketplace. The education and training of a country’s workers is a major factor in determining just how well the country’s economy will do.

With about 500 public SHSs in Ghana with an average school population of 1000, it will not be beyond us as a nation to prioritize resources to cater for free secondary education. On accessibility and freeing up school places, we may need to rethink boarding schools in the future and begin to gear our energies towards day secondary education in Ghana. Again in order not to open up our education to cheap shot political punches as we have found in this “3-year then 4y-year and back to 3-year SHS political football”, any free education policy must be backed or ring-fenced by an Act of Parliament. In 2000 the percentage of our GDP spent on education was 4.4. By 2008 it had risen to 9.17%. In 2011 the percentage on education has slipped back to 7.57. This fluctuation has been possible because each government has spent on education based on its own priority. The cost of education is so important that we should not leave it to governments to decide. It is our collective public and civic responsibility to ensure that it becomes a priority. The only way to do this is to ring-fence the percentage of our GDP to be spent on education with law i.e. Act of Parliament.

At the moment, the political tittle-tattle of how many schools have been removed from under trees, or how many trees have been removed from schools, who is wearing the better Ghana school uniforms and how many have been distributed, all reduce education policy to cheap political shots. Whether school feeding serves a better purpose at Hamile or Half-Assini is nothing more than political point scoring. They do not go to the root of the policy problems we have in education. I will end with the famous quote by Derek Bok “if you think education is expensive, try ignorance”.

Thanks for reading.

ARTICLE BY: KWESI ATTA-KRUFI HAYFORD, Educationist, hattakrufi@hotmail.com

Water quality and safety should be a national security and safety issue. This is how it is viewed at least in developed countries.

The effort and the procedures instituted to safeguard the quality and safety of potable water in these nations should be adopted and supported by both the citizens and all the stakeholders in the sub-Saharan African countries, where water borne diseases and death as a result of ingestion of unsafe water could match that caused by malaria, responsible for 1 in 5 childhood death, a total of 655,000 death in 2010.

And also costs sub-Saharan Africa US$12 billion GDP per year.
Water is one of the most important elements that support earth life which has been in existence for over 3.5 billion years. For us as tertiary consumers on the food chain/web, water is the only medium by which nutrients, carbon substrates, and energy from the producers, primary and secondary consumers we eat get transported to various subsystems in our body, for respiration and reproduction.

Contaminated water in our body thus carries along contaminants in a form of pathogenic microbes or chemicals which attack our body cells and sometimes interfere with codes of DNA in our genes creating mutations. Many of the times the body fights back but most of time we fall sick and become economically unproductive and a sink putting economic burden on others as a result.

On a national scale, the country loses its productive manpower and has to borrow from other nations to keep the wheel of its economy spinning. We therefore have to purify and protect the quality of our potable water from the source and to point of use (POU). Too many people are needlessly being incapacitated and are dying of diseases that are supposed to be in extinction, considering the level of advancement of man and medicine.

I was motivated by callers of Dr. Alexander Anim-Mensah’s presentation on water quality in Ghana last December at one of the FM stations in Accra. I also recognized the excellent contributions made by the CEO of Food and Drugs Board (FBD) and callers who brought to light the intensity of some of the water situations in Ghana.

Some of the callers’ complaints included finding tadpoles and frogs in potable water they had fetched from taps at their own homes. That was the first time I ever heard such incredible incidents and so my immediate question was how did that happen? My assumption was that, the incidents were physical and could be explained with science. And that is what I am about to do but before I hypothesize, I would say that these incidents highlight the extent to which lack of responsibility and ownership of public institutions and also lack of demand by Ghanaians from these institutions for world class standard services have led the entire country to.

They again show how unsafe we as Ghanaians are, drinking tap water thinking the water was well treated at the treatment facility to a safety standard and still remained safe as it flowed through the distribution system, exited through our taps and then into our cups. The finished water from the clear well to the point of entry (POE) of the distribution system through to the point of use (POU) always run a risk of coming into contact with pathogenic microbes or some form of toxic chemicals. This is not limited to only tap water but also to bottled water, sachet water, and well water.

Chemicals used to make bottles and plastics under certain environmental conditions leach back 0into the contained water. Chemicals like BPA and their effect on consumers are some of the hot topics being discussed in the world of toxicology and water research. Well water is also prone to heavy metal contamination. In Ghana many wells in mining areas have been found to contain arsenic, a very toxic heavy metal that causes cancer. Pathogen contaminated water when ingested causes diseases like Typhoid, Cholera, Dysentery, Salmonellosis and this has incredibly been responsible for uncountable number of death in all over the sub-Saharan Africa.
Like a geologist who deciphers the chronology of geologic events that lead to a formation of an outcrop by visual inspection, my hypothesis of the presence of tadpoles and the frogs in peoples’ tap water is that backflow action sucked them into the water distribution system and rerouted them to other customer’s home away from the source. Prior to that, there was a sequence of critical events that took place.

First there was an exposure of a pipe by some digging activities followed by a break in the pipe. Water gushed out but not strong enough to flow away, so it filled the dug out hole forming a puddle over the broken pipe. Some female frogs laid and hatched their eggs in the puddle. What happened next is where it becomes a bit tricky. There are two possible scenarios that could cause the backflow in a section of a distribution system.

One is shift in the pressure head within the distribution network to one segment from other segments, and the other one is intentional shutdown of water flow. But water flow pattern in Ghana suggests both are common and both could be the culprit. The shift of pressure head happens when there is an overwhelming sudden shift of levels water demand from one segment of distribution network to another causing water to flow towards the higher water demand segment from the other segment in the distribution network.

An example is when there is an asymmetric explosion of water demand due to settlement or industrial growth on one side of the distribution system. On the other hand, intentional water shut down of the water mains, at certain times, reverses the direction of water flow and it is true in hilly terrains.

The external intruders in both cases get rerouted if sucked beyond pipe intersections. It is then pumped into other customers’ homes. The consequence is that the potable water becomes unsafe to drink without any further treatment. Boiling the water for awhile is advisable if the contamination is purely by microbes. Otherwise a professional treatment is necessary. The idea of chlorination becomes defeated if incredibly high concentrations of microbes intrude the water. Formation of trihalomethanes becomes inevitable because of presence of overwhelmingly high level of organics. These byproducts are concerned carcinogens. Too much Chlorine in water may also be dangerous to our health. There is a maximum concentration allowable in potable water beyond which chlorine becomes toxic, therefore chlorination should be left for experts. This is also an area of concern because of sales of some “chlorine tablets” to the public in the Ghanaian market.

My humble suggestion to combat this is as follows:
• Permits should be required for any digging in densely populated areas or in all cities.
• There should be a database for pipelines laid in all areas.
• Finished water should flow at all times.
• Backflow preventers should be put at all pipe intersections.
• Diligent planning and design of distribution system is essential and should always be done.
• There should be regular sampling and analysis of water at areas far away from the water treatment plant as well as the distribution stations to determine the concentrations of chlorine residual.
• We can deal with the problem of inevitable chlorine dissipation by substituting chlorine with Chloramines. Chloramines especially Monochloramines are known to last longer in water, has associated lowered disinfection byproducts and cost effective.
Besides these seven points, I also suggest that Ministry of Health (MOH), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Food and Drugs Board (FDB) should coordinate to constantly monitor the safety of our potable water. For instance, MOH through doctors can capture health data of the patients and sort out waterborne disease cases. Data containing residence and work place addresses can be relayed to EPA and FDB for a follow up investigations on food and potable water sources patients consumed. If the source of the ailment is identified, actions should then be taken to correct it. A development of a nation demands healthy human resources and we should all help in one way or another in making Ghana a healthy place to be.—Ghanaweb.com
ARTICLE BY: OTI DOUGLAS, PHD

Douglas Oti, PhD (Civil & Environmental Engineering)
Tampa, Florida
Oti_douglas@yahoo.com

ARTICLE BY: OTI DOUGLAS, PHD

Again there could not have been a better theme this year than what was chosen especially coming after last year’s event which had the theme ; “Empowering the People As We Build A Better Ghana,” having empowered people to build a better Ghana, its only proper to come together to complete the building of a Better Ghana.

During the fair, all ministries, departments and agencies as well as metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies in Greater Accra Region were brought together under one roof to provide a one-stop access to the general public.

This means the event provided an avenue for people to interact freely with ministers of state, chief executive officers of public institutions as well as chief directors, directors and other senior members of these institutions, to offer suggestions, seek information, clarify policy issues and better understand policy and projects initiatives.

It is a universal phenomenon to come across trade fairs, food fairs, book fairs and the likes, which are private sector market-driven affairs opened to people, new products and ideas brought together with a dynamic force that drives development and creates wealth. Conversely, a policy fair is state-initiated and focuses on what the government Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MDAs/MMDAs) are doing to reduce poverty among the citizenry and make life worthy for the people.

Examples could be cited as fulfilment of visions 2015 and 2020, the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS), National Health Insurance Scheme, free compulsory universal basic education, among others. Critically viewed in this limelight, a policy fair emphasizes reforms, transformation and improvements in the general livelihood of the people.

The uniqueness of this new concept of Policy fairs lies in the fact that it is government-centred, government- led, government-supported and development-focused. Such fairs represent government commitment to running an open administration and promoting citizen participation in the public policy making processes.

The Policy Fair was significant in a number of ways. First, the fair demystifies government and governance. Its open walk-in nature gives visitors a view insight into what government does. Answers provided by officials on the stands, throw light on their operations and processes of public decision-making. If explanations are done well, citizens are able to understand government policy. This has an added advantage of securing broad public buy-in into government policy. The platform created by the dialogue series provides an opportunity for information-sharing and citizen empowerment.

Understanding government policies expands citizens’ knowledge and aid implementation effectiveness. Second, it is contended that the Policy Fair enhances good governance. The tenets of good governance revolve around issues of transparency, accountability, equity, participation within the boundaries of the rule of law. The transparency credentials of the fair are not in doubt. It has opened up the policy process of government to citizens.

The fair instituted in 2010, has become one of the surest avenue through which Government provides Ghanaians with inalienable access to information, regarding the discharge of its responsibilities to the people and also bring governance to the door steps of the ordinary Ghanaians in a bid to make real the ‘Better Ghana Agenda’ by the government.

The achievements of the President John Evans Atta Mills’ government in all sectors of the economy within the short period in office has not come about by accident, but as a result of the implementation of well thought out policies and programmes.

Bearing in mind the achievements of Government agencies at the previous years’ policy fairs and the promise of even greater strides, the gallant strides made by these agencies would be put on display.

The distribution of projects as seen at such fairs gives an indication of how government is promoting an equitable sharing of the national cake. Perhaps we may also argue that the Policy Fair offers a significant chance for policy analysts to interrogate national commitment to policy consistency.

The first-ever national policy fair, which spanned the period April 27 to May 1, 2010, organized under the theme “Engaging the Citizenry for a Better Ghana”, involved an exhibition of projects, programmes and activities of the government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as well as metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in addition to some non-governmental and civil society organisations operating in the areas of poverty reduction in the deprived communities.

Like was said at the opening of this year’s fair, the government is devoted to improving the well-being of the Ghanaian; visible in the good management of the economy, the creation of job opportunities, investment in human resource and infrastructure as well as adherence to a transparent and accountable governance.

It is in the spirit of accountable governance that the government instituted the policy fair to give the public the chance to assess for itself the broad government policy and those specific to the various departments and agencies.

This enables our people to seek clarification on most of our government initiatives. It also creates a very unique and rear opportunity for an effective assessment which will lead to the review of our policy.

Indeed it was also an opportunity for the private sector to gain access to the ministries, departments and Agencies and also the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies so as to work out strategies for effective improved partnership.

Gradually but subtly, the dialogue Session module of the information ministry-initiated policy fair is emerging as a national platform for intellectual and strategic thinking pageant. And the quality of speakers and moderators for this year’s event was beyond compare. The other component of the fair is exhibitions by ministries departments agencies (MDA).

Without exaggeration, all the dialogue sessions of the just-ended National Policy Fair –was not only mind-boggling, but titillating, thrilling, exiting, insightful and soul moving! It was fantastic!
As part of this year’s event the Reverend Dr Sam Kissiedu, President of the Faithful Ministries International, spoke on the topic: “A Healthy Home, a Healthy Nation, ” during the family day and urged parents to spend time with their families especially the children.

The clergyman called for open, frank and fair communication methods in families to make the home a safe haven.

For the first time the policy fair, was dedicated to families in Ghana, a trend which was very new to governance in this country and it was obviously a plus for the government.

The fair, which was adjudged the most patronised with an all-time peak attendance of 7,000 visitors at the opening and 3,000 each day, was organised by the Ministry of Information

It is believed that from the success story being told after the fair, we have realised the giant strides made in ensuring a Better Ghana for all.

Meanwhile, the next policy fair is slated for Sunyani on Tuesday May 2, 2012.—Citifmonline.com

ARTICLE BY: ROBERT TAGOE

In the beverages sector, Diageo Plc, one of the oldest investors on the continent, sees the increased number of Africans with money to spend as a great opportunity for growth. It made the largest single investment in Ethiopia by a British entity with its acquisition of Meta Brewery and, in Nigeria under Guinness Nigeria Plc, made a USD 359 Million investment in 2011. In the last 5 years alone, Diageo has invested over USD 1.6 billion in Capex and acquisitions in Africa. The British alcoholic beverages giant first landed its Guinness beer in Sierra Leone in 1827.

Heineken B.V. acquired two breweries in Nigeria in 2011; SABMiller entered a strategic alliance in 2001 with Castel Group and bought a 20% stake in the Paris-based group’s beer and soft drinks operations in Africa. Global giants are not the only ones who have sensed growth opportunities on the continent, African investors have taken proactive steps to tap into the emerging growth trends.

Nigeria, a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was one of the leading investors in Ghana last year. Nigerian-owned companies invested USD 1.5 billion in Ghana’s economy. In the East African Community (EAC), the retail sector has taken the lead. Kenyan-owned Nakumatt supermarket has invested in three East African countries (Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda) while Uchumi Supermarket has invested in Uganda and Tanzania. South Africa based supermarkets take the lead in driving intra Africa FDI through their leading chains such as Shoprite (in 16 African countries) and Pick’n Pay (in 5 African countries).

The term “investor” in Africa, which was once attributed to foreigners from the West and Asia, has gained a new meaning. An estimated 90% of Africa’s investment promotion agencies target FDI from their regions on the continent. Africa’s 313 million middle class population (34% of the population) that spend USD 2 – 20 per day have presented a new set of demands triggering an investments growth momentum.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Report of 2006, intra-regional investment flows within Africa amounted to an estimated USD 2 billion annually in 2002 – 2004; USD 1.6 billion during 2005 – 2007; and hit USD 6 billion in 2007. Intra regional investments are mainly driven from North and South Africa with East and West African countries as recent players.

Countries that have recorded significant interest in free trade area initiatives have citizens engaged in cross border investments. The African Union ministers of trade that met in Rwanda in 2010 pointed at the significant progress towards regional free trade in 4 out of Africa’s 8 Regional Economic Communities namely: the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA); East African Community (EAC); Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Time is ripe for Africa to consider sound public policy elements and involve investors in continental policy formulation. Public policy elements include strategic offers of incentives to achieve desired targets. Such incentives include custom duties exemption for plants, machinery, graduated and reasonable corporate taxes and tax holidays, relief from double taxation, and location incentives through tax rebates for manufacturing companies. Additional policy elements include fair competition (rule of law and not rule of man); long term impact of decisions to all people (not to serve interest groups at expense of the public); people freedoms (to uphold standards, safety and individual liberty) and strong government as a facilitator of good business environment (transparent regulatory framework).

It is important that African policy makers seize the momentum created by intra African investors and invite them to the table to share their challenges and solutions. African integration plans driven by the 1980 Lagos Plan of Action, the 1991 African Economic Treaty and the 2000 Constitutive Act of the African Union are largely driven by politicians and bureaucrats. Africa is not short of policies. However, they have always been viewed to be externally driven. Past experience with the World Bank’s Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) that reportedly increased external dependency and structural weaknesses in Africa’s economies previously made Africans skeptical. This is Africa’s moment to take charge.—Citifmonline.com
ARTICLE BY: JAMES SHIKWATI

*Mr James Shikwati is a Director of the Inter Region Economic Network, a leading independent African think tank, based in Kenya, that promotes ideas and strategies geared towards increasing prosperity in Africa through free enterprise and sound public policy.

I plead your indulgence for space to respond to the above-captioned news item dated May 3, 2012 on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and some Ghanaian media networks.
The Minister of (Un) Employment in Ghana, Mr. Moses Asaga, must first appreciate the work the private universities are doing. They have filled the vacuum where government has failed to be responsive to the demands of higher education. He should take a trip to the African University College of Communication (AUCC) and Ashesi University campuses, institutions whose work I am familiar with, and he would be amazed at the marvelous work these institutions are doing under their current logistic and financial constraints. Indeed, the graduates churn out by these institutions can match any graduate anywhere across the country. This is not in any way to imply that others are not doing shoddy work.

To make such unwarranted generalisations to the effect that private tertiary education providers are increasing the rate of unemployment in Ghana is to exhibit the lack of understanding for the ministry he heads and a clear demonstration that he is unfit for purpose.

A few questions will suffice to make my position clearer:

I. Since when did the minister realize that private tertiary institutions are doing a shoddy job and exacerbating the unemployment situation in Ghana?

II. What is the duty of the National Accreditation Board (NAB), which is a state agency with regulatory powers?

III. If there are problems with the quality of students private educational institutions admit and churn out, who should address that?

IV. If the Government did not address the problem why should it be crying foul through its ministers?

V. Do we have a situation where well qualified graduates from the state universities who were supposedly recruited with top grades and also graduated with excellent classes who cannot find jobs?

VI. Does Mr. Asaga know how many jobs each of these private universities have created around their institutions, and for that matter easing some pressure on government for its failure in creating jobs or the enabling environment for people to create their own jobs?

VII. Even if the Ministry of Finance, Statistical Service of Ghana, and other state agencies cannot support or rebut claims of job creation and unemployment where then do we turn?

As one anonymous contributor put it, “my common sense tells me that if you have three thousand Ghanaians who have either gone to university or not and are looking for job because they don’t have one, they are called job seekers or better “UNEMPLOYED” Ghanaians! These GUYS, LADIES, and GIRLS DO NOT HAVE A JOB AT ALL! Their education or qualifications matters only if they find jobs but do not have the requisite qualities to perform! If Ghanaian employers are turning potential employees away because they do not qualify, then the minister has a point, but that is not the case!” Has the government created employment opportunities for Ghanaians as they promised during the 2008 campaign, university degree or not? Behind the veneer of seamless downgraded admission processes, are labyrinth interconnected issues that deserve attention.

Now, to some substantive issues and exemplars of a corruption in educational qualification

In 1997/1998, the authorities of Cape Coast University upped the grading system of that university from 70% for an A to 80% for an A. Then a student at the university of Cape Coast, I joined in resisting the change, as 65% or so remained A in all the other state universities. After all the polemics and the use of force, the system was implemented and forced down our throats.

In 2000, the first batch of students under the new grading system graduated. In that year, out of about 2300 students who graduated, 9 came out with first class. Compared to their counterparts from University of Ghana with about the same number of graduand/graduates, 300 were awarded first class honors.

The argument by the then Vice-Chancellor, Professor S.K. Agyepong, now the President of Methodist University in Accra, was that students who entered the other state universities, e.g., University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, were admitted with higher grades.

Five years down the road, when Professor S.K. Agyepong became the president of Methodist University, some of us who follow events closely were expecting that his scientific episteme would apply at this privately funded university. Interestingly, 30 out of 150 students, being the first batch of students churned out by his university, were awarded first class. Some of us raised eyebrows and even wrote to challenge him. If there is a correlation between entry grade and graduating grade, it need not apply to only the University of Cape Coast, but all tertiary institutions in Ghana.

We are all aware of the slackness in the admission procedures of some of the private tertiary institutions and the kind of students who end up in some of the private universities in Ghana. But that does not warrant a blanket statement from a minister who lacks the understanding of these issues and is looking for where to apportion blame for a systematic failure that is threatening our very survival as a people. Let me emphasize that there are private universities in Ghana that are performing even better than the state tertiary education providers. Notably, Ashesi University, African University College of Communication and a few others have held their heads high and have demonstrated what human ingenuity once the human mind is allowed to fantasize to its fullest capacity. Indeed, Mr. Asaga doesn’t seem to be abreast with the harsh realities at his ministry, hence he could make such unfounded statements that only go to undercut the credibility of the totality of private tertiary education without being forced to resign.

Mr. Moses Asaga needs to understand the dynamics within which these private education providers operate and stop doing the “firefight.” I believe after reading the recent NAB clamp down on Methodist University, he was subtly led, without any critical analysis of wider social, political, and economic dynamics of the issue, to conclude that the enrolment of unqualified students into private tertiary institutions is leading to a rise in unemployment.

The last time it was Miss Ama Benyiwa Doe who was mocking unemployed graduates. Upon a profound reflection, I queried, if not in politics, where else would we have the likes of her leading the political discourse of a whole region? If Ghana were being ran like a profit-seeking venture, would John Evans Atta Mills entrust the financial portfolio of his profit-seeking company in such untrained hands and minds? It is just the way of politics in my beloved Ghana, people who are beneficiaries of a systematic failure turn around to make mockery of those who have satisfied their part of the social contract by all standards.

Just this morning, Harvard and MIT unveiled free online certificate courses. The pilot program even already showed that not all the people who enrolled were able to complete it. Would we say that because some people were admitted on these online programs with weak grades, they will choke the employment market with substandard qualification?

These days, most countries are finding ways to educate their people to break the privilege status of education. A look at data on education in the top ten high income countries around the world tells the story. Let’s allow education to have social and cultural efficiency and we will reap its results.

Mr. Moses Asaga, please look for some of the latest textbooks on unemployment, employment creation, application of data, and study them assiduously with a view to the Ghanaians situation. I believe you were relevant in the 1990s when we were all ignorant, so we accepted everything a minister said line, hook, and sinkers uncontested. Today, things have changed a great deal and you need to do your research well before you make pronouncement on issues that affect the lives of the “thinking masses.”

I hope our students in the tertiary institutions across the nooks and crannies of the country are following these debates critically and are waiting anxiously for the political parties to outdoor their manifestos for their own analysis, especially on job creation and education.

ARTICLE BY: JUSTICE ABEEKU NEWTON-OFFEI, E-mail: justnoff@yahoo.com  

Nations are built with vision and driven by leaders who have the capacity to take pragmatic decisions and are able to convince their people to buy into the vision. And an example of Mahathir Mohammed readily comes to mind in the nation of Malaysia. Talking is good because it enables any group of people to be open with one-another by way of sharing ideas in order to come up with a consensus that all will rally around, put it into practice and actualise it for ultimate benefit of all.

Dr Mahathir Mohammed took over the governance of Malaysia at the same time Dr Rawlings assumed reins of our dear nation. And 20 years later, Malaysia was described as one of these Asian Tiger economies while Ghana was declared HIPC. Here; I’m certainly not seeking to lay blame on any particular group of persons or an individual. Our spectacular failure to lift ourselves out of socio-economic slavery is a collective failure since we have had the opportunity as a people, to make decisions as to who manages the affairs of state but have failed to choose people with competence.

Our decisions at the polls have largely been dictated by how close we are to a prospective president, an MP, DCE, MCE or a minister. Tribal considerations have also played a large role in our decisions at the polls on Election Day. This kind of strange Ghanaian character is what has been capitalised on by block-headed politicians who have no message for the people.

Workable policy alternatives

I have always said when it comes to fashioning out a workable policy alternative that can transform lives of the masses, it takes a great deal of hard work, hours of burning the mid-night oil, deep intellectual capacity and unprecedented amount of personal sacrifice. This is something that is obviously very difficult to do and therefore very few people in our society will be prepared to pursue.

On the other hand, when it comes to empty promises, insults and sleeping on the job while enjoying all the comfort associated with political office, at the expense of the suffering masses, it is a venture that can be undertaken by any person. This is because; to be the best amongst your peers to be crowned as the king of insults and spewing of garbage does not require an individual to have any qualification. To be hailed as a master of insipid propaganda only requires the ability to string together a collection of incoherent ramblings in the studio of a TV/radio station.

Rewarding shallow mindedness

It has now become an established norm in Ghana for anybody who gets access to the studios of TV/radio stations just to spew garbage over a given period of time, to then aspire to contest for a seat in our nation’s august house of legislature; and examples of such rather retrogressive phenomenon was abundantly displayed during the recent NDC parliamentary primaries. Juveniles have now been able to marshal so much resource to actually contest sitting MP’s and ultimately dislodge them.

The president is not in control

All these monumental rot and reckless display of state-sanctioned armed-robbery is blazingly taking place simply because we have a leader whose level of weakness, by way of discharging his duty as head of state, is simply unprecedented. And the weakness of Atta-Mills can be viewed in just one perspective;

1. The man is not very healthy at the moment and considering the work-load of an executive president as we have in Ghana, he is clearly not up to the task. For example, we have all been witnesses to the gargantuan font-size of his scripts which point to the fact that he is not able to read any official documents on his own since no governmental correspondence is written in that huge font. This then brings us to the reality that his correspondents are read to him and all he does is simply append his signature.

The essence of strong institutions

Now, nobody should get me wrong here since I’m not trying to suggest that a physically challenged person can’t be a successful president of our dear nation. As a matter of fact, under the administration of Anthony Linton Blair who was affectionately called Tony Blair, as the Prime Minister of Britain, his Secretary of Education, David Blanket, was not visually impaired, but a completely blind person.

I lived in Britain at the time and it was David Blanket who actually mooted and clinically actualised the concept of improving academic standard of the girl-child. Girls were found to be lagging far behind boys in academic performance so he instituted specialised programmes to make the study of science, in particular, attractive to girls and within just a period of one academic year, all best national performing students at the basic level were girls!!!

Now, David Blanket was successful neither because he is a white-man nor has more brains than any Education Minister Ghana has ever had. The difference, however, is the strength of their institutions and also the sincerity of leadership. In other words, David Blanket was not prepared to cheat the system and the structures put in place to enable him deliver as a public official being paid with the taxpayers’ money, was also not ready to tell him a goat is a cow. This is why Barack Obama came all the way from America to tell us we must build “strong institutions and not men.” When the institutions are strong and always focused on their core mandates, any corrupt official who is appointed as a political head will definitely not survive.

Lessons from the French elections

As a result of the current wave of change sweeping across the world, eleven incumbent leaders in the Eurozone have been swept aside; but rather foolishly, apologists of Atta-Mills continue to cite the Eurozone economic crisis as a justification why President Mills must be given a second term since what we are experiencing in Ghana is a global phenomenon. Now, if these Eurozone leaders have been swept aside by their citizens for failing to competently tackle the crisis, then what in God’s name must Atta-Mills be retained for performing much worse than these defeated Eurozone leaders?

Again, these Atta-Mills apologists are making the erroneous assertion that a socialist party has won elections in France and for that reason Atta-Mills is also going to win in Ghana. Now, according to a BBC report I monitored on the day of French second round of voting (6/5/12), Sarkozy was voted out for his failure to fulfill his numerous campaign promises. Effectively, French people rejected Sarkorzy because they saw him as incompetent and not because he is a liberal democrat. In any case, who says there are even socialists in Ghana?

Indeed, describing this crop of NDC officials and their ‘nkwan deewa’ apologists as socialists, is in itself, an insult to socialism since the taste of these people for the best things of life, far exceed that of adherents of the purest form of capitalism on this planet. So, NDC propagandists must be real and cut out their usual insipid cacophonous cacophony.

And now for the records, Nicholas Sarkozy has become the first one-term President in French history since 1981 and the last time an elected president served just one-term of office in Ghana was also in 1981 when President Dr Hilla Limann was overthrown in a coup. Therefore, when President Atta-Mills is voted out on 7th December, 2012 he will also become the first President in Ghanaian history to be a one-term President since 1981 just like Sarkozy of France.

Atta-Mills doesn’t deserve a second term

Now, juxtaposing the David Blanket experience with what we currently have on our hands here in Ghana, we have a president who is physically challenged due to ill-health and therefore needs very sincere people around him and also strong and efficient institutions to actualise his now extremely blurred vision. But rather unfortunately, this man has virtually been taken hostage by a cabal of high-grade gluttonous ones with stomach capacity akin to a bottomless. The worries of these people are not to help the physically challenged leader to fulfill his numerous illusionist 2008 campaign promises, but rather, how skillful they can outwit each other by way of frantic looting of state coffers.

The case of “Woyome-gate” robbery, for example, couldn’t have occurred if Atta-Mills was really in control of affairs and this is why he must be voted out on 7th December, 2012 because Ghana is fast sinking under his care!!!