Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako
Renowned journalist and Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr says COVID-19 has exposed fake pastors in the country.
He is wondering why the so-called Prophets who are often seen and heard prophesying the deaths of some persons could not foresee the emergence of the pandemic.
“Didn’t they foresee COVID-19? They can foresee deaths but they couldn’t see COVID coming? Did nobody sound a warning to them? Now it’s here and they don’t have the cure. COVID has exposed many of them especially the noisy ones” he said.
Meanwhile, Member of Parliament for Assin Central Kennedy Agyapong says some Pastors in the country are secretly pleading with him after he threatened to expose them.
Kennedy Agyepong said he has a list of some fake Pastors who are engaging in ‘shady deals’; he intends to expose them.
Contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, he said: “that’s one thing I support Kennedy on; except I don’t know if everything he’s saying is true…too many of them out there; polluting the Ghanaian environment”.
A nurse (name withheld) has revealed that a lot of patients seeking medical care in hospitals have been subjected to conditions that can be described as medical negligence, some of which she said included the wrong prescription of drugs, wrong spelling of names and wrong ages.
When problems arise out of these situations, she said, most of the hospitals deliberately blame the patients in order to make the hospitals look good or exonerate them from any accusations.
She told Alfred Ocansey on the 3FM’s Sunrise Thursday, July 23, that some hospitals take a deliberate decision to cover up the wrongdoings or the negligence by the doctors and nurses, hence without a strong evidence available to a victim, there cannot be a legal action taken against the hospitals.
She revealed that in her practice over the years, a lot of patients have died from ailments that should not have taken their lives but for the medical negligence.
“Wrong injections, misspelling of names, writing the wrong age, giving the wrong dosage. These are the negligence or the malpractices,” she said.
“I think that for all of them the biggest I will say is medical staff covering up for the mistakes of others”.
“The attitude surrounding this is a problem, we are not even remorseful about it, you can cover up and the patient will not know or you can blame it on the patient”, she added.
Businessman, Ibrahim Mahama, has sued celebrity lawyer, Maurice Ampaw, for defamatory comments made on a television show.
Joined to the suit is the TV station on which the said defamatory comments were made, Wontumi TV, in Kumasi, owned by Wontumi Multimedia Company Limited.
According to the suit sighted by GhanaWeb.com, Mr Ampaw stated that a previous case filed by Mr Mahama against Bernard Antwi-Boasiako a.k.a Chairman Wontumi, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is “part of the grand scheme to muzzle Chairman”.
The suit further alleged that Mr Ampaw also stated that by filing the suit against the NPP Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Mahama, who is a brother to former President John Mahama, has opened himself up for attacks and hence warned him to prepare for these attacks.
“We find it more convenient now more than ever, to revisit the dossier of the numerous allegations made against him to chastise him like his role in the collapse of the Merchant Bank and the diabolical plot he hatched with his brother, former President John Dramani Mahama, to secure the exclusive right of ownership of the vast Nyinahin bauxite deposits,” Mr Ampaw is alleged to have stated on the TV programme.
Mr Ibrahim Mahama, therefore, wants the court to order the defendants to pay GHC2 million in damages for defaming him in the eyes of right-thinking members of society.
The National Communications Director of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi is facing social media backlash after his comments that supposes that security officers will lose their jobs if President Nana Addo is voted out of power.
In a press conference held at the NDC Headquarters yesterday, Sammy Gyamfi indicated that security officials who he accused were in bed with the President will be mercilessly dealt with when the NDC comes into power.
“The police officers and the military officers are making their career conterminous with that of President Akufo-Addo. The day President Akufo-Addo exits office will be the last day they will serve as policemen and military men and we will deal with them mercilessly”.
Sammy Gyamfi further took to his twitter handle to stress his message as he tweeted: “Notice is hereby served to all unscrupulous Security Officials who have lent themselves to the despotic Akufo Addo-gov’t as pliant agents of violence against innocent citizens, that the next NDC gov’t will fish them out and deal with them mercilessly when power eventually shifts”.
These comments by the Communications Director did not sit well with social media users. Twitter users have descended on Sammy Gyamfi as they describe his comments as loose talk.
The Electoral Commission has made public an approved rate for personnel who have been engaged in the 2020 voters registration exercise.
The development comes after a GhanaWeb publication which projected the plights of some registration officials. The personnel had expressed discontentment over the decision by the body to pay them an amount they describe as “woefully inadequate.”
They accused the EC of cajoling them into accepting to serve as officers at various registration centres with the promise of giving them appreciable remuneration only to be disappointed weeks into the exercise.
“The EC told us to start work without telling us how much we’ll be paid. We were told we will be given a hefty amount in return,” one of the aggrieved officers registered his displeasure to GhanaWeb.
“The registration started three weeks ago and a payment plan was presented to us yesterday. There is no health insurance package.”
Sounding furious and disappointed, to say the least, another personnel lamented that the treatment meted out to them is a slap in the face.
“Laminators are taking GHC60, Data Entry Clerks are taking GHC70 while Registration Officials are taking GHC80 daily. We work eleven (11) hours a day. We’ve sacrificed to work in the midst of coronavirus scare and can’t be given GHC100 a day; what kind of treatment is that? This is a matter of life and death,” the personnel fumed with rage.
Barely hours after the publication, the EC has in a memo to Regional Directors stated the approved rates for various categories of officials and instructed strict compliance.
Per the account of the officials as trumpeted in the publication and the figures projected in the memo, there has been an increase in the rates.
As evident in the memo, Laminators are expected to be paid an amount of GHC75 per day while Data Entry Clerk and Registration Officers are to be paid GHC90 and GHC100 per day respectively.
The EC also noted that monies have been allocated to cater for the transportation fares of officials.
Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako
The Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul-Malik Kweku Baako Jnr, has said the Bank of Ghana’s handling of uniBank, which belonged to former Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor and GN Bank, which belonged to former presidential candidate Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, was wrong.
Similarly, he expressed misgivings about the central bank’s collapse of Heritage Bank Ghana Limited, which belonged to Mr Seidu Agongo.
“I felt for the three banks: Nduom’s bank [GN Bank], Heritage Bank that belongs to that young man, Seidu Agongo (because of his extension into radio we met a couple of times in 2014 and 2015) and Dr Duffuor’s bank [uniBank]”, he said on Accra-based Peace FM’s Kokrokoo morning show.
In reference to Mr Agongo, Kweku Baako said: “He is a young man and I appreciated him and I want to see a young man like him who does great things”, adding: “It was painful his bank went down”.
“The same with uniBank”, he said.
“I will tell [you] honestly; Dr Duffuor is a personal friend but the action taken against the banks was not right”, he added.
The three banks were among some nine locally-owned banks that were collapsed by the central bank for being insolvent.
The Danquah Institute, a pro-government think tank, was recently accused of being the brain behind the collapsed of some of the banks.
However, the Executive Director of DI, Mr Richard Ahiagbah, told journalists at a press conference on Monday, 20 July 2020 that the allegation, which it said was thrown out on social media by elements of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), are mere fabrications.
He said the nature of the audiovisual publication “is consistent with the opposition NDC’s propaganda narrative”.
The video claimed DI mooted the idea to President Nana Akufo-Addo, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and Bank of Ghana Governor Dr Ernest Addison, to clip the business wings of former Finance Minister Dr Duffuor and former presidential aspirant Dr Nduom, since they were more likely to side with the biggest opposition party than the government.
The plan, according to the video, was, thus, to destroy the banks owned by the two businessmen.
However, Mr Ahiagbah said: “The video makes wild and objectionable claims that appear to implicate the institute in a ploy to wilfully collapse some banks”, adding: “We wish to state unequivocally that the claims contained in the video are false, a complete fabrication and distortion of the fact”.
“Though we do not know the source or the people behind the video, its content is consistent with the opposition NDC’s propaganda narrative and, so, we respond to it as such,” he said.
Just recently, the Presiding Bishop of Perez Chapel International, Bishop Charles Agyinasare, asked whether the two locally-owned banks, in addition to UT Bank, could not have been salvaged by the central bank during its financial sector cleanup exercise.
In his virtual sermon on Sunday, 19 July 2020, which was themed: ‘Getting rid of envy’, Bishop Agyinasare said the same “demons” that possessed politicians in the days of old to collapse local businesses were still lingering and wreaking havoc.
He said they are “still at work today and we must exorcise this nation from that demon otherwise we are far from going forward”.
“I have been asking myself: So, for Dr Kwabena Duffuor, under whose time as Minister of Finance, we had the best economic growth rate of 14 per cent, there was nothing we could do with his bank?”
“What about Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, who introduced or expanded susu banking and had branches than any commercial bank with more customers?” the Perez Chapel International founder asked.
“Then, my own Amoabeng, who helped me grow my money to my first $100,000, which I withdrew and gave out for the building of the Dome, as part of my contribution. Could nothing have been done to salvage some of these great institutions?”
Quoting Reverend Eastwood Anaba, who once said: ‘The spirit of envy turns a human being into a beast. It makes one restless and sets him or her on a mission to destroy good things and good people’, Bishop Agyinasare wondered: “Can we say all the industries and firms we have closed down in this regime was because all the people and companies were wrong and we could not have done anything to have preserved these great companies? The evil spirit of envy is at work”.
He, however, acknowledged: “I know some of the other managers and owners were reckless and some of them were rogues and some of them bought 10 cars in three years for their personal use. We should be able to preserve some of the industries we have”.
Along with six other local banks, uniBank, GN Bank, and UT Bank were collapsed by the central bank on grounds of insolvency and mismanagement.
Also, 347 financial institutions and 39 microfinance firms and houses closed down.
Bishop Agyinasare said the fate of the banks had its roots in the past.
“Over the years, from when I was a young man, we have always closed down the industries and business of our own people”, he bemoaned.
“As a young preacher who had come to Accra, can you imagine how I felt when the late BA Mensah, builder and founder of International Tobacco Ghana Limited, came to my house for us to pray about his property that had been taken so many years earlier?” Bishop Agyinasare recalled.
Similarly, he said JK Siaw, who established the first indigenous brewery in West Africa, Tata Brewery, had it taken away from him. “I know some of his children. When they come to Ghana, some of them attend church at the Perez Dome”.
Also, he noted, “Appiah Menka, makers of Apino Soap and others lost their empires because we could not stand their success”.
Additionally, Bishop Agyinasare recalled that Mr Eddie Annan lost Masai Co. Ltd and a raft of businesses and contracts “because he was perceived to be the financier of an opposition party”.
“The truth of the matter”, he said, “is that, in Ghana, we are more tolerant of foreign companies than Ghanaian-owned companies”.
“We give foreign companies tax breaks for years because they are investors coming to help build the nation. Some of these foreigners come here with nothing but our banks would give them big time loans than they would give Ghanaian-based companies. Our local companies cannot compete with foreign companies. Our local importers cannot compete with foreign importers”, he noted.
According to him, “many of our companies would rather produce their goods outside and come and sell them here because it is cheaper than producing it here”.
“Producing things in Nigeria, India or China including shipping and duty is far cheaper than producing it here”, he said, adding: “We tax our local industries who keep their monies here to suffocation. Meanwhile, foreign companies don’t keep their monies here, they always repatriate their profits”.
Also, Bishop Agyinasare said: “We keep lamenting why our cedi is always chasing the dollar”, explaining: “It is because of this capital flight”.
“We also cannot stand the success of our own people. We make it difficult in this country for people to enjoy their blessings from God”.
He noted that Ghana keeps repeating the vicious cycle of the past, noting: “Because of our spirit of envy, people rather keep their wealth overseas and die and leave it there”.
“We think that to succeed we need to pull down the one ahead of us down. In Ghana, we don’t have a problem if a foreigner comes to buy a property in Villagio or Trassacco or the Cantonments but when a Ghanaian does, we have a problem”.
“No wonder we hardly have people owning jets in this country; we would talk and bring them down and the government would find a way to criminalise them and close them down”.
“It is like crabs in a tray – they keep pulling one another down and none is able to climb out of the tray”, the man of God noted.
He, however, warned that: ‘If you cannot allow that which belongs to another to flourish, you cannot have your own’.
“God made the sky so wide that my success does not prevent you from being successful and vice-versa. Hardly do you see two eagles collide in the sky, nor two aeroplanes crash in the air. Planes mostly crash on the ground where there is traffic. If you see planes in traffic, then they are either going to take off or about to land. That means if successful people in Ghana are not envious to destroy other successful people, there would have been enough for all. May the spirit of envy over this nation be broken in Jesus’ name”, he prayed.
The government is set to extend its free water and electricity relief packages for the next three months.
Ghanaians enjoyed free water and electricity supply between the months of April, May and June.
The move was the government’s own way of reducing the economic impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on Ghanaians.
The relief packages ended in May, but the government now plans to absorb the water and electricity bills of Ghanaians for the next three months.
This was announced in the mid-year budget review by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.
The Graphic Online reports that the free water initiative would be for all water consumers, while that of the electricity would be limited to lifeline consumers.
Former junior featherweight world champion Isaac ‘The Royal Storm’ Dogboe made a triumphant return to boxing after an eighth round technical knock-out to Mexican-American Chris Avalos.
It was a featherweight bout at the MG Grand in Las Vegas, USA on Tuesday night.
The former WBO champion has been out of boxing since losing his title reclaim bout to Mexican Emanuel Navarrete in May, 2019.
But he showed that he had made amends after stopping Avalos in his tracks.
It was open exchanges in the first two rounds but the Ghanaian proved to be the sharper puncher afterwards, throwing consistent jabs at the Mexican-American.
The Royal Storm was, however, deducted points in Round 5 by referee Russell Mora after he landed a low blow on Avalos.
Unfazed by this, Dogboe scaled up his punches, bruising the face of his opponent.
Avalos’s punch output dropped significantly with each round and with a few minutes to the end, he received a Dogboe left hook, which dazed him.
Referee Mora, then, stopped the fight at 2:25.
Dogboe was for the first time without his father, Paul, who had not made the trip because of the border closures in Ghana.
Paul had told 3news.com in Accra that his son was “determined” to knock out his more experienced opponent.
“He can knock Chris Avalos out easily, if Avalos stands and fights with him toe-to-toe, I think Avalos will go but if Avalos uses his range then I think Avalos will beat him on point.”
In Dogboe’s corner on the night was Barry Hunter.
“I heard his voice and he told me to take my time,” said Dogboe after the bout.
“I set up everything with jabs.”
With the victory, Dogboe, 25, improves to 21-2, 15 knockouts
Many leaders have no difficulty in relating to their people as equals. The problem that unfortunately erupts, usually, is the problem of familiarity. Familiarity seems to be a human weakness that can destroy an otherwise great relationship.
Familiarity is to know someone or something so well and in such a way as to cause you to lose your admiration, respect and sense of awe. Familiarity, therefore, leads to presumption and arrogance. In order to establish order in an organisation, it becomes necessary and important for the differences to be made clear.
A person who suffers from familiarity becomes confident in a way that shows a lack of respect. Michal, the wife of King David, was a typical example of this. Michal was so confident that she criticized the king for his style of praise and worship. She knew the king so well as to lose her sense of awe. She did not see him as special. She did not even think to try to correct the king in private. If she needed to suggest another way for the king to praise God, she did not have to do it publicly and in the way she did.
She criticized the king for his display of exuberance in front of girls she considered insignificant. Michal showed her lack of respect by the kind of remark or rebuke she made to her husband. This was David, the king of Israel! But familiarity made Michal behave inappropriately. Michal had become disconnected, critical and disloyal to her king. Michal had developed this attitude because she knew the king from head to toe.
Six Ways A Leader Makes the Differences Clear
A leader teaches his followers. Jesus was an amazing leader who taught his disciples all the time. He taught them how to pray. He taught them how some particular demons could be cast out. He taught them many things! When you teach someone you establish the authority to lead him. The authority to lead is found in the ability to feed.
A leader sends his followers. Jesus sent his disciples to buy food. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat).
John 4:8
Every time you send someone you establish the chain of command. You emphasize the chain of command that exists within the structure.
A leader blesses his followers. Pray for your followers and bless them. There is a faithful saying that the lesser is blessed of the greater.
And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.
Hebrews 7:7
A leader says who he is.
Jesus spoke of himself confidently. He said that he was the way, the truth and the life. He said that he was the door. He said he was the good shepherd. He said he knew heavenly things that those on earth could not believe. There are times when it it important for a leader to declare who he is.
A leader is not afraid of being different. Jesus had walked with his disciples as though they were the same. But there were times he showed up differently. When they were entering Jerusalem, Jesus rode on a donkey whilst all his disciples walked. Garments were strewn on the floor for him to walk on.
And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.
Matthew 21:7,8
Accept privileges that are exclusively yours. When you refuse to accept your privileges, you create anomalies and disorder. The Bible calls this an evil and an error (mistake) that emanates from the ruler.
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler: Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place. I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.
Ecclesiastes 10:5-7
6. A leader ought to allow himself to be honoured. Jesus allowed himself to be honoured by Mary. He permitted the expensive gift that was poured on his feet.
Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
John 12:3
When people work closely with a great leader, they tend to lose their sense of awe. Some also lose their admiration and respect. The loss of admiration and respect shows up in many subtle ways. This can fight a leader’s ability to relate with his people as equals. May you be a leader who manages this well!
Ghana’s fund managers, unable to access deposits tied-up in failed banks, will receive bonds directly from the government to boost liquidity, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Money managers have been struggling to meet withdrawal requests from customers, cover their costs or make fresh investments. Their funds are locked up in second-tier lenders that lost their licenses after regulators last year clamped down on smaller savings and loans companies to strengthen the industry.
To ease the fund managers’ liquidity problems, the government in April paid them 4.4% of the deposits they had with the collapsed institutions in cash. The balance was covered by five-year zero coupon bonds in state-owned Consolidated Bank Ghana Ltd., which was created out of some of the failed lenders.
But the discounts being offered to convert the CBG securities into cash with the lender were too steep for fund managers, said the people, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. Those bonds will now be canceled and replaced with direct government debt that will be easier to trade for cash instead of holding until maturity, they said.
The government is willing to top up with additional bonds to make up for haircuts suffered by fund managers when they convert the debt, the people said.
Covering potential losses will add to Ghana’s rising debt levels. The International Monetary Fund disbursed about $1 billion in emergency funding in April to help the country deal with the fallout of the coronavirus.
“What we are seeking is to make the bonds more tradable, even though cash is optimal,” Marian Maanaa Dsane, executive secretary of the Ghana Securities Industry Association, the umbrella body for money managers, said, declining to comment further.
Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta did not answer calls to his mobile phone or respond to a text message seeking comment. A spokeswoman for the ministry said she cannot provide immediate comment because there was a cabinet meeting.
The re-issued bonds will cover all fund-manager claims that have not yet been redeemed in cash, according to the people, and will continue to not pay interest. The original bonds amounted to about 1.79 billion cedis ($309 million).
