Ningo Prampram MP Sam George has accused the National Peace Council of being “one of the biggest threats to the peace and stability of the country’s democracy.”
According to him, the Council must be dissolved because of its constant display of “hypocrisy” towards political parties in the country on matters of violence arising from the ongoing voter registration exercise.
“The point has to be made here that an attempt to want to generalize the political temperature rising in the country and say both political parties are involved will be a disingenuous attempt by any group,” he told Samson Lardy Anyenini Saturday on Newsfile.
His comments come after the Peace Council urged calm amidst brutalities arising from the ongoing voter registration exercise.
Chairman of the Council, Prof Emmanuel Asante in a statement said the incidents were prevalent among the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
He highlighted happenings in the Ejura-Sekyere-Odumase Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Kasoa in the Central Region, Asutifi South, and Tano South Constituencies in the Ahafo Region, as some hotspots.
But Mr George said the Council is being hypocritical if it blames the issues on both parties, especially on the NDC.
I hold a personal view that the national peace council should be disbanded because they are the biggest threat to the peace and stability of our democracy. Reason being the hypocritical stance of that organization. They always seek to make equivalence the basis of their statements.
“This is what has raised the temperature. First and foremost, the MP for Ejura-Sekyedumase Bawa Braimah was attacked by NPP hoodlums and he was nearly crippled.
“The National Peace Council did not find it right to criticize the NPP on that. They waited and held their cool till the murder of an innocent Ghanaian citizen in Banda,” he said.
Sam George, therefore, said the Council must be dissolved if it will continue to act unfairly, taking sides instead of playing the middle man.
A Ghanaian songstress, Nyevile Born aka Star, has narrated how she was given to the sea god as a gift when she was born and how she still visits her other family at the sea at night.
According to Born Star, her mother had difficulties in giving birth so a traditional priest offered assistance and in return, she was to be devoted to the sea at birth.
The young lady claims that she was given to the sea at birth by both her mother and the priestess. She was swept away by the sea for four days.
Renowned Political Scientist at the University of Ghana, Prof Ransford Gyampo, has said that the Supreme Court ruling that birth certificate is not a form of identification was large as a result of the flaws of the birth certificate as a form of identification.
According to him, anyone can procure a birth certificate and the fact that it lacks biometric features, makes the document less authentic in serving as a means of identification.
Also, the information it contains may not necessarily be traceable to the holder of the certificate. Again, the fact that the Births and Death Registry isn’t an autonomous agency, but operates in the shadows of the district assemblies, makes its processes quite politicised and manipulable.
But can we completely abandon a fundamental document that certifies birth? If it cannot serve as a form of identification, at birth, then what value do we place on it?” he posted on his Facebook page.
Ghana’s Supreme Court has unanimously held that birth certificate is not a form of identification. The court explains that the document does not establish “the identity of the bearer”.
This is contained in the court’s judgment in the case filed by private citizen Mark Takyi Banson which court delivered judgment on June 25 together with the case filed by the opposition National Democratic Congress.
Former Health Minister Alex Segbefia has said a recent Interpol Red Alert on Mr Samuel Adam Mahama (Samuel Adam Fosters) in relation to the Airbus bribery scandal, is a calculated plot by the Akufo-Addo government to embarrass the suspect’s brother, former President John Mahama, who is the flag bearer of the biggest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) ahead of the 7 December 2020 polls.
“This so-called arrest warrant is a red herring”, Mr Segbefia said in a statement, adding: “It is an extension of their game plan to embarrass President John Mahama because of the impending elections”.
The former President’s brother has been accused of allegedly accepting a bribe to influence a public officer and acting in connivance with a public officer for the public officer’s private gain.
Interpol said Mr Mahama is liable to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 25 years for the offence.
The arrest warrant, which was issued on 10 July 2020, said once Mr Adam Mahama is traced, “assurances are given that extradition will be sought upon the arrest of the person, in conformity with national laws and/or the applicable bilateral and multilateral treaties.”
On January 31, Ghana was cited as one of five countries in which global aerospace group, Airbus SE, allegedly bribed or promised payments to senior officials in exchange for business favours between 2009 and 2015, according to the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.
This led to a record £3 billion in settlement by Airbus with France, the United Kingdom and the United States to avoid corporate criminal charges.
Mr Segbefia, however, said: “A Red Notice is usually issued against a criminal fugitive on the run who seeks actively to evade justice”.
“It is a notice published by Interpol to law enforcement agents across the world requesting them to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending his extradition”.
“When it is published, it is not Interpol seeking the location and arrest of the person, but rather the country that requests the publication”, he noted, adding: “Procedurally, Interpol would publish a Red Notice at the request of a member country provided the request meets the constitutional requirements of Interpol”.
“A Red Notice is, however, a voluntary system”, he asserted, pointing out that: “A state is, therefore, not obliged to make an arrest based on its publication, and can decide to ignore it”.
“This is because it is not an arrest warrant, and countries can themselves determine what weight to give such notice”.
“What is unusual about this particular Red Notice”, he observed, “is that the Ghana government knows where Samuel Mahama lives in the UK up to his exact residential address”.
“One needs to bear in mind that all the hullabaloo about Airbus emanated from the UK courts, who have dealt with it and settled it. And yet, even though he and the other persons named in the Red Notice are British nationals, the UK government has not thought it fit to prefer any charges against them”, mentioned.
The ex-president’s brother, Mr Segbefia insisted, “is not considered a flight risk, so, no restrictions have been imposed on him and he has not been asked to hand over his passport”.
“Why would the UK government, based on the same facts as are narrated in the Red Notice, arrest him for Ghana government?” he wondered.
“Besides, Ghana has an extradition treaty with the UK. It also has a Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement with the UK”, so, “Why publish Red Notice when the Ghana Government can formally ask for his extradition through regular channels?”
Mr Segbefia said the Special Prosecutor “must be aware that it is forlorn hope that the UK government would extradite the three named persons”.
“It is interesting”, he noted, “how recently, the scurrilous story found its way onto the front pages of the controversial Sun newspaper in the UK”.
“Individuals behind that publication are suspected to be closely tied to the family of Akufo-Addo”, he alleged.
CLAIM: Ghana ranked last in PISA 2013 test and education minister Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman took the country out of the competition.
VERDICT: Ghana has never been ranked in PISA since the program started. PISA is triennial and is released every three years since the first one in 2000. There was no PISA test for 2013 and therefore Ghana could not have ranked last in a report that did not exist. This claim by the communications director of the NPP Yaw Buaben Asamoa is an outright lie and is therefore rated two stars.
FULL TEXT
On Monday, July 6 2020, the National Executive Committee of the largest opposition, the NDC unanimously approved Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman as the running mate for NDC flagbearer John Dramani Mahama for the 2020 presidential election.
On that same day, hours after the official announcement, communications director of the governing NPP Yaw Buaben Asamoa addressed a press conference at the NPP campaign office at Kokomlemle where he put out the party’s reaction to the selection of the NDC running mate. Among the comments he made, Mr Buaben Asamoa claimed that when Ghana was ranked last in the PISA in 2013, then Education Minister Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman run away from the competition.
“In 2013 when Ghana was ranked last in PISA, she runs away from the competition where Ghana could have taken the opportunity to roll out robust reforms in dealing with our educational challenges as a nation, yet she preferred not to be ranked at all”- Yaw Buaben Asamoa, of the NPP said
CUE: BUABEN-PISA CLAIM (15secs)
ABOUT PISA
PISA is a program for the assessment of students developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PISA is an acronym that stands for “Programme for International Student Assessment”. According to OECD, PISA measures 15-year-olds’ ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges. (https://www.oecd.org/pisa/).
PISA is not only the world’s most comprehensive and reliable indicator of students’ capabilities, it is also a powerful tool that countries and economies can use to fine-tune their education policies…to share evidence of the best policies and practices, and to offer timely and targeted support to help countries provide the best education possible (Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General in PISA 2018; Insights and interpretations).
Countries volunteer to participate in PISA and once the PISA board approves the country, individual schools are chosen based on stringent criteria to represent all 15-year-old students in that country. The students are randomly chosen from among all 15-year-olds enrolled in grade 7 or higher.
A thorough website search done by Starrfmfactchecker on the https://www.oecd.org/pisa/ showed that Ghana is not listed as one of the over 90 countries and economies that have participated in PISA tests since the year 2000. Below is the image of full list of countries and economies that have participated in PISA
On the official website, the OECD states that PISA is a triennial test that is taken once every three years. The program began in 2000 and every 3 years since, results have been announced. This means that since the year 2000, there have been seven PISA tests taken in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2018. The image below shows evidence of the years when the tests were done
From this, it is clear that there could not have been any PISA test for 2013. Ghana could therefore not have been ranked in the first place, let alone be ranked last in a test that was never conducted.
In verifying, Starrfmfactchecker did a Google search to identify which online portals published the news item about the claim in question. The search yielded no result pertaining to Ghana ranking last in PISA 2013 test. None of the state publications and websites of the mainstream media in the country published a story to that effect. There is no documented evidence that points to the claim that Ghana ranked last in PISA 2013.
However, the Google search produced results of publications relating to another ranking done by the OECD. The Global School Ranking, touted as the biggest ever of such rankings, was released in May 2015 and was based on test scores in 76 countries.
It showed the link between education and economic growth. OECD’s education director, Andreas Schleicher is quoted to have said while commenting on the report in 2015 that the ranking was the “first time we have a truly global scale of the quality of education” and that the idea is to “give more countries, rich and poor, access to comparing themselves against the world’s education leaders, to discover their relative strengths and weaknesses, and to see what the long-term economic gains from improved quality in schooling could be for them” (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-32608772).
Asia’s Singapore came tops in the ranking while Ghana ranked last in the 76th position.
In spite of the fact that the Global School Ranking was done by the OECD, the analysis provided a much wider global map of education standards than the PISA tests, which focus on more affluent industrialized countries.
According to the BBC, the rankings “were based on an amalgamation of international assessments, including the OECD’s Pisa tests, the TIMSS tests run by US-based academics and TERCE tests in Latin America” (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-32608772)
The claim by Communications Director of the governing NPP Yaw Buaben Asamoa that Ghana ranked last in PISA 2013 is not true. It is an outright lie because there was no PISA test done that year and according to the OECD website, Ghana has not participated in any PISA test since its inception.
The country is not included in the full list of countries and economies have been involved in the PISA. Indeed Ghana came last in a ranking done by the OECD, that ranking was the Global School Ranking and was done in 2015 and not 2013. The data for that ranking was not taken from PISA tests but rather Ghana’s 2011 results in the TIMSS study. This claim is rated two-stars because it is completely false
Ashanti Regional Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sam Pyne has jabbed the Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt, for rebuking the Electoral Commission (EC) over the ongoing voters’ registration exercise.
Kwesi Pratt, speaking on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ on Tuesday, July 14, 2020, slammed the Electoral Commission (EC) for refusing to halt the registration exercise.
The EC commenced the new voters’ registration exercise on Tuesday, June 30 and there have been concerns that the Commission might be risking the lives of many Ghanaians to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EC has however implemented precautionary measures at the various registration centres to ensure the safety of Ghanaians but the calls for it to either postpone or cancel the exercise remain unabated.
Mr. Pratt also expressed disgust over the adamant behaviour of the EC Chairpersons, asking why the Commission wants to expose Ghanaians to the COVID-19.
“If we had not conducted this voter registration exercise, would Ghana collapse?” he questioned.
“This pandemic disease has spread across the nation and we are saying we should go and register irrespective. When you oppose it, they will say you don’t want to register but you will go and vote during the elections. Why? If we don’t do the register but only go and vote, you have minimized the risk maybe by more than 50%. So, minimizing the risk is also important,” he further stated.
Kwesi Pratt’s concerns portrayed him as someone who won’t partake in the registration exercise, looking at the fact that he believes it’s risky for any eligible Ghanaian to go to the registration centre and have his or her name entered into the new voters’ register.
In view of this, Sam Pyne, appearing on the Wednesday edition of ‘Kokrokoo’, sought to find out if Kwesi Pratt standing by his principle that the registration exercise is a hub for the Coronavirus would refuse to register his name.
But, to the utter shock of Sam Pyne. Mr. Pratt has already registered his name.
Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi, Sam Pyne wondered why he (Kwesi Pratt) would participate in the exercise and receive his voter ID card which qualifies him to vote in the 2020 elections but discourage people from also registering their names.
“Why is he not encouraging people to also register to effect changes? Why would you then come and sit on the radio and tell the world as if the process is a land mine?” he quizzed.
Reacting to Mr. Pratt’s assertion that the EC’s refusal to halt the exercise will majorly contribute to the increasing number of COVID-19 infections in the country, Sam Pyne asked “has he fallen sick after going to register? He observed the protocols. So, why is it that when someone goes and observes the protocols, the person can’t return safe?”
The National Democratic Congress ( NDC ) parliamentary candidate for Tema Central, EBI BRIGHT together with some executives of the party Friday evening provided food for displaced families of Ayigbe Town, a suburb of Tema.
EBI BRIGHT also provided mosquito nets to the nursing mothers and children who will spend the night in the open.
According to Edem Agbana, of the NDC, the party is working with its leaders to provide a relocation plan for them.
About 400 peoplehave been left stranded after the government demolished structures at a community called Ayigbe town in the Tema Central constituency.
According to the affected residents (mostly Voltarians and Northerners), their troubles started when they attempted registering at a nearby registration centre.
Most of them had their citizenship challenged by the NPP agents who swore to have them moved from the constituency.
About 400 people have been left stranded after the government demolished structures at a community called Ayigbe town in the Tema Central constituency.
According to the affected residents (mostly Voltarians and Northerners), their troubles started when they attempted registering at a nearby registration centre.
Most of them had their citizenship challenged by the NPP agents who swore to have them moved from the constituency.
The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) is accusing the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) of lying to Ghanaians about the cancelation of the teacher trainee allowance by the erstwhile government.
According to the anti-corruption and civil advocacy group, contrary to the notion the Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang supervised the cancelation of the teacher trainee allowance during the Mahama administration, it was rather a decision by former President John Agyekum Kuffuor.
ASEPA explains that reforms under the Kuffuor administration during his reign as President made provisions for the total cancellation of the Teacher Trainee Allowance for first-year teacher trainee students in 2009 and the subsequent facing out of allowances for Continuing students.
Therefore the decision by Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang as the Education Minister under the Mahama administration to replace teacher trainee allowance with student loan was never her decision but rather in accordance with the White Paper issued by President Kufuor and the NPP on the Prof. Jophus Anamoah-Mensah Committee on Education Reforms.
Read ASEPA’s statement on the matter below:
1. In 2002 President John Agyekum Kuffuor Commissioned an Educational Reform Committee headed by the Former Vice-Chancellor of University of Education, Prof. Jophus Anamoah-Mensah.
The Committee made a number of recommendations which was duly accepted by the President including the popular four years SHS system.
In 2008 as part of the second phase of the implementation of the Jophus Anamoah-Mensah Committee Report, President Kuffuor issued a White Paper on Education Reforms.
As part of the reforms on Emoluments, the White paper observed that wages and in the case of trainee teachers allowances posed a huge burden and impediment in the training of more teachers and to reduce the Pupil-Teacher ratio in our public schools.
The White paper therefore made provisions for the total cancellation of the Teacher Trainee Allowance for first year teacher trainee students in 2009 and the subsequent facing out of allowances for Continuing students.
The White Paper also made provisions for the Trainees who would be taken off the allowance to access students loans to facilitate their studies.
This White Paper therefore settles the debate on trainee allowance that the idea to replace teacher trainee allowance with students loan was never the decision of Prof.Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang but that of the White Paper issued by President Kufuor and the NPP on the Prof. Jophus Anamoah-Mensah Commitee on Education Reforms.
That the Policy in itself was the only way more teachers could be trained to replace the ever-growing number of pupil teachers in our schools at the time.
The Electoral Commission(EC) has arranged to do a mob up registration in all Senior High Schools as well as Technical and Vocational Education and Training Schools (TVETS)without registration centres tomorrow Saturday, July 18, 2020.
In a statement issued by the Head of Public Relations Unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Cassandra Twum Ampofo, on Friday, July 17, 2020, the arrangement has been made to enable eligible students who could not be registered on the 10th and 11th July, have an opportunity to register during the second phase.
The GES reminds the general public especially Political Party Representatives who will be assigned by their parties to observe the process on the various campuses, that the schools should not be used as a place for partisan politicking.
