ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
In 2019, Emmanuel Dogbevi, an investigative journalist and founder of Ghana Business News told Forbidden Stories, an international non-profit working for the safety of journalists that “I don’t feel very safe, especially since this government came to power.”
You would recall that in the period of this administration, a leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) put a photograph of an undercover investigative agent on television, told his audience that the man lived in Madina and that whoever saw him should attack him.
This was after the Number 12 investigative documentary led by Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
Ahmed Suale was later shot and killed in Madina and up to date, nobody has lost sleep over that gruesome murder.
The government has not given us any evidence to justify why gun-wielding operatives of the National Security stormed the offices of modernghana.com and harassed the journalists there.
The operatives seized the phones, computers, and other gadgets of the media house.
They also arrested, detained, and allegedly tortured two of their journalists.
According to the journalists, they were questioned about negative stories they had published about a minister of state.
To date, nothing has happened to anybody.
In December 2019, some foreign ambassadors said they had observed with concern, how individuals fighting against corruption in Ghana were being fought.
Recently, civil society organisations were called dumb, all-knowing, and had their integrity questioned because they dared to criticize the Agyapa deal.
The Auditor-General, who is the only public officer known to be making real impact in the fight against corruption was hounded out of office by the President.
The pressure on media houses has increased and media owners who cannot stand it transfer the pressure to their journalists.
Ladies and gentlemen acts like these do not only undermine media freedom but they also scar potential investigative journalists and corruption fighters away from joining what is generally becoming a thankless adventure.
It is unfortunate that all these are happening in the administration of President Akufo-Addo who was marketed to us as a staunch human rights campaigner.
If President Akufo-Addo is re-elected in December, he should be mindful that, it is unacceptable for his record in press freedom to still be touted as the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law, which in fact, is an achievement by President J. A. Kufuor.
Free SHS and the One District One Factory will remain legacies of the Akufo-Addo presidency and not the ministers he appointed to implement his vision.
Our elders say that; a man must do his own growing up no matter how tall his father was.
I know how tolerant the Kufuor, Atta Mills and John Mahama administrations have been of free speech and Nana Akufo-Addo must carve his own niche.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the lack of action and selective justice on the part of state institutions is another disincentive to the fight against corruption.
Impact is the fuel that drives activism such as the fight against corruption.
If you risk your life to expose corruption and the perpetrators are left untouched, it kills the motivation to continue to risk your life.
More than a year since the “Contracts for Sale” scandal, the Office of the Special Prosecutor is yet to tell Ghanaians what it has done about it.
CHRAJ is yet to release its report on the matter.
Meanwhile sources close to the Public Procurement Authority say the suspended PPA CEO still takes his salary and enjoys his benefits as though nothing has happened.
It is odd that Abuga Pele is in jail while Clement Kofi Humado, the minister who signed some of the most outrageous and fraudulent contracts in the GYEEDA scandal is free from prosecution.
Why should Zoomlion, with all corruption scandals around its neck still be winning fraudulent contracts while Philip Assibit is languishing in jail for what can be described as peanuts when compared to shady transactions of the Zoomlions and the rLGs of this world?
Another setback against the corruption fight is the difficulty in accessing information.
Civil society groups spent a greater part of time in the Fourth Republic fighting for the right to information law.
But after its passage, it is still difficult to get information from state agencies and ministries.
Ladies, and gentlemen, if journalists and the media will be emboldened to fight corruption, they will need the support of the citizens on whose behalf they fight.
There is a quote that is often attributed to Harriet Tubman.
The source has been disputed but that does not negate the truth it carries.
It says, “‘I freed a thousand slaves.
I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”
Many of the people for whom the media and other anti-corruption crusaders fight do not appreciate their predicament and the need to support such fights.
Elsewhere, mass protests would have compelled the President to rescind his decision on the Auditor General but here nobody entertained the idea.
Some people in the north do not see why 15 million cedis of their money was paid for a guinea fowl project with no results and another 32.4 million cedis paid for trees that do not exist, yet, they find fault with the journalist who exposed the rot.
To them, he was wrong for shaming prominent people from their part of the country.
Instead of asking why Zoomlion is always involved in fraudulent contracts, they accuse the journalist who keeps on exposing those deals of hated or envy towards the Church of Pentecost Elder who is behind the more than eighty (80) companies that are mostly doing government jobs.
Why the Media Must Not Give UP on Corruption The middle class in Ghana, which is generally enlightened and should fight for the poor has not helped much.
Go back and look at photographs of those who took part in the Occupy Flagstaff House march in July 2014.
Many of them have literally occupied the Flag Staff House and its adjoining offices, with assigned positions and doing worse things than those against which they marched.
But the media must not give up.
Journalists fighting corruption cannot give up because institutions of state have generally failed to do their work and it will be disastrous if the media sleep on their hallowed constitutional mandate.
I believe the media remains our main hope in the fight against corruption.
State institutions that are mandated to fight corruption have generally failed us.
When Barack Obama visited Ghana in 2009, he told us Africa needed strong institutions and not strong men.
His wisdom has been widely hailed and quoted but is not entirely accurate in my view.
We also need strong men and women.
Men and women not with muscular strength but the strength with character that lies in their convictions, integrity, and principles.
The constitution of Ghana has created many strong institutions but we have lacked the strong men and women in those institutions or adjoining institutions to make them effective.
Making corruption a felony will not change anything until state institutions and officials are prepared to work.
The latest institution in the area of corruption is the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
Those of us who hailed the creation of that office are beginning to lose hope.
Martin Amidu appears to be a special writer, not a special prosecutor.
For many years, the Audit Service and the Office of the Auditor-General were moribund institutions that merely ticked the boxes of its constitutional demands without biting.
When Daniel Yaw Domelevo assumed office as the Auditor General in 2017, the nation sat up and noticed.
The corrupt individuals and institutions in the public sector came under serious scrutiny, and the political class got the rude awakening that both the junior ministers and senior ministers could not be left off the hook.
There is enough evidence to show that his hounding was a result of his actions against the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maarfo.
The Ministry of Justice and Attorney General cannot be trusted to prosecute corruption.
I don’t know whether that will change in future under a different president but today, it will be easier to convince me to invest in Menzgold than to convince me that that ministry is interested in fighting corruption.
After the Robbing the Assemblies investigations, the sector Minister, Gloria Akuffo called me and asked that I help the police CID to conduct a solid investigation because of my understanding of the matter.
I rejected the modest financial offer the CID boss made at the time to help me take care of my fuel.
It was satisfying that at long last something was about to be done about these companies and the state officials who aided them to defraud the state.
I met with the Attorney General in the course of the investigations and briefed the deputies and prosecutors on the matter.
I volunteered to do some work on the case at the ministry on the case.
The police also travelled across the country and gathered evidence that corroborated my report.
The government officials who paid the money could not show evidence of work done or tell who supervised or certified that the work was done before the payments were done.
It’s been more than a year since the police presented a docket on the case, but the Attorney General is sitting on the matter.
From the work the CID has done, a first-year law student can successfully secure a conviction.
The Way Forward Madam Chairperson, the state, and political institutions have failed and the media should not fail.
The media is losing the battle against corruption.
While the dwindling budgets of traditional media organisations cannot support investigations, we must not ignore this hallowed duty imposed on us by the constitution.
Our elders say that one whose corn has not sprouted does not give up planting.
We must keep fighting until Ghana gets better despite the daunting challenges.
I suggest that media organisations set up special funds for investigative reporting and build the capacity of reporters to specialize in corruption reporting.
I also encourage civil society organisations to look at setting up non-profit newsrooms.
Projects such as Corruption Watch, which is spearheaded by a number of civil society organisations and funded by DANIDA is the future of the journalism that can make a meaningful impact in the fight against corruption.
I will like to conclude by going back to the what the Watson Commission of Enquiry said about us in 1948.
The Commission said: “Again, in discussion with many Africans, we found a marked disinclination to face realities.
A tendency existed to take refuge in ill-founded optimism that things would come right in the end or that someone would find the answers.”
Ladies, and Gentlemen, no one will find the answers for us.
The Italians say a person who lives by only hope will die of despair.
We cannot wish our problems away.
We must solve them ourselves.
We cannot rely on luck, for our elder say good fortune does not wake up he who is asleep.
We have to be awake to the reality that corruption has deprived us of our collective dignity on the global stage and will destroy us here at home if we don’t change.
Our democracy is not sustainable and our peace is not guaranteed if we continue to steal and deprive the youth of decent livelihoods.
What happened in Nigeria recently should be a wake-up call and let no one say Ghanaians are too timid to rise up against injustice.
We are harbouring potential rebels in our ever-swelling slums.
I still do not know why an ill-crafted propaganda can lead young people to take over police stations and seize weapons in the manner we recently witnessed in the Volta Region.
But I know that, the difference between a person who has nothing to live for and suicide bomber is thinner than a circumcision blade.
Let us amend our ways and save this nation from the inescapable doom that awaits every corrupt and badly managed country, where the food for the masses is stolen by a few.
On World Health Day, 7 April 2023, we began a year-long commemoration of WHO’s 75th Anniversary.
I thank our Member States, partners, and stakeholders for their enthusiasm and support.
It has been a season rich in festivities and reflections.
We’ve looked back on public health successes that have improved the quality of life of populations during the last seven decades and summoned the energy to tackle the health challenges of the next 75 years.
As we close the celebrations today, the theme for World Health Day 2024, “My Health, My Right” is appropriate to recall how we increased the rights of our region’s people through health.
With our Member States, we have made significant progress in ensuring better health outcomes for our people over the past decade.
More mothers and children are surviving today than before.
From 2000 to 2020, the life expectancy of African women increased from 54 to 67 years; the maternal mortality ratio decreased by 33% (from 788 to 531 maternal deaths per 100 000 lives), and the number of children dying before the age of 5 was reduced by 50% from 2000 to 2017.
Between 2011 and 2021, the number of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths decreased by 44% and 55%, respectively, across Africa, and the number of TB deaths decreased by 26%.
In addition, several diseases are on the verge of eradication and elimination, including polio, guinea worm disease, as well as maternal and neonatal tetanus.
I also applaud our Member States’ efforts to accelerate progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
They are reforming their health policies and revamping legislative and regulatory frameworks, including National Health Insurance Schemes (NHIS) and Social Health Insurance (SHI) schemes to reduce catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditures.
Several countries have started operationalizing an integrated Life Stages Approach, which prioritizes the health of individuals at every stage of their life and the care needed at any time.
Health is not only a fundamental human right, but also central to peace and prosperity.
Thus, addressing health inequities requires intentional efforts.
Considerations of vulnerable groups must be assessed.
Their needs ought to be purposively integrated into health programmes at all levels to accelerate progress toward UHC.
We know that many in our region still need help with access to quality essential health services due largely to unfulfilled rights.
This is further compounded by protracted and ongoing crises such as conflicts, climate change, food insecurity, disease outbreaks, and epidemics.
The number of people aged 15 and over living with HIV is still high at an estimated 24.3 million in 2021 (3.4 % of the total population) compared to 15.6 million in 2005.
This reflects the continued transmission of HIV despite reductions in the incidence of people newly infected and the benefits of significantly expanded access to antiretrovirals.
Disparities in the coverage of key reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health interventions remain significant, with the rural dweller, the poor, and those in hard-to-reach areas being the most disadvantaged.
Furthermore, about 8% of the population in the African Region is still experiencing catastrophic health expenditures.
I urge our Member States to uphold the progress towards fulfilling the right to health, agreed by all nations of the world in 1948 and enshrined in the WHO Constitution.
The right to health is a universal right of all human beings, regardless of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or another status.
During the High-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage during the 78 th session of the UN General Assembly, our Heads of State and Government committed to scale-up efforts to build and strengthen quality, people-centered, sustainable, and resilient health systems.
I urge all stakeholders to play their part in supporting our leaders in delivering on this commitment.
We will continue to work with you all to strengthen health governance and combat discrimination and inequalities in health; we will continue to collaborate across sectors on bold solutions toward the universal coverage of high-quality health care for everyone, everywhere – because it is part of our human rights!
Members of the New Patriotic Party's minority caucus in Parliament on Monday held a news conference conference to state their position on Ghana govt's us$156 million IDA loan for Senior High School projects.
Mr Kwaku Agyemang Manu, MP for Dormaa East and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, flanked by Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, Ranking Member on Finance and a section of minority MP’s were at a loss on the explanation by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the loan meant for the construction and improvement of some senior high schools in the country.
Below is the full statement read to the media: MINORITY CAUCUS' POSITION ON THE GHANA GOVT'S US$156 MILLION IDA LOAN FOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL PROJECT 7th July 2014 Ladies and gentlemen, last week Wednesday, the New Patriotic Party in Parliament voted against the US$156 million International Development Association (IDA) loan that government submitted for parliamentary approval.
The NPP will support any initiative or project that improves secondary education and churns out quality products for further education.
Our record on the provision of fee-free quality secondary education speaks for itself, and we are proud of that.
What we cannot be proud of is the unfortunate attempt by the Mahama administration to use secondary education as an excuse to misappropriate public funds.
The NPP minority caucus opposed and continues to oppose the said loan for the following reasons: TOO MUCH BORROWING 1.
Whilst we acknowledge that as a nation we may need to take loans for very important programs and projects we must take cognisance of the fact that the servicing of loans is very much negatively impacting on the national treasury.
As we speak today the nation requires a colossal amount of about GH¢8.4billion to service loans for the year 2014.
That is why as a nation we should be circumspect in the contracting of loans.
Loans are not grants or gifts.
The nation will be required to pay and service them before the repayment date is due.
In this regard the nation should have the best value for money for any loan contracted.
POOR VALUE FOR MONEY In the 2014 Budget Statement, government budgeted for and got approval to construct 50 senior high schools in 2014 at a unit cost of GH¢4.4million.
In this IDA project however, the same NDC government is seeking to construct the same kind of senior high schools at a unit cost of US$4.3million, the equivalent of GH¢13.76million.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the extent of the fraud we have on our hands as a country.
It is shameful, but the government and its majority in Parliament are unable to explain this irregularity.
The belated explanation (obviously an after-thought) that has come from a deputy minister for education (Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa) is that the new schools will come with teachers' flats.
One hopes that the thrust of Okudzeto Ablakwa’s justification is not that what is provided for in the budget and for which the President went to cut a sod to commission its construction does not have a teachers flat component.
FRAUDULENT SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME We are told, ladies and gentlemen, that US$15.6 million (the equivalent of GH¢50 million) of the loan will be used to run a scholarship scheme for some 10,400 senior high students for just 3 years.
Over these three years, the money will cater for pencils, notebooks, sandals, sanitary pads, etc of the beneficiaries.
It is strange to recollect that last Friday Mr.
Okudzeto Ablakwa stated on Peace FM that the scholarship scheme will last between 2014 and 2019.
That is patented untruth.
The scheme is for 3 years.
The question is, after the 3 years when the loan amount is exhausted, what happens?
After the 3 years, how will government get the money to sustain this new expenditure?
Already, the Mahama administration is unable to provide for students who are already on government scholarship.
This initiative is completely and disturbingly unsustainable.
It is obvious that the real motive of government is something else.
Otherwise, how can a government take a loan to run a 3-year scholarship programme for only 10,400 senior high school students?
The provision of the 200 new Senior High Schools is to provide opportunity to people who otherwise would not have the opportunity.
The scholarship that is being designed is in respect of the facility to construct the 23 new schools.
How is the nation going to provide for the students in the other 177 new schools?
Thus far there is no indication that students in the 177 other schools would benefit from a similar scholarship scheme.
In the event, what is the justification for that.
PARALLEL SCHOLARSHIP SECRETARIAT On this new scholarship scheme government has indicated to create another scholarship secretariat, completely independent of the Ghana National Scholarship Secretariat, to manage this transient scholarship programme.
At the moment, the staff at the Scholarship Secretariat have very little work to do because government cannot provide them with funds to administer to students on state scholarship.
But we pay their salaries every month.
Their salaries are part of the wage bill on which the Mahama government has blamed all the problems of this country.
So, how can government justify the use of a parallel scholarship secretariat to run this transient scholarship programme for just 10,400 senior high students for a period of 3 years?
There is no justification for this irresponsible misuse of public funds.
Government is pursuing this create, loot and share agenda to put state resources into the pockets of their cronies and party foot soldiers.
PROBLEMS AT THE BASIC LEVEL We recall President Mahama telling this country that fee-free senior high education was unreasonable unless the resource problems at the basic school level were addressed.
As we speak today, teachers at many of our basic schools cannot get chalk to teach pupils because government cannot provide the funds for it.
The capitation grant is in arrears for almost a year.
The school feeding grant is in arrears for more than a year in many districts; the list is endless.
Yet, the hypocrisy of this administration has no difficulty bypassing all these problems at the basic school level to cater for school uniforms, sandals and sanitary pads for students in senior high school.
GH¢51 MILLION FOR MONITORING AND EVALUATION Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps the most shocking part of this dubious project is the allocation of US$15.9 million, the equivalent of GH¢51 million, to "research, monitoring and evaluation".
The deputy minister for education has hinted that 40% of this amount will go to "supervising consultants".
Do we not have outfits at the ministry of education that monitors and supervises the provision of educational infrastructure?
Is this the way to build the capacity of our educational institutions?
It is all a dishonest strategy to create avenues to siphon public funds.
Clearly, this allocation for the so-called monitoring and evaluation could have, even at the inflated figures by government, built about 4 additional senior high schools.
Again, per their own figures for upgrading and expanding the capacity of schools, this money could upgrade 132 existing secondary schools or could expand the capacity of 50 additional senior high schools.
Unfortunately, the US$15.9 million or GH¢51 million or ¢510 billion would not do any of these but is rather going into the wrong private pockets.
THE ROLE OF THE WORLD BANK It is not clear what kind of discussions have happened between the Mahama administration and the World Bank the lender of this facility.
This is a loan to be repaid by Ghanaians.
The World Bank, of which Ghana is a member, has the responsibility to ensure that loans that member countries contract are contracted in accordance with good governance practices.