ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
So, the heartbeat of our Manifesto is Part 3 the sole chapter 3 of which sets out the “CARES” Programme.
The Ghana Covid-Alleviation and Revitalisation of Enterprises (Ghana CARES) Programme.
Having seen our manifesto, we are told the NDC is desperately trying to come to grips with our chapter 3 of Part 3.
How will the NDC leadership offer a solution without a vision?
We cannot afford to go back to the days of experimentation.
The choice before the Ghanaian people is simple.
We have a choice between decision and indecision.
We have a choice between vision and a lack of vision.
We have a choice between transparently leveraging our natural endowments in the international economic financial space for accelerated development or having it handed out to a brother.
We invite governance partners, especially thought leaders and civil society influencers to objectively debate the potential outputs and outcomes of novel initiatives.
We welcome input that improves our capacity and ability to turn Ghana into the go-to hub that it can become.
This thoughtful and decisive President we have,listens.
He is sensitive to the needs of the Ghanaian people, providing education to an extra 100,000 Ghanaian children a year.
Children John Mahama believes should be on the streets.
This thoughtful decisive President takes risks for the future of your child, running a doubletrack system in the short term whilst preparing for the longer term with securitisation of the GETFund for massive educational infrastructure.
John Mahama tells us he will abolish the double-track system by completing E-blocks.
How does the completion of E-blocks abolish doubletrack?
Because the E-bocks are not in the doubletrack schools.
So, tell us the correlation between the E-blocks and the doubletrack schools.
In any event, many schools are already going off the doubletrack system, thanks to the massive infrastructure developments that are taking place across all the double-track schools.
My friend Mustapha Abdul-Hamid tells me his former school, Bawku SHS has just received the all-clear to go off doubletrack from when the academic years resume.
There is already a clear and systematic agenda to phase out the doubletrack system.
Candidate Mahama you are late to the game.
You just follow the wind.
We are transforming agriculture, exporting nineteen different products where you had us importing plantain (pages 41 to 49).
We remember you building one expensive factory for which we are yet to produce a teaspoon of sugar.
Pages 23 to 38 of the manifesto will tell you where we are with 1D1F, the programme set to revolutionise production for value addition.
Jobs and incomes.
Candidate Mahama, you got your opportunity and you blew it.
You have nothing to offer the Ghanaian people.
As for your excuse that you have learnt your lessons and want an opportunity to correct them, it is important for you to realise that Ghana and Ghanaian lives cannot be used for experimentation.
Happily, Candidate Mahama has been advised to tell us his mistakes and how he intends to correct them before making more promises he does not intend to keep.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, today, Ghana is the talk of the international community, thanks to the sterling leadership of President Akufo-Addo.
It will be a tragedy, if we should put this country in reverse gear by entrusting it into the hands of a person who is a self-confessed doubter.
One who is never able to make his mind about anything.
One who was so incompetent and corrupt he run a “create, loot and share” economy.
Conclusion Through you, ladies and gentlemen of the media, we are humbly asking Ghanaians to choose decisive, focused, courageous, committed, competent and compassionate leadership over wishy-washy, flip-flopping, indecisive and incoherent leadership.
Akufo-Addo represents leadership of service that will transform Ghana for all.
Vote for him to protect our progress.
Western Togoland Demands – OccupyGhana®️ Calls For (1) Addressing Of Legitimate Concerns, (2) Non-Negotiability Of National Territories, And (3) Prosecution Of Criminality OccupyGhana®️ notes with very grave concern the emergence of a separatist or secessionist group composed by persons identifying themselves as ‘Western Togolanders’ in Ghana.
We acknowledge the initial response of the Government in dealing with and containing the matter.
However, we should not be lulled into a false sense of security, especially as an election approaches.
By this statement, we call on the Government to ascertain and address any legitimate demands that could be addressed, in the spirit of our shared nationhood.
However, it should be clear to all that our nationhood and the territories of this nation are non-negotiable.
And, individuals who have broken the law should be made to face the law.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY The legislative history leading to British Togoland becoming a part of Ghana is uncontestable.
It starts from the August 1914 World War I British invasion (launched from the Gold Coast) of the western part of the then German colony of Togoland, the formal annexation in 1916, the 1919 Franco-British Declaration (modified by the 1929 Protocol), the 1922 League of Nations recognition of the British Mandate and the 1946 United Nations Togoland Trusteeship Agreement.
It also involves the 1954 Gold Coast (Constitution) Order-In-Council, the 1955 UN General Assembly Resolution 944(X), the 1956 Plebiscite, the 1956 UN General Assembly Resolution 1044(XI), the 1957 Ghana Independence Act and the 6 March 1957 letter from Allan Noble, UK Foreign Secretary to the UN Secretary-General.
Notably, section 1 of the 1957 Ghana Independence Act (the legislation by which Britain granted independence) identified the new independent territory as ‘the Gold Coast as defined in and for the purposes of the Gold Coast (Constitution) Order-In-Council, 1954.’
Section 1(1) of this Order-In-Council defined ‘the Gold Coast’ as ‘the Gold Coast Colony, Ashanti and the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast; and for the purposes of this Order references to the Gold Coast shall be construed as including Togoland under United Kingdom Trusteeship.’
Having adopted this inclusive definition of ‘the Gold Coast,’ the Independence Act then provided that that ‘Gold Coast…SHALL as from [6 March 1957] TOGETHER FORM part of Her Majesty’s dominions under the name of Ghana,’ and that ‘as from [6 March 1957], Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom shall have no responsibility for the government of Ghana or any part thereof.’
It is therefore indisputable that the union, independence and renaming occurred under the same law, on same date, at the same time and by the same action.
It is therefore blindingly obvious that the claim that some other or further document or action was required to unite the then British Togoland with the rest of the Gold Coast, is palpably baseless and profoundly false.
This is the legislative basis of the union under which Ghana emerged as a beautiful amalgam of various proud nations and peoples coming together under different circumstances.
But of all the nations and peoples that became Ghana, it was only the people of the erstwhile British Togoland (comprising the Mamprusi, Dagomba, Gonja, Buem-Krachi, Ho and Kpandu Districts) who were given a choice, a say, a vote, in the decision whether or not become part of this great nation.
They exercised this choice at the 1956 Plebiscite, which UN General Assembly Resolution 1044 said was ‘held in an atmosphere of freedom, impartiality and fairness,’ when a majority voted to unite with the then Gold Coast.
That union was achieved on 6 March 1957 in accordance with the 1957 Ghana Independence Act.
No one can undo what was done and how we became one nation.
ONE NATION, ONE PEOPLE… We are one people under one flag and in one, indivisible nation that has preeminence over the several nations that we had belonged to.
Although we recognise and celebrate our beautiful, varied, diverse and distinctive historical antecedents, languages, traditions and tribal authorities, Ghana has from its birth rejected formal, political delineations along tribal lines.
That is why the first post-Independence Parliament passed the 1957 Avoidance of Discrimination Act, which is still in force, and which ‘prohibit[s] organisations using or engaging in tribal, regional, racial or religious propaganda to the detriment of any other community, or securing the election of persons on account of their tribal, regional or religious affiliations.’
The punishment for flouting this Act is up to three years in prison.
The 1976 Prohibited Organisations Act was passed when similar secession cries emerged.
That Act specifically declares as unlawful and prohibited, any organisation ‘howsoever called, whose objects include advocating and promoting the secession from the Republic of Ghana of the former British Mandated Territory of Togoland or part of that territory or the integration of that territory with a foreign territory.’
The Act also makes it an extra-territorial crime to belong to any such organisation or for it to meet, advertise, campaign, use slogans, and/or obtain support or financing.
The punishment for flouting this Act is up to five years in prison.
Concerning the Ghana and her territories, the Fourth Republican Constitution (which we adopted, enacted and gave to ourselves with near-unanimity through the 28 April 1992 Referendum) provides that ‘The sovereign State of Ghana is a unitary republic consisting of those territories comprised in the regions which, immediately before the coming into force of this Constitution, existed in Ghana.’
It affirms that ‘all persons [are] equal before the law’ and prohibits discrimination on grounds of ethnic origin among others.
It also places a duty on the State ‘to actively promote the integration of the peoples of Ghana and prohibit discrimination and prejudice on grounds of place of origin, circumstances of birth, ethnic origin’ among others.
This is who and what we are and shall remain.
CONCLUSIONS We urge the Government to ascertain any relevant and justified grievances, and address those that are capable of being addressed.
This would be proper and in line with the constitutional injunction on the State to ‘foster a spirit of loyalty to Ghana that overrides sectional, ethnic and other loyalties.’
However, we urge the Government to firmly assert that secession, separation or severing of any part of this great nation is a treasonous anathema that should not and cannot even be broached or be on the agenda.
And, to the extent that the laws of Ghana (including our criminal laws) have been breached and broken in the wake or on the back of these demands, we urge the Government to prosecute any suspects to the fullest extent possible under those laws.
Any brazenness of any illegal group should be matched with a strong enforcement of the law.
Still in the service of God and Country OccupyGhana®️
We have grave reservations over comments reportedly made by the President while delivering the keynote speech at the sod-cutting ceremony to mark the commencement of the construction of new premises for the Ghana School of Law on 26 May 2021.
For such an auspicious and august event, the words of the President are likely to be immortalised and generations of law students will be referred to that speech.
However, we are unable to agree with the headlining of that speech with an endorsement of the palpable illegality and obvious breach of the rule of law by government’s current ‘burn-on-sight’ punishment exacted on alleged illegal miners.
We are also unable to agree with the President’s dismissive challenge to well-meaning law-abiding Ghanaians who have pointed that illegality and breach out, to go to court.
The President knows that he is wrong, and that Ghana law on ‘tainted property’ (which is what the excavators are) does not authorise the government’s ‘burn-on-sight’ policy.
In each of the 2006 Minerals and Mining Act (as amended), the 2010 EOCO Act, the 2017 Office of the Special Prosecutor Act and the 2020 Narcotics Control Commission Act, special provisions are made on how ‘tainted property’ (defined to include property that is used to commit a crime) may be seized and then confiscated to the state by court orders.
The current ‘burn-on-sight’ policy would mean that all of those properties could be set on fire on sight, a clear breach of the relevant laws.
No one needs a court to say that to Ghanaians.
The President knows it.
We challenge the President to follow the law.
For the records, we as OccupyGhana®️ started to campaign against illegal mining, as far back as 2015.
After the President’s election, we were impressed when he called the bluff of galamsey operators and declared that he was prepared to stake his presidency on ensuring that the law was applied and complied with.
On 5 March 2017, we issued a press statement with an unqualified endorsement of the President’s statements and actions at the time.
However, we were soon to be disappointed.
When Aisha Huang was first arrested, government operatives schemed to charge her with some risibly minor Immigration offences that would have attracted ridiculously low fines, in Case No CR 344/2017 dated 8 May 2017.
When we were alerted about this, we immediately petitioned the then Attorney-General on 16 May 2017, protesting the ridiculous charges and demanding that the proper mining offences be laid.
We were gratified when the Attorney-General then amended the offending and offensive charge sheet and duly charged Ms Huang with the appropriate mining offences, which could have sent her to jail.
What we did not know at the time was that the government had absolutely no appetite or interest in putting her on trial, and that it had all been a façade.
It turned out that our petition and the filing of the proper charges would rather trigger the government spiriting her away from justice in Ghana to freedom in her native China under a dubious nolle prosequi filed by the same Attorney-General who we had forced to file the proper charges.
Some two years after Ghanaians had started and continued protesting this decision, the then Senior Minister in April 2019, let the cat out of the bag and provided the shocking justification that has been an open secret till then: that the government had been compelled to let her go to maintain a good relationship with China, manifested in the Sinohydro project, which he claimed, was going to help process bauxite and provide $2B to Ghana.
He added “there are other things behind the scenes.
Putting that lady (Aisha) in jail in Ghana is not going to solve your economic problems.
It is not going to make you happy or me happy, that's not important.”
We responded with a press release dated 23 April 2019, and we did not mince any words in expressing our dismay, saying that “this statement suggests that, at the right price tag, foreigners implicated in the appalling desecration of Ghana’s environment, rivers and laws can be exonerated.
It positions foreigners who break/flout our laws as untouchable and above the law because their countries offer economic partnerships and benefits.
It sacrifices the enforcement of our laws and the safeguarding of our environmental resources on the cheap altar of present gain.”
We demanded an apology, and of course, none was offered to Ghanaians.
Subsequently, the President himself was to do a ‘mea culpa’ at an event held at Princeton University on 20 September 2019, confessing to the wrongness of the decision.
The President said “I think it was a mistake and the response to that has been the amendment of the law that has now stiffened and enhanced the sanctions for people, both Ghanaians and foreigners who are engaged.”
In our press release dated 23 September 2019 we excoriated the President and hoped that that would be the end of illegal acts by the government on this matter.
We said: “We appreciate the President’s candour in admitting this mistake.
We agree with him that that decision was a mistake, a grave and regrettable one.
What we are concerned with is that it had to take hindsight, an understating of the situation only after it had happened and almost two years after the fact, for the Government to realise how bad a mistake that was.
Ghanaians knew right from the start that it was a mistake and said so to the Government, which ignored us, making this regret very little and very late.”
It is interesting that the “amendment of the law,” which the President touted then as the answer, having “stiffened and enhanced…sanctions,” is the 2019 amendment to the Minerals and Mining Act, that the government is now happy to breach, and then challenge others to go to court over.
We did not believe the President then, and said to him that “while the legislative amendment that enhances the punishment regime for mining-related offences might deter some from engaging in Galamsey, we do not see how that, in and of itself, will prevent the repetition of the government’s mistake.
That is because the mistake, the decision to free Aisha Huang without trial, had nothing to do with the law as it existed at the time.”
We are unhappy that the President has proven us right in being cynical about his willingness to follow even the law he touted at the time.
We have always maintained that the fight against illegal mining can only be fought with the law and not by illegal government action.
The law on how to deal with this matter of illegal mining was clearly set out in the 2006 Minerals and Mining Act.
In 2015, the John Mahama-led government, unhappy with the crime and punishment regime under that Act, rightly caused that regime to be enhanced by an amendment that received presidential assent on 16 December 2015.
The current government, also unhappy with even that enhancement, rightly followed suit and led Parliament to pass another amendment in 2019, which the President assented to on 19 August 2019.
Basically, Parliament has given to this government the strongest anti-illegal mining legislation in the nation’s history, and the President touted this as the answer, although we did not believe him.
The President is aware that the 2019 amendment and that of his predecessor were required because under article 19 (11) of the Constitution, the government has no power to punish anyone for any offence unless and until that offence is, firstly, defined, and secondly and more importantly, the punishment for it is also prescribed under written law.
The 2019 amendment that this government-led, passed, assented to and touted, does just that.
It defines the specific offences and prescribes both the punishment and procedure for exacting that punishment.
The President knows that nowhere in that law, is the current ‘burn-on-sight’ punishment prescribed, which makes it extra-legal, extra-judicial and consequently unconstitutional.
The President knows that he is wrong, and that no interpretation of the clear language of his government’s own 2019 amendment supports the current ‘burn-on-sight’ policy.
And that is why we find the President’s ‘go to court’ challenge unfortunate.
It is a bet on the factor of time and expense that ordinary Ghanaians would have to spend in fighting in court, to allow the government perpetrate this palpable illegality and grave unconstitutionality.
We do not believe that it is impossible to locate, arrest and prosecute the owners of the excavators and ‘chanfangs’.
These equipment and machinery were imported into Ghana through the harbours.
The entire importation system in Ghana is, thankfully, fully computerised.
Thus, the chassis numbers and other identification details of these equipment and machinery used for illegal mining are or should be in the databases of either or both of GHAPOHA and the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority.
Further, the excavators could not have been moved to destinations throughout Ghana without licensing at the now highly computerised DVLA.
Therefore, we believe that government can easily ascertain ownership of the equipment from these government bodies, arrest and prosecute the owners, and then obtain the requisite confiscatory orders from the court.
Further, since the 2019 amendment requires prosecution and conviction before confiscation, which now appears to be a problem when the equipment is abandoned, the government must simply send a bill to parliament under a certificate of urgency to amend the law, so that the court will be empowered to make the confiscatory order when the equipment and machinery are abandoned in a mining area and no one has shown up to claim them within a specified time.
The President should not challenge Ghanaians to go to court.
We rather challenge him to follow the law, and respect the principles of constitutionalism and rule of law, which remain the cornerstones of our democracy.
We challenge the President to stop the “burn-on-sight” policy.
If the government needs another amendment, it should go back to Parliament.
But exacting extra-legal and extra-judicial punishment on alleged offenders should stop forthwith.
Yours, for God and Country OccupyGhana®️
I have come again, for the tenth (10th) time, into your homes to speak to you about the Coronavirus pandemic, share with you information about the fight against the virus, and outline to you the decisions I have taken about the next chapter of our common battle.
I thank each and every one of you for the collective and individual effort you have put in to help contain the spread of the disease on our shores.
The great majority of us continue to adhere to the social distancing and enhanced hygiene protocols; we have, as a result, altered our way of life to accommodate these changes; and we continue to make sacrifices to speed up the process of bringing our lives safely back to a state of normalcy.
We have demonstrated not only to ourselves, but also to the entire world, that we are capable of charting our own path towards containing the spread of this disease.
We must all be proud that we have become a reference point for others on how to combat it.
In all of this, I say a special ayekoo to our heroic healthcare workers, our efficient teams of contact tracers and testers, our farsighted scientists, our professional security personnel, and responsible members of our media, who have done a yeoman’s job over the last eleven (11) weeks in the fight.
Your efforts are truly appreciated, and the Ghanaian people will always be in your debt.
The Multimedia Group · Akufo-Addo's 10th address on Coronavirus When the first two cases were confirmed on 12th March, 2020, we took timely measures to attack the virus.
We decided that we would, (i) limit and stop the importation of the virus, (ii) contain its spread, (iii) provide adequate care for the sick, (iv) limit the impact of the virus on social and economic life, and (v) use the opportunity afforded by the emergency to expand our domestic capability and deepen our self-reliance.
To attain these objectives, and respond to the clear evidence that large gatherings provide the most fertile grounds for the spread of the virus, on 15th March, three (3) days later, under the Imposition of Restrictions Act, 2020, Act 1012, I placed a ban on public gatherings and closed down all schools and universities.
On 21st March, I closed all our borders by land, air and sea.
Subsequently, on 27th March, I placed restrictions on movement of persons in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Tema, Kasoa, and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area and contiguous districts, for a period of three (3) weeks.
In view of the obvious economic difficulties that the tough measures brought, I also announced far-reaching reliefs to ease the economic and social burden on households and businesses.
These included subsidies on utilities for all, tax reliefs and financial packages for businesses, and incentives for our frontline health workers.