PRISONERS CRY OUT: Bring Your Campaigns To Us Too

Inmates of the Navrongo Prison in the Upper East Region, have called on politicians to visit and educate them on their manifestos to enable them to make informed electoral choices.

The inmates made the call when the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) visited them to educate them on political tolerance, the rights of a voter, electoral offences and the steps of voting.

Mr. Ganvu Paul Kwame, the Municipal Director of the Kassena-Nankana Municipal, said the programme was part of the Commission’s efforts to ensure all-inclusiveness in the political process.

Mr. Joseph Kwaku- Yeboah, the Deputy Regional Director of the NCCE for Upper East, told the inmates that as Ghanaians they were major stakeholders in the election process, hence the need to participate fully in the upcoming general elections.

He said voting was very essential since it enabled the electorate to hold politicians accountable and to also participate in the decision-making process of the country.

Mr. Joseph Yeboah urged all the inmates and the electorate to uphold the culture of political tolerance during the forthcoming general elections to ensure peace.

He called on the electorate to abide by all the electoral rules and also to vote correctly to minimize the incidence of rejected or spoilt ballots.

The inmates were educated on the steps of voting and the dos and don’ts of elections.

The Deputy Director, who also educated the inmates on the rights of the Ghanaian voter, said every citizen of Ghana of eighteen years of age or above and of sound mind had the right to vote and was entitled to be registered as a voter for the purposes of public elections.

“I urge you all to vote with conscience and resist the temptation of accepting money and gifts from politicians”, he said.

The programme was funded by the European Union.

Editorial

GUNS AND GUNS

Last Sunday’s incident at the residence of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo –Addo, popularly known as Nima Flagstaff House must be a source of great worry for all who treasure peace.

The trouble is that guns were allegedly fired on both sides of the absolutely needless confrontation between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

We cannot understand why the NDC supporters had to pass in front of Nana Akufo- Addo’s house by all means and why some occupants of Nana Akufo- Addo’s residence took offence at the presence of their opponents.

This situation could have degenerated into a bloodbath.

In our view the security services need to act professionally to avoid a repeat of this very shameful incident.

They need to establish the origins of the guns used in the confrontation and to deal drastically with any offending party or parties.

We cannot allow NPP and NDC supporters to set our country ablaze.

FEMALE MINISTERS PERFORMING BETTER – Mahama

President John Mahama with Naana Opoku Agyemang

President John Mahama has called on Ghanaians to vote more women into parliament in the 2016 general elections.

According to Mahama, this will enable him to appoint more women as Ministers in his second term.

The President has rated higher the performance of his female appointees (Ministers) stating they have even outperformed their male counterparts. He argues women are kind, loving; caring and so when given positions they are able to deliver.

“If you look at my government, I appointed a lot of women into positions (ministers). These women perform their duties and responsibilities as diligently as their male counterparts. Most times they perform better than even the men,” the National Democratic Congress flagbearer said.

Addressing a mammoth rally at Nsawam Adoagyiri on his tour of the Eastern region, Mr. Mahama revealed the constitutional provision that says majority of ministers must come from parliament has been a challenge to getting more women into ministerial positions
“One of the reasons why I find it difficult to appoint more female ministers is because there are no many of them in parliament. The constitution says majority of ministers must come from parliament. 51% of your ministers must come from parliament. So if you go to a parliament of 275 members and only 20 are women, then it is difficult to make more women ministers.”

The President therefore charged residents of Nsawam Adoagyiri to vote for the National Democratic Congress Parliamentary candidate in the constituency, Benedicta Asante.
“So vote more women into parliament for them to also get influential positions to help in the development of the nation. You are fortunate the NDC candidate here is Benedicta Asante.”

Gender activists have been advocating for a quota from political parties to ensure more women go to parliament by fielding them in their strongholds. However, that is yet to materialize. The number of women in Ghana’s parliament remains insignificant.
President Mahama is on a 5-day tour of the Eastern region.

Death sentence should be maintained – Kofi Bentil

By Marian Ansah

Policy Think Tank, IMANI Ghana says it is opposed to calls for the death penalty to be abolished.

Even though Ghana has not recorded any incidence of execution by death penalty since 1993, the number of death sentences has increased from nine in 2014 to 18 in 2015.

As of December 31 last year, there were 137 people, including three women, on the death row in Ghana, seven of whom are foreign nationals.

Amnesty International, Ghana has described the situation as worrying and has called on the state to take appropriate steps to expunge the death sentence through a referendum.

But speaking at a debate organised by the Ghana Growth and Development Platform (GGDP) with support from Citi FM on the election of MMDCEs and the abolition of the death penalty, the Vice President of IMANI Ghana, Kofi Bentil, said it will be a wrong move for government to abolish the death penalty.

“As a principle we [IMANI Ghana] do not think that abolishing the death penalty is a good thing.”

Mr. Bentil believes “not every member of the society deserves to be around.”

“When they have crossed a certain line and they cannot be of use to the society but are likely to constitute a terrible blight on society then under the principle of the social contract and in the interest of everybody else it may be better for us to take them out of society.”

He also emphasized the need for society to draw the lines between what constitutes a crime that requires a death penalty sentence.

GIVE US FREE MENTAL HEALTHCARE

Alex Segbefia, Ghana's Minister of Health

By Samuel Akapule

Basic Needs, a Non-Governmental Organization, has called on Government to review the free medical treatment policy by including free mental health care services.

Mr Benard Azure, the Project Officer of Basic Needs Ghana, made the call during this year’s Mental Health Day celebration held in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

Mr Azure said the inclusion of mental health care into the National Health Insurance

Scheme would help to address the challenges of mental health and called on the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to consider the proposal in reviewing the amended National Health Insurance bill.

He said one of the major challenges confronting mental health was the ability of the client to purchase medicines coupled with irregular supply of medicines.

The Project Officer said the lack of specialists and middle level professionals, under-funding of the sector by government, were also major concerns and appealed to all stakeholders particularly families and communities to contribute their quota towards providing better health care for mental health patients.

Mr Philip Aboagye, a Psychiatric Nurse at the Ghana Health Service, said persons

confronted with mental health problems could regain their health if given proper care.

As part of the event, Basic Needs with funding from the Department for International

Development (UKaid), a United Kingdom based charity organization in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service provided free medical treatment to about two hundred mental health patients drawn from some selected districts in the Region.

The event which was on the theme: “Dignity in Mental Health: Psychological Mental Health First Aid for All”, attracted stakeholders including civil society organizations, seamstresses and beauticians, traditional and religious leaders and the media was preceded by route match throughout the Bolgatanga Municipality.

The Mental Health Day was set aside by the World Health Organization to create awareness of psychosocial disorders and to promote mental health across the world.

GNA