The private legal practitioner was the Guest Speaker at the Third Annual Public Lecture of the Rotary Club of Accra-West.

Below are excerpts of his address

Précis: the missing link in Ghana is the middle class that has solved all of Ghana’s problems for themselves, remain here physically but have effectively checked out of Ghana.

This is the era of fake neutrality by a middle class that doesn’t want to get involved.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” Desmond Tutu.

Reminder of closing line in the Eagles’ song Hotel California: “You can check out anytime, but you can never leave.” If the Middle Class doesn’t rise up, get involved and fix Ghana, “one day the poor would have nothing to eat but the rich.” That’s the trigger.

13-point Frank Chat about Ghana from #Rants. Let’s chat forthrightly and bluntly about this country.

• MYOPIA? (shortsightedness)? If so, how come the first High School in this land bears the motto is Dwin Hwe Kan?

• IGNORANCE? But we can learn. Or maybe we suffer from what I call “the arrogance of ignorance”?

• COMPLACENCY? RETICENCE? Chronic lack of punctuality. Apparently the more late you are to an event, the more important you are or feel.

• LACK OF RESPECT FOR LAW & ORDER? Maybe; if you observe how we break speeding rules, how our motorbikes ride through red lights even in the presence of the police. Jay-walking is definitely not an offence here.

• EDUCATION? Really? Are we educated to solve our problems or simply to earn a living? Why are we staying and sleeping in darkness when we have trained thousands of electrical and mechanical engineers? Why are our roads and bridges bad? Where are the Ghana-made cars? Did we go to school just to learn the ‘Whiteman’s language’ and to become like him? It is possible that all the colonial education system did was to show us which side of the ‘Whiteman’ he chose to show to us in the colony as a colonial master – a democrat in his home country, but a raving bully and oppressor in the colony. Having had the opportunity to unravel his mysteries through the same education system, we appear incapable of solving our problems with it.

• LACK OF BASIC RESPECT FOR EACH OTHER? Do doctors explain what is wrong and what they are doing, or do they ‘bite your head’ if you asked questions? Churches make noise. They only stop under the threat of attacks.

• ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY (beggar and patron mentality) & ZERO INTEGRITY? I suggest that these are at the root of the bribery and corruption canker. They steal your money and then give you the crumbs from off their tables. Wake up, buddy! No one owes you a living!

• MEDIOCRITY? Do we glorify the average, ordinary, run of the mill or pedestrian? Are we are so used to mediocrity that we let out a loud cheer when the lights come on after being off for a while?

• SUPERSTITION? Let us get this right. God still answers prayer and is still in the miracle business; not the magic business. He says “He who will not work, let him not eat.” He says He will “bless the work of our hands.” He says “I will bless your bread and your water.” He says “everything that he does shall prosper.” Sophocles wrote, “No good e’er comes of leisure purposeless; And heaven ne’er helps the men who will not act.” Calling a prayer meeting over a failing national airline was a joke if there was no serious plan to rescue that airline from imminent collapse. In fact, that airline collapsed and so did its successor airline. We didn’t learn a thing!!

• LOVE FOR HOLIDAYS? I have written elsewhere about Ghana and holidays.

• Do we need SNOW? Would the ‘Switzerland situation’ where our land would be buried under ice for more than half the year lead us to think some more and plan better?

• TIMIDITY, disguised as “fama Nyame” (leave it to God) or “gyae monka” (let it slide)? Between timorous souls and bold spirits, what, which and where are we?

• POLITICS? Are our votes on “auto-pilot” on the basis of tribal affiliations, friendship or family connections?

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS: But the Middle Class isn’t entirely quiet. Instead getting involved, it has become a bunch of visceral critics, spending more time hitting out at those who dare to care enough to do something.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
-“The Man In The Arena”
CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC Theodore Roosevelt
Speech delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, France
April 23, 1910

“When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are things to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honor are things to be ashamed of.”
From the Analects of Confucius, Book 8, Chapter 13

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By: Ace Ankomah

The post Ace Ankomah: Ghana caught between the missing link and the trigger appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Persons who wish to register names such as Nana, Naa, Junior among others, have been turned away in recent times by the Births and Deaths Registry with a reason that such names are considered as titles.

The Registrar at the Births and Deaths Registry, John Yao Agbeko, justified the action saying the law governing the Registry’s operations – Act 301 (1965), gives them the power to do so.

[contextly_sidebar id=”LGy62IJNXbUG4za2QgDBj9E0dNd4tjkh”]“There is a law that regulates the activities of the Births and Deaths registry, that law is the Births and Deaths Registration Act 301 of 1965. In this Act, we have a function for the Minister to do a regulation. In the regulation, there is a function for the Registrar to come out with a mode of operation.”

“…So even though you will not read it in the Act, the regulation allows the registrar to come out with the mode of operation to manage the place, and that is what we have done. That is why if you go to Tamale, the one over there will tell you that you cannot register that name. If you pick that same name and you run to Accra, in order to do same, you will be told you can’t do it,” he explained on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday.

But in Ace Ankomah’s view, what the Registry is doing “is not in the law, and it is also not in the regulation that was supposed to have been made under the 1965 Act.”

Also sharing his opinion on the issue on the Citi Breakfast Show, Ace Ankomah insisted that the Registry has no right to do that, and  instead that they are breaching the law.

This nonsense must stop!

“What the law says is that, they should have a mode of operation. The Births and Deaths Registry has no power to make law. Having a mode of operation must comply with the law. So if the fundamental law does not give you a certain power, you cannot be claiming that you have written your own mode of operation to make that power to yourself. So it does not exist, it has no legal basis, that nonsense must stop,” he fumed.

AG petitioned 

The legal practitioner also said he has petitioned the Attorney General’s department over the matter, and threatened to head to court if persuasion fails.

“It is backward. It didn’t exist at least in 1990 when I registered my children. This is a recent thing they’ve started. We’ve written to the Attorney General to tell them to stop this. If they don’t, this matter will be going to court. There is no legal basis for that,” he added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Blacklisting ‘title’ names illegal – Ace Ankomah fumes appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

“Storming the court to free people who are on trial is worse than sitting on radio and threatening the court. It is worse, so we expect that the system will treat it with the seriousness that it requires, but as it turns out, all we are left with is feeling high and dry,” he said on Eyewitness News on Thursday.

[contextly_sidebar id=”DeFSlqhckKGZSQJvgrZJefs3MARpIKMe”]Mr. Ankomah said this when his views were sought on the GHc1, 800 fines imposed on the 13 members of the Delta Force, who were charged with conspiracy to commit a crime by rioting, after they were captured on a video manhandling the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator, George Adjei.

While the case was being heard, some of their members stormed the court and set their colleagues free, leaving the judge and court staff in shock.

The 13 suspectes later turned themselves in to the court, and were made to sign a bond of good behaviour, and fined Ghc2,400 cedis each.

But under rather bizarre circumstances, the eight persons who raided the court, were freed for lack of evidence, a development that was widely condemned, considering the threat that action posed to the judiciary.

Following these developments, many have described the fines slapped on the 13 as weak, and a subtle attempt by the government to ensure that the culprits who are members of the ruling party do not spend time in jail.

Some civil society organizations including the Center for Democratic Development, has said the fines are woefully inadequate.

In the case of the infamous Montie three, Salifu Maase, the host of a political show on Montie FM, a pro-NDC station, and two of his panelists – Alistair Nelson, and Godwin Ako Gunn – were convicted of contempt by the Supreme Court and jailed four months for threatening the lives of some Justices of the Supreme Court.

However, former President John Mahama remitted the jail term after some Ministers and leading members of the National Democratic Congress petitioned him since the contemnors were perceived NDC loyalists.

Ace Ankomah told Richard Dela Sky on Eyewitness News that, such the handling of the Delta Force case “feed the perception that if your government is in power, somehow, you can get away with such acts.”

He warned further that, such occurrences “are emboldening more people to storm a police station to free somebody who has been arrested, to storm a DCE’s Office to scare the person out of office.”

AG can appeal Delta Force 13 fines

Ace Ankomah also said the Attorney-General can appeal the fines handed out to the 13 Delta Force members if they so wish.

“…If they feel the fines are not big enough, then the AG could appeal against not the conviction, but the sentencing; the amount of the fine, to give another court the opportunity to review,” Mr. Ankomah opined on Eyewitness News.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Delta Force court raid worse than Montie 3 – Ace Ankomah appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The 13, who were charged with rioting, walked free after paying GHc 1,800 each, and signing a bond to be of good behaviour for 12 months.

[contextly_sidebar id=”qlRpdhmvEVz8QJaCRn28oC4WWEAqXVhI”]”…If they feel the fines are not big enough, then the AG could appeal against not the conviction, but the sentencing; the amount of the fine, to give another court the opportunity to review,” Mr. Ankomah opined on Eyewitness News.

He stressed that, such a course of action would be important because the NPP government “must send a message to Ghanaians that it will not tolerate impunity.”

The government has been criticized for its relaxed approach against the acts of lawlessness from elements within its party.

The Delta Force case was viewed as the perfect avenue for the government to send a strong message to such acts, especially during the first court appearance of the 13, where escaped from lawful custody, after eight of their compatriots sparked confusion in the court in protest of the Judge’s ruling that the 13 be remanded and not given bail.

The Delta Force members suspected to have stormed the court were arrested but set free for supposed lack of evidence.

Ace Ankomah described that incident as worse than the Montie Three who threatened the lives of Supreme Court Justices, landing themselves four-month jail sentences.

“Storming the court to free people who are on trial is worse than sitting on radio and threatening the court. It is worse, so we expect that the system will treat it with the seriousness that it requires, but as it turns out, all we are left with is feeling high and dry.”

“It feeds the perception that if your government is in power, somehow, you can get away with such acts,” the lawyer added. We warned further that, such occurrences “are emboldening more people to storm a police station to free somebody who has been arrested, to storm a DCE’s Office to scare the person out of office.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post AG can appeal Delta Force 13 fines – Ace Ankomah appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The individuals are expected to refund the money with interest according to the Bank of Ghana rate.

The Auditor General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo had stated that many more people will be served surcharge notice in the coming days, adding that his outfit is committed to implementing the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Mr. Ankomah, who is also a Private Legal Practitioner  on Eyewitness News indicated that the move is a “good start” in retrieving monies belonging to the state.

“It is significant because it is the start. If after three four five we are still at eleven then  we will have cause for concern but right now I think it is a good and extremely significant and symbolic start.”

The Supreme Court in June 2017 ordered the Auditor General to surcharge persons found to have misappropriated monies belonging to the state.

The seven-member panel of justices, presided over by incoming Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo, did not give reasons for their judgment at the time.

The order followed a suit filed by pressure group, Occupy Ghana in June 2016, seeking an order that would direct the Auditor-General to issue disallowances and surcharges to and in respect of all persons and entities found in relevant, successive reports to have engaged in misappropriation of state funds.

Over GHc40 billion lost in ‘irregularities

Occupy Ghana had earlier indicated in a statement that a thorough study of the Auditor General report revealed that between 2003 and 2014, the total losses the state incurred in “irregularities” arising from Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies was about GH¢2,448,968,912.29.

“This is alarming, more so when we discovered further that for just the four years, 2009 and 2012 to 2014, amounts lost to Ghana from “irregularities” in Public Boards, Corporations and other Statutory Institutions was Five Billion, Seventy Two Million, Six Hundred and Eighty Six Thousand and Seven Hundred and Sixteen Ghana Cedis (GH¢5,072,686,716). From our projections, since the promulgation of the Constitution, the total losses to Ghana arising from “irregularities” in Public Offices, Central and Local Government Administration, Public Institutions, Public Corporations and Statutory Bodies, possibly exceeds Forty Billion Ghana Cedis (GH¢40,000,000,000),” the statement said.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

The post AG’s moves to retrieve ‘looted cash’ significant – Ace Ankomah appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Write-Away Contest is Ghana’s number one literary competition for amateur writers.

This year’s contestants wrote their own short stories, with their own unique characters, that ended with the idiom: ‘A bird in hand is worth two in a bush.’

Speaking at the event, the Acting Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Charles Aheto Tsegah said the Write Away Contest is “the best public contest that is dedicated to building the minds of children.”

Mr. Tsegah praised Citi FM for demonstrating consistency “to drive change.”

“We are not harnessing the potential of our children,” he lamented.

Educationist and Chief Examiner of the contest Hanis Hafar, speaking at the event has charged the Education Minister, through her representative at the event to “erect billboards across the country to encourage children to always read and write.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”JO1wiPDkAfBIWIJNRFCRgKbDTOO1w6I7″]Over the years, enterprising young writers have thrilled audiences with their well researched and written entries, and have been awarded accordingly.

Last year’s winner, Isabella Quaye, making a comment at the even lamented that “our biggest challenge is we do not have reading materials and if they are available, the children do not read.”

This year’s winner takes home GHC 5,000, the first runner-up  and the second runner-up will each receive GHC 3,000 and GHC 1,000 respectively. Special awards will also be given to deserving contestants.

The Write-Away Contest is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and Indomie Instant Noodles. The contest is supported by Finlite and the Volta River Authority (VRA) and powered by 97.3 Citi FM.

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By: Kojo Akoto Boateng/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Grand finale of Citi FM’s Write-Away Contest underway appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Thousands of school children aged between ten (10) and fourteen (14) years submitted entries for the year’s contest. The entries were their own short stories, with their own unique characters, which ended with the idiom a bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

Twenty (20) entries were selected after which an interview session with the examiners was conducted to select the top ten (10) winners, from which the overall winner will be announced on Saturday.

The Write-Away Contest is Ghana’s number one literary competition for amateur writers. Over the years, enterprising young writers have thrilled audiences with their well research and written entries, and have been awarded accordingly.

This year’s winner takes home five thousand (5000) cedis, the first runner-up  and the second runner-up will each receive three thousand (3000) and one thousand (1000) cedis respectively. There will also be special awards for deserving writers.

The Write-Away Contest is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and Indomie Instant Noodles. The contest is supported by Finlite and the Volta River Authority (VRA) and powered by 97.3 Citi FM.

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By: Kojo Akoto Boateng/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post All set for the grand finale of the Write-Away Contest appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The 20 finalists will be interviewed by a judging panel on Saturday August 30 at the premises of Citi FM. The top ten will be selected from the top 20 from which the best three will be chosen for the ultimate awards.

The overall winner of the 2014 Write-Away Contest will be announced on Saturday September 6, at the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel. The overall winner will be presented with a cash prize of GHc5000. The first and second runners-up will be given GHc3000 and GHc1000 respectively.

Below is the top 20 (in no particular order)

1. Nana Esi Okyere-Nyarko

2. Johnson Jr. Asamoah

3. Owura Osae Adade

4. Okoye Bonaventure

5. Emmanuel Obeng

6. Nana Yaw Addae-Poku

7. Nana Akua Aboraa Owusu Ababio Nhyira

8. Jessica Eyeson

9. Quartey Melvina

10. Christalyn Amissah-Aidoo

11. Edem Fiifi Dawson

12. Marilyn Nanayaa Gyan

13. Quarcoo Dela Redeemer

14. Melody Ruth Ngaaso

15. Awo Adu-Amoah

16. Petra Asantewaah

17. Yvonne Obenewaa Obeng Kyeremateng

18. Seyram Dorgbetor Kwame

19. Vanessa Inkoom

20. William Nnuro Jr.

The Write-Away Contest is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and Indomie Instant Noodles. The contest is supported by Finlite and the Volta River Authority (VRA) and powered by 97.3 Citi FM.

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By: Kojo Akoto Boateng/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Finalists of the Citi FM Write-Away Contest announced appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The 20 finalists have been selected from over one thousand entries that have been received this year.

According to the judges, the quality of this year’s entries is good – a trend which shows that children will improve in their endeavors, if they are encouraged to read and to write more. The criteria for marking included mechanical accuracy, organization, expression, quality of content, among other things.

The 20 finalists will be interviewed by a judging panel, on Saturday August 30th, after which the top three winners will be chosen for the ultimate awards.

The ultimate winner will be announced at an awards ceremony, which comes off on Saturday September 6, at the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel. The overall winner will be presented with a cash prize of GHc5000. The first and second runners-up will be given GHc3000 and GHc1000 respectively.

The Write-Away Contest is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and Indomie Instant Noodles. The contest is supported by Finlite and the Volta River Authority (VRA) and powered by 97.3 Citi FM.

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By: Kojo Akoto Boateng/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Finalists of the Citi Write-Away Contest to be announced Monday appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Successful entrants stand the chance of winning the whooping GHC 5000 prize money and the enviable title of a winner.

This year’s Write-Away Contest is giving school children between the ages of 10 and 14 years the liberty to explore and express themselves by writing their own stories.

The story must have their own fictional characters, not be less than 600 words and end with the idiom “a bird in hand is worth two in the bush.”

Completed entries must then be posted to THE WRITE-AWAY CONTEST, P.O. Box GP 14123 Accra Central by the 1st of August 2014. Entries can also be submitted to the front desk of Citi FM, behind the Adabraka Police Station, Accra.

The Write-Away Contest is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and Indomie Instant Noodles and supported by Finlite and the Volta River Authority.

By: Kojo Akoto Boateng/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Deadline for submission of Write-Away entries draws near appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.