The National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), together with the Ashanti Regional branch of the party, have both alleged that the government is witch-hunting former COCOBOD boss, Dr. Stephen Opuni, following the AG’s lawsuit against him.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Iavn39MZJ5S0csqGN90xeF0986FEd0E3″]Other members of the NDC have repeated these suggestions.

Speaking on Citi FM’s The Big Issue, Casely-Hayford said the frequent claims of witch-hunting by spokespersons of both the NDC and NPP anytime one of their members is prosecuted for wrongdoing does not augur well for the country’s democracy.

“Abuga Pele was not charged the NPP government. It was done by the NDC government and he has been found to be guilty… It transcended the change of government and that time when he was done, the same thing again, witch-hunting. In the case of Montie 3, [they said] witch-hunting.  Every time there has been anybody who is identified for a wrongdoing, NDC has come out to say it is witch-hunting. The NPP too does the same. It is becoming a politician’s and a political thing and it is time to stop all that,” he said on The Big Issue on Saturday.

‘Opuni is a victim of witch-hunting’

The Ashanti Regional chapter of the NDC, following the Attorney General’s filing of a lawsuit against Dr. Opuni last week for allegedly causing financial loss to the statd, claimed that the state was witch-hunting the former COCOBOD boss.

In a statement on the matter, it said it was appalled by the “[government’s] exceptional determination to destroy the reputation of a man who has labored to transform the cocoa sector in Ghana.”

The National Organizer of the NDC, Kofi Adams has described the prosecution of the former COCOBOD boss as injustice.

He said the government is only making frantic efforts to cause public disaffection towards the previous NDC administration by smearing former state officials with allegations of corruption and initiating legal action against them for same, although its own officials have been cited for various acts of corruption.

But according to Sydney Casely-Hayford, who is also a member of OccupyGhana, such statements are unhealthy, as they indirectly suggest that the country’s judiciary is weak.

“We have to stop undermining the judicial services, stop undermining the law and stop putting into the heads of the people of this country that there is an attempt to try and castigate a certain group of persons in our society. Let the rule of law prevail. It is not a witch-hunt. To continue to do this means that we undermine and don’t have any confidence in the judicial system and this is wrong,” he said.

‘Dr. Opuni charged’

The Attorney General last week filed some 27 counts including a charge of causing financial loss to the state against Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni.

He is being sued together with one Seidu Agongo, CEO of Zeera Group of Companies and Agricult Ghana Limited, beneficiaries of a supposed fraudulent fertilizer contract worth over GH¢43 million.

The first court hearing has been scheduled for March 23, 2018.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The former Vice President had indicated that government’s Ghana Beyond Aid mantra raises questions about what it wants to specifically achieve, given that adequate information had not yet been provided.

[contextly_sidebar id=”aRxXLbtvFDbaArTRk4PyOSYNz4jDRmCK”]“I’m comfortable if ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ is saying we will only borrow for capital investment and not the current obligation. But the problem has not been defined for me to understand it. It is just the rhetoric. It sounds nice, but what goes into it? People will support it, if they understand what the objective is. As at now, everybody is left to define it how he understands it, and then to decide to support it or to oppose it,” Mr. Amissah Arthur had suggested.

Casely Hayford on Citi FM’s News Analysis Programme, The Big Issue, however, rubbished Amissah Arthur’s suggestions, saying he was only being disingenuous.

He questioned why Amissah Arthur had suddenly become a vocal critic of the NPP government when his party could not implement viable policies despite being in power for 8 years.

“It is very disingenuous for Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur after having been a Deputy Minister of Finance, a governor of the Bank of Ghana and a Vice President of a country in charge of Economic Affairs to come and say he does not understand what the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda means,” he said.

‘Amissah Arthur was fair’

President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe in a rebuttal, however, disagreed with Casely Hayford’s stance, saying the Vice President was only seeking clarity when he questioned what the mantra stood for.

He believes Amissah Arthur’s comments were “very fair.”

‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda 

President Akufo-Addo, since assuming office, has reiterated his resolve to grow the country’s economy from one of dependence on foreign aid to independence, and ensuring its development using local resources.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who has on various national and international platforms emphasized his belief that Ghana, like many other African countries, is endowed with enormous resources to guarantee its growth, recently caught global attention when he made a strong case for his position at an event which had French President Emmanuel Macron as a guest.

The Vice President, Dr. Bawumia, who is the head of the country’s economic management team, has been tasked with the responsibility of ensuring all key government projects aimed at making the concept of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ a reality, but his predecessor, believes the government has not done enough to show it is serious about the concept.

Amissah Arthur insists that the government must provide timelines for the achievement of the policy to make it measurable.

“It is good to have a policy, but you must also have a time-frame. That after 10 years, even if someone offers to pay for AIDS medicine, because we don’t have money, we will reject it because we have to pay on our own,” he said.

–

By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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According to him, about 80% of the questions asked by the members of the committee were not necessary and irrelevant to the position Martin Amidu had been nominated for.

[contextly_sidebar id=”6ZXcHEFrKSGM4v4IV0GzdYh177AfsdGK”]Mr. Amidu, on Tuesday, February 13, faced Parliament’s Appointments Committee in what could probably be the longest ever parliamentary vetting session for an individual in the 4th Republic.

The Special Prosecutor nominee responded to over 180 questions from all members of the committee in the over 7-hour long session.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) minority asked the most questions; making 75% of all queries, with the caucus’ leader, Haruna Iddrisu, being individual who asked the most number of questions.

Commenting on the development on The Big Issue on Saturday, Casely-Hayford said given Martin Amidu’s established competence and repute, the Committee could have completed the vetting in about two hours.

“There is absolutely no reason why we should grill somebody for 8 hours for a position that he is going to get anyway… With where Martin Amidu has put his stand as a citizen vigilante and the things he has done and the way the people of this country feel about him, I doubt very much if this country will tolerate a rejection of Martin Amidu’s nomination as the Special Prosecutor…I would say that 80% of the questions that were asked were not necessary and we could have gone home within an hour or two,” Casely-Hayford said.

“I found that we played a little fuss there and it didn’t seem like a necessary thing especially some of the questions that we were trying to get into; what happened to his ‘O’ and ‘A’ level certificate and all that. This for me was a problem…We frankly needed to simply establish the fact that he is qualified for the job and he is going to do the job… Those for me were the critical things we needed to address,” he added.

‘8-hour grilling necessary’

A member of the Appointments Committee, Mahama Ayariga in an earlier interview on the Citi Breakfast Show had suggested that the lengthy vetting was necessary for the Minority, in particular, to ascertain whether Martin Amidu could indeed carry out the mandate.

He however added that the caucus had had unanimously agreed to pass him prior to the exercise.

He noted that the posture of the Minority, who asked most of the questions during the vetting, was to indicate that they were not scared about the appointment of Martin Amidu as had been suggested by some observers.

Ayariga’s comments, however, were contradicted by the Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak who said there was no prior decision to approve the nominee.

He, however, added that Minority’s conduct was to ensure they did not sound or appear emotional because Mr. Amidu is known to be a vehement critic of the NDC.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to him, most of the students at the University, a large number of whom are females, are more concerned about what they wear than their training.

“Go to the Ghana Institute of Journalism, GIJ, and look at the students who are coming out, majority of them are females and when you look at it, you will see that it is more of a fashion parade…so when we are talking about quality of journalism, they should tone down on the fashion and get a little bit more serious with the actual content,” he added.

Mr. Casely-Hayford made the remark on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday on the back of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s encounter with the media.

The President met some journalists in the country at the Flagstaff House where he was asked questions on a number of topics spanning various sectors.

Ghanaians subsequently lambasted some of the journalists accusing them of asking irrelevant questions with a report by the Media Foundation for West Africa also questioning the relevance of some of the questions that were asked.

‘Sexist, baseless’

Meanwhile, unhappy with the remarks of Mr. Casely-Hayford, the Students’ Representative Council of GIJ issued a statement chastising the Occupy Ghana member and demanded an apology from him.

“Casely Hayford must apologize and retract his statement against female students of the Ghana Institute of Journalism. The SRC finds his statement to be very sexist, unfortunate, unwarranted, unguided, without basis and an insult to the values of the Ghana Institute of Journalism,” the statement added.

Below is the full statement from the GIJ SRC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Casely Hayford must apologize and retract his statement against female students of the Ghana Institute of Journalism.

The Students’ Representative Council of the Ghana Institute of Journalism has read a very unfortunate comment attributed to Mr. Casely Hayford of Occupy Ghana ( refer to image for details). The statement was said to have been made on Citi FM’s Saturday flagship program “The Big Issues” on 20th January 2018 and captured in several commentary on social media.

According to him, female students of the Ghana Institute of Journalism are more “interested in fashion parades than empowering themselves”.

The SRC finds his statement to be very sexist, unfortunate, unwarranted, unguided, without basis and an insult to the values of the Ghana Institute of Journalism.

Mr. Casely Hayford in his statement sought to suggest that GIJ female students are only interested in fashion and that should partially be blamed for the “falling” standards in Journalism in the country.

GIJ SRC rejects his assertion completely and would like to  call on him to do the honourable thing of apologizing and retracting his statement.

We would also like to use this opportunity to draw his attention to the following:

1. GIJ remains the topmost Journalism Institution in Ghana. Till date, GIJ has produced the finest of Journalists and Communication professionals who have served and continue to serve this country in various capacities. The media ecosystem is incomplete without the contribution of the Ghana Institute of Journalism and especially its female students and products. GIJ is still in the business of producing journalists who are very professional.
2. GIJ has a robust practical teaching and learning structure that is designed to ensure that students of the Institute come out ready for the inky fraternity. If Casely Hayford and other like-minded people who support such sexist comment care to know, much of the country’s finest female Journalists and Communication professionals have been trained at the Ghana Institute of Journalism. The list is a very tall and non-exhaustive one-the likes of;
3. Adjoa Yeboah Afari

2.Gifty Anti

3. Naa Ashorkor

4.Kate Addo

5. Mabel Aku Banesseh

and a host of others who are not “engaging in fashion parades” in the industry but are shaping the course of Communication and Journalism in the country.

The current female students of the Institute are embarking on similar paths these stalwarts took during their stay at GIJ as many of them are taking up internship opportunities and chasing excellence as far as the learning of the profession is concerned.

It is even more interesting to note that the comment by Mr. Hayford was about the performance of Journalists at the recent Presidential Press Encounter; an issue the SRC has already addressed and made recommendations on.

The said recommendations have been published widely on various online portals.

It is very unfortunate that an opinion leader like Casely Hayford would not use his platform and such opportunities to discuss the quality of the state of Journalism independent of schools and of gender. The quality of Journalism, he and others should be minded, is a product of many things in this county  and not necessarily the training Institute or the conduct of a specific gender. It borders on the vision of media houses, the ability of the media houses to employ professionals, enforcement of standards by regulators and stakeholders and several other contingencies. It is shocking that he, who is supposed to know better, would reduce the discussion to such sexist commentary.

Casely Hayford has to apologize for his misrepresentation of females in GIJ and GIJ at large.

Signed

Nathaniel Alpha

General Secretary

GIJ-SRC

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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Making the suggestion on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, Mr. Casely-Hayford said, the bond will enable government solve the teething challenges that have bedeviled the programme since its implementation.

[contextly_sidebar id=”ejXkzhAELcrlUhHg8AHkSTQzGsFqjzd1″]“This is fundamental. This is financing and accounting 101,” he said.

The programme has since its inception recorded some setbacks in terms of infrastructure, a problem government says is working hard to address.

As part of the many other means of addressing the problem, the government announced the setting up of a fund to receive voluntary contributions from individuals to support the implementation of its flagship free SHS programme, and the education sector as a whole.

According to Casely-Hayford, the bond will create additional funding for the programme, apart from its “meager” budgetary allocation drawn from Ghana’s oil revenue.

The financial analyst said, if he were to be government, “What I will do is that, I will float a particular bond basically for developing education infrastructure and keep it completely separate from our annual budget funding amount which I will use to pay for my free SHS expenses.”

“I will use that for infrastructural development. At the end of the day, who buys the bond? They are investors from outside and you and me. We will buy the bond and we will give enough capital and that money will be paid to us over a longer period of time,” he explained.

What is a bond?

In finance, a bond is a fixed income investment in which an investor loans money to an entity (typically corporate or governmental) which borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a variable or fixed interest rate.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Although the diplomat has apologized for the comments, some Ghanaians argue that it is not enough and are asking for his dismissal.

But Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, Sidney Casely-Hayford, who’s group had demanded an apology from Mr. Ayisi  Boateng, said the beleaguered diplomat has learnt his lesson and must be pardoned.

[contextly_sidebar id=”WTc3DFHvN1gWJFKn8VTVVwTfaDpok3Tt”]“…For him to have said what he said was just a silly remark… the beauty of what we [Ghanaians] did is that we went as far as getting Ayisi to render an apology. He had a choice, either he resigned, unreservedly apologize or he was sacked by Nana Akufo-Addo. As OccupyGhana, we issued our position on it. He decided to take the one that was most tolerable to him and gave his unreserved apology.”

As to whether the apology was enough, Mr. Casely-Hayford said: “I think the lesson has gone down – politicians should now be very careful with what they say, where they say it and what they intend to imply when they say it.”

Backgroud

Mr. Ayisi Boateng has been in the news for saying that his first priority is to members of the NPP, and that if he had his own way, members of the party’s Tertiary Students’ Confederacy Network (TESCON), will be prioritized for various jobs.

He also said he considers NPP members as more Ghanaians than others.

“…this government is doing its best to create job opportunities and me for instance, I told my people over there [that], it is because of NPP that I’m here, so the NPP man is my priority. I told them when NDC was in power it was Kwesi Ahwoi who was there, now we are in power, so Ayisi-Boateng is here with you. My topmost priority is the problems of an NPP person before any other Ghanaian take it or leave it,” he said.

His comment invoked a public uproar with some Ghanaians as well as civil society organizations calling on the president to fire him.

However, there has not been any official response from the Flagstaff House on the issue, after he was reportedly invited there for a meeting that culminated in him issuing an apology.

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis program The Big Issue, he explained that, although he is not against the NCA sanctions on the defaulting radio stations, the regulator has broken certain constitutional provisions with the way the sanctions were imposed on 131 radio stations.

“The retrospective legislation to levy the fees in 2015, and taking it back to 2008, I think that is wrong, you cannot do that retrospective legislation, and then charge them the fees pegged from 2015. I think that is wrong and that can be challenged in court, and should be challenged in court, so we clear it once and for all” he said.

[contextly_sidebar id=”m1ybzfcqXcTdHKCrY6lo1NMFuxkRvwVe”]He emphatically stated that, any of the radio stations that feels the NCA hasn’t acted fairly, can take the matter to court and have it addressed.

Mr. Hayford seem to be in accord with Sam George, the  National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, who argues that the NCA appears to have erred in its application of the law.

“Section 72 (1) (e) of Act 775, gives the NCA the power to manage and impose fines, and I have absolutely no qualms with that. However, any L.I or Act is subsidiary to the 1992 Constitution,” Sam George said.

“174 (2) [of the 1992 Constitution), which is where my argument is, says that where an Act enacted in accordance with Clause 1 of this Article, confers power on any person or authority (in this case the NCA), to waive or vary a tax as imposed by that Act, the exercise of the power of waiver or variation in favor of any person or authority, shall be subject to the prior approval of Parliament by resolution.”

Mr. Casely-Hayford, also stressed that, any of the radio stations that takes the matter to court should not base their argument on the fact that the sanctions are meant to collapse their business, since they clearly erred by not paying their fees.

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By: Farida Yusif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, Casely-Hayford insisted that Mr. Botchwey’s ideologies are far from those upheld by the NDC.

“Kwesi Botchwey is the wrong person to have been put in charge of going to find out what went wrong for the party. Because Kwesi Botchwey’s mentality as far as politics is concerned is not NDC like at all. He is a compromiser and is somebody with a whole different view of how things work. You can’t expect to put a whole group of people like that and expect to come out with shining armour,” he added.

He made the comment when a school established by the NDC was being discussed on the show.

The NDC last Thursday launched its ideological school known as the Ghana Institute of Social Democracy.

The school according to the party will inculcate its principles, ideologies, and values to members.

“In April 2017, the party’s school working committee, based on its previous report proposed the formation of the Ghana Institute of Social democracy as an institution of higher learning and research to train many party comrades and other interested stakeholders in the fundamental principles and philosophy of the party,” General Secretary of NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said.

Asiedu Nketia has answers to NDC’s defeat

But Casely-Hayford said answers concerning the NDC’s abysmal performance in the election are with the party’s General Secretary.

“The person who knows what went wrong and can tell the NDC precisely what they did wrong and how to fix it is Johnson Asiedu Nketia. He made a very snide comment after the election. He said that all these going around and talking to everybody, the whole matter is clear and simple but did not make further comments after that. And they [NDC] are all living in denial,” he added.

Franklin Cudjoe commends NDC

Meanwhile, President of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana also speaking on the issue commended NDC for the forming the school but urged them to teach a courses he described as “internal centralism” as part of course to be thought at the school.

He also called on them to teach their members who to make their manifesto promises quantifiable saying “I will be happy to be a lecturer.”

“I was laughing over it but I was also serious, ideology is very important. I think that they should also teach what I called internal centralism.”

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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Hours after the device was found in the office of Lands Minister, Peter Amewu,  Inusah Fuseini claimed ownership for the device.

He also suggested that it was not functional because he could not get time to fully install the device which he acquired for his own protection.

He has however been heavily criticized for not removing the device even after he was re-assigned to another portfolio.

A former Deputy Interior Minister, James Agalga defended Inusah Fuseini’s act saying he did no wrong.

But speaking on Citi FM’s News Analysis Programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, Casely-Hayford said Inusah Fuseini’s story does not add up.

“I’m finding the story not very credible. I think the story looks like an afterthought to try and cover up. If he did put a device there for his own protection and then the thing never worked and he forgot that it was there then there was no protection required in the first place. If he had bought it with state funds then we could be talking about financial loss, but he said somebody gave it to him. On this story alone, I really don’t think that Inusah is straight with us,” he added.

Meanwhile, a National Democratic Congress legislator for the Wa Central constituency, Rashid Pelpuo, who was also on the show, said Inusah Fuseini should instead be commended for claiming ownership of the device.

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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Casely-Hayford has been cited for a possible contempt of Parliament after he said at a programme that Ghana’s Parliamentarians make “stupid decisions” and that he would have demolished it and turned it into a tourist site if given the chance.

He has subsequently apologized explaining that he didn’t mean to attack Parliament and that he went “over the top.”

“I indeed went over the top, I do apologize for that. I used some language which I supposed I should not have used. I unreservedly apologize because in matured conversation, when you say something that you offend somebody and you are prompted, the least you can do is to say I’m sorry, it wasn’t meant to be offensive, this is where I was going and if it came out the wrong way then I do apologize sincerely, I have no reservation doing that,” he said on Eyewitness News.

[contextly_sidebar id=”d2DxYWISGvvSCRGPulh69II7SjQYTpFL”]But the Member of Parliament for the Kumbungu constituency, Ras Mubarak, who drew the Speaker of Parliament’s attention to Casely-Hayford’s comments described the apology as “weak.”

“It’s a very weak attempt to water down the impact of the sort of very outrageous things he said. A person with his pedigree and stature shouldn’t be making sweeping comments, very derogatory comments, comments that impugn the reputation of parliament. And I think he knew what he was doing. Again the suggestion that we should break down Parliament; that is like encouraging vandalism, he fumed.

Ras Mubarak insisted that, Casely-Hayford’s comments were meant to “impugn the integrity of Parliament and I’m sure he was excited when he was getting all the applause.”

“I see what he is doing now is an attempt to water down what he said. The most important thing is that it’s been raised on the floor of Parliament. We are hoping that leadership will deal with it with a lot of alacrity so that tomorrow people will respect the integrity and authority of Parliament,” he added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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