The spectra of corruption and inequalities are very real in land allocation and management.

It is at this background that Good Governance Africa-West Africa organised a two-day workshop for selected land administrators and traditional rulers (who are deemed as the primary custodians of land) from the Western & Central Regions of Ghana, to sensitize and introduce them to current processes and procedures in land administration.

Topics treated included but not limited to accessing land information, organizational restructuring, and professional ethics, land registration procedures and processes among others.

The lead facilitator, Prof. S.O Asiama, a lecturer and land administration consultant, opined that, “poor land governance system gives birth to difficult access to land, ignorance of land policies and legal frameworks, lack of information on land transactions and prices, misallocation of land rights, incapacitation of women and vulnerable groups to participate in the land market.”

“On the other hand, should professional land administrators work diligently devoid of corruption, transparency can encourage civic engagement and stakeholders’ accountability by rendering the public decision making arena more accessible. This in turn strengthens confidence in government and public agencies, and has a positive economic impact” he noted.

In an interview, the Executive Director of GGA-West Africa, Mrs. Tina Asante-Apeatu, stressed the need for Ghana to institutionalize a professionally, tailor-made and home-designed land administrator system, which makes it easy to access credible land information.

She further stated that, good governance in land administration, pillared on transparency, will protect the property rights of individuals and enterprises, as well as of the state, by introducing principles as efficiency, effectiveness, civic engagement, fairness and impartiality, rule of law, among others in the land related public sector management.

According to her, high cost, inefficient land officers and prolonged procedures related to corrupt land registration practices, have discouraged people from registering their land and properties.

She said this further leads to under-collection of land related taxes.

GGA-West Africa is an independent and non-partisan research and advocacy organization, that works to improve government performance on the continent by strengthening institutions and building consensus through research, capacity building, sensitization programmes and orientation of the citizenry on best governance practices.
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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This decision was taken at the NPP’s heated National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held on Thursday at the party’s headquarters in Accra.

However, there will be another meeting next week to discuss and approve modalities for the nominations and the way-forward.

Information available to Citi News indicated that some of the national executives proposed opening nominations December this year or early next year.

But majority of the NEC members especially from the various regions strongly disagreed and called for early flagbearership congress.

The majority side was convinced that organizing early flagbearership contest will create room for unity.

This in their estimation will boost the party’s electoral fortunes in 2016 as the leadership is desperate to wrestle power from the governing  National Democratic Congress (NDC) “at all cost?”

The meeting which was expected to be a happy Krukrudites meeting turned gaga when some of the national executives appeared autocratic.

Citi News also gathered that the NPP got broke after the Tamale congress.

High profile NPP bigwigs who attended Thursday’s crunch NEC meeting were the party’s two times Presidential candidate, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Ado and his trusted twice running mate, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia and former President John Agyekum Kufuor.

By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Touting himself as the best candidate to win power for the NPP in the next elections, Mr. Kyeremanteng told the NPP’s New York Chapter on Friday that “the thought of losing” the next Presidential election was “frightening” and “difficult to contemplate.

The former Ghana Ambsassador to the United States of America under John Kufuor’s reign as President is in the American city on what he called “a short visit”. Over the weekend, he used his visit to the US to canvass for votes among party loyalists and potential delegates in New York ahead of the NPP’s presidential primary.

Mr. Kyeremanteng lost his first NPP flagbearership race to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo in 2007. In 2010, Mr. Kyeremanteng again lost the NPP Presidential Primary to Nana Akufo Addo. Ahead of the 2016 elections the two men, including at least five other party heavyweights, have announced plans to run for the party’s Presidential ticket.

Addressing party loyalists over the weekend, Mr. Kyremanteng said party delegates must give him victory in the next Presidential Primary elections or risk losing the 2016 elections.

“I believe that our main focus as true genuine NPP members should be one thing –– how do we get back into power in 2016,” Mr. Kyeremanteng, who turns 59 in Octorber this year, declared. “For me this must be our overriding objective.”

He went on, “Whatever it takes for us to get into power in 2016; that is what we ought to do. And I am saying at all costs because the thought of not being in power in 2016 is so frightening that it is difficult to contemplate”.

But, he said, getting back into power will “require two things”. First, “we need to fix our” party, he said. Secondly, “we need to choose a leader that will restore us to power”.

According to the former Minister of Trade and Industry under President John Kufuor’s rule, “The first is a necessary condition but is not a sufficient condition. But if we have to fix our party …we have to make sure we mobilize the grassroots to be at the center of our campaign… If you don’t have an effective grassroots machine it is very difficult to win power”.

“Secondly, we need to work as a united family,” he said. “I believe what you hear or see in print may not be as frightening as what is on the ground. I am sure most of you may not know this but I have a very good relationship with Nana Akufo Addo… [And] we still maintain that relationship and I believe we will continue to do that”.

In calling for unity among the grassroots of the NPP in Ghana and around the world, Mr. Kyeremanteng said, “It is our challenge for all those who will be competing for leadership to make sure that we translate this brotherliness to our supporters on the ground. I think that is where the problem [is].”

“If we fix the party, I still believe that we need to be able to elect a candidate who the people of Ghana will vote because it is all about power; any other consideration must be secondary,” he stated.

After years in opposition, the NPP – led by John Kufour – formed a government in 2001 after winning Ghana’s national elections. In 2004, Ghanaians re-elected the NPP for another four-year term. In 2009, however, the NPP – led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo – lost power to Professor John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress, Ghana’s largest opposition at the time. Again, in 2012, Akufo Addo led the NPP to another election defeat.

According to Mr. Kyeremanteng, the NPP cannot afford to lose the next national elections and that the time has come for the party to give Ghanaian voters a new Presidential Candidate instead of repeating Nana Addo as its flagbearer.

“I want to be very upfront…I think that we have our own senior brother, Nana Akufo Addo. He’s represented the party very well on two previous occasions. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, it’s not been possible for us to get into power. I think that we must explore other opportunities and that is why I will be putting myself up as a candidate when the nominations open and I am here to seek your support,” he said.

Mr. Kyeremanteng said the NPP lost the last two elections largely because of two main factors – apathetic party grassroots and swing voters who did not vote NPP.

“The challenge that we have is not convincing our core voters in the party,” he explained. “… Almost invariably you can imagine that if everything goes well you can expect that our core voters will vote for us. The difference lays in how we convince the swing voters …”

“Let us try to understand the psychology of these swing voters…” he explained. “They are swing voters because there are not aligned necessarily to any party. When you want to deal with a floating voter you’ve got to understand his psychology and almost invariably it is a question of this is the man I want… The advantage that I have is that I have an appeal, somehow, to these floating voters.”

“We have a margin of between 300[000] and 500,000 people who always decide the final vote and so I ask for your support because if indeed we can all work together to put me as the next flagbearer, I can assure you that 2016 we’ll be back in power,” he said to a rousing applause from his audience.

In April this year, NPP delegates elected a new national leadership to run the party for the next four years. However, the party is yet to announce the date for its national congress to elect a Presidential nominee for the 2016 national elections.

By: Richard Dela Sky/ citifmonline.com/Ghana

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“Saying you want to win power at all cost expresses not only desperation, but also not learning lessons from what has happened within the party and within the politics of this country,” Mr. Seidu said

“I think that I agree with the fact that the NPP needs to win power in 2016 but I don’t agreewith the qualification that it must be done at all cost.Unless that simple qualification at all cost is defined very well to include peaceful constitutional ways of going about it,” he added.

Mr. Kyeremangteng did not only emphasize the need for the party to win elections at all cost, but also stated that “the thought of losing” the next Presidential election was “frightening” and “difficult to contemplate.”

Mr. Seidu cautioned Mr. Kyeremanteng to be”watchful and careful of the words that he uses ahead of the party’s primaries and national elections.

He recalled that Nana Akufo Addo’s All Die Be Die statement was a clear example of the negative repercussions ambiguous statements could bring.

A friend to Mr. Kyeremanteng, Mr. Ohene Ntow defended Alan Kyerematen saying his comments were made in a specific context.

“When he[Alan Kyeremanteng] made his comments,he did not leave it hanging, he premised it within a certain context ,”he explained.

I don’t think that anybody who knows Kyeremangteng well, will conclude that Keyeremangeteng is suggesting that we do things that are illegitimate or unlawful,” Mr. Ntow added.

In a speech to NPP supporters in New York, Mr. Kyeremanteng stated that the time has come for the party to give Ghanaian voters a new Presidential Candidate instead of repeating Nana Addo as its flagbearer.

Defending Mr. Kyeremanteng’s comments about Nana Akufo Addo, Mr. Ntow said “I don’t think that what Kyeremanteng said about Nana Akufo Addo was negative in any sense.”

“Who doesn’t know that Nana Akuffo Addo was the party’s candidate in 2008 and in 2012….I don’t think that it is wrong to say that we have tried Nana Addo for these two occasions and I think that there is the need to try another person’’

Mr. Ntow opined that Mr. Kyeremanteng’s comments would have only been inappropriate “if he had attacked Nana Addo, insulted him or said anything negative.”

By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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