SERIOUS ROT AT GCCL .....…As Ayariga Backs Workers Call for Quick Probe & Change of Management

The Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Mahama Ayariga in an attempt to address the numerous concerns of the agitated workers of the Ghana Cotton Company Limited (GCCL) has eventually set heavy fire in the hats of the entire Management of the company, after assuring them (workers) of carrying out an immediate restructuring exercise to save the company from eminent collapse.

The Minister’s reaction followed series of accusations and counter-accusations, demonstrations, petitions and legal battles between the GCCL workers and management that has raged on for almost a year now leading to the temporal closure of the company.

The embattled GCCL workers in all the operational divisions in Tamale, Tumu and Bolgatanga have refused to be on duty due to diverse problems confronting them with the issue of outstanding salaries being the most prominent. They are now demanding for the immediate removal of the current Management led by Mr. Kingsley Oseiku as Managing Director. Saying “We can no longer work with our current management because we have lost confidence in them. But if government wants to maintain them to continue the rotten dealings then they should pay us our benefits and we all go”.

However, in an interaction with the workers and management, the Deputy Minister of Trade who seemed to have acquainted himself with most of the problems confronting the workers emanating from managerial deficiencies, maintained that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government in its quest to revive the Cotton Industry would not condone any irresponsible behavior on the part of management or workers of the company who “are just a handful at the expense of the over 500,000 cotton farmers in Ghana who could offer vital votes to NDC in 2012”.

He explained that the intended restructuring exercise could entail that some management members or all of them out of office or better still some workers or all of them could be laid off and new people recruited. But that he said would depend on the outcome of independent investigations the government had agreed to institute into the operations of the Management of the GCCL, especially in the last decade.

Mr. Ayariga conceded that governments over the years had not done much or given special attention to the Cotton Industry, which gives jobs to almost a million Ghanaians including farmers, input dealers and core staff of the industry among others.

However, the NDC government and for that matter the Trade Ministry he noted had advanced in plans to ensuring that the Cotton Industry was comprehensively revamped to give hope to farmers who were into cotton business and also boost Ghana’s Textile Industry.

Meanwhile, cotton is one of the few commodities that are of great economic value to the people of the three Northern Regions of Ghana in particular but the Industry keeps retrogressing due to lack of political will, poor national policies, management and high cost of inputs. The situation according to Mr. Ayariga had affected all the other institutions and businesses associated with the cotton industry.

He noted that unlike the neighbouring Cote D’Ivoire and Burkina Faso who produce over 200,000 metric tons of cotton annually, Ghana cannot boast of even 10,000 metric tons of the product in a year.

The Minister therefore revealed that his Ministry was in talks with some multi-national agencies for adequate funding towards reviving the Industry, but his major worry was about the way the GCCL was highly indebted to so many agencies, organizations and individuals.

He however assured the workers of the immediate release of their outstanding salaries.

On the other hand, the Local Trade Union Congress (TUC) Chairman for the GCCL, Mr. Raphael Zuanah in a resolution titled “Lost of Confidence in Current Management” signed by the Union Leaders and presented to the Deputy Minister registered the discomfort of the entire workers in working with the current management of the GCCL and called for their immediate termination.

They argued that the continuous stay of the Management in office could easily derail the good efforts of government in revitalizing the company.

The Workers accused the Management of presiding over losses for the past 10 years and could not formulate policies to turn the fortunes of the company around. They also asserted that the Management had unjustifiably adjusted their salaries upward leaving the rest of the workers and also continue to use borrowed monies meant for operations of the GCCL to sponsor themselves at GIMPA to undertake Executive Masters Degree Programmes at the expense of production.

What seems to have aggravated the suffering of the poor workers according to the Union Leaders was the fat car loans given to 11 management staff at a time the Company was owing the workers for over 4 months salaries and also converted their annual leaves into huge sums of money.

They also accused the Management of regular diversion of lint cotton and cotton seed and monies paid into private accounts.

“The Management continues to maintain huge number of 24 management team and their huge salaries put so much pressure on the company’s limited resources making the company sink year after year. It is sad to note that the salaries of the 24 management staff put together can pay the rest of the entire work force, since the lowest management staff salary stand at 1,800 Ghana cedis and the workers are pegged between 80 Ghana cedis and 130 Ghana cedis.

The aggrieved workers also accused the management of staff intimidations, victimization, force transfers without transfer grants and possible dismissals, whenever their illegal activities were questioned.

The GCCL workers therefore appealed to Mr. Mahama Ayariga to personally take interest in the concerns of the workers and institute independent probe into the activities of the Management as part of the restructuring exercise.

However, none of the management members including the Managing Director, Kingsley Oseiku was willing to respond to the accusations leveled against them by the workers, even though the Deputy Trade Minister offered them the opportunity to respond.

GOVERNMENT URGED TO IMPLEMENT ONE CHILD PER LAPTOP POLICY

Mr. Stephen Agbenyo, Executive Director of Tamale based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) called Savannah Signatures which is into the promotion of Information Communication Technology in northern Ghana has urged government to quicken its pace on the implementation of the one child per laptop policy.

He said any further delay in implementing the policy would mar Ghana’s aim of attaining universal basic education and to improve the study of computer literacy particularly at the basic level of education.

Mr. Stephen Agbenyo was speaking at a day’s capacity building workshop held in Tamale. It aimed at building the capacity of educational authorities on the Ghana ICT for Accelerated Development Policy.

Other thematic areas that were discussed concentrated on how to share ideas and to network for possible future collaborations in deploying ICT into schools.

He announced that Savannah Signatures (SAVSIGN) has advanced plans to secure enough computers and laptops for supply to schools in the Northern Region that lack ICT tools.

Speaking on Ghana’s ICT for Accelerated Development Policy document, Ken Kubuga of Boldsteps Foundation reiterated the need for policy implementers in the educational sector to concentrate on using ICT to facilitate learning within the educational system.

This, he noted would make Ghana’s educational system responsive to the needs and requirements of the development of information and a knowledge-based economy and society.

Ken Kubuga tasked government to transform Ghana into an information and knowledge driven ICT literate nation by making available enough computers to primary, secondary, vocational and technical schools.

UDS ALUMNI TO SUE JOY FM, ATO KWAMENA

THE EXECUTIVES of the National Alumni Association of the University for Development Studies (UDS) are demanding for the head of Joy Fm’s Ato Kwamena Dadzie for allegedly insulting and downgrading the northern premier university (UDS) by allegedly describing it as an institution occupied by goats and sheep.

With specific reference to Monday November 15 edition of Joy Fm’s newspaper review segment on the Super Morning Show, the Executives who are threatening to take a legal action against Joy Fm and Ato Kwamena Dadzie, have asked for an immediate retraction and an unqualified apology for his alleged unguided comment.

The National President of the UDS Alumni Association, Mr. Felix Abagale expressed the sentiments at a news conference organized at the Nyankpala campus of the University for Development Studies.

“University for Development Studies (UDS): is this a University? University indeed! University with Goats and Sheep” The above statements were made on Monday, 15th November, 2010 edition of the “News Paper Review” show of Joy Fm in the morning around 6:30 to 6:45 am. These comments emanated as a result of a news paper publication to the effect that, the former President Rawlings and his Wife were not interested in leading the NDC but were only interested in bettering the living conditions of the people. When the host of the programme mentioned the University for Development Studies (UDS) as one of the achievements of the former President Rawlings in his attempt to better the living conditions of the people of the north, Ato Kwamina Dadzie in his usual annoyingly arrogant manner of rebutting the comment of the host made these disgusting comments. While we cannot prevent him from attacking or expressing his opinions publicly, we wish to state categorically that, he cannot hide under these “artificial canopies” to make such disparaging comments about our great Alma Mater, University for Development Studies (UDS). First of all, my question is, are the students, workers and for that matter the human beings who work on the university`s campuses that are the goats or sheep? The members remarked.

“We the National Executives of the University for Development Studies Alumni Association therefore request the withdrawal of those unpalatable words used by Ato Kwamena Dadzie in his description of our university which has gained International repute” Felix emphasized.

Mr. Felix Abagale categorically stated that the University for Development Studies had produced graduates of good standing who have been placed in all sectors of the Ghanaian economy.

He therefore challenged Ato Kwamena Dadzie to learn about the UDS which he said was established in May 1992 by (PNDC Law 279) and accredited by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) to run approved programmes at all levels.

FULANI MEN ARRESTED FOR SUSPECTED CHILD TRAFFICKING

The Northern Regional Police Command has arrested two Fulani men on Thursday November 25^th 2010 for trafficking about 13 children from the Karaga District to the neighbouring Burkina Faso.

The two, Husein Lido, 30 and Nuhu Seeta 30 were arrested in Tamale upon a tip-off when they tried to negotiate for transport to convey the children to Burkina Faso.

The 13 children who are between the ages of 4 and 14 years, according to the Northern Regional Police Public Affairs Director, Chief Inspector Ebenezer Tetteh were made to walk barefooted for three good days, from Ziniimdo near Karaga to Tamale which is over 46 miles.

Even though it is not yet established in Police Investigations as to what the two suspected traffickers were going to use the children for; whether for child labour, sex objects or money rituals, Chief Inspector Tetteh said he suspected the two arrested persons had some level of evil intentions.

During Police Interrogations, Husein and Seeta (the suspects) claimed that the parents of all the 13 children had given their consents before embarking on the journey with the children.

According to them, the Parents, who are also Fulanis themselves, had given the children out to go back to Burkina Faso to learn “Arabic”.

But the Police PRO insists that the parents had no right to give out their children who could hardly speak to anybody at all to send to elsewhere, without first of all considering the supreme interest and rights of the child to enjoy parental care.

Meanwhile, there were no Certificates or any documents to prove that the two suspected child traffickers were Arabic teachers.

However, attempts by Savannahnews to speak to some of the children became very difficult due to language barrier.

At the time of filing this report, the Northern Regional Police were feeding the 13 children and also processing documents to hand them over to the Regional Social Welfare Department. But the suspects are currently in Police Cells to assist investigations.

MASARA N’ ARZIKI DONATES TOWARDS N/R FARMERS DAY CELEBRATION

As part of early preparations towards the 2010 Northern Regional Farmers Day Celebration which comes off Friday December 3, a Farmer Based Organization called Masara N’ Arziki in collaboration with Wienco Ghana Limited has donated farm inputs worth GH¢ 30,000.00 to the Northern Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

The donation comprised Knapsack sprayers, several bags of fertilizer, improved variety of maize, large quantities of herbicides and pesticides for distribution to deserving awardees on the Farmers Day.

Presenting the items to MOFA at the company’s premises at Naaluro Estate in Tamale, Muange Nene Emmanuel, Executive Director of Masara N’ Arziki, said it was in line with the company’s corporate social responsibility to improve the livelihood of farmers in the region on such occasions.

He stated that plans were far advanced to roll out more of such donations to support subsistence farmers in the region to enable them shift from the paradigm of small scale to commercial farming.

This in the estimation of the Masara N’ Arziki Executive Director would create enough wealth for the farmers and also enhance the region and Ghana’s food security as part of her quest to attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Mr. Muange disclosed that about 3000 farmers who cultivated variety of food crops on the average of 14,000 acres have so far benefited from the company in diverse ways and pledged extend the support to 4000 farmers in the year 2011.

He mentioned lack of warehouses as a major challenge the company has been confronted with in its operational areas in the Northern, Upper West and Brong Ahafo Regions but that plans have been far advanced to resolve the situation.

On the activities of Fulani Herdsmen, Mr. Muange hinted that the company established an advisory board made of lawyers, local chiefs, the security, immigration and radio stations who have been educating Fulani Herdsmen on the dangers associated with bush fires and their role in promoting food security in Ghana.

The Tamale Metropolitan Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Mr. Kwamena Arkorful commended Masara N’ Arziki and its partners for the donation and promised its judicious use to achieve the intended purpose.

He remarked that the donation came at a time the Farmers Day Organizing Committee in the region needed support to make the event a success.

WFP BEGINS FOOD DISTRIBUTIONS FOR GHANA's FLOOD VICTIMS

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has began relief operations to reach thousands of Ghanaians badly affected by recent flooding.

WFP is initially providing food for 25,000 people in urgent need of assistance. The food commodities, valued at US$300,000, will include maize, beans, vegetable oil and salt.

“After responding to the short-term needs of those affected by floods, WFP will redouble its efforts to support the Government’s rehabilitation programmes,” said Ismail Omer, WFP Representative in Ghana. “These programmes will focus on rebuilding the lives of those who have lost all of their property, including farms and food stocks.”

WFP will provide immediate assistance to flood-affected populations in seven districts of the country with the help of the National Disaster Management Organization. Distributions began on Thursday November 25, 2010 in the Central Gonja and West Mamprusi Districts in the Northern Region, which have been some of the areas hardest hit.

Distributions will continue throughout the week in East Gonja, Kpandai in the Northern Region, Wa East and Wa West in the Upper West Region and the Krachi East District in the Volta Region.

Torrential rainfall in many parts of the country has resulted in heavy flooding that has affected more than 140,000 people.

The situation has been made worse by the spill-over of excess water from the Bagre and Kompienga dams in Burkina Faso, which in turn led to the overflow of Ghana’s Akosombo dam.

Beyond immediate flood relief operations, WFP will continue working toward its longer-term goals of mitigating the effects of climate change and recurrent flooding in the country. This will include collaboration with the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and other partners on food-for-work activities, which provide food rations in exchange for work done with the aim of slowing soil erosion and land degradation in flood-affected areas.

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries.