2,018 Candidates To Contest For Assembly Elections In Northern Region

Bruce Ayisi, EC Director

COME Tuesday March 3^rd, 2015, a total of two thousand and eighteen (2018) candidates who would be contesting for the much awaited 2014 District Level Election in the Northern Region would have their pictures displayed on ballot papers of the Electoral Commission of Ghana beckoning Ghanaian voters to elect them.

Surprisingly, statistics available to Savannahnews indicate that, of the 2,018 candidates who would be contesting in 641 different Electoral Areas in the region, only 91 are females while the rest are males. This figure shows a sharp decline of the number of women contesting for the election as against a total of 137 females who contested in the same election in 2010.   

Also, four thousand, one hundred and fifty-six (4,156) candidates across the entire region would be standing for the Unit Committee Election. “Of this figure, 3,892 are males while 264 are females”, said Mr. Bruce Ayisi, Northern Regional Director, Electoral Commission.

According to the 2010 Population and Housing Census, the population of the Northern Region stood at 2,479,461 representing about 10 percent of Ghana’s population. Of this figure, the male population was 1,229,887 whereas that of women was 1,249,574. This showed that the population of women in the region exceeded that of men by 19,687.

Sadly, a lot of women in the region are being underrepresented. In a lot of discussions at the family, community and district levels, the voices of women are lost. As a result, development initiatives at the local level are so biased because women are not involved in the planning stages to capture their concerns or needs.

Civil Society Organisation Platform on Good Governance is a network of civil society groups with common interest in monitoring the upcoming district level election in the Northern Region.

Coordinator of the Platform Alhassan Mohammed Awal, told Savannahnews, that the group was not happy with the low number of women contesting for positions in the Assembly Member and Unit Committee election. He however was excited that the quality of candidates was better compared to those who contested in the 2010 election.

Mr. Awal also said the Platform was not satisfied with the way and manner the Electoral Commission (EC) went about with the mounting of campaign platforms for candidates to campaign in their electoral areas.

“While the EC was expecting candidates to go round and inform citizens of their intention to mount campaign platforms for them, candidates were also expecting the EC to do that. This has not helped in whipping up the expected enthusiasm among voters and I think the EC officials can do better next time by doing the announcement themselves”, he observed.

District Assembly elections have been held six consecutive times since December 6^th 1988/89, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ayisi has told this reporter that the EC has already dispatched all materials needed to conduct the election to all districts across the region. He implored candidates and electorate to comport themselves on the day of voting in order to create a smooth atmosphere for a free, fair and transparent election.

GKS, BasicNeeds Supports Stabilised Mentally Ill, Epileptic Victims

Executive Dir. GKS

The Gub-Katimali Society (GKS) in Tamale has disbursed GH¢5,000.00 to thirty stabilised persons with mental illness and epilepsy (PWMIE) and their caregivers at Sagnarigu in the Sagnarigu District in the Northern Region of Ghana.

The disbursement, formed part of the implementation of a 5-year DFID project by GKS in partnership with BasicNeeds-Ghana in all 26 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the Northern Region.

According to Executive Director of GKS, Sheik Yakubu Abdul-Kareem, there were many PWMIE who as a result of their current state of mental health could no longer do certain jobs that they used to do prior to falling sick.

“For instance, a nurse who suffers from extreme mental illness or epilepsy and unable to recover very well most likely will not be allowed to work in the hospital again. However, we believe that such a nurse can do certain jobs like rearing animals, sell groceries or engage in certain skills training to make a living out of it”, he emphasised.

At the disbursement of the funds at Sagnarigu, Sheik Abdul-Kareem told Savannahnews, that in order to make PWMIE continue to remain economically viable and not become totally dependent on their family members, GKS and BasicNeeds thought it wise to support them through the DFID project.

Each of the 30 Sagnarigu beneficiaries mostly women who belonged to Ngun Pagi Suhi Self-Help Group of Mentally Ill People, received between GH¢80.00 and GH¢300.00 to do any business they were capable of doing.

With some of them engaged in the sale of porridge, millet, corn, rice processing and among others, they were expected to deposit their individual profits into the Association’s Bank Account so that when any of them ever run at a lost, they could be bailed out.

Having successfully implemented a three-year EU project in seven MMDAs in the Northern Region, GKS went into another partnership with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through BasicNeeds-Ghana to implement another 5-year project. The project began in 2013/14 and expected to end in 2017/18.

Beneficiaries

This project is aimed at supporting the government of Ghana to build a national mental health system that effectively and efficiently responds to the mental health needs of Ghanaians. This would reduce the high mental health treatment gap currently existing in Ghana and would enable men, women, girls and boys with neuropsychiatric conditions to live and work successfully in their communities.

The project targets all 26 MMDAs in the Northern Region and seeks to achieve increased capacity of Ghana's Mental Health Authority to effectively and efficiently run community based mental health services whereas 100,000 women, men, girls and boys with mental health needs access quality mental health services within the proximity of their communities.

According to Sheik Abdul-Kareem, his organisation had since the implementation of the project met and interacted with an estimated 853 beneficiaries comprising of PWMIE and their primary caregivers in 17 communities in four districts.  

He also indicated the project, had also organised training and capacity building workshops for 486 self-help groups in all four districts.

A representative of BasicNeeds-Ghana Dassah Kayeli Timothy urged beneficiaries to make prudent investments with the money given to them. By so doing, he said the money would grow and it would enable GKS to extend further support to others who also need it to improve upon their livelihood.

Mr. Dassah recounted success stories of some PWMIE in the West Mamprusi District who had made significant economic gains in their dry season farming through a similar support they received some years ago. “This feat by your colleagues in Walewale should also motivate you to make gains in whatever you’ll invest your money into”, he stated.

Savelugu-Nanton Municipal Assembly Integrates Rains’ Change Project Into MTDP

When RAINS in 2013 decided to roll out “Climate Change Adaptation in Northern Ghana Enhanced (CHANGE)” project in the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality, there was very little hope for beneficiary communities that they would succeed or make any substantial gains.

However, two years after its implementation, the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS) and the people of Yilikpani, Zoosali, Kpachelo, Tindang and Langa communities in the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality, have all counted and continued to count many gains made by the project even as it entered its third year 2015.

Some of the most outstanding gains cited by RAINS included low incidences of bush burning as well as high crop yields for farmers in all five beneficiary communities. Overall, about 450 people have benefited so far from the CHANGE project.

In view of this, Mohammed Kamel Damma, CHANGE Project Officer at RAINS, told Savannahnews, that the Municipal Assembly had seen the viability of the project and decided to integrate it into its Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP).

Speaking at a community engagement meeting at Savelugu, Mr. Damma encouraged other communities in the municipality to desist from practices that increase climate change vulnerability effects, and do well to counter prevailing situations with some of the lessons that were taught in the CHANGE project communities over the past two years.

Alhaji Inusah Abukari, Planning Officer, Savelugu-Nanton Municipal Assembly, confirmed the enormous benefits CHANGE had brought to the people. In order to ensure its sustainability, he said the Assembly had decided to integrate CHANGE into its MTDP.

He explained that the CHANGE project objectives fitted perfectly into the objectives of Resilience in Northern Ghana (RING), a project similar to CHANGE and being implemented by the Assembly with funding support from USAID.

A five-year project which started in 2013, RING is intended to improve the livelihoods and nutritional status of the poorest households, with emphasis on pregnant and lactating mothers as well as children under five years of age in 16 other districts in the Northern Region.

Alhaji Abukari further noted that, through RING, the aforementioned communities would benefit from a village savings and loans scheme, distribution of small ruminants, linking of sheanuts farmers and processors to lucrative markets as well as skills training in livelihood improvement programmes.

While expressing satisfaction with the commitment being made by the Assembly towards ensuring the sustainability of the project, Mr. Damma also encouraged beneficiary communities to support the former to succeed since the outcome of the project would enhance their life aspirations positively.

Mohammed, a resident of one of the beneficiary communities also lauded the Assembly for seeing the need to integrate the CHANGE project into its MTDP and urged officials of the Assembly not to be discriminatory during implementation.

Like many of his fellow beneficiaries, he also commended RAINS for their support in recent times in the areas of food security initiatives and improvement in education delivery that had affected the lives of communities positively.

CHANGE is being funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) and the Canadian Feed The Children (CFTC). Apart from the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality where it was implemented by RAINS, CHANGE also benefited thousands of people in the Upper East and Upper West Regions through the support of Trade Aid Integrated and Tumu Deanery Rural Integrated Development Programme.

About 84,000 women and men smallholder farmers in 17 communities in the district and municipalities of Savelugu-Nanton, Sissala East in the Upper West and Bolgatanga in the Upper East Regions were targeted to improve adaptive capacity and resilience to improve the impacts of climate change on agriculture, food security and livelihoods.

Meanwhile, RAINS is a non-governmental organisation set up by a group of social development activists in Northern Ghana in 1993. Since its foundation, RAINS has focused on improving the quality of life particularly for children, women, girls and the disabled in the Northern Region.

Monsignor Bazaanaah Admonishes Christians To Refrain From Corruption

Monsignor (Msgr) Christopher Bazaanaah of Blessed Sacrament Church in Tamale has admonished Christians to refrain from all manner of corrupt practices in order to save the economy of Ghana from dipping into crisis.

With majority of the country’s population being Christians, he wondered why there was such deep-seated corruption in every sector of Ghana’s economy and urged those who claimed to be followers and believers of Jesus Christ to repent from ways that were not Christ-like.

Delivering a sermon at last Sunday’s church service, Msgr Bazaanaah said: “.....Imagine the number of Christians we have, and how can Ghana still be corrupt? How can you explain that? Even the number sitting here, if you will not be corrupt, if you will be determined to follow the Christ who is lying on the cross we can transform Ghana. We can”, he declared.

“.......How can you come for communion and go out and be corrupt? The two cannot work together. If you take communion it means it’s a pledge that you’re going out to imitate Jesus. And where do we read in the scriptures that Jesus was ever corrupt? Jesus was ever taking bribes or Jesus was offering bribes?” he asked.

Christians, according to Msgr Bazaanaah, were supposed to be pacesetters for the world to imitate. But unfortunately, he said Christians were now looking up to the world to give them the wrong values to follow.

“......there used to be times stealing was seen as something very abominable but now stealing is seen as something virtuous. Otherwise, how can you explain the stealing that is going on? There is looting of government property, government coffers, looting of everything that someone can lay hands on”, noted.  

Msgr Bazaanaah therefore charged all Christians to renew their thinking and faith in Christ who is their saviour. “.....Nobody can change our country for us and I believe it is only Christians who can transform this country.......And we Christians can only do it if we stop disgracing Christ. And stop messing up seriously with our Christian faith”, he emphasised.

While admitting it was not easy to become a Christian, he also indicated that trials in the life of a Christian made him/her an authentic Christian.....“If you don’t want trials you will never be a Christian. And because we don’t want trials, difficulties to test our faith, we tend to give the impression that Christianity is not powerful and Christianity cannot transform our lives”.

Until Christians changed their attitudes towards the way and manner they worship God, Msgr Bazaanaah observed that, there would be serious hardship and suffering in their lives more than we were experiencing now and we would have no place to run to for help.

Female Teachers In Northern Region Admitted Into SavSign’s ICT Fellowship Programme

_{Savana Signatures (SavSign) in a concerted effort to whip-up the study and learning of information, communication and technology (ICT) among female students and teachers has initiated a project called Female Teachers Using Technology (FTUT) fellowship.}

_{Through this fellowship, SavSign has selected ten (10) female teachers in the Northern Region to undergo free ICT training. The fellows will serve as role models to other female teachers and students after they have been empowered with requisite ICT skills and knowledge.}

_{Augustine Opoku Adjei, Project Officer at SavSign told Savannahnews, that the year-long fellowship is among other things, intended to encourage the use of ICT tools by female teachers to deliver quality education.}

_{The fellowship, he said, is also expected to address poor teaching and learning methodologies and persistent learning difficulties faced in science related subjects in among female students.}

_{“The challenges facing the educational sector make the use of ICT tools in the sector very important. The fellowship is to introduce new innovative approaches to lessons preparation, delivery and learning in schools”, he said.}

_{The project officer said, the use of ICT in education can promote female education saying “it makes learning easy, interesting and provides easy approaches to learning, lesson delivery and understanding”.}

The ten SavSign ICT Fellows

_{He added “this is a unique programme designed to equip the beneficiaries with requisite ICT knowledge and skills to deliver quality education to pupils in basic and second cycle schools in Ghana.”}

_{Mr. Adjei said, each year, the fellowship would select, mentor and provide free basic and specialized ICT training for 10 female teachers in the country. It will also build their capacity on how to effectively use ICT to prepare and deliver lessons and encourage female pupils to opt for science and ICT related courses in school.}

_{“The 10 female teachers who have so far been selected, are already undergoing training in basic and specialized ICT training, computing and programming and how to effectively prepare and deliver lessons in class with the aid of ICT tools”, he disclosed.}

_{The beneficiaries are Kuumwaar Veronica Mwinkom, Jakpa Yvonne Fata, Gyil Bangnia Mitchel, Bittor Jennifer, Agba Stella Yawa, Baba Rashid and Bukari Mary Magdalene Awentemi. The rest are Kwara Flavia Nonati, Falilatu Abubakari and Kombian Sophia Yenuloam.}

_{“We will develop and inculcate the passion for girl-child education in them, train them to become role models, and also to serve us trainers of trainees in their respective schools to promote the girl-child education and participation of female teachers and pupils in the use of ICT”, he said.}

_{To facilitate the implementation of ICT in education policy in Ghana, SavSign initiated a similar project known as “Tech Girls” which is currently being implemented in some selected basic schools in the Northern and Volta Regions.}

_{More teachers from the beneficiary schools have been trained in ICT, and SavSign has established fully equipped computer laboratories in these schools to aid teaching and learning of ICT.}

_{SavSign is a non-governmental organization in Ghana that has developed keen interest in the empowerment of youth and women through education. This is done mainly through and with the use of ICTs.}

Online Editors Call For Ethics To Streamline Online News Management

The International Institute of ICT Journalism, Penplusbytes, as part of its mission to improve the quality of journalism using new digital technologies, has facilitated the formation of Online Editors Ghana.

Online Editors Ghana is a network of online news leaders in Ghana committed to promoting quality journalism and maintaining high ethical standards that govern online news ecosystem.

The network’s formation is the outcome of a unanimous agreement of 20 online news editors who were present at a one-day “Strategic Briefing for Newsroom Online Editors,” organised by Penplusbytes in Accra with the key objective of creating a unified platform to connect, inspire and share ideas to define the future of online Journalism in Ghana.

The online editors were drawn from Daily Graphic, Spy Ghana, Citi FM, Ghana News Agency, Daily Guide, TV3, Starr FM, Radio XYZ, Metro TV, Inform Ghana, Ghanaian Chronicle, Modern Ghana, Spy News Agency and, Business and Financial Times.

Founding Members of Online Editors Ghana

The group, which has set out to become Ghana’s ultimate affiliate body for online Editors, has elected Isaac Yeboah of Graphic Communication as its interim Chairman with Charity Tetteh-Roberts of Radio XYZ as Vice-Chair and will formally be inaugurated in April, 2015.

In a short speech, Mr. Yeboah decried the habit of disregarding sound ethical considerations by some online news portals all in the name of the “We broke it first” syndrome, characterized by a rush to break news online first while throwing caution to the wind and disregarding professional ethics.

 “Competition has a way of bringing the best out of online news but it would require hard work and responsibility on the part of its players,” he added.

Online editors Ghana has therefore set in motion a campaign to curb the abuse of ethics. It also indicated its readiness to partner with the Ghana Journalist Association to streamline the conduct of online Editors and also with Journalism Schools to put online journalism ethics at the centre of their curriculum.

Isaac Yeboah, Chairman, Online Editors, Gh.

Mr. Charles Ayiku, a Web Communications expert and a facilitator at the briefing, warned Editors to prioritize credibility in online content delivery without which their audience cannot trust news from their respective online news outlets and desist from slanderous practices that will attract libel or the risk of being sued.

Another facilitator at the briefing Mr. Asamoah Boahene, a New Media Expert, took the editors through exciting key trends and developments in the global online news environment in order for them to maintain a competitive edge.

Penplusbytes is a leading organization in Africa, established in 2001 and working in three areas: the use of technology to drive governance and accountability, new media and innovations as well as oil, gas and mining.

SOURCE: PENPLUSBYTES

MLGRD Promise MMDAs Affordable Housing Project If They Provide Land

Julius Debrah

GHANA’s Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) has challenged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) that have challenges in providing accommodation for their staff to make available land and it would provide resources for an affordable housing project to be rolled out for them.

According to sector Minister Julius Debrah, his ministry had got enough resources and ready to provide decent and affordable accommodation for all staff of MMDAs and other civil servants across the country but that could only become a reality if the Assemblies on their own made available land.

Mr. Debrah who threw the challenge to all Chief Executives of MMDAs in the Northern Region during a one week tour of Assemblies and courtesy calls on some traditional rulers, said the particular housing project was very affordable in the right sense of the word and payment was also such that, a person could be given up to five or seven years to pay and own a house.

At the moment, the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly is the only Assembly building some 200 two-bedroom houses and each is expected to cost GH¢20,000.00 when completed. The technology being used is called hydrofoam and it enables a builder to produce many houses within the shortest possible time with materials which are also less expensive as compared to modern houses build with cement and blocks.

Ghana is currently faced with an acute housing problem and according to the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, there is a deficit of about 1.7 million housing units. Spreading it over a 10-year period will mean that, a minimum of 170,000 housing units would have to be built annually.

The situation has compelled many citizens who are unable to afford decent accommodation particularly in the cities and towns to sleep in structures that are inconducive. In some instances, some end up sleeping on the streets and frontages of abandoned structures and uncompleted houses belong to government and other individuals.

As a demonstration of commitment, the MLGRD signed a memorandum of mnderstanding with a local contractor, PUMPTECH to replicate the Tamale housing project across the country. Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Nii Lantey Vanderpuye who signed on behalf of government, said a total of 21,000 housing units were expected to be built.

Mr. Debrah was impressed with the initiative by the Tamale Metropolis when he visited the site for construction work and consulted with President John Mahama for the project to be replicated in all MMADs in Ghana.

The Programmes Director of PUMPTECH, Osman Sahanunu thanked government for recognizing their occupation and forming partnership with them to expand their building project to all MMDAs.

He estimated that a total of 130,000 people would be employed within a year as a result of this partnership which definitely required more hands to execute the project within the time frames that would be given.

Elect Competent Assembly Members -Julius Debrah

Julius Debrah

The Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Julius Debrah in his quest to get more competent, knowledgeable and hardworking people into the various district assemblies, is currently leading a weeklong crusade in the 26 districts of the Northern Region to encourage eligible voters to fully partake in the upcoming 2015 District Level Election.

The Minister is particularly worried about the calibre of people being elected as assembly members into the various district assemblies across Ghana in recent years, whom in his observation seemed to lack the nerve to demand for accountability from their District Chief Executives or contribute meaningfully to the development of their communities. 

It is an open secret that several of the assembly members in the Northern Regions and for that matter Ghana are either not educated at all or are not well educated as compared to previous years when almost all assembly members were Technocrats with commitment and in-depth knowledge about local governance as well as social and economic issues. 

Majority of them have become partisan and self-seeking assembly members who are only interested in satisfying themselves and their families to the neglect of their communities. This growing attitude has therefore discouraged most Ghanaian voters from participating in the district level election leading to very low voter turnout at the various polling stations in the last few years.

However, the Local Government Minister, Mr Julius Debrah who is in the Northern Region to officially launch the National Sanitation Day initiated by the ruling government, is calling for a complete reverse of the situation. He emphasized the need for the voters to come out in their numbers March 3^rd 2015 to choose “people of substance” who could diligently and selflessly serve their interest.

“The world is changing. Even though we have some good assembly members, I think that if the general public takes interest in the elections we will be able to scrutinize and elect competent people to represent them in the assemblies. It is not only about educational qualification but it is about getting people of substance. People who really understand that this is a voluntary work, people who really understand that they are serving the people and not the type who want to lord themselves over the people”. 

Mr Debrah indicated that his Ministry had taken the lead or the interest to drum home the need to increase the voter turnout and also elect more competent people in the upcoming district level election, because the Local Government and Rural Development Ministry was the direct beneficiary of the election, even though it is organized by the Electoral Commission.

According to him, the government was putting in place measures to resource, remunerate and motivate assembly members and also draw a well cut out plan with the Finance Ministry for their end of service benefit.

Mr Debrah therefore appealed to the traditional authorities, the district assemblies, the media and the National Commission for Civic Education to join the Electoral Commission and other partners to effectively encourage the public to understand the importance of the upcoming district level election.

Mr Julius Debrah together with his two deputy ministers, chief director and other key staff has been allocated an office by the Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Lemuna for his one week stay in the region. 

He is paying courtesy calls on the prominent chiefs, imams and clergies and as well inspecting government projects and interacting with heads of departments and agencies.