ghana high commissioner
Story: Stephen Sah, Cambridge
Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom has said the passage of the Representation of the People’s Amendment Law, (ROPAL) was a constitutional requirement to give back to Ghanaians what was taken away from them and not a mischievous attempt by the government to create confusion in the country.
“It was the government’s responsibility to do that but is left with the Electoral Commission (EC) to decide whether it can implement it at any in the next general elections or not”, the High Commissioner told the Cambridge University Ghanaian Society on Saturday.
Mr Osei was speaking as the guest when he met with the Ghanaian students on Saturday as part of Ghana’s 49th Independence Anniversary celebrations to share ideas with them on developments back home and government programmes and policies at aimed moving the country forward.
Under the theme “Ghana in the 21st Century - The way forward, the occasion provided a platform for the students to ask questions on certain policies of the government such as the ROPAL, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HPIC), why the government should guarantee loan for Members of Parliament alone and not any other category of public workers among others.
According to Mr Osei the ROPAB was an amendment of a PNDC Law to give to Ghanaian what was taken away from them and it was not the intention of the government to use it to rig any elections as being claimed by a section of Ghanaians since its implementation is the responsibility of the independent EC.
Giving an overview of the events which preceded Ghana’s independence, he said, the Bond of 1844 which was signed on March 6 to enable Britain to assume legal control over the Gold Coast was significant since independence was achieved 113 years after that event.
Mr Osei paid glowing tribute to all those who championed the nationalist movement, especially the Big Six, war veterans and the people saying that although some of the leaders did not agree on issues leading to division within the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) they together fought a good cause for the attainment of independence for the country.
Explaining why the country adopted the HIPC initiative, he said, it was the only option to benefit from debt relief and put the country on the pedestal of development since all the monetary relief used for development projects would have gone into debt servicing.
The High Commissioner explained that since most corruption took place in public procurement the government was tackling it by enacting the Public Procurement Act and the Financial Administration Act to ensure transparency in controlling the canker saying that that it was the implementation of those laws that corruption could be controlled.
He the millennium development goals coupled with good leadership was what would propel the country into a middle income status since the country needed a leadership which would not only be accountable to the people during elections but before the laws of the land.
Story: Stephen Sah, Cambridge
Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom has said the passage of the Representation of the People’s Amendment Law, (ROPAL) was a constitutional requirement to give back to Ghanaians what was taken away from them and not a mischievous attempt by the government to create confusion in the country.
“It was the government’s responsibility to do that but is left with the Electoral Commission (EC) to decide whether it can implement it at any in the next general elections or not”, the High Commissioner told the Cambridge University Ghanaian Society on Saturday.
Mr Osei was speaking as the guest when he met with the Ghanaian students on Saturday as part of Ghana’s 49th Independence Anniversary celebrations to share ideas with them on developments back home and government programmes and policies at aimed moving the country forward.
Under the theme “Ghana in the 21st Century - The way forward, the occasion provided a platform for the students to ask questions on certain policies of the government such as the ROPAL, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HPIC), why the government should guarantee loan for Members of Parliament alone and not any other category of public workers among others.
According to Mr Osei the ROPAB was an amendment of a PNDC Law to give to Ghanaian what was taken away from them and it was not the intention of the government to use it to rig any elections as being claimed by a section of Ghanaians since its implementation is the responsibility of the independent EC.
Giving an overview of the events which preceded Ghana’s independence, he said, the Bond of 1844 which was signed on March 6 to enable Britain to assume legal control over the Gold Coast was significant since independence was achieved 113 years after that event.
Mr Osei paid glowing tribute to all those who championed the nationalist movement, especially the Big Six, war veterans and the people saying that although some of the leaders did not agree on issues leading to division within the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) they together fought a good cause for the attainment of independence for the country.
Explaining why the country adopted the HIPC initiative, he said, it was the only option to benefit from debt relief and put the country on the pedestal of development since all the monetary relief used for development projects would have gone into debt servicing.
The High Commissioner explained that since most corruption took place in public procurement the government was tackling it by enacting the Public Procurement Act and the Financial Administration Act to ensure transparency in controlling the canker saying that that it was the implementation of those laws that corruption could be controlled.
He the millennium development goals coupled with good leadership was what would propel the country into a middle income status since the country needed a leadership which would not only be accountable to the people during elections but before the laws of the land.
1 comment:
Wow steve. Great Man. Wish you best of luck with your journey through the cyber space. You have taken the first step and Inshallah the next step will be gigantic.
Post a Comment