The flagbearer of the Independent People’s Party, Kofi Akpaloo has declared support for New Patriotic Party’s presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the December polls.
Mr. Akpaloo was among some presidential hopefuls who were disqualified by the electoral commission due to some errors on their nomination forms.
Speaking to the media in Accra Thursday, Mr. Akpaloo said Akufo-Addo has realistic policies as compared to the other candidates hence his decision to declare support for him.
“As a party, we believe that when it comes to job creation, we have fantastic ideas and also putting monies into people’s pocket, we believe we have an idea.
“So we decided to speak to the parties and one of the parties that we spoke to gave us the opportunity to help them implementing these ideas with them…that doesn’t mean that we are going to be part of that party, we are only helping the party win power in 2016…and that party that we have agreed to work with…is the New Patriotic Party.
Mr. Akpaloo is the second person to declare his support for Akufo-Addo after UPP’s Akwasi Addai Odike.
The NPP flagbearer is currently in the Eastern region campaigning ahead of the December 7 polls.
The Black Princess of Ghana on Thursday drew 2-2 with their France counterparts in their second Group C game at the ongoing U-20 Women’s World Cup in Papua New Guinea.
Coach Didi Dramani side came from a goal down to draw after France’s Delphine Cascarino opened scoring in the 30th minute to put her team in the lead.
Ghana’s Sandra Owusu however got the equalizer at the 45th minute before the end of the first half.
At the blast of the whistle for the second half, Jane Ayieyam gave Ghana her second goal in 65th minute.
With the game cruising to the end, the Black Princess were awarded a spot kick on the 82nd minute but was wasted by Samira Abdul Rahman.
Referee added five minutes of extra time which saw France’s substitute Clara Mateo pulled an excellent header to level the score.
Ghana is now placed third in the Group with just a point and will face the USA on Monday in the final group game.
The tournament which started on Nov. 13 is expected to end on Dec. 3.
Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, has said the Sinking Fund created last year is playing a critical role in deepening liquidity and bringing down interest rates on government’s bonds.
In a very buoyant mood, Mr. Terkper noted that the government’s ability to raise a 10-year bond at 19percent domestically shows that the market is reacting to the government’s active presence in the secondary bond market backed by the Sinking Fund and its new buyback policy.
“Something must be happening now for us to be doing 19percent and not 24 or 25percent, which was barely three or four months ago,” in reference to the Treasury Bills, two, three and five year bonds raised recently at higher rates.
“What is happening then is, we established a Sinking Fund and we have been in the market with US$133million which we used to buy part of the US$750million which we refinanced twice,” he said.
He explained that using funds from the Sinking Fund to buy back part of the US$750million Eurobond means that bond is now at US$617million and if he continues to use the Sinking Fund and buy back, the markets will pick the signal that Ghana is no longer the country waiting for bonds to mature.
“This is where the Sinking Fund becomes very important in the discussions we are holding. If the markets know that now I have the Sinking Funds of US$100million, average a year, and I borrow for 10 years; I have it at my disposal to do what I wish in the secondary market.
They can calculate that in 10 years I have a billion dollars and if I borrowed US$2billion or whatever, unlike in the past when I did not have the mechanism for buying back, now I can buy back,” he told journalists at a press conference in Accra.
Going forward, the government, through the Ministry of Finance, will be very active in the secondary market, especially when rates drop on bonds, than it used to be, he said.
“Assuming one of my 10-year instruments, which has nine years to go, is selling at a premium but at lower yield and I buy back and cancel, I have paid off part of that debt and saving interest. So, I am saving interest for the next nine years,” he said.
Mr. Terkper noted that with the 15-year Eurobond which was sold at 10.75percent now trading at 8.9125percent, government can go and buy back that bond, at a premium though, but then the bond will be cancelled and the country would make savings on the 10.75percent for the next 14 years.
Use of the 10-year bond
Government, the Finance Minister said, now has two major options in how to utilise the over-subscribed 10-year domestic bond: either use it to finance capital expenditure in the budget or use it to substitute short term bills and bonds with longer term debt.
“I can use the bond to finance a capital budget because I am no longer going to buy Treasury Bills to finance the capital budget or pay for roads. I prefer a 10-year bond so I can buy time to pay for it instead of 90-days where there is always pressure to pay. So I will be selective in what I will be using that money for, if I am using it to support the budget,” he said.
“Now I am changing the policy and taking the proceeds of the 10-year bond of GH¢400million and go to the short end of the market and do not roll over my T Bills which I would have re-financed at 25percent and substitute at 19percent and not at the perpetual 24percent which I would have been paying,” he said.
Mr. Terkper added that this will begin to ease the pressure on the domestic market “because I am no longer coming to the market to buy, because I have redeemed and I am going to be now paying 19percent.”
With the buyback policy backed by a growing Sinking Fund, government is confident it can go into the market, primary and secondary market, and buy bonds, substitute them and extend the tenor to buy time, and then use the long-term fund to finance the budget at 19percent.
with more room and targeting capital expenditure or use it to target Treasury Bill which is trading at 24percent.
“I represent the taxpayer, and high interest means high cost and so my responsibility is to see how cost of debt services will go down. The instrument of Sinking Fund has come in handy for us,” he said.
Reducing rates
He hoped that the Bank of Ghana, which will on Monday, 21st November, 2016, announce a new policy rate, will pick the signal that inflation or no inflation, interest rates can start trending downwards.
With oil prices inching up or additional revenues from the TEN project coming in, as well as the coming onstream of Sankofa next year, Mr Terpker is confident government can achieve a lot more going forward.
Chief of Staff Julius Debrah has advised the youth to be wise and desist from fighting for politicians as Ghana readies for elections next month.
He said it is important for Ghanaians to realise that politics is not about who can fight or insult but instead, about development and the welfare of the citizenry.
Speaking to students of the Komfo Anokye nursing training college in Kumasi in the Ashanti region, Mr. Debrah urged the students, most of whom were hurling opposition slogans at him, to be tolerant and think first about their future before politics.
“Politics is not about insults, neither is it about who can fight. As I stand before you as the Chief of Staff to the President, I don’t go to his house and tell him that I want to have breakfast with him because I’m his chief of staff; it is same with politics. If you go and follow any politician who directs you to go and misbehave, who directs you to go and fight someone, and you get hurt, the best thing they will do is to come and visit you on your sick bed.
“I’m using this occasion to advise and encourage all of you; we are in the 21st century, life has moved on, when time changes please be advised and change,” Mr Debrah noted.
The Chief of Staff is currently in the Ashanti region campaigning for President John Mahama.
Ghana goes to the polls on December 7, to elect a president and parliamentarians for the next four years.
Ghana’s newly promoted Premier League side Elmina Sharks owned by PPP’s presidential candidate, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, have stripped off the captain’s armband from Isaac Mensah for allegedly campaigning for the New Patriotic Party.
Mensah was told by management of the club he will no longer be the leader of the club just days after pictures of him wearing an NPP shirt while sipping on Kalyppo went viral on social media.
The club is yet to mandate a new captain after dethroning Mensah, who led the side to the domestic top-flight.
“The coach told me I will no longer be the captain of the side. I don’t know whether it is because of a picture I shared on my Facebook page?
“It wasn’t even like I was campaigning for [the] NPP. I was just with friends after an area kick-about game when they asked me to accompany them to an event. I was then handed the shirt to wear, so for me it was just friends having fun.
“But upon returning to the club after the event, they told me I will no longer be the captain,” Mensah told Takoradi-based Spice FM.
Elmina Sharks are yet to confirm officially whether the alleged political act of Mensah is the main reason why he is being stripped off his captaincy.
President John Dramani Mahama has urged Ghanaians to find jobs and work hard for their income stating that there is no magic in putting money into people’s pockets.
Speaking during a televised 2016 Presidential Encounter hosted by Ghana Television Wednesday night, the President urged the youth to take advantage of government’s initiatives to make-ends-meet.
He added that government has invested a lot into skills development in other to improve the living conditions of Ghanaians seeking employment.
“The fact of life is that you can only have money in your pocket if you work and earn it and so there is no magic to put money into people’s pockets.
“That is why government is investing as much as it is investing to try and provide our people with the skills that they need to enter the world of work.
“If you sit at home and you don’t take advantage of the opportunities, money is not going to magically appear in your in your pocket…so what government is doing is investing to create the situation so that as many of our people can take the opportunities as possible and we are this in all sectors.” President Mahama said.
The president added that government was reviving dead companies to give jobs to the youth and that changing foreign exchange to buy goods from abroad was not in favour of the country.
President John Mahama has said he does not intend to interfere in the raging board-staff wrangling at the state broadcaster GBC.
He said the structure of the constitution does not permit him to determine what happens at the corporation even though government pays the workers there.
The President made the remarks while responding to a question on what his government is doing to restore harmony at the GBC, when he took his turn at the GBC’s presidential encounters.
“We all agreed to work with a constitution and that constitution gives powers over GBC to the NMC and I cannot dissolve the NMC board because I don’t have such powers. So I can appeal and talk things over with them but I cannot force decisions on them.
“So I will urge workers here to continue to dialogue with the board, or I can even talk to them on your behalf but I cannot force my will on them,” Mr. Mahama stated.
Commenting on the passage of the right to Information bill, the President said he expects parliament to pass it as soon as possible, even though he cannot force it on them.
“We have separation of powers, parliament is autonomous, I can’t force them to pass it; but I have been advocating for it that they should pass the Bill. It’s been too long, in the state of the nation addresses, I’ve referred to that Bill, and I’ve indicated that I don’t know why it has taken too long in Parliament.”
The presidential candidate of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Dr. Edward Nasigre Mahama, has issued a strong indication that civil disquiet will not cease in Ghana until the citizens cease to be a barrier themselves to a move he says God began in 1996.
Dr. Mahama, who is in his fifth run at 71 for the presidency, said three political leaders- Jerry John Rawlings, John Agyekum Kufuor and himself- emerged two decades ago as a complete set of messiahs sent to crack the country’s socio-economic problems in turns.
He said even though Ghanaians allowed both Rawlings and Kufuor their turns to lead the country, the unending denial of his turn to also manage the affairs of the country had been responsible especially for the anxieties and violence often experienced every election year in Ghana. The presidential nominee likened Ghana to a shaky pot sitting on a two-legged tripod and pointed at himself as the ‘missing third leg’ assigned to ensure balance by completing what his forerunners started.
Dr. Mahama was speaking at the party’s manifesto launch held Wednesday in Bolgatanga, Upper East regional capital.
“You know why every election time there is anxiety about peace and violence? The reason is that when God made that decision in 1996, he was telling us that when you cook soup or whatever, you need to put your pot on three stones. We call it tripod. And you have two stones. You have JJ Rawlings, one stone; J.A Kufuor, one stone. That’s two stones. Edward Nasigre Mahama is the third stone. If you don’t put me there, your pot cannot sit well,” he declared.
Party supporters, outfitted in white shirts branded on the chest with portraits of the party’s flagbearer and parliamentary candidates and emblazoned on the back with the coconut tree, peppered the launch with raucous ovation and a theatre of music and dance.
“1996, we were three candidates- JJ Rawlings, J.A Kufuor, Edward Nasigre Mahama. ’96, Ghanaians said, ‘You’ve just come from America; be patient; we’ll give it to JJ’. I was patient. You gave it to him. 2000, you said, ‘Kufuor has been struggling for this position since 1969 with the Busia Administration; be patient’. I was patient. Now, it’s 20 years. It’s my turn. Of the three of us, two have gotten it. If you are thinking of parties, it’s NDC, NPP [and] PNC. NDC and NPP have gotten their share for 24 years. You’ve tried the rest. Now, try the best,” Dr. Mahama challenged.
The Big Six endorsed me from their graves
Dr. Mahama also made a sorcerous interpretation of his sixth position on the ballot paper for the 2016 polls, saying the spot only implied that Ghana’s six founding fathers- Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, Edward Akufo-Addo, Joseph Boakye Danquah, Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey and William Ofori Atta- had approved his candidature from their graves.
“As you go home, tell your husbands, wives, brothers, sisters that it is my turn and the Big Six have confirmed it by giving me the number 6 from their graves. They have endorsed my candidature. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah got us independence 6th March, 1957. That was political independence. Economically, we are still dependent. I have got the number 6, telling you that Edward Nasigre Mahama is going to bring economic independence to Ghana and Africa.
“Those of you who are religious and know a little bit about God, you know that in 6 days God created everything that he created. On the seventh day he rested. I have been put on number 6 as a sign of completion. God completed creating everything he created on the sixth day. I have the number 6. That is the end of your problems in Ghana,” he proclaimed.
The presidential candidate also unleashed some biting remarks about the country’s educational infrastructure, saying it was unthinkable that some learning institutions were still located under trees about 60 years since the country gained independence from colonial rule.
“Sixty years after independence, we still have schools under trees. In the four years that you’ll give me, I’m promising you, no school will be under tree. Even on arrival here, I got to know that the school feeding, some of the secondary schools didn’t get their subvention.
“So, effectively, instead of three months in the term, they have been in school for only about one month. How are they going to learn if they don’t eat? Basically, the mismanagement in the country is mindboggling. And I’m promising Ghanaians that the discipline that you need to lead this country, Edward Nasigre Mahama has it,” he assured and officially introduced the party’s parliamentary candidates to the crowd at the Jubilee Park.
Dr. Mahama could be the next Trump – Mornah
The party’s National Chairman, Bernard Mornah, issued a strong word to those who considered the PNC as a dark horse in the presidential race, citing as an example Donald Trump who, despite an overwhelming scale of opposition against his candidature, still won the recent presidential election in the United States of America.
“I rally all PNC members to eschew the pettiness, the wrangling, and to forge ahead to see that Dr. Edward Mahama is the next president. If you doubt that Dr. Edward Mahama will be the next president, watch the United States of America where against all the odds, including internal party fight against Donald Trump, he emerged the people’s choice. The Electoral Commission cannot frustrate the people of Ghana from making a choice and I am convinced that Edward Mahama is the next choice for Ghana,” Mr. Mornah affirmed.
He added: “We are a determined group of people whose indomitable spirit cannot be dimmed even by the greatest frustrations and might of those who are in authority. Let them be assured that, of the 24 years of misrule imposed on us by the NDC and the NPP, the PNC wants to bring about sanity in the Ghanaian political landscape and Edward Mahama will lead that.”
Manifesto highlights
The party’s 55-paged manifesto booklet has on its front cover the inscription: “New Beginning! New Deal!! New Force!!!”
It highlights the party’s plans in some key areas including housing, health delivery system, public transport, human resource development, corruption, sports and fitness, industrialisation, oil and gas, vulnerable social groups and social welfare, governance and security, education, environment and sustainable development, job creation as well as agriculture among others. Copies of the manifesto were shared at the ground among the crowd of supporters, observers and the press.
“Only the PNC has shared copies of its manifesto to people in hard copies like this,” said a supporter, Johnson Ayine, as he rubbed the texture of a copy and felt its weight with satisfaction. “The other parties only launched their own and asked people to download copies from the internet.”
Dr. Mahama got 3% (214, 373) of the votes cast in 1996 when he contested Rawlings of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who polled 4,101,674 (57.40%) votes and Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who obtained 2,829, 726 (39.60%) ballots.
In the year 2000, he attracted 189,659 (2.50%) votes. NPP’s Kufuor garnered 3,131,739 (48.40%) with John Evans Atta Mills gaining 2,895,575 (44.80%) votes, George Hagan of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) 115, 641 (1.80%), Augustus Goosie Tanoh of the National Reform Party (NRP) clinching 78,629 (1.10%), Daniel Augustus Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) 67,504 (1.00%) and Charles Wereko-Brobby, who stood for the United Ghana Movement (UGM), got 22, 123 (0.30%).
Edward Mahama secured 165, 375 (1.92%) at the 2004 polls that gave Kufuor 4,524,074 (52.45%), Mills 3,850,368 (44.64%) and CPP’s George Aggudey 85,968 (1.00%) votes. In 2008, Dr. Mahama annexed 73,618 (0.86%). Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, representing the NPP, polled 4,204,073 (49.32%), NDC’s Mills secured 4,070,889 (47.76%), CPP’s Papa Kwesi Nduom 112,673 (1.32%), Emmanuel Ansah-Antwi of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) 28,471 (0.33%), Kwesi Amoafo-Yeboah (an independent candidate) 19,178 (0.22%), Thomas Nuako Ward-Brew of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) 8,367 (0.10%) and Kwabena Adjei, representing the Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD), captured 6,443 (0.08%) votes. Dr. Mahama lost what would have been his 5th bid for the PNC presidential candidature to Hassan Ayariga in 2011.
Bob Dylan will not travel to Sweden to receive his Nobel Prize for Literature in person, it has been announced.
The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel prizes, said it had received “a personal letter” saying he was unable to attend next month’s Nobel ceremony “due to pre-existing commitments”.
Dylan, the organisation said, felt “very honoured” and wished he could receive the prize personally.
The singer is required to give a Nobel lecture between now and next June.
‘New poetic expressions’
The 75-year-old will not be the first recipient of the prestigious award to have been a no-show at the prize-giving ceremony.
Harold Pinter and Doris Lessing, winners of the prize in 2005 and 2007 respectively, were among others who did not attend the event.
“The prize still belongs to them, just as it belongs to Bob Dylan,” the Academy said in a statement.
“We look forward to Bob Dylan’s Nobel lecture, which he must give – it is the only requirement – within six months counting from December 10, 2016.”
Dylan’s win was a major talking point when it was announced last month, as was his apparent silence on the matter.
Some interpreted this as a sign he was ambivalent about the award, though the Academy later said he appreciated it “so much“.
The veteran rock star was awarded the prize “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
The Nobel Prize award ceremony and banquet will be held in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
