Tension Mounts At Tamale Poly

Posted: Daily Guide |Monday, 15 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
GOVERNMENT MAY have to intervene before deep-seated and growing tensions on the campus of Tamale Polytechnic escalate into angry demonstrations.

Credible information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that both teaching and non-teaching staff of the school are gearing up for what looks like an angry demonstration over the continuous stay in office of the Rector, Dr Yakubu Seidu Peligah, since his tenure of office elapsed on February 28, 2010.

The angry staff have thus written a petition to President John Evans Atta Mills, copies of which have been sent to the Minister of Education, Alex Tettey-Enyo, the school’s Governing Council and other concerned institutions, to take steps to remove Dr Peligah or they would be compelled by circumstance to cause his forceful removal.

“Your Excellency, your early intervention in this matter is very necessary to avert the loaming mayhem in the Polytechnic,” they noted in the petition.

If the situation is not remedied before the commencement of the second semester, staff of the Polytechnic have vowed to use “all available means” to seek redress.

Whilst appreciating the fact that the Governing Council can, in consultation with stakeholders, appoint and disappoint officers of the Polytechnic, the staff noted that the unilateral exercise of power by the Council Chairman, Dr Mohammed Seidu Mustapha, to extend Dr Peligah’s term of office was unacceptable.

However, Dr Peligah has declined to comment on the petition and the series of allegations leveled against him by his own staff.

When DAILY GUIDE reached him for his comments, he noted, “Whatever anybody has done, it is left to the President”, and declined to make any further comments on the matter.

Chairman of the Polytechnic Council, Dr Seidu Mustapha, has also refused to speak to the issue.

When he was reached, Dr Mustapha said he was at a programme and therefore asked DAILY GUIDE to call him later but has since refused to answer his mobile phone.

In the petition, the staff catalogued a wide range of issues and reasons why they believe the rector must go without a renewal of his four-year mandate.

They alleged, among other things, that Dr Peligah’s tenure of office was characterized by embezzlement, wrongful terminations of appointments, student and labour unrests, and several acts of alleged financial malpractices, which they said have been proven by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

The staff therefore stressed the belief that an extension of Dr. Peligah’s tenure by the new chairman of the Governing Council, Dr Mustapha, will fuel the existing tension and job security of some staff of the Polytechnic who have been critical of his administration.

“The action of the Council chair has the greatest tendency of throwing the already ailing Polytechnic into chaos,” they noted, emphasizing that “from all indications, the leadership of the governing council and some individuals in the Ministry of Education wish to use the supposed unavailability of the Alemna Report to renew Peligah’s appointment for two years or more.”

Suspicions are that some members of the Polytechnic’s Governing Council are employing all available tricks to extend Dr. Peligah’s appointment whilst others are against it in view of the several issues it has generated in the campus.

According to the aggrieved staff, the Dr. Mustapha’s decision to extend Dr Peligah’s appointment is a heavy indictment on the reputations of his senior colleagues, Dr. Sulley Gariba and Professor Alemna, since according to them, before Dr. Gariba’s resignation, a professional and scholarly assessment of the problems of the Polytechnic was carried out without placing premium on religious and ethnic considerations, but purely based on Dr Peligah administrative record.

For this reason, they noted, “Circumventing the wheel is a recipe for mediocrity.”

They have therefore asked Dr Mustapha to, as matter of urgency, rescind his decision to extend Dr Peligah’s appointment since “the criterion for a second term of office is never dependent on how a Council chair is being pushed around by lobbyists but by satisfactory performance, as contained in Paragraph Seven of Peligah’s appointment letter.”

That notwithstanding, they noted, “His decision to impose the rector on staff and students of the polytechnic is overstretching people’s patience in the Polytechnic”, emphasizing, “His imposition also makes mockery of the scholarly work of Professor Alemna and others.”

Ibn Chambas:

We Can’t Achieve MDGs
Posted: Daily GUide | Monday, 15 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
THE IMMEDIATE past President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, is overly convinced that Africa cannot achieve the much-touted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 as expected.

The eight targets, which are expected to be achieved by 2015, include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, attainment of the universal primary education, promotion of gender equality and women empowerment, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, combating of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases to ensure environmental sustainability and development of a global partnership.

However, Dr Chambas, who has an extensive knowledge about happenings and developments in West Africa and beyond said, “The sad news is that we are not meeting those targets.”

He disclosed this was when he had the opportunity of giving a public lecture at the Mensah Sarbah Hall of the University of Ghana at the 19th edition of the Hall’s ‘Celebrity Platform’ over the weekend.

According to him, preliminary surveys have shown that the West African sub-region would not achieve the MDGs by 2015.

He therefore challenged leaders of the continent “to make sure that even if they are not achieved, we must arrive at a point where we can reduce poverty by 50 percent.”

Dr Chambas, who has now been elected as the Secretary General of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group further noted that “when we create viable, effective and efficient regional economic communities, we can bring added value, the advantage of regional integration, to add to the national effort.”

In spite of the fact that Africa is far from achieving those targets, he noted that the continent had been doing fairly well until the recent global economic crunch.

Dr Chambas revealed that for more than two decades, the growth rate in Africa was either zero or in some cases negative.

“However, somewhere around 2000, we begun to see an improvement in the performance of African economies,” he emphasized, attributing the development to the resolve of some countries to embrace the good tenets of democracy.

He noted that prudent management of resources and a number of reforms that was adopted has impacted the higher growth rates over the years.

This, according to him, was evident in the fact that “by 2005, the regional growth rate was about 5 percent, but in some countries it was a bit higher; just one or two countries were not doing well.

“In 2006, 2007 we had moved to 6.1 and 6.5 percent respectively and 2008-2009 we were working to see this growth rate move into the second percental rate, but the global financial crisis came and the result was that there was a fall in the demand for our commodities,” he stressed.

That notwithstanding, Mr. Chambas said in 2009, the growth rate in Africa was much higher than most regions of the world, which according to him, was a good and encouraging sign that Africa is coming out of the recession much faster than expected.

Meanwhile, the growth rate for 2010 is projected to be higher.

Unfortunately, Dr Chambas envisages that it would only be in the region of 4 to 4.5 percent, explaining that continent must achieve 7 to 8 percent if it is to make progress in the fight against poverty.

He therefore challenged Africans to help reach these targets.

“Until we are able to reduce the high levels of poverty in the country and the continent, it will be difficult to talk about sustainable peace and development,” he noted.

The MDGs were drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration, which was adopted by 189 nations and signed by 127 heads of state and governments during the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000.

Gbevlo Lartey Speaks

Posted: Daily Guide |Saturday, 13 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
THE NATIONAL Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. (rtd) Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, has told DAILY GUIDE in an interview at his ‘Blue Gate’ office that he is not aware of the role he is expected to play as a member of the ‘Political Committee’ of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

DAILY GUIDE was seeking clarification from Mr Gbevlo-Lartey on his controversial role since the President swore in the 23-member committee last week.

DAILY GUIDE also sought to solicit his perspective on concerns raised by former Director of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), Kofi Bentum Quantson, which suggested that socio-economic conditions in the country could lead to a possible social uprising against the ruling elite.

Mr. Gbevlo-Lartey, who was wearing a white smock with blue stripes, warmly welcomed DAILY GUIDE to his office but declined to answer the question on what role he would be playing as a member of Political Committee of the NDC.

As a security chief, he said, he did not want to be drawn into any ‘unnecessary political debate’ since according to him, he would have preferred to speak to the issue from an academic point of view and not with political coloration.

He wondered why those raising issue with his new appointment were not interested in knowing why the President, John Evans Atta Mills, his Vice, John Dramani Mahama and other Ministers were also on the same committee.

Gbevlo-Lartey, who was absent at the inauguration of the committees recently, said he did not know the specific role he was to play on the committee.

Pressed further, he asked DAILY GUIDE to speak to the party executives who may know more about his role on the committee.

The NDC chairman, Dr Kwabena Adjei, also appears not to know the role of Gbevlo-Lartey in the committee.

The National Security Co-ordinator also declined to comment on the question of whether or not his appointment as member of the political committee of the NDC would not put him in a position of conflict of interest.

It will be recalled that when DAILY GUIDE spoke earlier with NDC chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, after several efforts, his initial comment was “no comment at all”.

He however said: “Why should I give you comment about his (Gbevlo-Lartey) involvement, is he not a politician?”

Though the position of National Security Coordinator was a political appointment, it had always been the norm to detach the security agencies from political activities so that their decisions would not be influenced by their partisan affiliations.

However, Dr Kwabena Adjei, also known as ‘Wayoo, Wayo’ wanted Ghanaians to accept that Gbevlo-Lartey was a politician since according to him, “He is managing the security aspect of politics. So can’t you make sense out of it?” he asked.

Sarcastically, he quizzed DAILY GUIDE, “Don’t you know what committee members do?” and then answered his own question thus: “They contribute; they don’t do anything, they contribute to discussions.”

The NDC boss would not agree that Gbevlo-Lartey’s role as National Security Coordinator, could conflict with his ‘political committee’ appointment.

He hastily advised DAILY GUIDE: “Go and ask him; go and ask Gbevlo-Lartey that now that they have made him chairman of that committee what is his role. I have nothing else to tell you.”

On the issue of red flags raised by the former BNI boss, the National Security Coordinator, on his part, stressed the belief that what Mr Quantson said was taken out of context by the media since according to him, the briefing he got was that the man made a general observation and not specifically about Ghana.

Gbevlo-Lartey was quickly informed that the very reporter interviewing him was at the said Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) programme when Mr Quantson raised the issue, but he would not change his mind on the issue.

According to him, Mr Quantson’s opinion did not necessarily reflect the true situation on the ground.

For this reason, Gbevlo-Lartey said he saw nothing wrong with Quantson’s opinion and that the beauty of democracy was ‘like noses’ where everyone’s opinion about issues and developments differed.

The some-what ‘cagey’ chat with the coordinator lasted about 45minutes, after which hands were shaken and promises made to respond to future queries.