Mubarak faults Mills

…For imposing Avoka, Pelpuo on Parliament
Posted: The Chronicle |Monday, February 1, 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

A leading activist of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mohammed Abdulai Mubarak, popularly referred to as Ras Mubarak has done what most Parliamentarians, especially those on the Majority side of the House have not been bold enough to do.

He has criticised President Atta Mills for attempting to impose Mr. Cletus Avoka and Rashid Pelpuo, out-going Interior and Sports ministers respectively, on the leadership of the Majority NDC in Parliament.

In an exclusive interview with The Chronicle over the weekend, Mubarak, who contested but lost the position of National Youth Organiser of the NDC, said “the move to impose leaders for the Majority in Parliament was a massive blunder”, stressing that “the authority of Parliament is supreme and Ghanaians must not countenance any maneuver to undermine the democratic structures of state.”

He said Leaders of the House should be voted for by Members of Parliament (MPs) themselves, and not be chosen or appointed at the behest of any individual, including the President, since the process has to meet every democratic principle.

“Those who are interested in becoming Leader of the Majority or Minority must put themselves up for election and the responsibility for who becomes leader of the House must rest with only members of the House” he noted with emphasis.

For this reason, Ras Mubarak noted that “the panoply of lawyers at the Presidency would have to do better”, since according to him, “the Executive must impose on itself a measure of restraint when dealing with the other arms of government.”

On the issue of management of the economy, he described the actions of the President in the first year of his four-year mandate as cautious rather than bold. He, however, noted that the year 2010 is key year for the President since in his own words -”time is very short.”

The NDC activist noted that “He (the President) has to do something new and wean himself off the accusation that he is being slow”, and added that “he has to win back support within the party if he wants to go unopposed as the Presidential candidate of the party in the 2012 election.”

Furthermore, he noted that President Mills ought to rebuild the coalition that took him to the Castle and regain the support he got from young voters, saying “the presence of leading figures like the NDC founder, JJ Rawlings, Dr. Ekwow Spio and Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings by the side of President Mills would give the President's second term bid a boost.” This, he said, is because the President needs the support of well-known faces in the party.

Mr. Mubarak believes the NDC is blessed with consummate politicians, and said President Mills must bring them on board, saying with emphasis that “the creeping attitude of 'we and them' mentality by some of his appointees would not get the party anywhere.”

Last year, many Ghanaians lost their passion because of the government's soft-touch approach to fixing a broken nation. There was complete erosion of responsibility under President Kufour where Ghanaians suffered a lot and now have an appetite for something fulfilling. For him, the government cannot dash the hope and aspirations of Ghanaians.

In spite of all the unpredictable problems President Mills inherited, Mubarak noted that has finished a difficult year on a good note. However, the case may be that “he needs to do more” since “social democracy is about helping improve people's lives. The problems we face are big and urgent.”

For him, it is high time President Mills dealt with the flash point issues of justice, poverty, illiteracy, crime, failing schools and energy.

That notwithstanding, he noted that the Mills administration has to answer critical questions like; “what guarantee does government have for school leavers? What guarantee does government have to ameliorate the plight of vehicle users who need fuel for their vehicles? What plans does his government have to tackle illiteracy?”

Under the current circumstance, Mubarak says Ghana as a country needs to make massive investment into education, since in his opinion “the state must be able to finance our development.”

Taking into consideration the fact that the Tema Harbour was not constructed by borrowing, but out of development revenue created through the ingenuity of Ghana's first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and his colleagues, he noted that “with the uncertainties in the global economy, we must be careful about our dependence on borrowing.”

He therefore stressed the need for President Mills to focus less on borrowing and more on technical assistance from donors, since “the people of Ghana, especially members of the ruling National Democratic Congress have justifiable anxieties.”

Cognisant of the fact that the task of building a broken nation is tough and requires a lot of sacrifices from all, the NDC party activist noted that since the President has laid a foundation for rapid development, there is need for every Ghanaian to support him in delivering the 'goods'.

AFAG rubbishes gov`t claims

…Over EO Group`s dealings with Kosmos
Posted: The Chronicle |Wednesday, January 27, 2010

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

A pressure group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) yesterday catalogued a wide range of issues and events that took place during period of the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) to buttress their claim that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) have a penchant of stifling and crippling indigenous businesses.
This was when the group addressed a press conference in Accra to ridicule what they see as political persecution of the EO group by government.

Spokesman for the group, Anthony Karbo recalled how Mr. Jerry Rawlings-led PNDC , which eventually gave birth to the NDC, set its regime on the premise of attacking indigenous businessmen, which saw the seizure of J.K Siaw’s TATA Brewery Company, the vandalisation and freezing of Dr. Kwame Safo-Adu’s pharmaceutical company and his assets, B.A Mensah’s International Tobacco Ghana (ITG) and Appiah Menka’s Apino soap, among a host of others, labeling them as thieves and imperialist collaborators.

The group expressed shock at the manner in which government is handling the whole KOSMOS/EO energy deal, describing it as politically motivated, since according to AFAG -“the raiding of the office and residence of George Owusu by the Police; the intimation by the Attorney General to KOSMOS USA to terminate the appointment of George Owusu, the freezing of his bank accounts and Assets since November 2009 are ominous signs.”

What seems to bother AFAG is what they describe as the deliberate silence of leading members of the current NDC government; notably Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, Alhaji Amadu Sorogho, Hon. Moses Asaga and Dr. Kwame Ampofo, who were part of the parliamentary select committee that worked on the agreement, stressing that this is worrying, since it gives room for several interpretations.

However, Moses Asaga has told The Chronicle that he and his other colleagues do not see anything wrong with government’s position since they have not abrogated the contract with Kosmos. According to him, they can only raise an issue with the government if the contract with Kosmos is being terminated and it is brought to parliament.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General has allegedly preffered 25 charges against the EO group, amongst which are; failure to call an annual general meeting in the year 2003, failure to circulate profit/loss account, balance sheet and reports of the company, establishing a business contrary to the Investment Promotion Act.

The rest of the charges include forging the signature of the Partner, causing a Financial Loss of $1.325bn to GNPC, money laundering in violation of the Exchange Control Act, travelling with $10,000.00 through the Kotoka International Airport without declaring to Airport Officials.

For AFAG, these are politically motivated charges calculated to dent the image of Mr. George Owusu and Dr. Bawuah Edusei in the corporate world and devalue Kosmos shares.

But for the perseverance and dedication of the EO group, after being rejected by 12 oil companies in USA, AFAG believes “Ghana wouldn’t have found the Jubilee oil fields” since according to them “as of 2002, all major oil companies regarded oil exploration in Ghana as high risk and a grave yard’.

This, they said led to the departure of companies like Hunt Oil in 1999, Fusion Oil and gas from Australia in 1999, Santa Fe in 2000, NUEVO in 2002 and Dana 2005.

However, they noted that all the wells drilled by these companies unfortunately yielded no viable commercial discoveries. The E.O Group was then said to have facilitated a visit to Ghana by Vanco Energy which resulted in Vanco taking an oil exploration block in Ghana.

The EO group without success with Vanco, solicited interest from many companies including Texaco, Oxy, Shell, Hess, the Chinese oil company who were all reluctant to come to Ghana due to the risk.

“The Irony of it is that, China Oil Company which refused an offer by EO to explore Oil in Ghana in 2003 are now in a position to buy the $4billion shares of Kosmos in order to produce. What a case of ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop’”, it said.

In December 2003, AFAG noted that the EO group came into contact with the Technical personnel of Kosmos Energy whose primary focus was to explore for high risk petroleum prospects in Africa.

This group previously of Triton Energy had found oil in Equatorial Guinea in 1999.

It was thus said to have entered into private negotiations with Kosmos on the sidelines and E.O was entitled to 3.5% working interest and not the Ghana government as have been portrayed, stressing that the EO share of 3.5% is not deductible from the government of Ghana’s share but from Kosmos.

This, according to AFAG cannot be said to be causing financial loss to the state, emphasizing that “this deal of 90% to the exploring private firm and 10% to the state was introduced by Tsatsu Tsikata, then GNPC Boss, as an enticement, sufficient enough to bring foreign experts to explore at their own cost.”

This is the case of the agreement between Ghana (10%) and Dana (90%), Ghana (10%) and Hunt Oil (90%) and also that of Ghana (10%) and Nuevo (90%), all signed by Tsatsu Tsikata in 1998, 1997 and 1999 respectively.

According to AFAG, this provision has been there, before the EO group joined in the search and was in accordance with the Ghana Petroleum Law, approved by the GNPC Board, the Ministry of Energy and Cabinet and unanimously ratified by Parliament in July 2004.

“Indeed Dr. Paa Kwasi Ndoum was the then Energy Minister who signed the agreement prior to the necessary paper works” they said. For this reason, AFAG noted “if the A-G’s outfit has any questions arising out of a deal that has been ratified by Parliament, the most appropriate forum to seek redress is the Supreme Court”, stating that “it cannot be a crime for a Ghanaian to properly secure and own shares in a multi national company.”

It asked -“if owning shares in companies were to be a crime, then why are we not witnessing a parade of such cases, but only witnessing the political persecution of just George Owusu and the EO Group?”

AFAG claimed it is aware of the fact that ANADARKO (the main Oil rig operator in the Jubilee field) Petroleum’s preliminary investigations in accordance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for any possible fraudulent dealings had the EO group exonerated, therefore asking the basis of the supposed persecution of the company and its management.

“We foresee the long political arm of the A-G in this issue but government must learn from the words of William Cunningham; A man will not risk what he has in trade, except for the prospect of very large gains, if he is likely to be robbed by pirates, or to be oppressed by the Government if he is successful in business”.

Furthermore, AFAG said “government should neither rob nor dissipate the wealth of its indigenes, and as stated by Thomas Hobbes -the riches, power and honour of a country arise only from the riches, strength and reputation of its countrymen. For no Country can be rich, nor glorious, nor secure, whose citizens are either poor, contemptible, or too weak through want, or dissention”.

JJ`s `Team A` takes over gov`t

... As Mills gives in
Posted: The Chronicle |Tuesday, January 26, 2010

By Charles Takyi - Boadu


President John Evans Atta Mills has made his much anticipated cabinet reshuffle, bringing on the Majority Leader in Parliament, Algban Bagbin, and Mr. Enoch Teye Mensah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ningo-Prampram, who are perceived as ‘Rawlings boys’ into his government.
The two replace Albert Abongo and Amannor Kwao, as ministers of Water Resources, Works and Housing and Employment and Social Welfare respectively.

As anticipated, Mr. Cletus Avoka, Minister of the Interior, whose appointment generated a furore among some ethnic groups in the Upper East Region, has been dropped.

A statement signed by the Presidential Spokesperson, Mahama Ayariga, who has been nominated for the position of deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, yesterday said the Minister of Tourism, Juliana Azumah Mensah, moves to the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, while Akua Sena Dansua has been given an arduous task, as the new Minister for Youth and Sports, one of the most controversial and difficult ministries to deal with.

Former deputy Minister of Justice and Attorney General in the past Rawlings government, Mr. Martin Amidu, has also been nominated for the position of Minister of the Interior, replacing Cletus Avoka, while John Tia goes to replace Mrs. Zita Okaikoi, whose reshuffle has long been expected at the Ministry of Information.

Zita, on the other hand, goes to replace Mrs. Azumah Mensah at the Tourism Ministry, as Moses Magbenba takes over from Stephen S. Nanyina as Northern Regional Minister designate.

The deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, John Gyetuah, also moves to the Office of the President as Minister of State designate, whilst Inusah Abdulai Fuseini replaces Kwabena Donkor as deputy Minister for Energy designate.

Mr. Nasamu Asabigi, a new face, has also been made the deputy Minister designate for the Northern Region.

The statement further said Cletus Avoka and Rashid Pelpuo are to be reassigned, while Alhaji Iddi Saani is to be replaced as the deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing.

Meanwhile, communications expert, Sulemana Braimah, has criticised the appointment of John Tia to the Information Ministry, since according to him, the nature of the ministry was such that it needs someone who will give it full concentration.

Though John Tia holds a Diploma in Journalism from the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), he wonders how he will combine his duties with his role as a Member of Parliament.