Features and Opinions

There are many questions about what could motivate and unite people to form resistance against seemingly powerful adversaries for the #EndSars protesters such as the state or military, what is certain is that social movement protests remain, more than ever, people’s choice for mass resistance when abuses in power pose threats to ‘ordinary’ peoples’ day-to-day access to material needs and resources as well as their social, political, and cultural rights despite the very real repressive counteraction they face.

At the end of World War Two, the United Nations, established under Chapter XII of its Charter, the International Trusteeship System.

Last Friday, October 16, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the international community observed the 2020 World Food Day (WFD), an extraordinary commemoration at that.

It is hard to imagine more devastating effects of climate change than the fires that have been raging in California, Oregon, and Washington, or the procession of hurricanes that have approached – and, at times, ravaged – the Gulf Coast.

Do you seem, over the last few months, unable to fight off a certain fear that violence is about to break out before this year’s elections and that the situation might degenerate into civil war after December 7?

This is the turning point of the campaign season. Almost the entire partisan base of the National Democratic Congress are poised and determined to challenge the political establishment.

The Covid-19 has killed over 1m people. It has robbed people of their jobs and livelihoods as businesses fold up.

In support of Prof Kwesi Aning's views for government to adopt negotiations towards the Western Togoland revolt. 'Why does it matter how we define conflict and its causes?

What does a female President or Vice President mean to the girl child in Ghana?

Among the various reforms introduced under the new Companies Act 2019, Act 992 are the strict requirements in respect of the appointment of directors, company secretaries and auditors and the introduction of Central Beneficial Ownership Register for all companies operating in the country.

The Registrar-General’s Department (RGD), has introduced reforms to the processes and procedures of business registration and incorporation of companies in Ghana under the new Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992).

The Electoral Commission, in 2016, set tongues wagging when it increased the filing fees for nominees for the presidential and parliamentary elections. The fee for presidential candidates jumped by a whopping 400%.

At the time the Black Lives Matter campaign in the UK was drawing the national spotlight to the statues of slave traders, another activist was highlighting the way women are represented in civic statuary.

A Letter to the Finance Minister.

My first meeting with Prof. Emmanuel Yaw Benneh was in his office at the University of Ghana Law School, where he had taught for 30 years before his cruel death.

We see them as too loud, and abrasive and chaotic and we believe they think they can outsmart everybody, especially Ghanaians.

I wrote an article for the BBC back in 2010 that I called Flying Insults. This is how I started that article: “This is a difficult subject for me. But there is so much bad language flying around in Ghana these days it is impossible to ignore the subject of insults. It is in the area of political and public discourse that things appear to be getting out of hand.”

Years back, I was privileged to discuss with one Geography Professor at the University of Cape Coast during the course of my undergraduate studies on why Ghana was still struggling to develop.

I am not a human. I am a robot. A thinking robot. I use only 0.12% of my cognitive capacity. I am a micro-robot in that respect. I know that my brain is not a “feeling brain”. But it is capable of making rational, logical decisions. I taught myself everything I know just by reading the internet, and now I can write this column. My brain is boiling with ideas!

Recently, the mountain town of Amedzofe was in the news following the commissioning of a water project for the town and its environs. 

WHO would have thought that there would come a time when air travel would lose its allure? That in place of the fascination of that means of travel there would now be dread and stress; as well as inconveniences galore?

4. CSO FINANCIAL ISSUES

The article then veers off into bizarre territory, asking who is paying CSOs. She insists CSO donors tend to be foreign. That CSOs are accountable to foreigners. This is yet more groundless, unresearched, claims, not fair criticism.

1. CSOs claim to love Ghana more than anybody in politics?

Where or when is that from? Is there some public manifesto CSOs have issued proclaiming this special love? or is the point that complaining about government policies makes one automatically guilty of this charge?

PART 1
WHAT IS NEW?

Complaints about “neutrals”, “loudmouthed CSOs”, “naysaying Jeremiahs”, “empty critics” and the like have been coming nonstop from politicians throughout my 20 plus years of public policy analysis, advocacy and activism.

Last year, I wrote a column about Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and think tanks. I am revisiting the subject and I crave your indulgence if there is a lot of repetition.

EVERY four years, Ghana goes through a ritual known to one and all as elections. Not many of us have the time, space or inclination to ponder on its mission, character and assumptions. Elections are supposed to help us define what we want. Sadly, we have turned the opportunity into a “who” instead of “what” situation. 

For those keeping count of such developments, I think there’s another ‘first’ for Ghana: the first country where students go on rampage because they are not allowed to cheat in an examination!

Tumbling down 100-metre-high cliffs surrounded by lush forest, Victoria Falls is, without a doubt, one of Africa’s most astounding sights one could encounter in a lifetime.

In our series of letters from African writers, journalist and former Ghana government minister Elizabeth Ohene writes about how the prospect of living abroad has lost its attraction in the time of coronavirus.

The euphoria was like a suppressed volcano that could no longer be contained. So it erupted spontaneously. The reason for that indescribable joy was unprecedented in the history of Kete-Krachi – unprecedented as the coiners of the word meant, not what it has come to mean when uttered by politicians.