Category: General

A member of the civil society in Buea South West region has raised concern on the timid registration of citizens on the electoral register, highlighting ‘lack of trust in the electoral system, lack of synergy between Elections Cameroon, ELECAM and civil society organizations.

He also higlighted the lack of public interest on mainstream media and reading culture, lack of capacity within the civil society on voter education and electoral processes and lack of national identity card due to cumbersome acquisition procedures and delay in production’.

Results of these findings revealed on May 2, 2024 in Buea, during the 2nd edition of the regional platform for permanent consultation between ELECAM and other stakeholders of the electoral process at local level, served as assignment to ELECAM to adopt fruitful strategies for improvement.

‘Some of the observations are challenges which we are going to reflect on and review our strategies’. Assured, Tambe Tiku, member of the ELECAM Board.

ELECAM South West said the
se strategies are gradually being implemented.

‘We have been advised to not only exploit WhatsApp or Facebook for sensitization but to take advantage of public activity areas where we can place out kits to have more and more Cameroonians register. So far we have registered 6,000 more voters compared to the previous registration. Thus a percentage rate of 200%.’ Tambe TIKU, member of the ELECAM Board revealed.

ELECAM has four months from now to mobilize the maximum of Cameroonians at local level to have this names on the electoral register.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

A 21- year- old woman, Mary Magdalene, who stays at Dambai, is appealing to benevolent individuals and organisations to help support her from losing her sight.

She said she began experiencing pains in her right eye since age two and the situation had worsened to the extent that she now could not bend down without much discomfort.

Magdalene, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), disclosed that anytime she bent down, she felt like her eyeball was falling out.

‘My eyesight is really giving up. I hardly see things. With much effort, I see things double all the time. I can’t see in the dark at all, and if I relax my eyes, I can’t see at all during the day.’

She said her fear was the problem escalating to her other left eye and called for urgent assistance.

Magdalene said as a farmer, her productivity began to dwindle because of her predicament, adding that the lack of funds also prevented her from seeking medical help to correct her eye problem.

She said her father once took her to the WoraWora
Government Hospital but there had been no improvement in the condition.

Magdalene, also a student, has resorted to harvesting and selling mangoes to finance her education and medical bills.

She noted that any support for her eye care and education would go a long way to help her and her family and make her contribute her quota towards the national economy.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Chefs With Purpose, a group of culinary professionals, is in talks with the Ghana Prison Service to train convicts in the art of cooking as a life skill to enhance their chances of economic survival after prison.

Chef With Purpose (CWP) would also engage various Vocational Schools to recruit more volunteers across the country to create awareness on their operations.

Madam Roselyn Esinam Anyomi, Secretary CWP, told the GNA in Accra when CWP provided meals to about 500 inmates of James Camp Prison and Senior Correctional Centre (Juvenile Detention Centre).

Madam Anyomi said feting the inmates was like giving back to the community and impacting positively on the lives of the youth.

She said CWP, established in the year 2018, had feted the various prisons (Nsawam Medium Prisons, Juvenile Detention Centre and provided ‘sala’ giveaways to various communities.

According to her, CWP will soon be moving to a prison in the Oti Region to provide various meals to inmates.

She appealed for volunteers to help the gr
oup impact the youth positively and put smiles on the faces of the less privileged and vulnerable in society.

James Camp Prisons, established in 1948, is a model halfway home that prepares inmates for reintegration into society.

CWP is a platform where chefs and culinary professionals can channel their talents towards alleviating socio-economic challenges faced by vulnerable communities.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Four people died in a landslide Thursday night, May 2, 2024, in the Florina quarter in Maroua, Far North region.

The deceased persons, three women and a little girl according to locals were extracting rocks to smaller particles on a hill before a mass of earth collapsed and buried them.

It is suspected rock extraction and vibration caused by their crushing activity provoked the incident.

Their bodies were pulled out by elements of the army rescue unit in Maroua with assistance from the population who had already saved two women with injuries before the arrival of the rescue team.

Far North governor and other administrative and security officials descended on the scene to take stock of the situation.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

Reverend Dr Smith Francis Tettey, Chairman of the Kumasi Presbytery of the Global Evangelical Church, has called on Ghanaians to vote men and women with integrity into power in the December general elections.

This, according to him, would help change the status quo of the country’s economy, which, according to him, was ‘fraught with glorified corruption which seems invisible to the laws of the land.’

Addressing the 2024 Kumasi Presbytery Representative Conference at Ayigya, in the Oforikrom Municipality, he said Ghanaians must change the way of doing things to help change the situation of the country.

The theme for the conference was ‘Be holy in all you do’.

Rev. Dr Tettey pointed out that, Ghana was now in a worsening environmental situation due to the connivance of people in high and low positions with foreign nationals to wreck the ecology of the land with irrevocable pollution of water bodies and wanton depletion and devastation of the country’s natural resources.

He said unemployment had reached it
s highest point with attendant criminal activities, which were beyond the detection and control of the security agencies that were supposed to curb them.

Rev, Dr Tettey said it was time all the church denominations raised a unified prophetic voice against corruption, environmental degradation and widespread oppression of the less privileged in society.

He commended Parliament for passing the anti-gay bill and called on the President to sign the bill into law to help protect the country’s moral values and cultural heritage.

He called on all committed Christians to pray fervently to God for forgiveness and His mercy for turning around the poor state of the nation and the decay in society.

Rev. Tettey said it was time Christians insisted that the righteousness of God reigned in Ghana.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) flag bearer for the 2024 Presidential election, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has pledged to establish a Minerals Development Bank for small scale miners when given the nod.

He said just as the government had set up the Agricultural Development Bank for farmers, ‘l am also going to establish a bank for miners to offer them the needed financial support.’

The NPP flag bearer, who is also the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, said this at Akoon in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality when he engaged stakeholders to discuss mining and its related activities as part of his tour to the Western Region.

‘Report from the Ghana Geological Survey Department indicated that Ghana has seven gold belts, starting from Axim of about 43,000 square kilometres. Only 23,000 square kilometres have been explored, leaving about five billion ounces of gold yet to be mined.’

He said they would empower the Geological Survey Department, the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa and other instituti
ons to get into exploration and find out where these deposits are located

‘Once they find the deposits, our policy is going to be 100 per cent Ghanaian ownership of our resources, the concessions would be allocated to small scale miners, we are not going to give it to foreigners, so they give us royalties.’

Dr Bawumia stated that ‘we will formalise the small-scale mining regime so that every miner would have license and operate accordingly. I want to make small scale miners multi-millionaires. I don’t want us to be chasing them, ceasing or destroying their equipment.’

In addition, the Vice President said a common user facility for processing of gold would be introduced for the miners to recover 90 per cent of gold from their tailings and ore instead of the current 30 to 40 per cent they have due to lack of technology.

‘We will have discussions with the big mining companies to release their abandoned shafts for community mining, the new places we discover will also be used for the same programme to create
more jobs for Ghanaians’ he announced

He pointed out that ‘A lot of the gold you mine is smuggled out of the country, but with our new policy, we will buy the gold from you at the world market price, to ensure you have the money and Ghana will get the gold

Under my watch, we would change the curriculum and the Technical and Vocational Education and Skills Training (TVET) would begin to teach responsible mining to protect farmlands, forest reserves and water bodies’

He added that with the large-scale mining, they would abolish the Value – Added Tax binding mining to enable many people venture into exploration to help grow the economy.

The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tarkwa Nsuaem constituency, Mr George Mireku Duker thanked the Vice President for giving hope to all small-scale miners.

He said with the sacrifices that the Vice President had made over the years to improve the economy they inherited, the residents of Tarkwa Nsuaem constituency would en
sure he gets not get less than 70 per cent of the total votes in the upcoming election.

The Vice President was accompanied by the Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, Senior campaign aids, Ing Kwabena Adjei Agyepong and Mr Salifu Saeed, Madam Catherine Abelema Afeku, former MP for Evalue Ajomoro Gwira constituency, Mrs Gifty Eugenia Kusi, former MP for Tarkwa Nsuaem constituency and regional executives of the NPP.

Source: Ghana News Agency