L' Observateur Burundi

Authorities of Nanton Senior High Technical School in the Northern Region have appealed to government to construct a dormitory block for the school to attract more students.

Mr Ibrahim Sualisu, Acting Headmaster, Nanton Senior High Technical School, who made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said this was crucial for the school’s development, students well-being and enhancing teaching and learning.

The Nanton Senior High Technical School is a day school and almost all the students live far away from the school.

Mr Sualisu said some of the students were from other districts and their parents rented accommodation for them in the Nanton town, which was a worry to both parents and the teachers, adding that the situation was affecting students’ attendance to class.

He said construction of a dormitory block at the school would create a conducive learning environment and ensure quality tuition and learning.

Source: Ghana News Agency

A day’s consultative forum to collate inputs from key stakeholders to influence political parties’ manifestos for the 2024 general election, has been held in Tamale.

it was organised by SEND GHANA, a civil society organisation, and funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The forum was to deepen participatory governance and help develop people-centred policies towards enhancing the livelihoods of citizens, especially the vulnerable.

Participants were drawn from the Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West Regions, and their inputs focused on gender and social protection, adolescents and reproductive health, Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH), Education and Health.

Mr Mohammed Mumuni, Regional Programme Manager, SEND GHANA, speaking at the event, said it sought to involve citizens in the development processes of political parties’ manifestos to ensure that those manifestos addressed their practical realities and needs.

He said: ‘Over the last two decades, we have observed
that our development as a country was largely influenced by political parties’ manifestos. In order to get political parties to develop comprehensive and more inclusive manifestos, which reflect the needs of the people, citizens must contribute their opinions on the needed policies, hence the forum.’

After a round table discussion during the event, participants for the WASH sector proposed that political parties’ manifestos should have policies and programmes that would help to minimise open defecation.

For the health sector, participants proposed the need to support the production and consumption of locally available nutritious foods to address malnutrition, especially among children in communities.

They also wanted the manifestos to show how they intended to ensure regular procurement and timely distribution of vaccines to address infant mortality.

In the Social Protection sector, they suggested a more sustainable funding source for social protection initiatives to help address the delays in executing s
ome of the social protection interventions.

They also proposed that adolescent reproductive health education be taught as a separate subject at the basic school level to ensure more awareness of the rights of adolescent girls and other young people.

Mr Mumuni said SEND GHANA would engage the various political parties to ensure that the inputs collated at the forum were captured in their manifestos.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The African Union has appointed Senegalese jurist Adama Dieng as its first Special Envoy for the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide and Other Mass Atrocities, 30 years after the Rwanda genocide, during which about one million Tutsis were killed over a three-month period.

The appointment came as the AU commemorated the event on April 7, something it has done since 2010.

In announcing Mr Dieng’s appointment on X (Formerly Twitter) on Saturday, the AU Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, wrote: ‘As AU Special Envoy, Mr Dieng will drive the AU agenda to combat the ideology of hate and genocide on the continent.’

Mr Dieng is an experienced international lawyer and human rights specialist.

From 1990 to 2000, he was Secretary-General of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists before he was appointed by then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in January 2001 as the Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

In July 2012, he became UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Sp
ecial Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.

He recently founded the Pan-African Alliance for Transparency and the Rule of Law (PATROL-AFRICA).

Members of PATROL’s board welcomed Mr Dieng’s appointment, and told the GNA that it was a positive move.

Board member Ben Kioko, a Kenyan who has been a judge of the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights since 2012, told the GNA: ‘Adama Dieng is an internationally recognised expert on human rights whose contribution to the development and strengthening of the African human rights system has not been sufficiently recognised.’

He said that Mr Dieng had ‘specifically made an invaluable contribution to the strengthening of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in its engagement with civil society and other actors as well as the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights’.

Judge Kioko added that Mr Dieng’s ‘strong competencies in preventing and combating atrocity crimes will no doubt assist the African Union and our beloved cont
inent in ensuring that [saying] ‘never again’ to atrocity crimes becomes a living doctrine and not just an aspiration’.

Another board member, Dr Ahmed Abaddi from Morocco, told the GNA: ‘Sincerest congratulations to our president, Adama Dieng, for this most needed responsibility.

‘PATROL will spare no effort in assisting him in this key mission.’

Dr Charles Majinge, who has been a long-time assistant to Mr Dieng, said that the Special Envoy had done much for the cause of justice and the rule of law.

Dr Majinge told the GNA: ‘His career has always been intertwined with prevention of mass atrocities.

‘His service to the ICTR and his role as Special Adviser on Genocide Prevention attest to this exceptional record.

‘It is gratifying to see him being called upon to offer his outstanding qualities of leadership in the services of the African people and, above all, the victims of these atrocities.’

Source: Ghana News Agency

Commuters across the country have been asked not to pay any additional transport fares.

This advice is coming from the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) and the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC) and on the heels of the recent arbitrary increase in transport fares by some drivers.

A press release jointly issued by GPRTU and GRTCC and copied to the Ghana News Agency asked the citizenry not to pay any extra fares until a consensus was reached.

The statement described such increases as illegal and in contravention of the Administrative Instrument on the review of public transport fares.

The transport bodies indicated that they had not reached a consensus with the Ministry of Transport on adjustment in fares following recent hikes in fuel prices and the attendant operational cost.

‘As has been the practice, the leadership met with the Ministry of Transport on Wednesday 10th April 2024 to present our demands. Once consensus is reached, the public will be duly informed,’ the statement
said.

‘Therefore, any increase outside the Administrative Instrument should be disregarded and treated with contempt,’ the statement added.

‘We, therefore, urge commuters not to pay any fare outside the existing fares.

‘We also want to urge all drivers to abide by this directive and have confidence in the leadership,’ the statement said.

It urged all Regional Administrations, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, and the Station Welfare Committees to ensure compliance with the existing fares.

They assured transport operators of the leadership of the two bodies’ commitment to continuously push for the welfare of transport operators.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Bono Regional Office of the National Pensions Authority in collaboration with the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) has sensitized informal sector workers in the Techiman Municipality of the Bono East Region on the relevant of the Tier Three (personal) Pension Scheme.

More than 500 workers in the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) sector attended the sensitization on the tier three pensions and the need for them to join the scheme.

The Authority also organised similar sensitization for the workers in the Sunyani Municipality and motivated some traditional authorities and opinion leaders who participated on the essence of saving towards their old age.

Mr William Ohene-Adjei, the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regional Manager of the NPRA, highlighted the relevance of the tier three pension, saying the scheme was designed to provide sound stability and future financial security for informal sector workers.

He said it was untrue that pension schemes were designed and reserved only for workers
in the formal sector, saying it was imperative for everybody to join pension schemes and contribute to their future.

The tier three pension, Mr Ohene-Adjei added remained prerequisite and had therefore provided opportunities for all artisanal workers, including hairdressers, dressmakers, tailors, seamstress and mechanics as well as petty traders and head potters and truck pushers to join and contribute.

He called on the workers in the informal sector to manage their finances well, reserve some money and contribute to the tier three, saying though the NPRA did not encourage partial withdrawal, contributors could be withdrawn partially if they needed some resources.

Under tier three, Mr Ohene-Adjei indicated contributors could contribute as low as GHC5, and reminded that old age was always associated with several life challenges, saying with the tier three pension, contributors could well manage themselves during old age.

He said some people who failed to plan during their days of active service had regrett
ed it now because it was difficult for many of them to cope with life challenges.

Madam Fatima Gberbie, Junior Communications Officer, GIZ, reiterated the Cooperation’s commitment towards human development in the country, saying the Cooperation would deepen its collaboration with the Authority.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) says the lack of access routes affected effective fighting of the James Town and Madina Market fires.

It said extreme congestion at the two places made it difficult for the GNFS to put out the fires.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after yesterday’s fire incident at the Madina Market that razed hundreds of stores, shops and containers, Assistant Divisional Officer I (ADO1) Alex King Nartey, said firemen faced difficulty in putting out the fires because they could not move the tenders.

He said apart from the unavailability of access routes, the Market, which was not properly mapped out, also did not have any available fire hydrant.

‘The lack of access routes and poor mapping of the market made the fire spread faster,’ he said.

ADO1 Nartey said despite the extent of damage caused by the nearly nine hours fire, the GNFS managed to prevent it from spreading, thus salvaging about 1000 stores, shops and adjoining properties.

He said the cause of the fire, which
started at about 21:00 hours on Wednesday, was not readily known, and added that about 200 stores, shops, and containers were affected.

Mr Abdul-Jalil Yakubu, the Assembly Member for the area, who was there to assess the situation bemoaned the extent of the damage.

He said he would liaise with the appropriate authorities and stakeholders to map out modalities going forward.

The April 10 inferno at the market ravaged goods and properties until it was brought under control at about 5:30am Thursday morning.

Personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service, despite the initial challenges faced in breaking into the shops, were able to douse the fire.

In a related development, fire gutted over 500 wood­en structures at a slum at Jamestown in Accra on Tuesday leaving hundreds of people homeless.

Items destroyed included per­sonal effects, fridges and fish.

Like the Madina Market fire, there were no access routes for fire tenders to fight it.

‘Accessibility to the site of fire was difficult as structures had be
en built too close to each other,’ ADO1 Nartey said.

‘Most of the fire outbreaks would be avoidable if best practices on fire safety are adhered to,’ he added.

Source: Ghana News Agency