Knowledge is power

With a few weeks to the commencement of this year's West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), serious challenges such as inadequate examination halls, invigilators and science laboratories for practicals have been identified. The problem has been compounded by the fact that two streams of students, the four-year and the three-year senior high school (SHS) batches, are writing the examination. Under the Kufuor administration, the duration of SHS was increased from the then three years to four years but when President Mills assumed office in 2009, the government reverted it to three years. This year, 409,832 candidates will sit the examination throughout the country, as against the 173,655 who wrote the examination last year. Some of the schools are wondering how to handle the candidates when they write core subjects such as English Language, Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies. The challenge has necessitated the reschedulin...

Former Attorney General and Justice Minister Martin Amidu is heading for the Supreme Court today over his suit against his successor Benjamin Kumbuor who is now the Majority Leader as well as Waterville Holdings (BVI) Limited, Austro- Invest Management Limited and business man Alfred Woyome. The suit is part of Mr Amidu’s attempt to help the state retrieve GH¢51million which he believes was wrongfully paid to businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome. Mr. Amidu is seeking a declaration that the conduct of President Mills implying in an interview with Radio Gold on 23rd December 2011 that the two international Business Agreements of 26th April 2006 between the Republic of Ghana and Waterville Holdings (BVI) Limited incidental to it created liabilities for the Republic of Ghana for which the Government of Ghana had to pay Mr. Woyome judgment debts are inconsistent with and in contravention of Article 181 of the 1992 Constitution and undermine efforts to defend the Constitution...

A group calling itself the “Coalition of Ghanaian Voters” is embarking on a peace march to protest what they say is the disrespectful attitude of the Minority in Parliament. The walk is also geared towards sensitizing Ghanaians to the need to keep the peace and aims to appeal to the "discontented elements" in Ghana to allow the justice system to operate. The Minority has, since boycotting the inauguration of President John Mahama, refused to participate in any Parliamentary activities relating to the president, including vetting his ministerial nominees. The ongoing boycotts are in protest of the Electoral Commission’s declaration of Mr Mahama as president with the opposition New Patriotic Party insisting that he did not win the 2012 polls. They are accordingly challenging the legitimacy of his electoral victory at the Supreme Court. However, the Coalition of Ghanaian Voters says that until the Supreme Court rules otherwise, Mr Mahama is the legitimate ruler o...

Consumers of power have to brace themselves up for more blackouts as the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and the Volta River Authority (VRA) provide different periods for the probable end to the load-shedding programme. While GRIDCo has stated the end of April as the probable date to normalise power supply to Ghanaians, the VRA is projecting some time in May. Ghanaians have, since August 2012, been hit by an erratic power supply as a result of a major fault on one of the pipelines supplying gas from Nigeria to help generate electricity in the country. Since then, a number of deadlines or periods for the end of the current load shedding have been changed from one month to another. But there is hope in sight, as the Bui Power Authority (BPA) promises to add 133.33 megawatts from its first generation unit by the end of March this year to boost the national grid. With that boost, Ghanaians expect that the canker referred to in local parlance as "Dum so, Dum so " will m...