Ghana: Press spotlights inauguration of refurbished, modernised Nkrumah memorial parks, others

APA – Accra (Ghana)
The inauguration of refurbished, modernised Nkrumah memorial parks by President Akufo-Addo and the report that the Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, has called on countries in West Africa to combine their strengths in order to ward off all terrorism activities in Burkina Faso and Mali are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that the stature of Kwame Nkrumah as an iconic Ghanaian and African personality came alive with the inauguration of a refurbished and modernised edifice that serves as his memorial.
The monumental project to give the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park a complete makeover befitting the country’s first Republican President has seen the holy grounds which hold the remains of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the African Personality of the Millennium and father of Pan Africanism, renovated and decked in modernity.
The hallowed place where Dr Nkrumah declared Ghana’s independence on the eve of March 6, 1957, now befits its status as the Mecca or Jerusalem for all Pan-Africanists across the globe.
Originally an old polo ground, it was later designed as the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Mausoleum by former President J. J. Rawlings in 1991, where the remains of the former President and his wife were interred.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday opened the renovated and enhanced park financed at more than GH¢30 million in honour of the global icon.
He said the outstanding pan-Africanist that Dr Nkrumah was among his generation, his burial site must be appropriate to his status and exceptional contribution to the liberation of Africa from colonialism, hence the project.
The additions to the park, which is located on the Atta Mills Highway in Accra, adjacent the Arts Centre, include a Presidential Library, a reception facility, an amphitheater, a restaurant, Freedom Hall and the digitalised payment and access system.
The refurbishment covered the tombstone which had been upgraded with new marble and the museum expanded with an audio-visual tunnel where the voices and images of the former President could be heard and seen.
The newspaper says that the Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, has called on countries in West Africa to combine their strengths in order to ward off all terrorism activities in Burkina Faso and Mali.
That, he said, was because countries in the region, including Ghana, would suffer the brunt should the two West African countries fall to the ongoing terrorist activities there.
The Defence Minister explained that countries in the region must be prepared to take the responsibility to ensure that peace returned to Burkina Faso, Mali and the region in general as the United Nations (UN) withdrew its Peace Support Operations in December 2023.
Addressing a joint press conference between ministers of defence and foreign affairs from Ghana and Portugal in Accra yesterday (July 3), Mr Nitiwul said Ghana must collaborate with its counterparts in the region to ensure that the situation in Burkina Faso and Mali did not escalate.
“The last issue we discussed in the meeting was the withdrawal of the UN Peace Support Operations in the region which we should expect a surge in problems in Burkina Faso and Mali”.
“We should not leave these two countries to their fate, although the UN may be withdrawing their operations but individual countries in the region must ensure the issue does not escalate because any problem in the two countries, especially Burkina Faso, will directly affect Ghana,” he said.
The press conference was after a close door bilateral discussion between a Portuguese delegation, led by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joao Gomes Cravinho, and Minister of Defence, Helena Carrieras, and its Ghanaian counterpart represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, and Mr Nitiwul.
The visit of the ministers is historic given that they are the highest-ranking government officials from Portugal to visit Ghana.
The Ghanaian Times reports that a Natural Resource Economist and Dean of the School of Research and Graduate Studies, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Wisdom Akpalu, has expressed the conviction that Ghana will derive more economic benefits from its biological natural resources than non-renewable resources such as gold, diamonds and oil.
He said economically, biological or renewable natural resources such as fish and timber offer more advantages in terms of their economic and environmental benefits to the state than mineral and other extractive resources.
He explained that whereas biological resources could replenish themselves within the shortest possible time when they are reasonably extracted, same could not be said of non-renewable natural resources.
“These (biological) resources are extremely valuable to us and we need to manage them sustainably,” he noted.
Prof. Akpalu, who was delivering his inaugural professorial lecture at the Graduate Block Auditorium at GIMPA on June 29, 2023, on the topic “The complexities of managing natural resources in developing countries” called on the government to institute prudent and sustainable management practices that will ensure that the country’s natural resources were used for the good of all citizens.
He observed that although many African countries were have been blessed with abundant natural resources, the resources had rather become a curse for many of them, brewing environmental pollution, conflicts, corruption, and wars.
The lecture dealt into the complexities surrounding the management of natural resources in developing countries, both in theory and practice.
Additionally, the lecture also explored the various aspects of natural resources, including biophysical dynamics of natural resources management, conflicts and externalities arising from natural resource use, counterproductive incentives, and the importance of institutional quality.
The newspaper says that the Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, has revealed that government’s indebtedness to various pension schemes at the end of May 2023 is GH¢2.63 billion.
The amount comprise Tier 1 of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department mechanised payroll, GH¢1.62 billion, Tier 1 of subverted institutions, GH¢188.59 million, Tier 2 of mechanised payroll, GH¢808.21 million and Tier 2 of subvented institutions GH¢6.1million.
“Mr Speaker, the government paid GH¢2.67 billion to various pension schemes in 2022. Between January and the end of May, 2023, the government had also paid GH¢2.26 billion,” Dr Adam said on the floor of Parliament in Accra yesterday.
This was contained in an answer to a question asked of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, by MP for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu.
Mr Iddrisu, a former Minority Leader, wanted to know how much government owed pension schemes, including the Social Secu¬rity and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) by the government.
In a follow-up question by the NDC Member for Bongo, Edward Bawa, if pension savings have been released on time and invested, Mr Adams said he readily did not have the answer.
“I will get the answers and report back to the House,” he said.
Dr Adam also responded to a question related to a 24-month US$18.24 million revenue mobilisation contract between McKinsey & Company Inc and the Ghana Revenue Authority.
GIK/APA