The launch by the Ghana Green Programme of planting five million trees to mark the day on June 11, 2021 and President Akufo-Addo’s appeal to the Trades Union Congress and the Organised Labour to assist government in the country’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery efforts are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that a Ghana Green Programme (GGP) has been launched with a target of planting five million trees to mark the day on June 11, 2021.
The initiative forms part of the efforts by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR) and the Forestry Commission to encourage Ghanaians to plant more trees to preserve and protect the country’s forest cover and the environment.
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, yesterday launched the Green Ghana Programme as part of activities to mark this year’s International Day of Forests in the country.
The International Day of Forests was instituted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests.
To commemorate the day, countries are encouraged to undertake local, national and international efforts to organise activities involving forests and trees, such as tree planting campaigns.
Mr Abu Jinapor said to ensure the success of the programme and to get all Ghanaians involved, the tree planting exercise would see President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia; the Speaker of Parliament,
Mr Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, and the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, plant a tree each on June 11.
Other high-profile personalities who will take part in the exercise are the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu, and the Overlord of Dagbon Kingdom, Yaa-Naa Abukari II, as well as all the heads of other traditional areas.
The newspaper says that the Ghanaian business delegation to Rwanda laid wreaths at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in memory of the victims of the1994 genocide in that country.
Leaders of the 30-member delegation who visited that country to explore business relations, laid two wreaths and also observed a minute’s silence at the memorial where more than 250,000 remains of Tutsis collected from Kigali after the genocide were reburied in a dignified manner.
There are 230 other genocide memorials across the country.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Dr Afua Asabea Asare; the Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Professor Amin Alhassan; the President of the Ghana Tourism Federation, Mrs Bella Ayayee Ahu; the Director of Project Development and Investment at the Ghana Tourism Authority, Mr Benjamin Anane-Nsiah, and Mr Kwesi Eyison of Pacific Tours, led the delegation in the wreath-laying ceremony.
The team was also given a guided tour of the genocide archive at the memorial where they were taken through all the stages in the extermination of more than a million Tutsis in 100 days.
It became palpable from the account of Guide Officer, Mr Claude Mugabe, a survivor who was nine when the global shocker took place, that prior to colonisation, Rwandans lived as one people, with the Tutsi, Hutu and Toa categorisations used only to differentiate them according to how much wealth and influence they possessed in a community; a class society rather than an ethnic division.
The Daily Guide reports that President Akufo-Addo, is appealing to the Trades Union Congress and Organised Labour to assist Government in the country’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery efforts.
The President also dismissed allegations that public sector salary increment had been frozen.
Speaking at the 11th Quadrennial Congress of the Trades Union Congress, on Tuesday, 23rd March 2021, President Akufo-Addo acknowledged that at the height of the pandemic, Government instituted several measures and interventions to lessen the impact of COVID-19 on lives and livelihoods.
“These measures sustained the economy, restored some lost jobs and incomes, whilst opening windows of new opportunities for others. The time has now come for us to take the next set of actions required for the sustained recovery of the economy,” he said.
These sets of action, he explained, have been outlined in the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government.
“The truth of the matter is that we are not in normal times, and I appeal to all Ghanaians, including Organised Labour, to assist Government in this endeavour to help rebuild our public finances and economy. We need to mobilise additional resources to cater for the new challenges confronting us whilst meeting other statutory requirements,” he said.
GIK/APA