APA – Accra (Ghana)
The call by President Akufo-Addo to the people of Ghana to honour the aspirations of the nation’s founding leaders and work towards achieving the country’s true potential is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged the people of Ghana to honour the aspirations of the nation’s founding leaders and work towards achieving the country’s true potential.
In an address delivered to mark this year’s Founders’ Day on Facebook, the President emphasized the importance of upholding the rule of law, respecting individual liberties and human rights, and embracing democratic accountability – the very principles for which Ghana’s forebears fought.
He said the challenge before contemporary Ghanaians is to build a modern economy that fosters prosperity and progress, creating a dignified life for all citizens.
Founders’ Day, observed on August 4, commemorates the contributions of successive generations in liberating Ghana from colonialism and imperialism, leading to the founding of the nation-state.
President Akufo-Addo acknowledged the significance of the day, noting that Ghana, after 66 years of independence, has become a beacon of democracy and stability in Africa.
“Today, sixty-six (66) years after independence, our nation is considered a beacon of democracy and stability in Africa. August 4, in the life and history of our nation, is one of utmost importance. It is, indeed, a sacred day,” the President said in an address delivered to mark this year’s Founders’ Day.
He paid tribute to the sacrifices made by the forebears, dating back 126 years when the Aborigines Rights Protection Society was formed in Cape Coast to resist the Crown Lands Bill of 1897. This courageous act prevented the sequestration and expropriation of Ghanaian lands for the benefit of the British Crown, safeguarding the people’s ownership of their lands throughout the colonial period.
“The ownership of our lands was never an issue again during the rest of the colonial period. We should not, then, forget that we continued to possess our lands freely, unlike the situation in Eastern and Southern Africa, because of the bravery and foresight of the members of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society, and we must continually pay homage to these patriots,” the President said.
The newspaper says that the Ghana Parliament and the Speaker, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin were commended for their roles in the repeal of the death penalty from Ghana’s statute books.
The Parliament on July 25 2023, and July 27 2023, passed the Criminal and Other Offenses (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and Armed Forces (Amendment) Bill, 2022, to substitute life imprisonment for the death penalty.
These amendments which have been described globally by Human Rights watchers as historic were proposed by a private member who is a Human Rights and Public Interest lawyer and Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency, Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu.
Prior to the amendments, the proposal had received widespread support from key stakeholders including the President, the Chief Justice and Justices of the Supreme Court, the Ghana Armed Forces, the Police and Prison Services, Religious Organisations, Civil Society Organisations, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, and the Diplomatic Community.
During a visit to Parliament, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Project UK, Saul Lehrfreund, said “As a Project, we will like to thank the Parliament of Ghana and especially Rt. Hon. Speaker for his historic leadership and guidance without which Parliament may not have been able to take these bold steps.”
The passage of the Bills form part of efforts by the 8th Parliament to ensure the realization of a free, open, prosperous, inclusive and secure society, where individual rights and freedoms and the dignity of All persons are truly respected and guaranteed as enshrined in Article 15 of the 1992 Constitution.
Following passage of the Bills, Ghana has now become the 29th African country to abolish the death Penalty from its statute books for ordinary offenses following neighbours including Sierra Leone, Zambia, Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso, Chad and Equatorial Guinea, among others.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has justified the need for reparation for the atrocities and barbarism of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade which resulted in the transportation of a number of people from the African continent to the Americas and the Caribbeans.
Ghana, he said, had been given the honour by the African Union to organise a conference in October, which would bring together Africans all over the world to reflect and push forward the demand for reparation.
“If people could be compensated for the ‘holocaust’ then Africans can be compensated for slavery,” he indicated.
President Akufo-Addo said these at a durbar of chiefs held to mark the celebration of this year’s Emancipation Day celebration held at Assin Manso in the Central Region on Friday.
This year’s celebration was on the theme: “Empowering the African family to confront challenges of the 21st century”.
President Akufo-Addo explained that the Emancipation Day celebration, provides the platform for Africans and people of African descent to renew their demand for reparations.
He called on Africans and people of African descent to rise up and resist any form of enslavement or attempt to oppress them in the current global sphere by presenting a united front.
He said a united Africa would allow the continent to achieve the desire of the ancestors, saying, “Nothing will prevent the African continent from achieving the desired purpose if we unite as Africans.”
He said: “This celebration allows us to do many things, to bring back into memory the millions of our kins who were killed as a result of the slave trade here in the Atlantic and in the Americas and the Caribbean.
Additionally, he said, the event, enables Africans and Africans in the diaspora to renew a pledge never to allow such atrocities and barbarisms to be visited on Africans ever again.
The newspaper says that Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) has sued the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD) and
KNet Ghana Limited for unilaterally charging “contribution links fees” without any legal basis or parliamentary approval.
According to GIBA, the two entities also disconnected broadcasters from the National Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) Transmissions platform on account of non-payment of the fee charged for contribution link services.
This is in statement signed by the president of GIBA, Cecil Sunkwa-Mills, copied to the Ghanaian Times, in Accra yesterday.
It said that the association sued MoCD and KNET Ghana Limited for establishing and charging arbitrary fees to be paid into a Central Digital Transmission Company Limited as DTT channel hosting fees by broadcasters, without the approval of the fees from parliament.
GIBA recalled that, in 2005, the NCA set up a taskforce of which GIBA was a member, to consider Ghana’s position and the signing of the Geneva 2006 (GE06) Agreement establishing the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) broadcasting plan in the bands 174 – 230MHz and 470 – 862MHz.
In January 2010, according to the statement, the Minister of Communications inaugurated a National Digital Broadcasting Migration Technical Committee (NDBMTC) of which GIBA was also a member, to develop a roadmap document and among other objectives make policy recommendations to the government to enable Ghana achieve a cost effective and timely migration from analogue to digital broadcasting.
In August 2010, the report on the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting in Ghana was approved by the Cabinet as the Digital Migration Roadmap document was approved by government.
GIK/APA