The call by President Akufo-Addo at the 60th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS for national and regional efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday opened the 60th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and urged members to rigorously pursue national and regional efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
He called on the community to move rapidly into the domestic production of vaccines for the protection of its citizens, and for the growth and development of the economies of the bloc.
The meeting, which is being held within the confines of a ravaging pandemic and increased threats from terrorist groups, will deliberate and take decisions on political, socio-economic and security issues affecting the region.
As of December 8, 2021, the region has recorded 674,556 cases of infections, with some 10,000 deaths, impacting humanitarian, social and economic sectors.
The community risk a new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with the emergence of the Omicron variant that has been found in three member states.
The President said it was unfortunate that the discovery of the new variant, Omicron, in the region had led to impositions of travel bans by some countries, “which are unjustified and unacceptable.”
The newspaper says that the country is expected to lose GHc7 million for the remaining of the year due to the cancellation of the collection of road tolls.
Ghana is projected to raise about GHC78 million annually from road tolls.
Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, who disclosed this during a press conference on the 2022 budget in Accra last week, said the decision to stop the collection of road tolls was to facilitate a faster movement of people and goods.
He explained that the traffic generated at the tollbooths across the country informed the decision of the government to stop the payment of road tolls by drivers.
The gridlock created at the road tollbooths, Mr Ofori-Atta, said was seriously affecting the productivity of workers as it made workers to report to work late and tired.
According to the Minister staying long in traffic caused stress which affected the output of workers.
“The cancellation of the collection of road tolls will bring relief to commuters and workers as they will not be delayed on the road,” Mr Ofori-Atta, said.
The Minister of Finance indicated that the gridlocks at the various toll booths also contributed to the pollution of the environment as the cars jammed in traffic emitted a lot of fumes.
The Graphic reports that exploring the possibility of finding alternatives to the politics of winner-takes-all has been identified as one of the ways of fostering greater participation and inclusion in democracy and good governance among member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Member states of ECOWAS are also being asked to consider the adoption of constitutional provisions that stipulate the maximum age limit at which a person can legally contest the office of the President.
The patriarchal structures that inhibit women’s participation in politics should also be looked at in order to encourage more women in politics and decision making in society.
These recommendations were contained in a 15-point communiqué presented by the Deputy Dean, Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), Dr Kweku Danso, at the closing ceremony of the two-day Kofi Annan Peace and Security (KAPS) Forum in Accra last Thursday.
The two-day programme, which was jointly organised by the KAIPTC and Kofi Annan Foundation (KAF) in Geneva, was on the theme: “Democracy and Governance in the Context of Complex Crises in Africa”.
The event is Africa’s biggest forum that addresses contemporary peace and security issues on the continent.
The communiqué further called on nations in the sub-region to promote broad-based political participation and inclusivity in order to bolster the resilience of the state to anti-constitutional and anti-democratic practices.
It called for concrete steps to recognise the youth as critical stakeholders in democracy, development, peace and security in West Africa.
The newspaper says that the Ford Foundation, a non-profit, grant-making organisation, has offered a $3-million grant to the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) to build the capacity of civil society organisations (CSOs) and anti-corruption actors in the natural resource governance space in West Africa.
Dubbed: the Extractive Industry and Climate Change Governance Fund, the grant will be used to support a network of resource governance organisations, budget advocates and community organisations to demand accountability, transparency and equity in the utilisation of natural resources from governments to ensure inclusive development.
The five-year initiative, which will be implemented in Ghana and Nigeria, also seeks to build the climate change action and mitigation strategies of CSOs to preserve the environment.
The $3m fund forms part of the foundation’s $1-billion social bond programme launched in 2020 to help stabilise CSOs following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ford Foundation’s Regional Director for West Africa, Dr ChiChi Aniagolu-Okoye, launched the fund during a virtual programme hosted by ACEP in Accra last Friday.
Participants included the Programmes Officer of Natural Resources and Climate Change at the Ford Foundation, West Africa, Mr Emmanuel Kuyole; the Executive Director of ACEP, Mr Benjamin Boakye; the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD), Mr Senyo Hosi; an honorary Vice-President of IMANI Africa, Mr Bright Simons, and the Executive Director of the Centre for Gender Economics (CGE), Africa, Ms Uchenna Idoko.
Dr Aniagolu-Okoye said beneficiary CSOs would work to address significant policy implementation gaps and also advocate reforms in five critical resource governance areas — revenue and benefit sharing policies, prevalence of resource-backed debts, active citizenship in resource governance, resource extraction with high social and environmental standards, strengthening civic action and advocacy for transparency and accountability in the natural resources sector.
She said it was important for revenues from resource extraction to be equitably distributed to meet the development priorities of the people, particularly those in impoverished communities, persons with disability and communities affected by resource extraction.
GIK/APA