President John Mahama has called on Heads of State of African countries, currently meeting at the 50th Anniversary of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, to be mindful of the need to double their steps in forging a common future.

He said for so long, African heads have paid lip service to the need for continental unity, and “in the process maintained the erected borders that make Africans foreigners and strangers in Africa”.

The president issued the statement to mark the 54th AU Anniversary. President Mahama said Africa cannot speak about Pan-Africanism and African renaissance when they continue to pursue different and conflicting or contradictory social, economic and political policies that sometimes serve the interests of their former colonial and world powers.

“The hard fact of our time is that the path of separate and individual national sovereign States that we have trodden for five decades makes it extremely difficult to attempt a continental unity without the direct participation and involvement of the Africa people” he noted.

President Mahama emphasised the importance to abandon the notion that continental unity can be achieved by asking countries to collapse their individual national sovereignties into a composite sovereignty at the continental level.

According to him, times have changed and he realities of our time demands “new thinking and new approaches to the Pan-African Vision.

President Mahama said since 1963, when the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) failed to achieve unification, the Pan-African vision failed to be an “event” but a continuous “process”.

He said “the African Union in the twenty-first century must recognise and respect national sovereignties, even as it progressively claims significant strategic and critical policy space, working especially to harmonise social, economic, and labour market policies on the continent for the benefit of Africans and African businesses”.

The President decried how the push for continental unity has been confined to deliberations of Heads of States, stating “we have for 50 years succeeded in making the Pan-African vision of continental unity, a leadership project.

He said for the Pan-African vision to be embraced by the masses of African people, there was the need for African Heads of states to give their people an opportunity to share in a partnership for realising the collective dream.

“If the African Union is to resonate with the people it must be a union of people, and not a union of governments alone”, he stated.

He suggested that the Pan-African Parliament, for example, must have legislative powers, its membership made elective to expand its democratic frontiers and the powers.

President Mahama believes the decisions of the African Court must also become binding on all member states.

“Pan-Africanism must mean to us a strong desire, a willingness and a commitment to work collectively towards transforming our beloved continent into one where future generations can realise their full potential and where our kith and kin in the diaspora can equal and find true fulfillment in our common motherland”, he said.

Source: Myjoyonline

Reports reaching Daily Guide indicate that KPMG, the reputable international accounting firm chosen by all the parties to count the number of Pink sheets used as exhibits in the landmark presidential Election petition, has found 13,900 of the documents.

It was unclear as at the time of going to press if the exercise had been completed, but it was likely to confirm the petitioners’ case that they indeed, attacked the 11,842 as exhibits.

The Brouhaha

The issue of how many pink sheets was attached as exhibit in the case became very contentious with the respondents insisting that they did not receive all the further and better particulars as directed by the court.

The request to count the pink sheets was initially made by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), before the court. With the consent of all the parties in the petition, an order was given by the court for an independent referee to conduct the exercise.

Just as KPMG commenced the exercise in the presence of two observers each from the parties a ordered by the court, the NDC, through its lead counsel Tsatsu Tsikata, came to court with a story that the exhibits had been compromised and that the boxes containing the pink sheets had increased from 24 to 31.

In fact, the allegation over whether or not the boxes of the exhibits had been tampered with started right after the court’s sitting on Monday, May 20, when news broke that Mr. Tsikata, Tony Lithur who represents President John Dramani Mahama and later James Quarshie-Idun representing the Electoral Commission (EC), had gate-crashed the venue for the counting and requested the Supreme Court panel chairman Justice William Atuguba to review the order of the court.

According to Mr. Tsikata, there were alleged criminalities involved and as a result, they would prefer an extended control mechanism that would take into consideration copies served on at least two panel members to compare that with the pink sheets at the court’s registry.

The issue of whether the petition was being unduly delayed had come up strongly since Mr. Tsikata took over the cross-examaination of the principal witness, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who is also the 2nd petitioner. And many were of the view that the brouhaha over the pink sheets was part of the ploy to drag the process.

Mr. Tsikata, whose client came into the petition by way of joinder, was in his 13th day of cross-examination even though NDC’s co-respondents including President John Dramani Mahama and the Electoral Commission (EC) used about three days each to conclude a similar exercise.

Just as he was winding up on his cross-examination, he brought another motion, seeking to cross-examine some of the witnesses who filed affidavits in support of the petitioners’ case; but the court threw him out, together with President Mahama and the EC who made similar applications.

Mr. Tsikata however, had always denied criticisms that his style of cross-examination was designed to delay the process, often accusing the petitioners of presenting exhibits that forced the respondents to ‘dig deep’ in order to counter the petitioners’ claims.

When the NDC complained to the court, the nine-member panel chaired by Justice William Atuguba rejected their attempt to halt the counting exercise.

The court ruled that KPMG should continue with the exercise and any concerns that would be raised by the parties incorporated into the final report.

The accounting firm had the duty of “specifying in respect of each pink sheet, polling station name and its code number and exhibit number if any,” the court stated.

“In doing so the said referee should make a true and faithful count of the said exhibits of pink sheets according to and under the various categories of alleged electoral malpractices in issue before this court.”

The court said the professional fees to be charged by KPMG should be shared equally between the parties and added that each party was at liberty to choose two representatives for the counting exercise as observers.

KPMG, however, opted to do the counting free of charge.

Source: Daily Guide

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) today made an official application to the Inspector General of Police requesting for police protection for Gloria Akuffo, a member of the legal team for the petitioners in the ongoing Supreme Court case challenging the December 2012 elections, as well as for lead counsel for the petitioners, Philip Addison.

This request was made after two ‘macho men’ on a motorbike, on Friday 17th May 2013, two days after the office of Gloria Akuffo was burgled, went to the offices of Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co. demanding to know the residential address of Gloria Akuffo.

Upon arrival in the building, the two were referred to floor that houses the law firm and demanded from the Secretary, the residential address of Gloria Akuffo. The Secretary turned down their request and turned them away as she told them Gloria Akuffo did not work at Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co. and such did not where she lived.

The secretary subsequently reported the matter to Mr Alex Quainoo, one of the senior lawyers at the firm and also a member of the legal team of the petitioners.

In light of this and other incidents, Captain Koda (rtd), the Head of Security of Nana Akufo-Addo’s outfit, earlier this week, went to the offices of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to inform him of these events and ask for official police protection for Gloria Akuffo and other members of the legal team.

The IGP subsequently asked Captain Kodah to come with a formal written application, copied to the Director of Operations of the Ghana Police Service, DCOP John Kudalor, so the Police Service could formally act on the request. This official request, in the form of a letter, was presented to the IGP this morning.

It is recalled that there was a recent break in of the office of Gloria Akuffo. This occurred in the morning of Wednesday May 15, 2013 resulting in the theft of two computers as well as the hard drive and memory of a server in the office.

The first intrusion of her office was on Sunday December 16, 2012, barely a week after the general elections, and at a time the NPP had indicated its preparedness to challenge the December 2012 elections in court.

Source: Communications Directorate, NPP/Ghana

Government has encouraged the general public to disregard a publication in Monday’s edition of the Daily Searchlight newspaper alleging that a fleet of BMW saloon cars has been purchased for use by Ministers of State.

In a statement signed by Deputy Minister for Information and Media Relations Felix Ofosu Kwakye, Government denied ever purchasing any BMW vehicles for Ministers of State.

The government has however advised media houses to cross check information regarding its activities with the appropriate agencies in order to forestall such false publications.

Source: Peacefmonline.com

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has tasked local manufacturers to produce quality goods in order to attract the attention of consumers and boost businesses.

He observed that constant demand by people in authority for Ghanaians to patronize locally manufactured goods would be in vain if manufacturers always produce inferior goods.

Otumfuo stressed the need for local manufacturers to work assiduously to come out with attractive and quality products.

This was contained in a statement delivered on behalf of Asantehene by Nana Kwaku Amankwah Sarkodie II, Sawiahene during the opening of the Association of Ghana Industries’ (AGI) International Trade Fair and Indutech 2013 in Kumasi.

The Asantehene charged local manufacturers to adopt modern market strategies such as branding of wares so as to gain the interest of local consumers and improve sales in the process.

The King said producing the wares alone doesn’t guarantee enhanced sales, urging the manufacturers to be innovative to woo more people to patronize their products.

Otumfuo bemoaned Ghana’s over reliance on imported rice, warning that Ghana would face challenges if the countries fail to deliver.

He, therefore, suggested that government should ban the importation of rice and assist farmers and schools in the country to cultivate rice on large-scale, noting that Ghana has vast lands to produce its own rice.

The fair is under the theme, ‘Improving Market Share of Made in Ghana Goods, the Challenges of Access to Market.’

Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Trade and Industry, in a speech read on his behalf, said his ministry is currently implementing a new Industrial Policy and an Industrial Sector Support Programme (ISSP.)

This new initiative, he noted, is aimed at revitalizing and promoting Ghana’s manufacturing industries in order to make them locally and internationally competitive.

Samuel Apenteng, Vice President, AGI, in his remarks, observed that Ghana’s economy had become vulnerable due to the influx of cheap products.

He suggested that Ghana should create conducive business environment to reduce cost of operations and make Ghanaian products more competitive.

Mr. Apenteng said that the current energy crisis in the country was making Ghanaian industries less competitive, saying “the AGI continues to dialogue with the VRA, ECG, and GRIDCo and we are informed of measures being undertaken to bring the situation under control.

Chairman of the Trade Fair Committee, William Awuku, said 100 exhibitors and 25,000 visitors were expected to take part in the fair, adding that the fair would offer help to manufacturers to display their products at a particular place and make profits.

Source: Daily Guide

Germany is the most positively viewed nation in the world in this year’s annual Country Ratings Poll for the BBC World Service.

More than 26,000 people were surveyed internationally for the poll.

They were asked to rate 16 countries and the European Union on whether their influence in the world was “mainly positive” or “mainly negative”.

Germany came out top with 59% rating it positively. Iran was once again the most negatively viewed.

Global views of Europe’s biggest country have improved significantly in 2013, according to the poll.

It was conducted for the BBC by GlobeScan and PIPA, who conducted face-to-face and telephone interviews with randomly selected people, mainly in urban centres, in 25 countries around the globe.

View of India deteriorates

A three-point increase in Germany’s average rating returned it to the top of the BBC list, displacing Japan, which saw its positive ratings drop from 58% to 51%, and fell from first to fourth place overall.

The UK saw a bigger increase in positive ratings than any other country and climbed to third place in the table, in the wake of its hosting of the 2012 Olympics.

The poll also indicates that positive views of China and India have fallen sharply around the world over the last year. After improving for several years, views of China have sunk to their lowest level since polling began in 2005, putting it in ninth position.

India is ranked 12th, with negative views (35%) slightly outnumbering positive ones (34%) for the first time.

But Germany, whose economy has done better than almost every other in Europe in recent years, scored well across the world in the poll.

In Ghana, 84% of people polled said Germany’s influence was mainly positive, while 81% in neighbouring France and 76% in Australia felt the same. The big exception to the trend was in recession-hit Greece, where a majority of people polled gave Germany negative ratings.

Positive views of the EU dropped to their lowest level last year but have stabilised this year, rising one point to 49% on average.

But this figure masks significant changes. There has been a sharp drop in positive ratings by Germans, down 14 points to 59%. Canadians and Americans both give significantly lower ratings to the EU. In the UK, positive views of the EU continue to fall steadily and, for the first time this year, more Britons rate it negatively (47%) than positively (42%).

Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and Iran came out worst in terms of how they are viewed globally. Only 15% of respondents said they saw Iran as having a mainly positive influence.

Source: BBC