News Articles

The children of the late President, Dr. Hilla Limann have indicated the possibility of one of them contesting the flagbearership position of the People’s National Convention (PNC).

They are of the view that the PNC in its current state is not what their father envisioned and hoped for when he founded the party.

“We know the mantle will fall on one of us soon because our father put in a lot into the party and the vision he had for the party is not what we are seeing today. We all know that one of us would have to step up,” Lida Limann, one of the daughters of the late President told Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, host of ‘The Lounge.’

Dr. Limann became the President of Ghana in 1979 but was overthrown through a coup in 1981 by Flight-Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, leader of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). This makes him the only President in Ghana’s Third Republic.

He subsequently founded the PNC and contested on the ticket of the party in the 1992 Presidential elections but performed abysmally.

On Tuesday, January 23, 2018, there will be a commemoration to mark the 20^th anniversary of his death and according to his children, the person who will step up to redeem and revive the PNC may be introduced.

“The launch of the Foundation and the celebration on Tuesday is actually to remind people, to remind Ghanaians of him because his name seems to be disappearing but he did so much in a very short time and he had a lot of vision for the country so maybe to bring the vision to life through the Foundation, we will probably introduce the next family member who is going to take over the mantle,” LidaLimann said.

The Lounge with KwakuSakyi-Addo airs live on Starr FM every Friday from 7pm to 8pm and on GHOne TV on Sundays from 8pm to 9pm.

Source:  Starrfmonline.com

A Ghanaian migrant who was sold in Libya has alleged that there are some Ghanaians involved in the booming slave trade.

Yao, one of the 126 Ghanaians brought in last week by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said he and his four other Ghanaian counterparts were sold to the Libyans by one Kofi – a Ghanaian.

In a conversation with Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, host of the award-winning show, The Lounge last Friday, Yao narrated his harrowing experience spanning over a period of 15 months.

“I lived in Kumasi so I took a bus to Tamale, then to Bolga. From there, I went to Niger which was about a five-day journey. I met some Ghanaians, Nigerians and Senegalese who said they were also going to Libya,” he said.

“Someone showed me one connection man in Agadez and he was a Ghanaian from Bolga. He took us to a camp and we stayed there for one week. After one week, he took us to the Niger people who have the Toyota Hilux and he said the cost will be CFA 140,000 (US$250). We paid the money and he took us to a place and there were about 100 people who also wanted to go to Libya.

“They arranged us – 47 people each in five Toyota Hilux. They then will give you a stick to hold so you don’t fall down. We spent about five days on the desert. I took along my gari and shito and a gallon of water. I put salt in the water so that I don’t drink too much of it to last the five days.

“When we arrived, they sold us. There is a Ghanaian woman there who is into that business. She came to take her passengers to where she lives. A man called Kofi gave our driver money and told us a certain man will come and take you. Where they took us is more than a ghetto. You just sit there and they beat you. If the money he took from the man is a Ghs 1,000, you will pay Ghs2,000,” he recalled.

Yao, who used to operate a mobile money business in Kumasi before embarking on this journey, was beaten until he called his mother back in Kumasi to transfer Ghs 3,000 to his slave master to secure his release.

Improve livelihoods of Ghanaians

Sylvia Lopez-Ekra, Chief of Mission at IOM, charged the government to work to improve the livelihoods of Ghanaians, especially the youth, to reduce their appetite for risking their lives to seek greener pastures outside the country.

“If we do not address their livelihood issues, they will continue to take these risks… A lot of work needs to be done and it needs to be done now.”
A video footage in which hundreds of people were being auctioned in modern day slave markets in Libya has provoked worldwide outrage, with a call on world leaders to work on lasting measures to stop the practice.

Libya, located in North Africa is the main transit hub for migrants to reach southern Europe by sea. However, since the overthrow of President Muammar Gaddafi, the country has been plunged into chaos with a takeover by the militias; a situation which has contributed to the advent of modern day slavery.

Since January 2017, the IOM has returned 14,000 people out of Libya and it is planning to return 15,000 more in the next three months.

Close to 400 Ghanaians have been brought back home from Niger and mainly Libya, with the recent batch of 126 coming in last week Wednesday.

According to Ms Lopez-Ekra, the IOM is working around the clock at the detention centers to bring the migrants back to their home countries.

She noted that although it is important to ask questions as to why they embarked on such dangerous journey, it is also imperative for citizens to have “compassion towards them because they need our support, they need our empathy.”

“We’ve brought them back and now we have to work on reintegration and it has to be sustainable. Not everybody has the capacity to immediately start something. Others will need support so we have to have the whole of society, government, civil society, development partners to find ways of providing employment for them,” she added.

Change Mindset

Ms Lopez-Ekra was of the view that working to the mindset of the youth would significantly help the situation.

She explained saying, “You have to think about what is it that people see in their communities. What they see is that the migrants who come back can build a house, they can buy a car, they have more money than the rest of the community and everybody wants that…so there is this desire even in social status. I think there are more respect that comes with it so it is highly desirable in many communities in Ghana to migrate…We have to work on the mindset.”

“I think all of them go because they want a better future for themselves and their families and also to see if they can create a better life there. It is quite easy to put a distance between what you see on TV and reality. They see and know that some people may die but they believe they will not – this is one characteristic of young people; they think that they are invincible, they are strong and they can make it. They believe that if it is their fate to get there, they will make it,” Mz Lopez-Ekra added.

As part of the IOM’s efforts to sensitize the youth, they have appointed Ghanaian rapper and songwriter, Kofi Kinaata as its Goodwill Ambassador to educate young Ghanaians about the dangers associated with the journey across the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to reach North Africa and Europe.

The Lounge with Kwaku Sakyi-Addo airs live on Starr FM every Friday from 7pm to 8pm and on GHOne TV on Sundays from 8pm to 9pm.

Source: Starrfmonline.com

A celebrated sculptor, Constance Elizabeth Swaniker, has said Ghana stands to lose its history and identity if historical sites and museums are not revived.

She noted that in times past, Ghanaians had a great sense of appreciation for culture and this was reflective in the development of pieces like the Adinkra symbols. However, she has expressed worry that the future generation may lose their identity if urgent steps are not taken.

“There was a lot of design and art back then but we lost it somewhere along the line; we lost it,” she told Kwaku Sakyi-Addo on The Lounge.

“We don’t even have museums, we don’t have national galleries yet when I travel, the first thing that I do is to buy a ticket to visit a museum or a gallery, but we do not have that here and so young kids are growing up and not seeing anything. There is nothing being preserved and I think that is the missing link,” Swaniker added.

Swaniker, who has exhibited her work around the world including Germany, Nigeria and recently in Paris to mark this year’s International Women’s Day under the auspices of UNESCO, urged government to step in and salvage the situation.

“I think government should take it upon itself to revive our museums – the few that we have, the few historical sites that we have and attach the importance to our heritage and also commission works from local artists,” she explained.

She was of the view that when people begin to see “beautiful things,” the appreciation for art would also grow.

According to her, neighboring Nigeria is raking in a lot of money from the art industry due to the country’s appreciation for art which results in regular arts exhibitions from artists from within and outside the country.

‘The Lounge’ with Kwaku Sakyi-Addo airs live on Starr FM every Friday from 7pm to 8pm and on GHOne TV on Sundays from 8pm to 9pm.

Source: Starrfmonline.com

A former Minister of State Prof. Kojo Yankah has criticised the Ghanaian obsession for elections moments after a government comes to power.

He said governments need time to execute their vision and must not be stampeded with upcoming elections when they are yet to settle.

“Sometimes I get worried about Ghana,” Prof Yankah told Kwaku Sakyi-Addo on the award-winning show The Lounge.

He added: “We have just elected a government and then we start talking 2020. It shows how short our vision is. Listen; we have so much to do. Any government has to build on what the previous government did and in the first year, it’s not even the end of one year and we’ve started talking 2020 so what are we doing as a nation? All that we are looking forward to is our elections. I’m sorry but I am totally against it.”

“I probably think the media is even overhyping it but we should think about development. This nation must move. This nation must develop and as I keep saying, we must develop alongside other African countries; we should be moving together,” the former MP noted.

He stressed: “We are talking about digitization as if the whole country is digital. We have about 70% of people in rural areas who cannot even find their way around a computer. These are issues that bother me. How do we get them out of it? How do we bring them into the digital age? How do we bring them into modernity?

“So when I hear about 2020, I get bored I must say; I really get bored. I think we should reorient ourselves and find solutions now.

“It doesn’t matter but when it gets to your turn in 2020 and whatever you want to do, you can but let’s build a nation; let’s continue to build on what was left and let others come and add on.”

Prof. Yankah stated he is “not interested in active politics” but will always be on hand to provide advise “here and there in the service of the nation”.

The Lounge with Kwaku Sakyi-Addo airs live on Starr FM every Friday from 7pm to 8pm and on GHOne TV on Sundays from 8pm to 9pm.

Source: Starrfmonline.com

An acclaimed Ghanaian Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, Dr. Michael K. Obeng, has called for drastic reforms to be made to Ghana’s healthcare system to prevent needless deaths.

He is of the view that access to healthcare in this present age should no longer be difficult because “Ghana is not a poor country anymore.”

“The healthcare system has to change in the sense that we need to educate the general public about their health and let the general public take an active interest in seeking help because I don’t care how good a doctor or a surgeon is – they can’t help you when you have gone past a certain stage,” he said.

Since 2008, Dr. Obeng has been leading a team of doctors to Ghana and Asia once every year to provide free surgery to people who are in dire need of plastic surgery but cannot afford it. This project is undertaken under his ‘Restore’ charity organization.

This year, he led a team of 22 doctors, nurses and support staff to Ghana and in all, 67 patients in need of various types of plastic surgeries were restored.

Describing this year’s mission to Ghana as the “biggest ever since 2008,” Dr. Obeng explained that most of the patients he and his team saw had burns, big tumors and mostly late stage breast cancer in young women.

In a conversation with Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, host of the award-winning show, The Lounge last Friday, Dr. Obeng lamented saying, “to see a country as Ghana to have a 29-year-old woman not being able to get care because the pathology report took four months, knowing that this person was coming to you for a second opinion for breast cancer, you shouldn’t wait for more than a week to get a pathology report. It doesn’t take a day to prepare slides and also about 30 minutes or less to review the slides.”

According to him, a situation of this nature “gets you angry” adding that “the volunteers were angry but you had to calm them down and explain to them how the system works.”

“I think we are at a point that any woman should not die of breast cancer. There is a cure for it. If it’s presented early, it can be managed early and the patient can be treated in a possible manner to prevent any death,” he added.

Dr. Obeng advised that it is imperative for authorities to bring more awareness to health because “a lot of people don’t care about their health, they care more about life after death; funerals. When someone dies, people troop in with gifts. We should use some of these resources to save lives and not celebrate death. We love the dead too much; sometimes more than the living and I think this is an attitude we need to change as a country.”

This, he said is necessary because “these days, Africans are not dying of infectious and communicable diseases anymore. The same diseases that are killing the whites are killing us because of the permeation of western culture into our system.”

The Lounge with Kwaku Sakyi-Addo airs live on Starr FM every Friday from 7pm to 8pm and on GHOne TV on Sundays from 8pm to 9pm.

Source: Starrfmonline.com

The man whose efforts led to Ghana’s discovery of oil, George E. Owusu, has advised Ghanaians to work with integrity.

This, he said, is what delivered him from the false accusations and grueling investigations he endured from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the FBI in the US in relation to a partnership agreement he had with Kosmos Energy on the oil find in Ghana.

“Please follow your dreams, I didn’t know I was going to be successful so don’t let anybody discourage you. Whatever you want to do, go for it, but integrity must be at the forefront. Don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat, do the right thing, go through the front door, do it right, build your company, whatever you are doing, build it on solid rock, don’t build it on sand because you will never know when the CID will come knocking,” he sounded this caution in a conversation the host of The Lounge, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo on Friday.

In 2010, Ghana produced oil in commercial quantities for the first time from the Jubilee Fields in the Western region. This feat was attained due to the persistent efforts of Mr. Owusu, who brought in Kosmos Energy, to prospect for oil after years of failed attempts by many companies who pumped millions of dollars in oil exploration in the country.

“Before the oil discovery,” Mr. Owusu narrated, “Ghana was called the graveyard for oil companies because all the people who came here lost money…but after the discovery, they de-risked the country and so many companies started rushing in…We always had a hunch that there was oil in Ghana but nobody could pin-point exactly where until KOSMOS came along.”

A partnership agreement between Kosmos Energy and Mr. Owusu’s company, EO Group stated that the latter would be given 3.5 percent of Kosmos’ share of the oil block. This however led to an investigation, his dismissal as the country manager for Kosmos Energy and the freezing of his assets following what he described as unsubstantiated rumours.

“People made so many noise about how come the government of Ghana has 10% and you alone had 3.5%. I want to tell the world, I want to tell Ghanaians, I want to tell everybody who is ready to listen that my 3.5% did not come out of the Ghana government’s share; it came from Kosmos’ share so those radio commentators who sit on radio and always say ‘yes sir, master’ please I’m telling you, the truth is Ghana government did not lose one iota of whatever was due them,” he clarified.

“There was an investigation. I was interrogated by the CID and the BNI 13 times…They took me to the FBI in the United States because some people thought I had gotten things fraudulently. They proposed 25 charges against me but they couldn’t take it to court. After the humiliation, after I lost my job, after I almost died, the FBI wrote that they found nothing on me,” he recounted.

Despite his experience which he says he does not wish for anybody, Mr. Owusu who now runs a small equity firm in Houston, Texas said he habours no bitterness.

“Bitterness doesn’t get you anywhere. They have a saying that he who laughs last, laughs best. I am not bitter at all. Maybe, genuinely they thought there was something wrong and they were doing their jobs so I’m not going to feel bitter about them but there were some people who were hiding behind the closet, pushing them, telling them what to do and those are the things which were not so good.”

He has since written a book which documents all the events which led to the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Ghana’s Cape Three Points in the Western region, as well as the aftermath.

Mr. Owusu explained the rationale behind his book saying, “I have documented it here for the sake of my children so that they will know that I am not a crook, their dad is not a thief, their dad did something good for the country and I’m very proud, very, very proud that I’ve been able to do this.”

The Lounge with Kwaku Sakyi-Addo airs live on Starr FM every Friday from 7pm to 8pm and on GHOne TV on Sundays from 8pm to 9pm.

Source: Starrfmonline.com

The acting CEO of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Professor Alex Dodoo has made a call for a national conversation on using marijuana for medical purposes.

In a conversation with the host of The Lounge, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo on Friday, Prof. Dodoo said: “I’m not advocating that we should promote marijuana but several countries are now promoting medical marijuana including Canada… they are now creating green houses to grow it and we have them in the bush but currently it’s illegal. But that argument; that discussion should start.
According to the World Drug Report, marijuana, or cannabis, is “the most widely cultivated, produced, trafficked and consumed drug worldwide.”

The legalization of the drug and its adoption for medical use has been characterized by controversy the world over. Some scientists and experts have argued that using marijuana for medical purposes could assist in the treatment of many illnesses, but others are of the view that legalizing medical marijuana could lead to addiction.

Some nations including Germany, Canada, Australia, and some states in the United States have legalized it while countries like the Netherlands, Colombia and Czech Republic have amended their law to allow consumption for medical purposes at the very least.

Prof. Dodoo, who is also a pharmacologist, was of the view that Ghana stands to make great gains if the issue is critically and holistically examined.

“If we have the best products, why don’t we produce it at least for exports to the market in America, the market in Uruguay, the market in Canada and in several other countries where they need it for medical purposes,” he said.

According to him, he is a firm believer of herbal medicines and further indicated that the herbal medicine industry “has the potential to transform Ghana but we should have a discussion. Anybody who says herbal medicines are dangerous is wrong.”

He noted that if Ghana wants to develop its herbal industry, it should take lessons from Germany.

“Germany uses a lot of herbal medicines which are evaluated according to what Germany feels provides a fair balance between promoting the product and protecting the public and we should do that in Ghana,” he said.

The Lounge with Kwaku Sakyi-Addo airs live on Starr FM every Friday from 7pm to 8pm and on GHOne TV on Sundays from 8pm to 9pm.

Source: Starrfmonline.com

Tourist sites in all regions across Ghana have been earmarked for renovation, according to the acting CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyeman.

He said the move is to boost tourism in Ghana.

“The issue is partly because we are not taking the things God has given us seriously…We have 11 regions under our authority; Tema is one region so each region has identified three things that we need to fix so Paga for example, we are going to fix the place,” Mr. Agyeman told the Host of The Lounge, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo last Friday.

He added: “There is some dredging that has to be done. We need a little hotel or motel around, we need to fence the place, we need to add on some audio visuals to make people understand the history of the place – there is a history to it so we are fixing it.”

He indicated that his office is collaborating with key agencies and Ministries to “fix certain fundamentals” which are negatively affecting the growth of the tourism industry.

Visa Acquisition

Mr. Agyeman noted that although Ghana has announced a visa on arrival policy, some revisions need to be made.

“The visa regime is something that we’ve been pushing. We’ve announced that we have a visa on arrival policy. In as much as it is attractive, it’s still very expensive because one has to do some pre-approval…so we are working on it. It would be sorted out very soon,” he said.

Senegal, he said has abolished visas and with their equally attractive tourist sites, their tourism industry is flourishing “so if we don’t fix some of these fundamentals, we will do all the marketing, we will do everything but all would be like polish on dirt.”

On her part, Mrs. Stella Appenteng of Apstar Tours was of the view the nation’s tourism industry has stagnated because of certain key factors such as sanitation and expensive accommodation.

She opined: “Most people don’t want to come to our beaches because they’ve seen better beaches elsewhere; bluer and clearer waters…The cost of coming into Ghana and the expenditure is not in our favour. Ghana seems to be quite an expensive destination like our accommodation and transportation so it’s so difficult. Tourists have a choice to go to other places.”

A creative consultant, Mr. Mike Amon-Kwafo, recommended that if Ghanaians begin to see tourism as a product and then take deliberate steps to package it for sale, significant gains would be made.

“We walk by our senses so the average persons who comes in wants to satisfy their senses – what do they see? What do they hear? What do they taste? What do they touch? So fundamentally, when he moves his body into a new environment, he wants to have an exotic experience, something he is not used to,” he said.

“Our strength lies in building something that is different from what they are used to…We must be deliberate and additive like the ChaleWote Festival…the traditional things are there; how do we add up? How do we make it attractive enough for somebody to come and have a sensual experience?” he added.

The Lounge with Kwaku Sakyi-Addo airs live on Starr FM every Friday from 7pm to 8pm and on GHOne TV on Sundays from 8pm to 9pm.

Source: Starrfmonline.com

Veteran journalist, Cameron Duodu, has described illegal mining commonly known as ‘galamsey’ as “prospective genocide” which is endangering the lives of future generations.

Mr. Duodu recalled that in the olden days, “although our ancestors engaged in galamsey activities, they did so without polluting water bodies and destroying farm lands”.

“These galamsey people say they want to make a living, but our ancestors dug gold so much that this place was called Gold Coast but they didn’t ruin any rivers while doing that. They loved their rivers!” he told the host of The Lounge, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo.

According to him, our ancestors highly respected water bodies and thus, treated them as human beings.

He explained saying, “Our ancestors were so clever; they treated the rivers like people. Brim has a name – her name is Brim Abena, born on Tuesday. On Tuesday, nobody is allowed to go and work on a farm near the Brim and you can’t cross it on Tuesdays. Natural common sense told them to allow the river to regenerate itself. Tano in Ashanti is called Tano Kronkron – pure Tano. They don’t allow women to cross it in case they are in their menses and they might drop something in it to pollute it.”

Mr. Duodu who is also an author and African affairs specialist, wondered why Ghanaians were willing to destroy water bodies gifted to them by nature while other nations are struggling to find natural water.

“What kind of people are we? We have no respect for water…Ghadaffi was digging water from underground to bring it out for use as irrigation. If you go to Saudi Arabia, they spend billions desalinating sea water to make it useful. We sit here, nature gave us the rivers and in our greed for gold, we are just destroying them…and when the President says he will stop it, you say you won’t vote for him,” he remarked.

He commended President Nana Akufo-Addo for efforts being made to clamp down the practice and for refusing to give in to threats of being voted against in the next election.

“The government is right in sending the army after them. By now, they’ve destroyed so much that even if they are stopped, trying to undo what they have done will cost millions but we have to do it. The people who want to earn a living through galamsey do not own the rivers, they didn’t make the water; they came to find it there and they have no right to destroy it for our unborn children to have no water when it is their turn to run the country,” he said.

He advised galamsey operators to “earn a living but earn a living in a legal and decent manner. You cannot destroy the lives of unborn children in order to make a living today. You just don’t have that right to carry out prospective genocide.”

The Lounge with Kwaku Sakyi-Addo airs live on Starr FM every Friday from 7pm to 8pm and on GHOne TV on Sundays from 8pm to 9pm.

Source: Starrfmonline.com

Veteran journalist, author and African affairs specialist, Cameron Duodu, has waded into the raging debate of who founded Ghana.

In a conversation with the host of The Lounge, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo last Friday, Mr. Duodou said: “We don’t have a founding father; we have founding fathers. Like in the United States, they give everyone his due.”

There has been a longstanding debate on Ghana’s founder, a debate which was revived by President Nana Akufo-Addo during his delivery of Ghana’s 60th independence anniversary speech.

The debate, however, intensified in the lead up to the 70th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) on August 4 which saw renowned politicians and journalists strongly divided over the matter.

Recounting Ghana’s history before independence, Mr. Duodu explained that “Kwame Nkrumah was Prime Minister on the day Ghana became independent but he did not drop from a tree. He came to find a political movement in Ghana, he joined one of them – the United Gold Coast Convention which itself sprung from the Aborigines Rights Protection Society formed by Mensah Sarbah.”

He, however, expressed regret at the failure to duly recognize people for their efforts and participation; a practice he blamed on “fanaticism and propaganda.”

The Lounge with Kwaku Sakyi-Addo airs live on Starr FM every Friday from 7pm to 8pm and on GHOne TV on Sundays from 8pm to 9pm.

Source: Starrfmonline.com