Seth J. Bokpe's Ghana Newsreel

  Cairo, Egypt Courtesy: Egyptian Embassy in Ghana When colour, elegance and culture melt into an Arabian pot on a cold night in Cairo, Egypt, the result is an energy-sapping dance moves marked with precision. It starts with a flute and 'dondo'-look-alike drums and metals creating a rhythm that get patrons tapping their feet and nodding their heads in unison to the rhythms but as the tempo gets higher the feet tapping and head nodding are lost to the ebb and flow of the dance moves. With the dancers clothed in white and green flowing robes and turbans at the Wekalet al Ghoury opera house and the multi-coloured lights cast on the stage, the dancers set the opera house alight with their unlimited moves in the Sufi Tannoura dance. Performing in a packed house, the Al Tannoura Troupe for Cultural Heritage lived up to its hype in the two-hour performance, leaving the audience to ask for more. The Sufi Tannoura is accompanied by musical interlude that magn...

 From Cairo Egypt  Courtsey: Egyptian Embassy in Ghana A former Egyptian diplomat, Ambassador Ahmed Haggag, has proposed the establishment of a forum for past African presidents and prime ministers to share their expertise with their current counterparts.   The forum, which he said should be championed by the African Union (AU),  would ensure that current African leaders did not repeat mistakes of the past but rather benefited from the knowledge and expertise of their predecessors. Speaking  at the opening of the 41st training course  for young  African journalists in Cairo, Egypt, the former career diplomat observed that most of the former heads of state were now engaged by universities outside the continent. He spoke on the theme: "50 Years after the OAU Foundation". According to him, similar attempts in the past to bring together such a wide array of knowledge on governance and leadership failed because of lack  of commi...

Asofan Cluster of Schools, near Ofankor in the Ga West municipality, will be reopened on Thursday after it was closed down last Friday. The school was shut down following an attack on it  by some irate youth of the area. The Ga West Municipal Assembly ordered the immediate closure of the school last Friday as a result of what it described as a chaotic scene reported by teachers of the schools. When the Daily Graphic visited the school on Tuesday, only Junior High School three pupils were in school, preparing for their Basic Education Certificate Examination. The primary and JHS one and two classrooms had been padlocked. There was no sign of destruction of school property. Some idle pupils were seemed loitering around, while others were engaged in a hearty chat outside the classroom.  Some others were also in the classroom. Teachers would not speak on the issue except to refer the Daily Graphic to the Ga West Municipal Education office. Narrating events leading t...

The Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) has established a number of committees to begin feasibility work into the possibility of the country building a nuclear energy plant, the Director of National Nuclear Research Institute, Professor Shiloh K.D. Osae has said.  The committees, he said, among other things, were handling the siting of the facility and its economic viability. “We are working on the selection of the kind of reactor that would benefit the country. One can produce energy alone and the other can produce energy and hydrogen, which is used in launching rockets.” In the case of Ghana, he said the country could opt for one that could be used in desalinating sea water to meet the needs of coastal communities. Prof. Osae, who spoke to the Daily Graphic on the fringes of the public lecture organised by the GAEC as one of the activities marking its 50th anniversary, said due diligence was necessary because “In the nuclear industry, we don't have the luxur...

THEY come from all parts of the world to look for the most popular metal, gold. Many come through the legal means, while some come through the back door. But where are they coming from?   They travel from neighbouring West African countries such as Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cote d’Ivoire, while, from very far away, illegal operators journey from Asia, the Americas and Europe, particularly China and Russia. These immigrants first seek concession from the Minerals Commission, after obtaining some information on Ghana’s investment opportunities from the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC). Other prospectors come to Ghana under many guises — tourists, investors and visitors — but end up joining hands with small-scale miners to plunder the country’s resources. Ghana is rich in gold, from south to north, east to west, but this rich resource does not reflect on the people, especially those living in the mining communities. This is a paradox, a...

CHIEF Directors and other senior officials at the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have been urged to strengthen supervision and internal control procedures to prevent financial irregularities in their operations. The Auditor General, Mr Richard Q. Quartey, who made the appeal in the December 31, 2011, Financial Report on MDAs, also asked the officials to apply the necessary sanctions against offending officers and clients or organisations who defaulted in settlement of their tax obligations. The recommendation followed intense scrutiny of the financial transactions of MDAs by the Auditor-General which revealed that the country lost GH¢118.8 million as a result of  irregularities in 2011. Additionally, the state purse also shrunk by $246,744.24 and £136,084.22 owing to similar phenomenon. The cataloguing of financial irregularities in the Auditor-General’s Report on MDAs and other agencies has become an annual ritual that seems to have no effects because...

SEVEN suspects arrested during Thursday’s clashes at Teshie in Accra were today remanded in police custody by the Osu Magistrate Court to reappear on July 2, 2013 . They were charged with conspiracy to commit crime and rioting. They are Eric Narh, 25; Baba Talatu, 25; Ismailla Nii Annor, 45, and Nii Armah Ogidi, 35. The names of  three others were not immediately known at the time of filing this report. Meanwhile, calm has returned to Teshie, a fishing community in Accra, a day after violent clashes led to the death of one person and the injury of three others during the installation of a chief. Patrol teams have pitched camp at the palaces of the disputing factions in the 29-year-old protracted chieftaincy dispute. Each of three gates — the Trebi We, the Ashitey We and the Okpong We — is claiming the right to install a chief for the community. During the incident, which occurred at dawn on Thursday, one of the claimants to the stool—the Trebi We — had attempted to instal...