HELP AATTAIN MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS — ATTOH (PAGE 14, DEC 29)

THE Volta Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Fidelis S.K  Attoh, has charged directors and other stakeholders at different levels of the commission to be conversant with relevant directives towards the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
He said all programmes or service activities undertaken by the commission fell within the ambit and prescriptions of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
Mr Attoh was delivering a speech at the Third Volta Regional District Directors’ conference of the NCCE at Ho. It was aimed at enabling the participants to take stock of their activities within the year.
He stressed that the development of the nation was the ultimate objective and that all service activities or outreach programmes of the NCCE must be geared at attaining that goal.
Mr Attoh said staff of the NCCE should nip in the bud apparent arrogance, parallel administration tendencies, disregard for workplace authority and chain of command, idle gossip, poor work attendance and absenteeism and above all the threat of staff hegemony and the god-father syndrome which had badly emboldened some staff to deal directly with the national headquarters without recourse to the regional directorate.
In an address, the secretary to the NCCE, Mr Tito Voegborlo called on the staff of the commission to gear themselves up to educate the public on the population and housing census and the local government elections scheduled to take off next year in 2010.
He reminded the directors that the mandate of NCCE was to instill the spirit of good citizenship for development and urged them to always focus on their daily functions.
He called on every district to develop a data base in order to become sources of credible information in the districts, stressing that, “ the offices should be so equipped with information that anybody could go there for basic data on the districts”.
Mr  Voegborlo noted that the fifth function which bordered on “ to assess for information of the government, the limits to the achievement of democracy caused by inequalities between the different levels and to make recommendation to government to redress these inequalities”, was being ignored and urged them to revive their operations to urgently address the omission.
He charged the district directors to carry out civic education to every corner of the districts and to be accurate in their reportage so that work done in the field could be accurately captured for the attention of all stakeholders.

UPHOLD GOOD GOVERNANCE PRACTICES — NECKU (PAGE 16, DEC 14)

THE Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Colonel Cyril Necku (retd), has urged Ghanaians to uphold and preserve the values, policies and good governance practices that have endeared the nation to the world.
He said good service delivery to clients was one of the hallmarks and index to good governance.
He added that it was pertinent for every citizen to adopt values that would enhance democratic governance to let the nation shine among the comity of nations.
Col. Necku said this when he addressed the closing ceremony of a three-day workshop for staff of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and other stakeholders in disaster management  in the Volta Region in Ho last Thursday.
The workshop was organised under a bilateral agreement between the North Dakota State of the United States of America(USA) and the government of Ghana.
Col. Necku said the protection of life of the people should be a prior responsibility, adding that particular attention should be paid to disaster prevention by giving appropriate and early warning of risks and also be reasonably persuasive to avert havoc.
“Prevention of disasters is an important component of Good Governance and the better Ghana agenda”, he stressed.
He therefore asked them to team up and to avoid conflict of roles with the view to making disaster management system very responsive and effective to serve as the role model for other regions to emulate.
A disaster management expert from North Dakota, Mr Doug Friez commended the participants for the high resourcefulness displayed at the course and said it would enhance the injection of new ideas for disaster management in the region.
He described Ghana as a country which was endowed with rich human resource base.
The deputy national coordinator of NADMO, Mr P.K Aboni, called for a new face to disaster management stating that they should be proactive and develop a good working relationship enough to implement goals together.
In an address, the Volta Regional coordinator of NADMO, Mr Henry Ametefe disclosed that emergency rescue operation was underway in Krachi -West, Krachi -East, Biakoye, Nkwanta- North districts where most of the towns in these districts were flooded.
He said several islands on the Volta Lake were completely washed away which had resulted in the displacement of hundreds of people.
In an assessment, the Volta Regional Police Commander, Reverend David Ampah-Benin said the looming threat of climate change and others were a major source of concern adding that the course content would enrich disaster management.
For his part, the forestry service manager, Mr W.E.K Bimah said such courses should be replicated in district assemblies because the international dimension was important and relevant to the nation but expressed regret that traditional rulers were excluded as participants.
The Volta Regional Director of the Red Cross, Mr Larry Yeboah said the course had put stakeholders together, reawakened the spirit of unity and also exposed weaknesses for necessary redress.

KIDS SHOULD STAY INDOORS TO LEARN (PAGE 20, DEC 11)

Professor Victoria Dzogbefia of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has expressed concern over the escalating tendency among the youth to spend precious time on the streets in the night, instead of staying indoors to study their books.
She said without good education, they could not be gainfully employed to earn appreciable income, compelling them to do menial jobs.
Professor Dzogbefia said this last weekend when she addressed a durbar to mark the Have Abrodi Development celebration in the Hohoe Municipality.
She said it was rather unfortunate that only two girls had been able to access a scholarship scheme set up for girls in the area in the past 10 years and attributed that to poor performance.
She, therefore, appealed to parents to support their children in school, supervise them to conduct themselves and stay away from the streets.
The Volta Regional Minister, Mr Joseph Amenowode, commended the people for upholding the principles of harmony, and that they should release land for the youth to go in to agriculture and also encourage them to grow more trees.
He presented GH¢200 to the community and promised to provide the women’s group with six beehives to boost their income-generating activities.
In a welcome address read on his behalf, the Chief of the town, Togbe Teke Foli IX, said the Abrodis had championed the cause of human and physical development.
He commended them for sustaining the self-help spirit, adding that many other projects initiated over the years had gone on well.
These included procurement of plastic chairs and canopies for hiring, welfare scheme to support bereaved families, increased enrolment of girls in school and the sponsorship of four girls to enter senior high school.
For his part, the Chief of Domefe, Togbe Krakani Apau, called for the revival of all positive traditions that stood the test of time and challenged modern technology, adding that certain powers were inconsistent with foreign technology.
An amount of GH¢2,170 was realised in a fund raising at the function, in aid of the construction of a community centre.