Kwame Nkrumah Deserves Credit For Ghana’s Sustained Democracy — CPP

 Mr Abdul Malik Jeleel, Deputy National Communications Director, Convention People’s Party (CPP), has lauded Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, as the “pacesetter of Ghana’s sustained democracy”.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency to mark the Constitution Day, which was commemorated on January 7 2023, he said the foundation of Ghana’s constitutional rule started when the CPP Government adopted the first constitution in 1957.

The adoption of the first Constitution, Mr Jeleel said, had a positive impact and accounted for the success of the 4th Republican Constitutional rule.

“As we celebrate the Constitution Day, credit ought to be given to Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah for the foundation he laid, making Ghana as the beacon of hope of Africa’s democracy building in the 21st century.

“The recent coup d’états in Equatorial Guinea, Burkina Faso, etc and Ghanaians, especially our Armed Forces and other security agencies should applaud themselves and use the day to uphold our constitutional rule despite challenges in governance,” he said.

Since 2019, every December 7 is observed as Constitution Day, a public holiday set aside to mark the coming into effect of the 1992 Constitution and the birth of the Fourth Republic.

Mr Jeleel urged the media and the civil society to play their key roles as democratic actors for a strengthened rule of law as well as effective governance for accelerated development and growth.

While condemning some chaotic conducts of the Majority and Minority caucuses in Parliament which he said had stained the country’s democratic credentials, he urged Members of Parliament to work together in the interest of the people.

Mr Jeleel said although heated debates were part of the culture of the House, such situations should be managed in a manner that did not lead into fisticuffs.

“The application of the 1957 Constitution also had heated debates; for example, in December 1957, the CPP-dominated Parliament passed the Avoidance of Discrimination Act (ADA) and the Preventive Detention Act (PDA).

“The CPP adopted uncompromising attitude and strategy of using its majority in parliament to get their Bill passed without using an open-floor fight in the chamber of Parliament,” he noted.

Mr Jeleel rallied the citizenry to be “responsible citizens” and contribute their quota in their respective disciplines to strengthen and sustain the country’s constitutional rule.
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Source: GNA

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Ex-Zambian Footballer, Mulala Mauled To Death By His Three Dogs In South Africa

 A former Zambian national football star, Philemon Mulala, was mauled to death by his three dogs in South Africa.

Mulala, 60, was attacked at his home in Lichtenburg, North West, on Saturday, January 7, 2023.
Provincial police spokesperson, Captain Sam Tselanyane, confirmed the incident in a statement on Monday, January 9.

“It is alleged that on the said day during load shedding, the deceased’s wife was busy on the other side of their house when she heard the dogs barking. She didn’t bother to go and check what was wrong as their house is situated on a busy street and the dogs are frequently barking at pedestrians and vehicles passing by. Moreover, after the electricity was restored, she allegedly went inside the house looking for her husband, but could not find him,” he stated.

“Upon continuing with the search, the woman saw her husband lying motionless outside in the garden, she then quickly went outside only to find that her husband was bitten by their dogs, two staffie/pitbull crossings and one unknown breed dog,”

“Police and Emergency Medical Rescue Services (EMRS) were called and the man was certified dead at the scene. The SPCA were also called and the three dogs were removed from the premises,” he added

As a result, an inquest docket has been opened and investigation into the matter continues.
Meanwhile, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) is mourning the former Mufulira Wanderers and national team midfielder.

Mulala arrived in South Africa to play for Kaizer Chiefs in 1988, Pule Iniesta Jakkals shared on the NPSL, NSL, NFL, FPL & PSL ex-Pros page on Facebook.

He also played for Cape Town Spurs and Lenasia Dynamos.

The association said Mulala was notably part of the 1984 Zambian squad that won the East and Central Africa Challenge cup under coach Col Brightwell Banda.

FAZ general secretary Adrian Kashala said the football fraternity had lost a gallant soldier.
“We remain with wonderful memories that the late Philemon honoured us with on the pitch. There is a lot that today’s players can learn from the deceased’s generation,” Kashala said.

Source: peacefmonline

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‘Camilla Was Dangerous’ – We Begged Our Father Not To Marry Her – Says Prince Harry

 Prince Harry has launched an extraordinary attack on his father, King Charles’ wife Camilla, branding her ‘dangerous’ and a ‘villain’, as he continued his publicity for his explosive memoir Spare.

The 38-year-old Duke of Sussex took aim at the Queen Consort while speaking with CBS News’ 60 Minutes host Anderson Cooper, who questioned Harry about several very damaging allegations he made about Camilla in the book’s pages.

Referring back to a 1995 interview in which his mother, Princess Diana, famously referred to Camilla as the ‘third person in her marriage’, Harry says that this admission turned the now-Queen Consort into a ‘villain’, adding: ‘She needed to rehabilitate her image.’

According to Harry – who also reveals in his book that he and William ‘begged’ their father not to marry Camilla – this desire to transform her public image made her ‘dangerous’.

He accuses his step-mother of ‘trading information’ with the press in an attempt to get more positive stories written about herself, before sensationally suggesting that her ‘connections’ with the media would end up with ‘people or bodies left in the street’.

”Her need to rehabilitate her image made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press,’ he told Cooper, according to an official transcript of the interview.

”And there was open willingness on both sides to trade off information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her, on the way to being Queen Consort, there was gonna be people or bodies left in the street because of that.”

Princess Diana’s interview with the BBC’s Martin Bashir in 1995 marked the first time that she had publicly addressed claims that Charles and Camilla had an affair during her marriage to the then-Prince of Wales.

At the time, she sensationally told Bashir: ‘There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.’

Source: dailymail.co.uk

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Gabon names first female vice president and new prime minister

 The new vice president, the first woman to hold the position in Gabon, was previously prime minister and defence minister.

Gabon’s President Ali Bongo has appointed the country’s first female Prime Minister Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda to the role of vice president and named a new PM to replace her, his secretary-general said.

The announcements were made on Monday.

Former Defence Minister Ossouka Raponda, 59, who had been appointed premier in July 2020 after her predecessor stepped down, will now “assist” the head of state though the position does not allow for an interim role as president.

She is the country’s first-ever female vice president.

Another former minister, Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze, will replace Ossouka Raponda and form a new government, Bongo’s secretary-general Jean-Yves Teale said in a video statement posted on the presidency’s Twitter account.

Bilie-By-Nze, 55, is a close ally of the president and has held several ministerial jobs since 2006. Later on Monday, he announced a government composed of 45 ministers with no reshuffles in the key positions.

As prime minister, Ossouka Raponda had to navigate a delicate political scene after a coup attempt in 2019 while Bongo was on prolonged medical leave following a stroke.

The new vice president has had a steady political rise in Gabon which has been ruled by the same family for more than five decades.

She was named budget minister in 2012 before being elected mayor of the capital, Libreville, in 2014, becoming the first woman to hold that position since 1956. She is an economist by training who graduated from the Gabonese Institute of Economy and Finance, specialising in public finance.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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Brazilian far right in copycat breach of government buildings

 

Supporters of Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro clash with the police during a demonstration outside the Planalto Palace in Brasilia on January 8, 2023. - Brazilian police used tear gas Sunday to repel hundreds of supporters of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro after they stormed onto Congress grounds one week after President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva's inauguration, an AFP photographer witnessed. (Photo by EVARISTO SA / AFP)

BRASILIA – In what is being called the copycat breach, the Brazilian far right has reportedly breached the main buildings of all three branches of government to protest claimed stolen election.

Protesters are reportedly clashing with the police at Planalto Palace, the Chamber of Deputies, and the Supreme Federal Court building.

After the results of the Brazilian presidential elections were finalized, supporters of then president Jair Bolsonaro launched nationwide protests against what they claimed was a stolen mandate.

fearing a repeat of what happened in the United States on January 6, 2021, the Brazilian civil society urged the military to intervene but the military decline saying the right to protest is enshrined in the country’s constitution.

Bolsonaro reshuffled the Brazilian military leadership shortly before he left office, and is currently believed to be in the United States having skipped the transition as his ally Donald Trump did two years ago.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff election last year and was sworn in as the new Brazilian president on January 1, 2023.

More on this developing story from DNT Correspondent Ken Bright in due course

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Ukraine war: Kyiv rejects Putin’s ‘trivial’ Christmas truce

 On January 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a 36-hour ceasefire in the conflict with Ukraine, beginning at 12:00 Moscow time (09:00 GMT) on January 7. The ceasefire, which coincides with Russian Orthodox Christmas, was requested by Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who called for a Christmas truce to allow believers to attend church services.

The ceasefire is intended to allow Orthodox believers in areas of conflict to celebrate Christmas Eve on January 7 and Christmas Day on January 8. The Ukrainian government rejected the request, calling it a “propaganda gesture” and “trivial ploy.” The conflict between Russia and Ukraine began in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and has escalated into a war in eastern Ukraine.

It appears that Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine in order to allow Orthodox believers in the region to celebrate Christmas. The move has been met with skepticism from Ukrainian officials, who have dismissed it as a “propaganda gesture” and an attempt by Russia to invite pressure on Ukraine from European countries.

The ceasefire proposal comes a few days after a large number of Russian troops were killed in a Ukrainian strike on a temporary barracks in the occupied Ukrainian city of Makiyivka. Some analysts have suggested that the Kremlin may be seeking to avoid another major loss of life on an important Russian holiday.

Source: BBC

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‘Queen Elizabeth came to Ghana just to greet the Chief Vandal’ – Former JCR president claims

 Bernard Oduro Takyi, a former JCR president of Commonwealth Hall, University of Ghana, has asked the management of the university to maintain the reputation and tradition of the Commonwealth Hall and not seek to alter its current status.

He argued that it is unconstitutional for the university administration to attempt to remove all male students enrolled in Mensah Sarbah Hall and the Commonwealth Hall.

Making a case for why the long-standing repute and tradition of the hall should be kept, he claimed that because of the hall’s status, Queen Elizabeth II, flew from the United Kingdom in 1957 to honour the Chief Vandal of the hall.

“In 2023 they want to sack every student here and bring in only freshmen, and we’re saying no. This hall that you see, a whole queen Elizabeth came from the UK to greet our chief vandal in 1957 and you think we will sit down for one vice chancellor with professorship to change that hall, she is joking,” Bernard Oduro Takyi angrily said.

The former JCR president of the Commonwealth Hall in an interview argued that the University has systems in place to address housing difficulties and that the management violated the appropriate legislation and took unconstitutional measures.

The Management of the University of Ghana last December revoked the accommodation of all continuing male students of the Commonwealth and Mensah Sarbah Halls after another round of clashes involving the two feuding halls.

According to a statement signed by the Registrar of the University on December 14, 2022, the residents are to be randomly assigned to available rooms in any of the University of Ghana Enterprise Limited Hostel (UGEl) and private hostels.

The statement further mentioned that continuing female students of Mensah Sarbah Hall and students with special needs in both halls will not be affected.

Source: ghanaweb

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