Saturday, September 11, 2010
Ben Ephson is a Killer; NPP must eliminate him
Ben Ephson is poisonous and dangerous than a rattle snake in our growing democracy in the history of Ghana as he continues to operate as a hidden agent for NDC political party and presenting himself in public as a pollster. Ben Ephson, through his various dubious ways has managed to damage many fabrics of NPP political party by way of continually sowing discord, hatred and apathy among the supporters of NPP.
If Ghanaians can recall, during the 2008 general elections, this man (Ben Ephson - Editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper) managed to sow complacency and killed passion and interest in the NPP foot soldiers that were supposed to campaign vigorously to retain the party in power when he predicted though his bogus polls that NPP was poised to win hands down.
After the general elections that saw NPP out of power, Ben Ephson continued his diabolical acts towards NPP through his news paper (Daily Dispatch) by creating tension that there was a so-called Kufuor, Nana and Alan factions in NPP. This took the former president J.A.Kufour to openly defused this tension on 22/08/2010 during the extraordinary delegates conference at the Trade fair centre in Accra that, “He did not belong to any faction”.
In the same vein, Mr. Ephson continued his devilish act of creating confusion in the national delegates’ conference of the NPP that took place at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium on 27th Feb 2010 with his so-called Nana Boys and Alan Boys faction, but again this plan was thwarted.
In another diverse way to create tribal sentiments in NPP and in Ghana, Mr. Ben Ephson continued his evil acts during the recent NPP Flag-bearer’s electioneering campaign by substantially and constantly trying to actualise the imagination of the so-called Ashanti Supremacy and Akyem Mafia in NPP. This was his primary aim to create rancour between these two Akan tribes and also to seek the collapse of the originality, friendship and oneness of the Akan tribes.
Ben Ephson predicted that after the congress that saw Nana Akufo-Addo as the flag bearer, the great party NPP will be divided, but to his astonishment, the NPP party has become more united than ever before. As predictable as he has always been, Ben Ephson preposterously started putting another unnecessary and politically inexpedient pressure on Nana Akufo-Addo to pick and name his running mate immediately. This suggestion by Ben Ephson was described by many rational politicians in Ghana as immature and idiosyncratic.
In recognising the failure of his all predictions, He has condoned and connived with the so-called NPP member who was an Alan’s supporter in Kumasi to form a new party (United Front Party) so as to bring his prediction into fruition.
I want to spell it out to Ben Ephson to understand that, his diabolic, nefarious and atrocious acts of divide and rule tactics to favour his secret employers (NDC) will be shambolic and annihilated because NPP is not ignorant of such antiquated strategy. People of such caliber who create discord and antagonism for the purpose of their stomach should be marked and stigmatized, making him and his likes conspicuous in the society.
Peter Antwi
anpet2000@yahoo.com
Romford, London
Crater-like potholes litter Bolga roads
Even though several baseline surveys continue to point to and confirm that the three northern regions in Ghana are the most deprived, lip service rather than action continues to be the most preferred approach to getting them out of their predicament. Like the popular saying in the Bible "to the rich more shall be added and to the poor it shall be taken."
Most rich or relatively developed cities and regions in this country continue to get additions to their pool of wealth while the poor and vulnerable ones continue to be starved of even basic infrastructure.
The Bolgatanga Municipality is probably the most deprived and most neglected of all the three regional capitals up north in terms of the availability and quality of roads and other basic infrastructure.
Created almost fifty years ago, the Upper East Region cannot boast of one single good road in any of its principal streets. Crater potholes litter everywhere with dangerous and accident-prone roads ever since the region was created.
The Commercial Street, an important ceremonial road that stretches from the Municipal Police station through to the SSNT office edifice is the most ragged with potholes and very dusty.
The Ministries area, which hosts all the bureaucrats and think tanks of the region, is equally terrible. Workers in the ministries usually go through torture all year round in order to get to their offices. Interestingly enough, this is the only straight road that passes through the Ministries area.
Sawaaba, the largest and most populous suburb of Bolgatanga has neither single access road nor drains. The absence of drainage systems in an already overcrowded suburb makes Sawaaba very filthy and hazardous for human habitation.
One concern by the inhabitants of Bolgatanga is about the effectiveness of the Regional Ministers and the District Chief Executives (DCEs) Upper East Region and Bolgatanga have had across the political divide over the years. Views sampled put the blame on the mode of choosing leaders.
"Often times, when DCEs and Ministers take their seats every morning to begin the day's work, what preoccupies their mind is not how the day will be spent in finding solutions to the problems of their people. Rather, it is how to attend to a long queue of party fanatics," a resident who spoke to this paper opined.
He went further; "the next most important thing to them is seeing contractors probably for doles of kickbacks. No wonder that some DCEs left with cool houses even before their extra-gratia were paid."
Others who spoke to this paper placed the blame for the deplorable state of the Bolgatanga Township on the central government's neglect. To them, the national cake is not being fairly shared. They claim they have been to other towns and can speak to the development of other regional capitals.
At a forum organized in May 2009 the current Regional Minister bemoaned the deplorable state of the Bolga roads and commented that even though Wa is younger its roads are quite better. He promised that his administration was going to work on the roads to give it the status befitting a regional capital.
The people of Bolga are however running out of patience because nothing has been heard or seen. The complaints that greet one every morning about the pathetic nature of the roads in the region are no more murmurings. They are crying aloud.
Author: Milton Aberinga, Bolga