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Government Is Implementing Policies To Control The Degradation Of Ghana’s Coastal Landscape – VP Bawumia
The Vice President and newly elected flagbearer of the NPP, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has highlighted a number of interventions the government has undertaken to control the degradation of Ghana’s coastal landscape.
Speaking at the third Biennial Conference on Fisheries and Coastal Environment in Accra, on Monday September 6, 2023, Dr. Bawumia said, inspite of the enormous benefits from the ocean to the country, degradation of the ocean threatens its sustainability and benefits.
The degradation, Dr. Bawumia noted, “includes coastal erosion caused by sea level rise, pollution from municipal waste such as plastic and chemical pollution from illegal mining activities, and so on.”
“It also involves over exploitation of fisheries resources through illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing amongst others.”
The Vice President, who lamented how the health of our ocean and its accompanying resources have been rapidly deteriorating “as a result of both anthropogenic and natural causes,” also outlined steps the government has undertaken to address the problem and ensure sustainable ocean economy.
“In recent times, the Government of Ghana has embarked on various activities to ensure sustainable ocean management. The first of the activities was the president joining the high-level panel for a sustainable ocean economy,” Dr Bawumia noted.
“The Ocean Panel as it is called is a special global initiative of seventeen (17) world leaders who pledged themselves to a new ocean programme to work at attaining a sustainable ocean economy. To strengthen this effort, a two-day maiden National Blue Economy Summit was held in Accra in May/June, 2023 under the theme “Our Ocean’s Heath, Our Prosperity, Our Planet’s Security”.
“Secondly, the government has approved a loan of 150 million USD from the World Bank on the West Africa Coastal Area (WACA) programme to stem the tide of coastal degradation occurring in our coastal areas.”
‘Also, the government has begun various activities to fight illegal unreported and unregulated fishing in our waters. We are seriously regulating the license of foreign fishing vessels especially their fishing gears, where they fish and whether they have licenses or not. In fact, some of these foreign vessels have been denied licenses already. We have also digitized the access to pre-mix fuel for artisanal fishing activities.”
The introduction of a digitized premix fueling station, Dr. Bawumia said, was meant to automate the pre-mix fuel system to reduce issues such as hoarding, politicization and diversion amongst others.
He added that government has also begun efforts to reduce the number of boats in the artisanal fishing sectors.
“Just like the Africa Union and taking from the AU submissions, our government believes that the ocean presents a huge opportunity to accelerate development and improve upon the well-being of the people of this country. Ghana, with its extensive coastline, is committed to leading the charge towards a sustainable and inclusive Blue Economy,” Dr Bawumia said.
The third Biennial Conference on Fisheries and Coastal Environment, was under the theme : “Inclusive Blue Economy in Africa: Towards Sustainable Transformation and Resilience of the Marine Environment.”
It was organized by the Centre for Coastal Management – Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (CCM-ACECoR) of the University of Cape Coast and other strategic partners, including the World Bank, WACA, USAID, Vulnerability to Viability Global Partnership and others.
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Focus on more pressing issues like Galamsey, not hate speech – Ellen Ama Daaku to Mahama
An aide to former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia,Ellen Ama Daaku has advised President John Dramani Mahama to shift his attention from social media hate speech to more urgent national issues such as illegal mining.
Speaking in an interview, she noted that the President’s recent comments about tracking the IP addresses of people who spread hate speech were unnecessary.
According to her, President Mahama must first define what he considers to be hate speech before seeking to punish people for it.
Ms. Daaku argued that the President himself had benefitted from hate speech and social media attacks in the past when he was in opposition.
She said even during his time in government, he described his opponents and their tribesmen in unpalatable terms, which later drew complaints from former President Nana Akufo-Addo to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
She stressed that harsh criticism of leaders on social media should not automatically be considered hate speech, adding that former leaders, including former President Nana Akufo-Addo had all been subjected to it.
“He is only feeling what Nana Akufo-Addo went through for eight years,” she remarked.
While acknowledging the need to regulate misconduct online, Ms. Daaku insisted that going after social media activists should not be a priority.
She noted that many political activists, including herself, had been insulted and attacked online but never called for arrests.
She concluded that President Mahama should focus his energy on solving pressing problems such as galamsey and the economy instead of concentrating on critics on social media.
By: Jacob Aggrey
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Prof Alidu Seidu files nomination for Tamale Central seat
The newly elected parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for Tamale Central, Prof Alidu Seidu, has submitted his nomination forms to the Electoral Commission.
As of 10:00 a.m. today, he was the only person who had filed to contest the seat.
Nomination of candidates will close at the end of the day.
Associate Professor and Head of the Political Science Department at the University of Ghana Legon, Prof. Alidu Seidu won the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary primaries in the Tamale Central constituency with a landslide victory.
The elections, supervised by the party’s Elections and IT Directorate in the Northern Region, saw Prof. Seidu poll 840 votes out of the total valid ballots cast.
His closest contender, Lawyer Hanan Gundadow Abdul-Rahaman, secured 536 votes.
The other aspirants could not make significant gains, with Dr. Seidu Fiter obtaining 44 votes, Aliu Abdul-Hamid 23 votes, and the rest recording fewer than 10 votes each.
In all, 1,500 ballots were cast, with 6 ballots rejected and 7 spoilt ballots recorded.
The results were signed and declared by Dr. Arnold Mashud Abukari, NDC Northern Regional Director of Elections and IT.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) held parliamentary primaries in Tamale Central to choose a candidate for the upcoming by-election following the death of the sitting Member of Parliament, Dr. Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed. Dr. Mohammed, who also served as Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, tragically died in a military helicopter crash in the Adansi Akrofuom District on August 6, 2025, alongside seven others.
His passing left the Tamale Central seat vacant, as required by Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
The Electoral Commission has scheduled the by-election for September 30, 2025. While the NDC moved quickly to open nominations and vet aspirants, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) announced it would not contest the seat, citing the need to respect the somber circumstances and promote national unity.
By: Jacob Aggrey
