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Schools are not re-opening now… consultations are ongoing on easing restrictions – Info Minister
The government has clarified that it has no plans of re-opening schools anytime soon until it has exhausted all consultations there is, to ensure a safe environment for both students and teachers.
The Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah debunking reports that government intends to re-open educational institutions that have remained shut since March this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, maintained that, “what we are doing is consultation on what it takes to re-open schools.”
“If there has been a misspeak anywhere, just to put it in its right context, we are not re-opening schools. Rather, we are holding consultations as part of the potential easing of the general restrictions that we are living under,” he stressed.
The Minister who made the statement at a press briefing in Accra yesterday used the opportunity to elicit a national conversation on how to get life back to normal amidst dealing with the global pandemic.
According to him, “the world is realising that measures like lockdowns and restrictions cannot continue in perpetuity and we would have to learn to live with the new normal.”
Thus, government needed broader views from the citizenry to make a firm decision moving forward, for the benefit of all, while ensuring that gains made in the fight against COVID-19 were not disrupted.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah who took notice of the rising public sentiments on whether or not to allow students back to school advised that “we channel these apprehensions and worries towards answering the question; what does it take, what should be the indication of the good time, what would be the best way to protect teachers, non-teachers and students if we are to open up at some point?”.
“The government believes that as a nation we can do many things if we put our mind to it and we invite the nation to engage in this conversation looking at the fact that there is no vaccine, we do not know when exactly one will be validated and we will have to live with this,” he said.
Touching on the Madagascar COVID-19 cure, Mr Nkrumah reiterated that government had not received the drug yet contrary to media reports claiming so.
“The reports that Ghana has requested for or that we have received and we are testing a cure from Madagascar is incorrect. What we have said is that they have reached out to us as they have done with many other countries and what we will do is to test it.
“We will take it through the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and Centre for Plant Medicine before making a decision on it,” he said.
Many teacher unions and educational organisations have warned against the re-opening of schools should President Akufo-Addo decide not to extend the 31st May deadline on ban on social gatherings.
According to the groups, conditions are not rife for the safe reopening of schools given that the spread of COVID-19 remains very exponential in the country.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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