Ghana's Nuclear Energy and What the Ghanaian Media Should be Asking

"So Ghana is set to export NUCLEAR ENERGY to the sub-region, at a time when it already exports POWER to its West African neighbours. Now, there's an ECOWAS agency--the ECOWAS Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA) in Accra--and in an ideal world, more of the Ghanaian media would be connecting the dots and enlightening us all on the role of ERERA in facilitating/monitoring sub-regional power!"


The actual article can be found here: 


from: http://www.theafricareport.com/index.php/20120515501811584/west-africa/ghana-adds-nuclear-power-to-boost-energy-export-plans-501811584.html

Ghana is exploring a nuclear energy programme in its power mix strategy, as it strives to become a major net exporter of energy in the West Africa sub region, the country's deputy energy minister has said.

PHOTO/REUTERS

Alhaji Inusah Fuseini said the government has targeted the utilisation of nuclear power to supply adequate, reliable and affordable electricity for the sustainable development within the sub-region.

The intervention is geared towards increasing the total installation capacity of electricity generation in the country, currently at 2000 megawatts, to 5000 megawatts by 2015.

To meet the target, Fuseini speaking at a five-day international conference in Accra on "Cooperation and Networking for Nuclear Power Programme in Africa" on Monday, said the government would also leverage on the use of its available energy sources such as gas, large scale hydro and the renewable.

"In the long term, particularly 10 years and beyond, our energy needs are expected to far exceed the above set target as our commercial and industrial activities increase," he said.

The conference is organised under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the African Regional (AFRA) in collaboration with the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC). It is aimed at strengthening collaboration and networking among member countries in order to maximize the use of available African infrastructure and expertise in nuclear power and related fields.

More from our March 2012 Ghana Special:
People to Watch in Ghana in 2012
Agriculture: Brown gold jackpotGhana, the fight over state or market
Ghana's election watch: The vote starts hereGhana: Big Oil stakes for the little guysGhana's mining sector shares the shine

Fuseini said the utilisation of nuclear power involves careful planning to address major issues such as financing, siting, safety and human resource development.

Currently, he said, within the energy ministry, a nuclear power unit had been set up in collaboration with GAEC to deal with issues associated with the planning and implementation of the nuclear power programme.

The ministry is also taking steps to establish and inaugurate Nuclear Energy Programme Implementation Organisation (NEPIO) that will coordinate the activities of all stakeholder institutions involved with the planning of the nuclear power project as recommended by the IAEA.

The Ghana Atomic Energy Commission deputy director, Dr Kwame Aboh noted that nuclear power reactors construction worldwide had been on the increase. He said a total of 67 reactors were under construction, most of which are centered in Asia.

Opponents of nuclear power over the years have focused on and expressed concerns on the deficiencies in areas such as the inadequate human resource base, environmental safety and high construction cost of nuclear power plants.

But Aboh said Africa, in the era of competing development needs could overcome most of the concerns if it ensured better coordination and development of the required high level nuclear power personnel through appropriate educational programmes.

Dr Vincent Nkong-Njock of the IAEA stressed the need for political and technical leadership in the development of nuclear power and the importance of sustaining cooperation and networking among African member countries to harmonise inter-country nuclear power programmes.

The case against Foreign Coaches for Ghana

Daily Graphic's Kofi Akordor has written a profoundly-insightful piece on why we must intensify the search for local coaches. I do not think he could have put it better stating that the Ghana Black Stars went to AFCON 2012:

''...withou a strategy but to exhibit individual talents''.

We can easily speculate that there was no Team GHANA. We must and CAN do better!!

------------------Sent from ekbensah jr's nokia e63
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*Contact me: +233.268.687.653// +233.243.111.789

Education minister Betty Mould-Iddrisu resigns...

...prompting speculation NDC government will not have it easy in run-up to elections in December.

______________________________________________
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*mob: +233.268.687.653/+233.243.111.789
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Regional integration| Communications | Civil society
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**Article: "DISHONESTY OF GJA AWARDS"

As someone who had the priviledge of sitting on the GJA Media Awards Committee in 2009, I have taken particular interest in these awards, and have also questioned the role of sponsors in the running of the whole show. Coming across this article was refreshing. As to whether GJA will respond, too, is another matter! Happy reading!

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Source: Ghanaian Chronicle - Ghanaian Chronicle
from: http://www.modernghana.com/news/350439/1/dishonesty-of-gja-awards.html

The 16 th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Awards ceremony held at the Banquet Hall, State House in Accra on Friday, September 9, 2011, failed to pass the test of excellence and honesty in many respects.

Apart from the poor organization of the event, there were many critical issues that smack of dishonesty, and to a large extent, corruption. I wish to articulate hereunder a few of the issues that have come to my attention and hope you will publish them in order to get answers and cure the wrongs in the system.

The first issue that ought to be addressed is about money raised for the organization of last Friday's event. Almost everything was sponsored, including the venue, laptops given to award winners, drinks and many more. The only things not sponsored were, perhaps, allowances given to award committee members, plaques given to award winners, food and protocol service.

So the question is what does the GJA executive use all the huge amount of money they receive as sponsorship packages for? Why is it that in spite of the huge cash sponsorship, award winners are not given a pesewa, even when sponsors make cash donations for winners of specific award categories?

I think there is the need for the GJA executive to account for the organization of the awards ceremony. It's not clear whether accounts were rendered for previous award ceremonies (I stand to be corrected).

The second issue has to do with how an award category for the best reporter on social security was smuggled into the event. To the best of my knowledge, social security reporting was NOT part of the award categories announced by the GJA, when it opened entries earlier in the year, (you may want to refer to media publications on the announcement for filing of entries).

Indeed, just about two months ago, and long after entries for the 2010 GJA Awards had been closed, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) announced (published in the media) that it would sponsor a GJA Award category on social security reporting for next year. The understanding is that journalists who cover the social security issues this year will have their stories accessed for the GJA Awards in 2012.

So how come an award was given to someone in that category last Friday. It was no wonder that the citation accompanying that award did not cite a specific story that the award winning journalist did, that earned him that grand title just as in the case of all the other categories.

The citation just made reference to the fact that the award winning journalist had been doing follow-up stories on social security.

If SSNIT wanted to show appreciation to a reporter who covers the social security beat,

Management could have simply called the reporter to the SSNIT headquarters to do that, and not to use a GJA platform for the celebration of journalism excellence for that purpose.

The fact that the social security award category was not opened for all to contest was very unfair, and indeed, corruption to allow anyone to carry a GJA plaque and title for that. The GJA must come clean on this.

Another award category that smacks of dishonesty is how someone was adjudged the best reporter for sports, but when everything was done and the list of award winners collated, that award winner was deprived of his hard earned prize, under very strange and inexplicable reasons. How could the GJA on one hand give award to a journalist for a category that was not opened for competition, and on the other hand, deprive another who genuinely won a competitive category. Is that how GJA celebrates journalism excellence?

The third issue that reeks of dishonesty regarding the awards is about the education category. How can one award be given to two different winners. Wherein then lies competition and excellence? Excellence requires that although many reporters might have submitted very good stories, only one of them is adjudged the best.

Consider this scenario. Five persons work on just one story, and one person works on another story. Now, the two stories are considered to be very good but only one must emerge as the best. Surely, to give the award to the person who worked alone, rather than make it a joint award with five other reporters, is a logic that is not far-fetched. Why then should that reporter have to share the prize with a whole team of reporters? Favouritism?

It will also be very interesting to find out from the GJA why the Government Statistician, Dr Grace Bediako used the platform of the 15 th GJA Awards ceremony last year to announce that the Ghana Statistical Service would give two awards for the best journalist and media organization that performed most creditably in the coverage of the 2010 Population and Housing Census, and yet nothing of the sort took place. The GJA must explain.

The intention to raise these issues is not to call the integrity of the GJA executive to question, rather it is to ensure that the GJA Awards remain a celebration of journalism excellence and not dishonesty.

Thank you.
Thomas Tetteh
(Freelance journalist)
thomas.tetteh AT yahoo.com

Ghana's Media Practitioners Must lose Themselves to Africa's Integration March!

"until Ghanaians begin to lose themselves to the rhythm of the African integration march, they will consign their progeny to an inexcusable fate they could have avoided. African integration will not work without a concerted effort by all—citizens and especially media alike—holding the policy-makers of these groupings accountable. 

Much of the time, citizens are keen to work for them because of the good money that is offered, forgetting that the benefits and good salary are the bonus of hard work in helping make a contribution towards the betterment of generations unborn.

As I write this in the aftermath of another successful GJA Media Awards, I cannot help but also bow my head down in shame on how despite the centrality of Ghana in African integration—thanks to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah—Ghanaian media practitioners seem to be waiting for some external actor to sponsor an AU reporting award before they start writing about the AU or ECOWAS! Where is civil society on this issue? Where, indeed, are the media practitioners who need to be asking why such an award is not part of the categories?

Ghana is much more than the politicking of the NPP and NDC, and I daresay we do not have to wait for the CPP to emerge as a fully-fledged third force before we start talking, and taking seriously what the AU and ECOWAS do. The triple responsibility that Ghanaians bear of being citizens of Ghana, ECOWAS community citizens and AUfrican citizens ought to awaken them to the imperative and necessity of capitalizing on both the months of May and September to give vent to the AUfrican personality the continent so desperately needs."

from: http://african-union-citizen.blogspot.com/2011/09/of-9th-11th-and-21st-september-or.html

Presentation on New Media Tools in Africa's Development (AUCC/Penplusbytes)

Click to Play

1. why are New Media Tools so popular, and how can they used to best effect to contribute to African development?

Of Irresponsible Journalists like Joseph Appiah-Dolphyne, and ECOWAS

It is a recondite fact that a lot of our Ghanaian media practitioners need capacity-building to be more discerning, but this has got to take the biscuit.

As I was winding down things to leave the office, I come across an article on Google News, which claims "ECOWAS ‘recognizes’ Gbagbo as president".

Now, if you have been following the story for the past three months, you would find this totally at synch against the ECOWAS option of wanting to use "legitimate force" to oust Gbagbo.

The journalist uses a PDF article on the ECOWAS website (http://www.ecowas.int) to claim that ECOWAS supports Gbagbo. This is totally mischievous. The PDF article is dated 6 June, 2010 -- many months before the whole crisis exploded.

The link he refers to can be downloaded here: http://www.ecowas.int/publications/en/ecowas_unit/Ecowas-National-Unit-Directory.pdf

An old article about a then-legitimate leader many months ago is in no way an endorsement by ECOWAS of Gbagbo as the President of Cote d'Ivoire.

Joseph Appiah-Dolphyne must come again!!