OPINION

The Panama Papers & a country suffering from acute lethargy
By Kwesi Baako

Once again, that lackluster response that greets almost every important issue that is not directly ‘bread and butter’ showed its face when the ‘Panama Papers’ surfaced this week. Ghanaians once again reacted as if it was just another ordinary story. I do not blame us entirely, after all, hadn’t John Addo Kufour, eldest son of Ghana’s former President John Agyekum Kufour been in the news in the not so distant past for activities that at best slightly embarrassed his father, the then President of Ghana? So why should there be a loud “wow” over a case of corruption concerning someone who had been in and out of a high profile corruption case.

OPINION

African dilemma in world migration crisis
By Tony Luka Elumelu  

ECOWAS Building

For Africa and Africans, migration is a way of life and this is also largely true of people of the other continents. To a large extent, the great Trans-Saharan Trade, and the attendant migration, was part of attempts at achieving economic development, boosting cultural exchanges and integration. Thus, migration can be described as an agent of development, which has impacted positively on the Gross Development Products of many African countries, and the economic contributions, in remittances by African Diasporas to their home countries, which is a boost to the annual budgets. 

OPINION

Ghana’s new visa plan and pan-Africanism
By Paul Ejime     

 

Ghana President John Dramani Mahama in a State of the Nation address to mark Ghana’s 59th independence anniversary on March 6, 2016 made two important pronouncements with foreign relations implications. The first was his government’s plan to improve the knowledge and usage of French language in Anglophone Ghana, which is surrounded by French speaking nations. The advantages of this strategic initiative if effectively implemented are many.

LEADERSHIP & CORRUPTION

New leaks on overseas deals indict world leaders
By Uchenna Ezeh (with agency report)

Saraki, Lionel Messi, Icelandic PM, Putin's associates, China's leader, Cameron's father, Saudi Arabia king on list. A huge leak of confidential documents has revealed how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth, as 11 million documents were leaked from one of the world's most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.