General News of Tuesday, 12 March 2019

Source: Daniel Kaku

Kofi Buah wins Pan African Republic honorary award

Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah receiving his award Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah receiving his award

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembelle in the Western Region, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah has won Pan African Republic Honorary Award for his impressive performance in Parliament and in government.

The MP was among top national figures selected across the country to be recognized on Saturday at the Accra International Conference Center by the Confederation of Governance Assessment Institute (COGAI) in partnership with the Bureau of Research on Governance, Commerce and Administration (BORGA) and the selection committee of the Pan African Republic Honorary Awards.

The citation accompanying the award read "Your profound dedication, commitment and relentless devotion to be fair, free and firm in balanced decision making have earned you this honour".

For the sake of credibility, fairness and due diligence, the organizers of the award scheme, pointed out "Careful considerations on all nominations, background checks and relative research have been diligently conducted, to acknowledge all dignitaries in their order of achievements and excellence".

BORGA is a subsidiary organization of COGAI with the core mandate to monitor and evaluate the implication of government policies and their relative impact on businesses and social activities.

COGAI was formed in 2007 and it enjoins its member organizations to undertake research, offer analysis and assess the performance of individuals, corporate operations for socio-economic growth.

COGAI has over the years collaborated with its subsidiary organizations and international institutions to organize corporate events, such as Honorary Doctorate Degree (HDD) Awards-2017-2018, Pan African Enterprise & Achievers Honorary Awards 2017, Hepatitis B/Diabetes/Hypertension Screening 2016-2017 and Pan Africa Eminence Awards 2016.

During the scourge of the Ebola epidemic, COGAI set up a mission Ebola World Mission Africa and collaborated with the Ministry of Health in educating the public on precautionary measures to control the viral menace

Director General of COGAI, Professor Victor K. Yankah, who addressed the awardees at the colourful ceremony in the nation's capital, touched on four thematic areas of development that must influence service delivery in the country.

These thematic areas touched on were improved performance in public service, promotion of peace and security, guaranteeing posterity with all the assurance of a brighter future, and the need to protect the media landscape with decency in managing public space.

He, therefore, called for judicious use of traditional and social media in the country against bad foreign contents being promoted by foreign invaders to destroy our cultural pattern and the national psyche.

After receiving the award, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah, who is one of the multiple international and local award-winning political figures in the country, thanked the organizers of the award scheme for recognizing his effort.

He dedicated the award to the chiefs and people of Ellembelle, Nzema for solidly rallying behind him through thick and thin.

Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah served as Minister for Energy, and subsequently Petroleum under the administration of President John Dramani Mahama

He has been credited for fixing Ghana's power sector challenges including the power outages that plunged the country in darkness for many years and affected social and economic activities uncontrollably.

The former Minister has also been credited for championing the formulation of policies and programs that shaped the country's oil and gas sector through the introduction of the required legislations, the gas master plan, gas infrastructure and promotion of use of LPG through free cylinder distribution to offer clean energy in rural Ghana in place of wood fuel as part of conservation of the country's forestry cover.

In his constituency, he has earned the nickname 'Action Man', for responding proactively and productively to pressing challenges seriously confronting communities and hampering development.

The focus of his development programs in the constituency currently covers health, education, local economic empowerment, electricity to rural areas, social infrastructure, security issues among others.