Editorial News of Monday, 26 January 1998

Source: null

The Ghanaian Chronicle

In a front page story under the heading: "Don't underestimate Konadu's ambition", the Chronicle reports Mr Kwame Pianim, an economic consultant and a leading member of the NPP as cautioning the opposition against underestimating the First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, should she run for the 2000 ppresidency on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Mr Pianim told the Chronicle that apart from the NDC having all the state machinery behind it, Mrs Rawlings possesses abundant organisational skills, has dedicated troops on the ground, is a fierce and ruthless competitor and can be more formidable than President Rawlings himself. He therefore advised the NPP to shed the "Presidential road shows" and concentrate more on the constituencies in order to build the party into a winsome political entity. GRI

In another front page story, the Chronicle reports that in one of the most dehumanising forms of psychological torture that could not be imagined even by the Nazis, the Ghana Military Police, have been locking up a bburglary suspect at the mortuary of the 37 Military Hospital in Accra in a bid to extract confession from the suspect. The paper says since the suspect did not buckle under intially, the innovative form of torture has been administered on him in daily doses of 30 minutes stay with the dead since December 9, last year. GRI

"Ebo Tawiah calls for national resistance", is another headline that attract the front page of the Chronicle. The accompanying story says Mr Ebo Tawiah, a member of the National Working Committee for Nkrumaist Unity, has called on Ghanians to wage a relentless battle for the control of the 'commanding heights of the national economy. The Chronicle quotes Mr Ebo Tawiah, former member of the erstwhile PNDC as saying, "the foreignisation of the national economy to the detriment of indigenous industrialists and entrepreneurs, devalues the gains of the independence movement and undermines our capacity for accelerated development". GRI