The Arise Ghana organization is annoying a right away cancellation of the ‘Agyapa Deal’, caution that it'll now no longer take a seat down and watch some egocentric thieves in authorities enjoy the united states’ mineral royalties.
Last 12 months, there has been a variety of competition from the citizenry while authorities deliberate to monetize the united states’ mineral sources via the Agyapa deal heightened.
Government is in search of pushing the deal after it becomes, to begin with, shot down through CSOs together with distinguished residents.
Speaking at an information convention in Accra on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, Mordecai Thiombiano, General Secretary of the organization has warned that it'll now no longer watch on for a fraudulent scheme dubbed “Agyapa” to peer the mild of the day which handiest seeks to advantage some.
“We call for a right away and general cancellation of the Agyapa Royalties deal as equal isn't in the countrywide hobby.
“We will in no way take a seat down aloof and permit some egocentric and grasping thieves in authorities to suitable our mineral royalties for themselves and their families,” he stated.
Arise Ghana insists that the time has come for all conscientious Ghanaians to rise and “Save Ghana Now”.
Below is the clicking declaration issued through Arise Ghana;
MAIDEN PRESS CONFERENCE BY “ARISE GHANA” TO ADDRESS CRITICAL ISSUES OF POLITICAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE TO OUR DEAR NATION.
Wednesday, twenty-fifth May, 2022
Good morning, women and Gentlemen of the clicking.
We have the respect of welcoming you to this maiden press convention of “Arise Ghana”, a coalition of patriotic, conscientious and worried Ghanaians drawn from numerous political parties, together with the Peoples’ National Convention (PNC), the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP), the Ghana Union Movement (GUM), the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), the All People’s Congress (APC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC), numerous Civil Society Organizations, the media, the innovative arts industry, Driver Unions, Traders and residents from all walks of life.
Distinguished buddies from the media, “Arise Ghana”, is an amalgamation of activists who via advocacy and nationalistic mobilization, will are trying to find to steer a campaign in opposition to the non-stop misrule, mismanagement and maladministration of our pricey kingdom Ghana these days responsibility bearers. We are decided to relentlessly champion the not unusual place purpose of the Ghanaian humans, offer a voice for the unvoiced and vigorously are trying to find reforms with a purpose to result in the wished alternate withinside the socio-monetary, politico-social and fashionable health of the Ghanaian citizenry.
Ladies and gents, we've got come to a degree in our kingdom’s records in which to stay silent isn't an option. This is so because to be silent is to inspire the non-stop triumph of evil. To continue to be quiet over the prevailing situation is to inspire the non-stop slide of our united states into the abyss. Choosing now no longer to talk approximately the modern-day situation method being complicit withinside the ongoing kingdom seizes and the sacrifice our collective destiny at the altar of immediate gratification. We glaringly can not have the funds for the choice of last silent.
Economic hardships
Friends from the media, there are infrequently sufficient phrases to explain the tough monetary realities of Ghanaians these days. Fuel fees preserve growing on the pumps each day, with its concomitant impact on delivery fares, fees for meals and fashionable items and offerings withinside the united states.
The charge for gasoline in Ghana these days stays one of the maxima in Africa. As a result of this, the gap between Kwame Nkrumah Circle and Kaneshie, charges the everyday guy in a Trotro, Ghc3 as we speak. Today, the gap from Madina to Kasoa calls for a delivery fare of Ghc12 even in public delivery. In truth, one calls for a whopping Ghc200 to journey from Accra to Tamale, a distance that used to value the commuter Ghc100 withinside the 12 months of 2019.
Inflation price keeps to gallop at an alarming price and stands these days at 23.6%, the best in 18 years, thereby spiralling weekly hikes in fees of foodstuffs. The latest survey through Metro TV which become posted on Sunday, twenty-second May 2022 found out that an Olonka of Maize which was bought for GH12.00 handiest final week, now sells for GH15.00 this week, even as a sack of maize which was bought for GH450.00 handiest final week, now sells for GH650.00 this week. In a comparable vein, a sack of yam which becomes promoting at GH350.00 final week is now promoting for GH450.00 this week, even as a field of tomatoes which hitherto become bought at GH1000.00 final week is that this week going for GH1,200.00.
From this marketplace survey which become completed over simply one week, it's far clean that the value of residing in Ghana these days is at an all-time excessive. With the Government’s much-touted Planting for Food and Jobs software last an enormous failure, coupled with the ever-growing value of agricultural inputs and mechanization offerings, the hazard of meals lack of confidence looms ever large on us than before.
In truth, the buying energy of the everyday Ghanaian has rapid deteriorated because of the insufferable value of residing thereby causing untold hardships for Ghanaians. Things are constantly getting worse through the day and not using a result insight.
Worsening Economic Conditions
Distinguished buddies from the media, the financial system keeps wallowing withinside the doldrums, with all monetary signs nose-diving even as Government appears helplessly. The Cedi’s free-fall keeps unabated due to the failure of the Government to translate its rhetoric into action. Today, the Cedi trades at approximately Eight Cedis, 50 pesewas to the United States Dollar. The non-stop depreciation of our countrywide forex in opposition to its fundamental buying and selling companions keeps scrubbing away the income margins and in maximum cases, the capital of many agencies and buyers who depend upon foreign exchange alternatives to import important items into the united states. This scenario has similarly annoyed the alarming price of inflation the kingdom is currently experiencing.
Even greater stress is the alarming price of joblessness and hopelessness withinside the united states, in particular the various youth. Today, the price of unemployment has risen to an all-time excessive, having moved from 6% withinside the 12 months of 2017 to an astonishing 13.5% as of 2021.
Indeed, our pricey kingdom is currently in a deep monetary mess. The united states have misplaced get admission to the worldwide capital marketplace because of our unsustainable debt position. Our Public debt has accelerated to unparalleled and unsustainable stages from GHS120 billion cedis to over GHS391. nine billion cedis handiest withinside the final 5 and 1/2 of years. This method that at a minimum, this authorities alone, when you consider that 2017, has delivered a whopping Ghc271.nine billion to the countrywide debt stock, with a bit of this going into consumption. The debt to GDP ratio has galloped from 56% in 2016 to approximately 80% as we speak, even as our debt carrier burden has moved from approximately GHS14 billion cedis as of December 2016, to a whopping GHS50 billion cedis.
This monetary scenario that is our worst overall performance withinside the records of this Fourth Republic has worsened our credit score worthiness and dampened investor self-belief in our financial system main to our worst ever downgrades through reliable sovereign credit score Agencies consisting of Moody’s and Fitch. Simply put, our liked Ghana is broke and that is an instantaneous made from the awful leadership, insensitivity, out of place proprieties and gross monetary mismanagement of the prevailing Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration.
Draconian Taxes
While wages of the Ghanaian employee continue to be static, with nearly all exertions unions up in fingers over negative wages withinside the wake of worsening monetary hardships, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia authorities keep imposing killer and draconian taxes on the already pressured taxpayer. The latest passage of the obnoxious E-levy and its next implementation stays but any other slap withinside the face of the Ghanaian humans. Never withinside the records of our united states has a central authority behaved so obstinately in implementing a draconian tax degree on its residents, regardless of loud public outcry.
The government’s next use of judicial shenanigans in an try to protect the unlawful imposition of this E-levy stays but any other clean demonstration of the way determined and callous they are.
State Capture and land grabbing
THE ATTEMPT TO REINTRODUCE THE FRAUDULENT AGYAPA DEAL
Distinguished buddies from the media, one of the cardinal, but regrettable legacies of President Akufo-Addo and Alhaji Bawumia stays the unparalleled stages of kingdom seize we're witnessing these days. The exercise of kingdom seize below these authorities has assumed such alarming proportions that the God-given sources of this united states which might be imagined to advantage gift and destiny generations are being used by just a few grasping families, buddies and cronies in authorities these days.
One of the maximum weird, but a brazen show of kingdom seizing has manifested itself withinside the unpopular selection of this Government to Monetize our mineral sources in perpetuity below a fraudulent scheme dubbed “Agyapa” for the advantage of a pick few.
To begin with, gladdened our hearts that the Ghanaian humans spoke in unison in opposition to this prepared heist called “Agyapa” and pressured authorities to droop equal. We are mortified to notice that regardless of the general public outcry over this deal, the NPP/Akufo-Addo authorities are headstrong and are in search of reintroducing the “Agyapa” deal as currently introduced through the Finance Minister. We desire to serve and observe that this modern-day try to reintroduce the unpopular “Agyapa” Mineral Royalties deal will be defeated, as we will withstand equal with the entirety inside us.
GRABBING OF ACHIMOTA FOREST RESERVE LANDS
Ladies and gents of the media, we daresay that you, like many Ghanaians, have been amazed by the latest reviews of a positive E. I one hundred forty-four which seeks to declassify quantities of the Achimota Forest as now no longer a Forest Reserve.
Well, because the announcing is going, coming occasions forged their shadows, and certainly, latest occasions have now given out the actual cause and reason of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Government relative to this be counted of the Achimota Forest Reserve. As we now know, President Akufo-Addo and his land grabbers in authorities have been handiest hiding in the back of a positive historic declaration through one Owoo Family to show suitable the Achimota Forest Reserve, nature conservation of massive environmental significance to all of us, amongst themselves.
It has now emerged via a few leaked quantities of the Will of the past due to Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, aka Sir John, a former CEO of the Forestry Commission, that factors in the Akudo-Addo/Bawumia Government have already shared lands withinside the Achimota Forest Reserve amongst themselves. Indeed, quantities of the lands are contained withinside the leaked Will Document making the rounds. This is a tragedy of countrywide proportions and we condemn it in no unsure terms. To consider that the Achimota Forest, one of the few surviving nature reserves in Ghana, could emerge as any other problem of the kingdom seized by President Akufo-Addo and his cabal of buccaneers in Government breaks our hearts greatly.
Friends from the media, quantities of the past due Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie’s Will exhibits numerous high lands, together with the ones on the Achimota Forest and the Sakumono Ramsar Site that the past due CEO of the Forest Commission obtained inside a completely brief stint in Government, which he in flip willed to his household previous to his death. These revelations are however a microcosm of the dimensions and value of grabbing and plundering of kingdom lands and different sources through President Akufo-Addo and functionaries in his authorities in a way corresponding to the behaviour of pirates at the excessive sea.
Corruption and Abuse of the Public purse.
Distinguished buddies from the media, corruption stays endemic and pervasive below President Akufo-Addo and Alhaji Bawumia who've grown to become themselves the finest enablers and promoters of equality.
Despite being the maximum resourced authorities in Ghana’s records, these authorities have wasted all of the unparalleled sales which have been collected to them totalling approximately GHS500 billion, especially via profligacy and corruption.
At the hazard of sounding monotonous, it bears reminding that corruption scandals consisting of the BOST scandal concerning the unlawful sale of 5 million litres of infected gasoline to doubtful entities, the Australian Visa Fraud Scandal, the Galamsey Fraud Scandal, the PPA Contracts for Sale scandal, the PDS scandal, the Missing Excavators scandal and the maximum latest Sputnik V Scandal continue to be unresolved times of sunlight hours heist that President Akufo-Addo has both grew to become a blind eye to or whitewashed the perpetrators.
All tries to call for responsibility for using the Covid-19 price range remain suppressed through President Akufo-Addo who has efficiently doused the flame of responsibility. There is little surprise consequently that corruption is at an all-time excessive below this modern-day regime.
Even greater weird is the truth that at a time while the majority of Ghanaians are struggling and experiencing excruciating hardships, President Akufo-Addo keeps journeying in ultra-costly and hyper-pricey non-public jets at excessive cost to the already-impoverished Ghanaian taxpayer simply to fulfil his creature comforts.
Conclusion
Distinguished buddies from the media, our pricey kingdom is on the verge of turning into a failed kingdom. The middle can now no longer keep. Things are falling apart. It is going without announcing that the modern-day situation requires action. Every well-that means Ghanaian is consequently responsibility-sure now no longer handiest to talk in opposition to the ills of these days, however additionally to behave now to store the soul of our kingdom.
This is why we in Arise Ghana are announcing to all conscientious Ghanaians to rise and “Save Ghana Now”!
Demands
1. We call for a right away withdrawal of E.I one hundred forty-four and a stop to the land grabbing of the Achimota Forest Reserve lands. Caution is hereby served to President Akufo-Addo and his land grabbers to live their fingers off the Achimota Forest lands. We urge Parliament who're the representatives of the humans to institute a bi-partisan probe into the topics regarding the sale of lands withinside the Achimota Forest immediately. This probe has to be obvious and all persons, be they beyond or gift authorities officials, civil or public servants, and all whose fingers are dirty through this shameless grabbing of Achimota Forest lands have to be named, shamed and the stolen Lands retrieved for the State.
2. We call for a right away and general cancellation of the Agyapa Royalties deal as equality isn't in the countrywide hobby. We will in no way take a seat down aloof and permit some egocentric and grasping thieves in authorities to suitable our mineral royalties for themselves and their families.
3. Also, we call for a right away discount in gasoline fees via the scrapping of crippling gasoline taxes consisting of the sanitation levy (“Borla tax”) of 10 pesewas on each litre of diesel and petrol. We agree that this if completed, will offer a few respites to struggling drivers and Ghanaians as a whole.
4. Additionally, we call for the instant repeal of the obnoxious E-levy Act, which is not anything but bare thievery of the meagre sources of the citizenry through the depraved Akufo-Addo/Bawumia authorities.
In the mild of the foregoing demands, “Arise Ghana” shall keep a Public Forum withinside the coming days to similarly expatiate on those crucial topics of the significant public hobby.
More importantly, we desire to announce for the records of all Ghanaians, that we will be embarking on a sizeable demonstration on the twenty-first of June 2022 withinside the metropolis of Accra to press domestic those demands. We consequently name on all Ghanaians who choose to peer an alternate withinside the affairs of our like united states to pop out of their numbers and be a part of us at the streets of Accra for this ancient protest.
This could be the primary of a chain of protest moves that we will relentlessly be protected throughout the duration and breadth of the united states to bring enough stress to endure the insensitive, corrupt and incompetent Akufo-Addo/Bawumia authorities to behave withinside the nice hobby of Ghanaians.
Ladies and gents, Ghana wishes to be stored now. And this needs to be completed through you and me. We have had sufficient of the hardships authorities continue causing us; Enough of the damaged promises; Enough of the bare thievery of kingdom sources; Enough of the vanity of energy; Enough of the kingdom-seize; Enough of the way of life of impunity. We all have a function to play withinside the battle to store the soul of our liked united states. The time to behave is now!
May God bless our native land Ghana and make her remarkable and sturdy via your collective efforts.
Thank you for your interest women and gents.
Signed,
Comrade Mordecai Thiombiano- General Secretary, APC and main Member of Arise Ghana (touch No.; 0279781055)
Comrade Duncan Amoah-Executive Secretary, COPEC Ghana and main member of Arise Ghana (touch no.; 0243246570)
Comrade Bobie Ansah- Broadcast Journalist and Leading member of Arise Ghana (touch no.; 0243123620)
Comrade Mensah Thompson- Convener, ASEPA and main member of Arise Ghana (touch no.; 0542120628)
Comrade Osei Kofi Acquah, National Youth Organiser, CPP and main member of Arise Ghana (Contact no.; 0243388633)
Comrade Ishaq Awudu, Communications Director, PNC and main Member of Arise Ghana (touch no.; 0244947573)
Comrade Kojo Gold, General Secretary, GUM and main member of Arise Ghana (Contact no.; 0244782025)
Comrade Rex Omar- Musician and Leading Member of Arise Ghana (touch no.; 0556569304)
Dzramado Selorm Dramani- President, Unemployed Association and Leading Member of Arise Ghana (touch no.; 0241384810
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