The National Constitution Review Conference begins today:1st-5thMarch

The Constitution Review Commission (CRC) is hosting a 5-day National Constitution Review Conference before a gathering of 2000 people, including His Excellency John Mahama, the Vice President and His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana, Prof. John Atta Mills who will address the Conference alongside Prof. (Emeritus) Albert Kodzo Fiadjoe, Chair of the Constitution Review Commission.

The theme of the Conference is 'The Constitution: Our Identity'.

To attend the conference, you would have to register and print out your ticket.

Airing live on GTV, the Conference will serve as a climax to the CRC's consultations with the people of Ghana, opening to national debate the 75,000+ ideas submitted by Ghanaians on the matter of the Constitution.

• Experts will have critical discussions on the various suggestions for review.
• Our national experiences and issues will be compared with international comparative experiences and best practices.
• Every citizen will have the chance to participate in re-crafting the Constitution

The final recommendations of the Commission will be largely based on the outcomes of the Conference so don't hesitate: register NOW to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the blueprint upon which the future of Ghana will be based.

A full programme for the Conference can be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/eMEpUN.

Conference Objectives

1. To serve as a representative national platform where the over-75,000 submissions received and processed will be tabled for national debate.
2. To bring together persons with expertise and experiential knowledge on the various thematic areas implicated by the submissions to assist the conference to arrive at durable solutions and options for constitutional redesign.
3. To provide an opportunity to relate national experiences and issues with international comparative experiences and best practices.
4. To begin to build national consensus around the issues tabled for discussion at the conference.

Conference Participation

Participants are being drawn from public, private and civil society organizations as well as individuals. Identifiable groups such as Political Parties, Youth groups, Gender groups, Persons with Disability, Children, Professional Bodies and Associations, Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the Private Sector as well as Eminent persons, Facilitators and National and International Consultants would participate.

Consultations So Far

So far, the Commission has undertaken the following levels of consultations:

• Community and District Consultations (Apr – Jun ‘10): all 170 Districts
• Follow-Up Community and District Consultations (Jul – Sept ‘10): all 170 Districts
• Regional Open Forums (Aug – Sept ‘10 ): all 10 Regions
• Regional Mini Consultations (Aug - Sept ‘10): all 10 Regions
• Formal Regional Public Hearings (Aug - Sept ‘10): all 10 Regions
• National Mini Consultations (Aug – Oct ‘10): 56 Interest Groups & MDAs
• Diaspora Consultations in Kenya, Nigeria Botswana, Egypt and South Africa (Nov ‘10)
• Written Submissions sent to the Commission from all over the world (Jan – Dec ‘10)
• New Media/Social Media (website, Facebook and Twitter) entries from all over the world (Mar – Dec ‘10)
• Special Consultations with Sitting and Former Presidents, Vice Presidents, etc (Dec ‘10 – Feb ‘11)
• SMS Text-In Campaign across all Networks (Ongoing)
• Phone Calls and Text Messages from all over the world (Jan – Dec ‘10)

Submissions So Far

The over 75,000 submissions received so far have been synthesized into 12 thematic areas. These have been further broken down into some 77 sub themes and about 548 issues. These will be tabled for debate at the National Constitution Review Conference.

Contacts

Telephone: +233 302 771185 / +233 302 771184

Mobile: +233 20 1635322
Fax: +233 302 771188
Email: info@crc.gov.gh
Website: www.crc.gov.gh
Facebook: facebook.com/CRCgh
Twitter: twitter.com/CRCgh

To contribute to the issues before and during the conference, send a blank text to Short Code 1992 from all Networks to receive and answer any of the top 25 questions (0.50GP/text).

source: www.crc.gov.gh

Kwame Nkrumah’s books return to Ghana- to be sold at subsidized rates

After the February 24, 1966 coup that saw the overthrow of Ghana’s first Prime Minister,Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, books and photos of him were deliberately burnt and banned through the use of State power at the time. It was an offence to be seen carrying any memento of the man who won independence for Ghana on 6thMarch 1957 from British rule.

For the past four decades plus, books written by Kwame Nkrumah have been very hard to come by in Ghana. Local bookshops after bookshops and libraries are never in the position to satisfy Nkrumahists, except for people who have the wherewithal to order direct from abroad, for instance from PANAF who seem to have the publishing rights. Occasionally, one may come across very old copies that have been kept under very bad conditions, owned by older folks who were members of the ‘young pioneers’.

Many other authors and historians have written about the life and works of Kwame Nkrumah who the vision of a United African Continent, notable among them is ‘Black Star’ by Basil Davidson.

Nkrumah himself mainly wrote about pan-africanism/African unity, philosophy and neo-colonialism.(*see bottom of post for list of KN’s books)

But at the just ended three-day Government of Ghana & African Union joint celebration of African Union Day, which also marked the last phase of the year long Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Celebration, Professor Akilagpa Sawyerr (Chairman -K. N Centenary Planning Committee) announced that…

“…thousands and thousands of copies have been airlifted into the country and they will soon be distributed to bookshops across the country will be sold at affordable and subsidized prices....there is also the attempt to get the publishing rights back to Ghana."

The announcement by the professor followed comments from a youth representative who spoke at closing ceremony at the Accra International Conference Centre appealing that Kwame Nkrumah’s books be made available owing to their scarcity in the country.

According to Professor Akilagpa, it was his fervent hope and wishes that the books will bring out the in-depth intellect of the man who was voted in 2000 by BBC listeners as Africa’s Man of the Millennium. That the books will spark off the same ideas of Kwame Nkrumah that set Ghana on a Socialist path and sought to make it an industrial nation.

“We are also working very hard to bring down from the United States (Lincoln University) documents and research papers that Nkrumah wrote to be housed here in Ghana…the current custodians have promised to do so if we are able to convince them of proper storage.”

For people who criticized the colloquium as a talk shop, which was also, attended by Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade, who sponsored to Accra a large youth contingent, Akilagpa Sawyerr had rebuttal…,

“this colloquium is not only about debate, it is an investment of ideas that will lead to action in the pursuance of Kwame Nkrumah’s dreams.”

Earlier before the formal ending of the Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Colloquium, a flag-raising and wreath-laying ceremony was held at the Accra highstreet based Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum attended by the Vice president of Ghana and former president of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda. Also present at the dying embers of the colloquium was the 93yr-old comrade of Kwame Nkrumah, Ambassador Dudley Thompson, born in the West Indies and appointed counsel to the reparations committee by the OAU(Organisation of African Unity, now African Union) in 1991.

While in office and exiled abroad, Kwame Nkrumah authored over 20 books and research papers between 1951 and 1972 when he died in Romania. From Guinea, where he was exiled after the 1966 coup, he published ‘Dark days in Ghana’ and ‘voice from Conakry’ among others. At the time of his death some of books had been translated into thirteen different languages (according to PANAF).

Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown in a Military Coup d'état while on trip to Hanoi, North Vietnam. He left for Conakry Guinea on being told of the overthrow. He lived in Conakry as Co –President of Guinea.

*List of Books by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah

Africa Must Unite

Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah-freedom Fighter’s edition

Challenges of the Congo

Class struggle in Africa

CONSCIENCISM: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization

Dark days in Ghana

GHANA: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah

Nkrumah Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare

I Speak of Freedom

NEO-COLONIALISM: The Last Stage of Imperialism

Revolutionary Path

Rhodesia File

The Struggle Continues

Towards Colonial Freedom

Voice From Conakry