STATEMENT BY HON. MINISTER AT THE CENTENARY CELEBRATION OF THE LATE OSAGYEFO DR. KWAME NKRUMAH

I am very honoured at the opportunity to speak at this very important event to mark the 100th birthday of the Founder and First President of our dear Nation, Ghana. I would like with your indulgence to start my speech by asking these simple questions which I respectfully ask that we answer individually. Is Ghana’s history complete without Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah? Did women play a part in Ghana’s independence struggle and can Ghana’s development be complete without the effective participation of women?

Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, it is on behalf of the hardworking and committed women of Ghana that I stand before you to make this short speech. We are celebrating Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah today, because of his monumental achievements, including spearheading Ghana’s independence on March 6th, 1957.

Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, most of you will recall that, Ghana’s independence was fought and won with the active participation of men and women, the youth, Chiefs, Queen mothers and even children because of the involvement of some of us as Young Pioneers. In recognition of the great contribution of women in the independence struggle Dr Nkrumah created non-elected seats for them in Parliament.

The Deputy Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Hon. Hajia Hawawu Boya Gariba has called on Early Childhood Care and Development practitioners to be committed and dedicated to their work to ensure the proper training of children in the country.

Hon. Boya Gariba stressed that the kind of guidance and training a child received in his or her early formative years contributed largely to the future character of that child.

The Deputy Minister made the call when she paid a working visit to the National Nursery Teacher’s Training Centre in Accra.

The visit was to enable the Deputy Minister familiarize her self with activities and programmes of the centre and also discuss ways of strengthening collaboration between the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) and the Centre.

Hon. Boya Gariba said that MOWAC will liaise with the Ghana Education Service to work out ways of establishing regional and district offices of the Centre. This will enable practitioners in other regions take advantage of the useful training programmes being undertaken by the Centre.

The Officer-in-Charge of the Centre, Mrs. Evelyn Quartey-Papafio said that the training being offered by the Centre had contributed largely in raising the quality and enrollment in Early Childhood Care and Development Centres. She lauded the formulation of the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy, saying that the policy had brought a sense of direction in Early Childhood Care and Development in the country.

The Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs has reiterated the call on political parties seeking to contest the bye-election for the Chereponi Constituency Parliamentary seat in the Northern Region to nominate women as candidates for the election which has been scheduled for 29th September, 2009.

This call is in line with a communiqué signed by representatives of political parties at a high level workshop on the theme “Political Party’s Strategy for Developing Female Candidates and National Elections” organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs (I.E.A) with support of the Canadian High Commission at Akosombo in June this year. The political parties in the communiqué called for the establishment of a voluntary quota of 30 per cent positions for women in the administration of the parties, the selection of parliamentary candidates and the appointment of District Chief Executives as a means of promoting women’s empowerment.

The parties, comprising the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the People’s National Convention (PNC) also called for special measures by the Executive in the short term to initiate and support the passage of specific legislation on a mandatory quota system in the medium to long term.

We believe the time has come for the political parties to show their commitment to the spirit and letter of the communiqué and the various provisions and promises made in their party manifestoes and on campaign platforms during the 2008 elections.