Chief Beats Queenmother In Public

The Paramount Chief of Goaso Traditional Area, Nana Kwasi Baffour Bosomprah II, has been fined for allegedly assaulting the Queenmother of Dantano, near Kukuom in the Asunafo South District of the Brong Ahafo Region.

The Goasomanhene was compelled to cough out various fines amounting to GH¢3,200, as well as present three sheep and six bottles of schnapps by a panel of chiefs which sat on the case on September 12 at the Kukuom palace after he admitted to the offense.

Following that, the Queenmother of Goaso, Nana Yaa Achiaa, invoked the Great Oath of the Asantehene on Nana Kwasi Bosomprah for denigrating the stool by fighting in public.

By the Great Oath, the queenmother demanded his destoolment, a matter which is pending before the Asantehene.

The chief allegedly assaulted the Dantano Queenmother, Nana Ama Agyapah, also known as Nana Yaa Amankwaah, on June 4, 2011 at Ayomso, near Mim, during the final funeral rites of the late Ayomso queenmother.

The offence of Nana Yaa Amankwaah was that she allegedly refused to get up from her seat to pay the chief homage and insulted him when he arrived at the funeral grounds.

Out of fury, the chief allegedly violently pushed the queenmother to the ground and ordered his aides to subject her to beatings.

She reported the matter to the police and just when the case was being processed for court, Nana Kwasi Bosomprah, through one Mr. Baye, an NDC parliamentary aspirant at Asunafo North, intervened and opted for an out-of-court settlement.

Subsequently, Nana Kwasi Bosomprah was charged by the adjudicating panel to slaughter three sheep, present 6 bottles of schnapps, and pay various sums of money amounting to GH¢3,200. An amount of GH¢2,400 was to be paid to the victim to defray her medical expenses, while GH¢500 was meant to compensate her, with the remaining GH¢300 going to the panel.

According to a member of the panel, Okyeame Oduro Numapau of Kukuom, the Goasomanhene managed to pay the GH¢500 compensation and GH¢600 out of the GH¢2,400 medical expenses to the victim.

He also paid the GH¢300 to the panel and pleaded to be given one month to pay the remaining fine.

The panel, which was chaired by Nana Boakye Kukrudufo, the chief of Fawohoyeden, had the following members: Nana Kwadwo Boadi, Sianahene, Nana Obeng Bempah, Kukuom Akyeamehene, Nana Adusei Nkrumah, Nana Abena Osaa II, Queenmother of Kukuom and Okyeame Oduro Numapau of Kukuom, the office of the Kukuom Traditional Council Registrar has disclosed.

When DAILY GUIDE spoke to the assaulted queenmother, she confirmed being beaten by Nana Kwasi Bosomprah at the funeral grounds at Ayomso on June 4, 2011 because she refused to get up from her seat when the paramount chief and his entourage arrived.

She said she did not get up because they were all in a mourning mood and the event was not for merry-making to warrant any strict observance of the tradition, and more so she was not under the Goasomanhene.

Nana Yaa Amankwaah said the chief, who became furious with her conduct, rushed on her, pushed her down and ordered his aides to further attack her.

According to her, she reported the incident to the police and just as the matter was being prepared for court, the Omanhene pleaded with the police, through an NDC activist, to settle the case out of court which she obliged.

The queenmother said the matter had since been settled and the chief had been charged to compensate her. She said she was very satisfied with the compensation and wished the story died a natural death without being carried by the media.

However, when contacted, Nana Kwasi Bosomprah denied personally assaulting the queen mother.

He claimed it was some of his aides who smashed the umbrella of the queen mother on the ground when she rained insults on him in public.

He said he was dragged to the police and later before the committee because as a paramount chief, he took responsibility for his aides’ actions.

Nana Baffour Bosomprah threatened to deal drastically with Daily Guide if it published any story about him since he had not committed any crime.

According to him, the allegation was an attempt by his detractors to disgrace him, claiming the paper had been tasked by his enemies to tarnish his image.

Doctors Went On Strike

President John Mills has appealed to striking doctors to call off the four-day old strike and return to work.He said things have become difficult and urged the agitated doctors to consider dying patients at the various hospitals across the country and return to work.According to him, the NPP announced the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) but left no money to implement it, adding the doctors must exercise restraint in going about their activities. The President said this during a tour of the Greater Accra Region to inspect ongoing projects, Tuesday, Joy News' Presidential correspondent Seth Kwame Boateng reported.The Ghana Medical Association last Friday announced a nationwide strike to protest what they claim was stalled negotiation and a lull in migration onto the Single Spine Salary Structure. They blame the Fair Wages and Salary Commission as well as government for doing very little to address their grievances.Patients across the country are already feeling the ‘pain’ of empty wards and OPDs with no doctor ready and available to attend to them. Depending on how precarious and emergency their situation is they are either given a first aid and sent back home or admitted for careful examination. The doctors have come under a barrage of criticisms from some stakeholders, including government spokespersons, with a call on them to return to work. President John Mills on Tuesday waded into the crisis situation, appealing to the doctors to return to duty.  He said government is willing and ready to sit with them to address their grievances.

Train People For Jobs

Persistent complaints about the country’s universities’ failure to adequately equip graduates with relevant skills for the world of work, have come under attack.
A former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Akilakpa Sawyer, says the complaints are ill-informed, misplaced and populist.
The purpose of university education, he said, is to prepare people for work not to train them for specific jobs.
“The question of curriculum relevance is often crowded in populism. I do not think it is the university’s function to prepare its students for a particular assignment; the function is to broaden their minds; educate them about how to acquire knowledge, and give them values which ensure [that] whatever they do after the university, they bring to their task, skills, insights, values which they wouldn’t have had otherwise,” he said.
Prof. Sawyer is afraid the country’s universities are being pressurized into becoming vocational institutions.
“It is true that our graduates need to have jobs,” he said, but added, “it is not the university’s function to train them for jobs; absolutely not! It is to educate them for work, not train them for jobs. For example if you get a degree in Agriculture, it doesn’t make you a good farmer.”
Prof. Sawyer was speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Monday on the quality of education in the country.
He said the increasing numbers of students in the university has put the quality of education under constant threat.
Demand for education, he believes, must be balanced with the need for higher quality because “it is not good enough to simply have large numbers in the institutions; if the teaching is bad and the research is poor, what do we get?”
According to him, the education authorities must adopt technology to help mitigate the problem of increasing demand for higher education which is impeded by inadequate resources to expand educational facilities to meet the demands.
The retired educationist recommended distance education as the surest way out. He debunked assertions that the quality of education is compromised if the distance learning module is adopted, insisting the module had been used successfully elsewhere.