Premier League clubs are being directed to observe a minute of silence to honour football legend Diego Armando Maradona who passed on Wednesday, November 25, 2020. This is a directive from world football governing body, FIFA.
Diego Maradona, who has died aged 60, succumbed to heart failure. Regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the game, Maradona became a household name after inspiring his country to World Cup glory.
On 25 November, football lost one of its greatest icons, Diego Armando Maradona. Across the world, there is a sense of profound loss at the untimely passing of a true legends of the game. It is not an overstatement to say that football will not be the same without him. We will be forever thankful for the contribution he made to our sport and we will miss him dearly.
‘‘In honour of Diego Armando Maradona and in solidarity with his family, and everyone who loved him so much, the flags at FIFA headquarters are being flown at half mast, and FIFA calls upon all competition managers to hold a minute of silence at every football match this coming weekend or at the next possible occasion’’ a FIFA statement read.
The directive means a minute of silence shall be observed this weekend across Premier League centres.
After marking his debut for Legon Cities FC in the Ghana Premier League in a goalless drawn game against Medeama SC, Asamoah Gyan has expressed his delight.
The leading top scorer of the Black Stars last played in the Ghanaian top-flight league in 2003 where he earned a move from Liberty Professionals to Udinese.
Now back in his home country, Asamoah Gyan has been signed by Legon Cities FC for the 2020/2021 football season.
On Friday evening, he climbed off the bench to feature for the side in a clash against Medeama SC that ended in a stalemate.
Speaking in a post-match interview, Gyan says it feels great to be back playing in the Ghana Premier League.
“I am very much excited to be back home. This is where the name, Asamoah Gyan started and it feels great to play in the league again after 17-years,” the 35-year old shared.
He continued, “I am very much satisfied with the game tonight. It’s a positive one. We need to approach the next game with this same mentality and I believe soon the wins will come.”
Ghana and AC Monza forward, Kevin Prince Boateng has urged young footballers to emulate Juventus superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese international is regarded as the most hard-working on the planet.
His dedication and love for football remain unquestionable.
The former Real Madrid forward despite breaking records still aim high and according to Boateng who played for AC Milan and Barcelona, speaking to DAZN’ exalts his colleague Cristiano Ronaldo, indicated as a true example to follow for young footballers.
“A war machine, it’s impressive how well it is managed.
“All young people should have him as an idol,” he said.
Ronaldo is a five-times Ballon D’or award winner and has won the Uefa Champions League five times.
AC Monza forward, Kevin Prince Boateng has said he is helping his teammates to develop with the help of his experience.
Boateng, 33, joined the Serie B side this summer following his returning to Fiorentina after spending the 2019/20 football season at Besiktas in Turkey.
According to him, having experienced players in the locker room always players to develop and he is using his experience to help his teammates.
“At Monza I have respect for my teammates, they respect me,” he told DAZN.
“I bring experience, certainly many guys tell me that they feel like seeing me in the dressing room: but this helps them to grow, having champions in the dressing room helped me too when I was a boy.
“Brocchi has his own idea of football, he gives me ideas to help others too.
“Then well, at 33 I’m capable of playing football, at this age, it’s all a matter of mind: I believe 100% in my body and my mind,” he added.
Boateng gas featured four times for the club scoring twice.
The Ghana forward has played for 14 clubs across Europe.
The debate about who introduces the free senior high school policy seems unending.
Leader and flagbearer of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) Mr. Percival Kofi Akpalo has joined free SHS debate.
Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia program, he minced no words declaring the policy was introduced and well executed by the President now flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo.
He therefore wonders how and “why anybody in his or her right frame of mind claim ownership” of the policy.
“The Devil himself, who is the father of all lies even knows that Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo through his NPP government introduced the free SHS policy,” he stated.
He maintained that his government will continue the policy when they are elected into power by Ghanaians which they know is possible.
“Ghanaians will certainly vote for the LPG because they know that just like the NPP government, we have more policies than any other party.
“My party was even the first to touch on the one district one factory policy being implemented by the NPP government.
“As a party, we have more pro-poor policies than any other party so voting for the LPG is just like voting for a party that will alleviate you from the hardship of this country.
“We are going to make this country like America and Europe where everyone benefits from the national cake,” he added.
Former Special Prosecutor Martin A.B.K Amidu has described the Agyapa Royalties deal as the mother of all corruption since Ghana gained independence in 1957.
This is captured in his latest epistle in response to the presidency’s comment after accepting his (Amidu’s) resignation weeks back.
Mr Amidu resigned from his position as Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor on November 16, 2020.
In his resignation letter, he cited amongst other things political interference from the president as a reason for his decision. He accused the President of interfering in his work with regards to the Agyapa deal and wanted him to ‘shelve’ the report.
In accepting Mr. Amidu’s resignation, President Akufo-Addo denied ever interfering in his work and rather said he gave him all the assistance and independence to operate.
But in a 27-page response to the Presidency, the citizen vigilante said; “I have underscored the deliberate distortions and manipulations of facts contained in the opening paragraphs of your letter written to me on the directives and instructions of the President to demonstrate that your letter to me from its inception was intended to be the personification of falsehoods to the good people of Ghana and to divert public attention from a very important and serious anti-corruption assessment in respect of the Agyapa Royalties Limited Transaction documents report which I conducted professionally as the first Special Prosecutor of Ghana.”
“The Agyapa Royalties Limited Transaction contains the mother of all suspended corruption and corruption-related offences to be discovered in the first analysis of the risk of the prevention of corruption and anti-corruption assessment since Ghana attained its independence in 1957,” Amidu stated.
To him, the President Akufo-Addo can best pass for the kingpin of corruption, and indicted the latter for taking the presidential “oath while looking like the innocent flower of anti-corruption but being the mother serpent of corruption under it.”
“I resigned my position as the Special Prosecutor because of the traumatic experience I suffered from the reaction of the President who breached his Presidential oath by unlawfully obstructing me from taking any further steps on the Agyapa Royalties Transactions from 20th October 2020 to 1 November 2020.”
“When I met the President on 23rd October 2020, I received the shock of my life when he demanded that I took no further action on the Agyapa royalties transaction anti-corruption assessment report for another week. That was when it was divinely revealed to me that the President whom I trusted so much for integrity only looked like the innocent flower of anti-corruption but he was really the mother corruption serpent under the innocent-looking flower,” he added.
Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt has backed claims that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government did not originate and roll-out the free Senior High School (SHS) programme.
Former President and NDC Presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama claims his government started the free SHS policy but they couldn’t implement itfully because Ghanaians voted them out of power in 2016.
“We started the programme and the NPP came and continued it. Unfortunately the implementation has been very poor, and so it ended us in double track. I assure you my country men, that within one year, I will cancel the double track.
“All the Community Day Schools we were building, 200 of them, we are going to finish them so that all the children can get schools to attend.
“With the Community Day Schools we are building, we are going to add dormitory blocks for girls and boys so that those who don’t come from the community where the school is sited, if they choose that school and they are posted there, they will be able to get a decent place to live and learn,” Mr Mahama said during his tour of the Upper East Region.
But to some political critics, particularly NPP faithfuls, Mr. Mahama is peddling falsehood in his desperate attempts to win the 2020 elections. Some even took to mocking the former president for what they considered to be absurd claims since they believed President Nana Akufo-Addo is the sole initiator of the free SHS programme.
However, Kwesi Pratt thinks otherwise. Referencing the manifestoes of some political parties in the country to back his assertions, the Senior Journalist was emphatic that the free SHS was the most important item on the list of promises by the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) prior to the 2012 and 2016 elections; thus the Akufo-Addo government cannot claim sole ownership either.
”Their most important policy was free SHS. In fact, PPP is the first political party that showed us how to fund the policy and also had a budget for it.”
To him, President Akufo-Addo rather rolled out progressive free education and not free SHS.
”They started with first years before moving to second year and third year. That is progressive…When the NPP came into power, they did a progressive free education”
He added that the oppostion NDC never condemned the free SHS but rather the argument was about how to implement it.
”The argument wasn’t whether it’s good or not but about how to implement it. The NPP said they will implement it instantly and that they don’t want it to be progressive. Our brothers in the NDC also said they will make it progressive”, he said on Peace FM’s ”Kokrokoo”.
Embattled Anti-corruption Crusader, Martin Alamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu, says but for “divine revelation,” he would still be under the erroneous impression that the President, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo was a man of integrity.
According to him, just like the scales felled off the eyes of the Biblical Saul following a hands-on prayer encounter with Ananias, the “Holy Trinity” gave him a divine vision about the real “mother corruption serpent under the innocent-looking flower of anti-corruption” that the president is.
Mr Amidu who was appointed by the president to help fight corruption and was tasked to probe the controversial Agyapa Royalties Transaction Agreement is now in a sparring contest of words with his former employer.
He resigned from his position as Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor on November 16, 2020.
In his anti-corruption assessment report on the Agyapa deal, he indicted the Transaction Advisor(s) involved in the deal for being susceptible to “nepotism, cronyism, and favoritism”.
Even though the president has strongly denied the allegations, Amidu insisted that God revealed to him the facts about the deal.
President Akufo Addo in a letter accepting Mr. Amidu’s resignation denied ever interfering in his work and rather said he gave him all the assistance and independence to operate.
But Amidu has disputed those claims after describing the president as a “mother serpent of corruption”.
In a 27-page response to the presidency’s comment after accepting his resignation weeks back, Amidu without ‘fear and favor’ has concluded that the first gentleman of the land is living a double life at the blind side of most Ghanaians.
“That God (represented by the Holy Trinity in my Catholic faith) was in his own divine way revealing to me for the first time the President of Ghana only looked like the innocent flower of the fight against corruption but was indeed the mother serpent of corruption under the innocent-looking flower of anti-corruption,” he noted in his latest epistle.
And in a thanksgiving prayer, he added; “May God, encompassed in the blessed Holy trinity be eternally praised for that divine revelation.”
Presidential candidate of the Ghana Freedom Party, Madam Akua Donkor says she will abolish English Language when elected as President of Ghana.
According to her, one of her topmost promises to Ghanaians is to ban the citizenry from speaking English stressing the making of English an official language of the country contributes to the woes of Ghanaians..
Akua Donkor said this during an interview with host Abeiku Santana on Okay FM’s drive time.
She added that she will sack every person in Parliament to make way for new people, new laws.
”I will abolish English Language in Ghana. When elected, I will ban Ghana from speaking English. God, in his infinite wisdom, knows why He created us. We don’t rule a nation with English but with wisdom and power”, she said.
Ever since that introduction of the national health insurance scheme in Ghana, many Ghanaians and even non Ghanaian attend hospitals for free.
The national have insurance cards are designed to be renewed monthly when it was introduced some few years ago. The good news about this card was that you can go to any hospital you want in Ghana to receive treatment for free. That is the easy part, the heart part is renewing the card when it expires This is where the problem lies.
To a new this card, you have to go to there national health insurance scheme office in your district to renew the it.
There, You would have to join long queue and great in the queue for hours to renew your card. And if you are not able to renew the card that day it means you have to come back the next day to join the queue again and when you are lucky you can renew the card.
For this reason the authority of the national health insurance scheme have introduced a short code to renew every national health insurance card on any mobile phone for approximately the same price you would renew it in their office. You just have to the *929# on any telecommunication network and have access to their system to renew your card.
The Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture has instituted an insurance scheme for those in the Creative Arts Industry.
This Scheme is to cover critical issues such as injury and other accidents in the line of duty. The scheme will be launched next month and will take effect on the 1st of January next year. Sector Minister, Babara Oteng Gyasi, speaking at the Meet the Press Series in Accra said the scheme will cover members in good standing, adding that the first year premium will be funded by government and subsequently self-payment by members from 2022.
When she took her turn at the Meet the Press Series, the Minister of Tourism, Babara Oteng Gyasi, gave a brief on government COVID-19 alleviation programme for members in the tourism sector.
So far more than 54,000 members in the hospitality, clothing and textile, as well as food and Beverages sector have benefited from the intervention in Covid and post Covid-era. She said that more interventions are in place to cushion members.
Madam Oteng Gyasi spoke of plans to have an insurance package for members. She said most creative arts practitioners are not covered by any risk measures. This is partly due to the fact that such persons are not salaried workers and they ply their trade through contractual methods, hence the scheme.
The Ministry is also working on other projects such as the establishment of a film village, a gold museum setting up of a creative industry fund among others in a bid to sustain and project the creative arts industry.
Ghanaian Gospel musician, Cwesi Oteng has said he is unperturbed by threats from some supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The ‘God Dey Bless Me’ singer claimed he has been threatened by some fanatics of the opposition party after he declared his support for Nana Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Despite the threats, Cwesi stressed that won’t stop him from campaigning for Nana Addo.
In a post sighted by Zionfelix.net, he stated that their death wish is under his feet. Cwesi Oteng tweeted: “My career is solid I’ve virtually pioneered a new era of gospel music in this country. right now I’m campaigning, so let’s finish and see career. NDC people you did not call me. God did, if you called me you could determine my work time. your death wish is under my feet.”
Ghanaian comic actor cum musician, Benson Nana Yaw Oduro, popularly known as Funny Face has finally apologised to his baby mama and all the people he verbally abused during his depression state.
In a post on his Instagram page, he begged all those he offended to forgive him for his unflattering behavior.
According to him, he was ready to accept all the blame for whatever that has gone on in the past few weeks that have been put on social media. He went on to apologise to Vanessa’s father, Jah Wisdom and Vanessa’s mum for all the words he used against them.
His apology could be from a word of advice he got from Peace FM’s Kwasi Aboagye after he visited Funnyface at his premise .
