This paper discusses the issue of nuclear energy in Ghana, although the country is not operating a nuclear plant, the study focuses on the energy crisis that persistently hit the country and government’s plans to opt for nuclear energy as part of Ghana’s energy’s mix to cater for the shortfalls in Ghana’s electricity generation. Ghana after independence decided to add nuclear energy into its energy mix to promote industrialization and make Ghana an industrial hub and investment destination as well as make it a net exporter of power in Africa. In spite of this plan for a nuclear plant resurfacing within contemporary discourse, there has been a strong opposition against the country going nuclear, citing some safety and security issues which are sometimes fueled by lack of an in depth knowledge of what nuclear energy really entails. Qualitative research approach was employed to investigate Ghana’s drive for attaining its initial plans for a nuclear plant. Data has been retrieved from both primary and secondary sources. The analysis of the data collected revealed that Ghana’s inability to operate a nuclear plant is as a result of fear of a nuclear disaster like it happened at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, USA, Chernobyl in Ukraine and Fukishima Daichi in Japan, as well as the safety of the nuclear plants and the radioactive wastes emitted into the environment. The study revealed that this fear of people regarding nuclear energy is over-emphasized and again the major nuclear disasters that have rocked the world were caused by human error; in most cases security warnings were ignored. The study established that the delay in executing the plans are due to monetary challenges since building a nuclear plant involves a lot of money. This notwithstanding, Ghana has enough skilled nuclear scientists to manage the country’s nuclear plants should any be built.
Ghana’s education system has gone through several reforms in the post-independence period in the bid to increase access, ensure equity and quality at all levels (basic to tertiary). However, these goals seem to be a mirage especially on issues concerning quality at the secondary and tertiary levels. Against this backdrop, it has become imperative to raise relevant questions for the development of a new synthesis that is practical enough to allow for the necessary action to push forward the quality discourse which is a major concern among stakeholders. This paper intends to at least, serve the purpose of refreshing our memories concerning how we have individually or collectively, as citizens and academics, pondered over free secondary education, quality education and the role of the university teacher within the melting pot of the quality discourse in Ghana. It also serves the purpose of instigating a discourse on teachers’ role in ensuring quality education.
Religion plays an important role in the lives of individuals. It most especially highlights the dictates of the good and bad for people through its scriptures. In some societies, religion is infused into their cultures, making it difficult for the people to determine the difference. Ghana is known for its religious tolerance and also its belief in patriarchy among others. The country has a majority of about 70% citizens in the Christian faith, 17% in the Islamic faith and the remaining is shared between others which may include the traditional belief systems. This article seeks to highlight the impact of Islam on political participation in Ghana and Parliament in particular. The focus of this study is to discuss the question relating to the limited level of participation of Muslim women in parliament. In particular, the article assesses the Qur’anic teachings to find out if the same is responsible for the minimal level of political participation or has served as an obstacle to the goals of Muslim women aspiring to be parliamentarians in Ghana.
Colonization successfully advanced various reforms in Africa that affected several practices on the continent. The various customs that have been affected include the land tenure system of British colonies in particular. An abundance of laws and policies were adopted with the sole aim of conserving the environment. These policies often clashed with indigenous interests and witnessed counter attacks as a result. Despite this, there is little information in the literature concerning how British land policies shaped their relations with the indigenous people, particularly the Asante. Based on a qualitative research approach, the current study uses Asante as a focal point of discourse in order to historically trace British land policies and how they, the British engaged with the people of Asante. From the discourse, it should be established that the colonial administration passed ordinances to mobilize revenue and not necessarily for the protection of the environment. In addition, the findings indicated that the boom in cash crops, such as cocoa and rubber, prompted Britain to reform the land tenure system. With the land policies, individuals and private organizations could acquire lands from local authorities for the cultivation of cash crops. We conclude that the quest to control land distribution caused the British to further annex Asante.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of challenges to the globalized world. Globally, it has decimated over six million lives. Since 2019, it has shook the world in many respects, especially, it disrupted economies and societies and halted the majority of human endeavor. Commentaries and reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the media showed an alarming situation that could be damning in low and middle income countries. Economic pundits and global public health experts also anticipated doom and gloom for African countries. However, in terms of mortality, the Americas, Europe and Asia have suffered more losses. Irrespective of these loses in Europe, Africa’s case needs better appreciation within our contemporary historical discourse. The burgeoning challenge of the COVID disease and mortalities arising thereby, among other things, necessitated the introduction of policies based on the WHO’s historical understanding of how the world has dealt with pandemics in the past. Some of the strategies that were deployed to fight the pandemic included hand washing under running water with soap, the use of alcohol based hand sanitizers, the wearing of nose masks, social distancing, self-isolation as well as partial and complete lockdowns of states and communities. The major economic disruption really came about as a result of many lockdown policies that were implemented by several countries in Africa without proper reference to their own societal contexts. These issues notwithstanding, it is important to emphasize that the extent of the impact on different communities differed to a large extent, even though there were similar levels of the nature of the infection and the general economic outlook among the global community. This current contribution on the COVID-19 discourse used political economy and economic shock as bases to highlight the extent of the impact of the disease by highlighting examples from respective countries in Africa, namely, Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Algeria and South Africa. In particular, the impact of policies like lock-down on some of these African countries are highlighted for further discussions in future empirical research. The study relied on contemporary historical evidence from multidisciplinary sources on health, economics, policy, and other related studies on epidemiology, public health, health education and promotion, reports and sources from the World Health Organization (WHO). Specifically, the authors have used published research in Lancet, the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, BMJ Global Health, Frontiers in Public Health and the Pan African Medical Journal. The others were African Development Review, Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Africa Spectrum and International Journal of Financial Research including several other empirical researches. In attempting a social and economic interpretation based on contemporary historical sense, the findings of this present study suggest that African political actors or leaders should make persistent or steady efforts to strengthen the economies of their states to lessen economic shocks and social costs that come about as a result of pandemics such as the COVID-19. It also identified the fact that within the globalized space, application of policies from other countries including international organizations should not be devoid of context.
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