Attitudinal change way to make Accra cleanest city — Lydia Alhassan

The Minister-designate for Sanitation and Water Resources, Lydia Seyram Alhassan, has called for attitudinal change for the attainment of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's vision of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

She said she would not rate the President’s target but rather focus on how Ghanaians would change their way of doing things and leave everything, including cleaning their environment, to the government.

She was responding to questions when she appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament last Tuesday.

In 2017, President Akufo-Addo announced his vision of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

Emotional

When asked about the 2019 Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence, Ms Alhassan told the committee she was nowhere near the incident and could not be held responsible for the violence at Bawaleshie.

"The incident that happened on January 31, 2019, was unfortunate.

Mr Chairman, as a candidate whose focus was to win an election and support the voiceless, the underprivileged and support my constituency, my intention of doing that was not to win through violence.

For his part, the President's nominee for the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dakoa Newman, told the committee of her plans to set up a "Fostering Fund" to get children off the streets.

The fund, with the support of donors and partners, would assist fostering parents to provide a quality life for their children and get them back to school.

As part of her vision, the nominee, who is also the MP for Okaikwei South, would work with the various embassies to facilitate the return of foreign street children who had flooded parts of the country's streets.

Also key on her agenda and what she should be remembered for would be to revamp the various children’s parks to promote recreational activities.

As a member of the disability caucus in parliament, Ms Newman said she intended to ensure that Ghana's disability laws conformed to Ghana's disability laws conformed to the United Nation's Convention on human rights.

"I wish to promote disability-friendly buildings because currently, most of our buildings are not disability friendly.

Witches camp

On the issue of witches' camps especially in northern Ghana, Ms Newman said she would embark on a sensitisation and educational drive championed by traditional rulers for people to refrain from attacking women perceived to be witches.

Tourism

On whether the passage of the LGBT+ Bill would impact the tourism industry, the Minister-designate for Tourism, Art and Culture, Andrew Egyapa Mercer told the committee that, "whichever way you look at it, it will have an impact but our culture is our culture."

To him, the focus should rather be on what Ghana could offer the world that would make it more compelling for visitors to come.

The MP admitted that much had not been done for Ghanaians to experience their tourism sites to boost domestic tourism which needed to be reversed.

National Cathedral

When asked his views on the stalled National Cathedral, the nominee said "The National Cathedral was well-intentioned to be done between state and faith-based organisations unfortunately, contributions expected from the latter were not forthcoming."

"I don't know the financing position as of today but believe the contributions as expected were not forthcoming.

"I will urge parliament to support the project because some public funds have gone in there and we cannot allow it to go to waste," he said.

Mr Mercer said if completed, the National Cathedral could become "a huge income-generating entity through the attraction of visitors."

CSIR

When she took her turn, the minister-designate for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ophelia Mensah Hayford, stressed the need for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to patent all products and innovations to raise money to improve research.

She said the institution was struggling to raise funds to develop new products to help transform the economy.

She said she would leverage technology and technocrats to solve all environmental challenges, including galamsey, hoping that the new Environmental Protection Agency Bill currently before parliament would help crack the whip on those who flouted environmental laws.

Madam Hayford, an ex-police officer and MP for Mfantsemam promised to help improve the condition of scientists whose attrition rate is said to be high.

Galamsey

The minister-designate assured the Appointments Committee that she would collaborate with Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng and assess his report on galamsey to help fight it.