Asenta - Monkey Business in Ghana, Embarrassment for Government?

Monkey Business in Ghana An Embarrassment for the Government? Prior to President Rawlings’ directives for consultation, Ghanaians had had to contend with terse one-line statements attributable to the Deputy Minister of Environment and the Minister of Agriculture. In one of those statements, the Deputy Minister of Environment, Lee Ocran reportedly said that his Ministry had just been informed and is yet to take a decision on the project. In effect, the government had neither endorsed nor rejected it. Agriculture Minister Owusu Akyeampong is also quoted as saying that the chimps can be brought into the country only after the US federal, and Ghanaian officials have certified that they are healthy.	He conceded however that Ghana does not have the capability to detect complex diseases that may have been grown in a laboratory or contracted from the space exploratory journeys some of the chimps undertook. But many are those who are taking the government’s “we have just been informed” position with a pinch of salt, especially since a top government official is reported to have participated in that land acquisition ceremony in Nkonya Ntumda. Dr. Kwabena Agyei, Member of Parliament for the area and Majority Leader in parliament sat in the “spectacular African ceremony, replete with traditional pageantry” at which the land transfer was formalized and school children were “rewarded” with pencils and notebooks. @s

An Embarrassment for the Government?

Prior to President Rawlings’ directives for consultation, Ghanaians had had to contend with terse one-line statements attributable to the Deputy Minister of Environment and the Minister of Agriculture. In one of those statements, the Deputy Minister of Environment, Lee Ocran reportedly said that his Ministry had just been informed and is yet to take a decision on the project. In effect, the government had neither endorsed nor rejected it.

Agriculture Minister Owusu Akyeampong is also quoted as saying that the chimps can be brought into the country only after the US federal, and Ghanaian officials have certified that they are healthy.

He conceded however that Ghana does not have the capability to detect complex diseases that may have been grown in a laboratory or contracted from the space exploratory journeys some of the chimps undertook.

But many are those who are taking the government’s “we have just been informed” position with a pinch of salt, especially since a top government official is reported to have participated in that land acquisition ceremony in Nkonya Ntumda. Dr. Kwabena Agyei, Member of Parliament for the area and Majority Leader in parliament sat in the “spectacular African ceremony, replete with traditional pageantry” at which the land transfer was formalized and school children were “rewarded” with pencils and notebooks. @s