WHAT CAN THE MEDIA DO WHEN THERE IS A DEFECT IN THE CONSTITUTION BY MARGARET AKUOKOR ANKRAH

 The constitution of the Republic of Ghana is a written document that spells out the fundamental laws of which the state is governed. It consists of the norms, rules, codes and conventions which serve as authoritative direction for rulers and the ruled. All citizens are bonded by the constitution. The Chapter One Article four  (A) states, “All citizens of Ghana shall have the right and duty at all times to defend this constitution, and in particular, to resist any person or group of persons seeking to commit any of the acts referred to in clause(3) of this constitution.” This statement therefore conferred right to all citizens to duly protect and defend the constitution as the supreme law of the state. In regards to this, when there is a defect in the constitution, individuals or group of persons or even the media cannot change any law in the constitution but can only suggest to parliament through their views expressed on the platform of the media to alert parliament on such defect to review the constitution by an act of parliament. Article 289 (1) expressly designates Parliament as the body that “may amend any provision of the constitution.”

The media in Ghana is the fourth most powerful arm of the state. They act as a watch dog to the government that is the legislature, executive and judiciary. They are also intermediaries between the government and the public and through its activities and programmes they educate the public on government policies and create awareness of issues that are of public interest and vice versa use their medium to alert the government about issues that affect the state for them to take effective decisions that would enhance development. In order to function effectively, the constitution has provided its rights and freedom to make it effective and protect the media from undue confrontation by individual or government. The media criticize government; educate the public on government policies and debates on policies seeking public opinions before some laws are passed, an example is the Female Genital Mutilation among others.

Obviously, the 1992 Ghana Constitution has had its ups and downs. Many Ghanaians have expressed concerns over the flaws that are associated with the constitution. They challenged some provisions of Chapter 20, which deals with decentralization and local government, because those provisions tended to make the District Assembly and its municipal and metropolitan variations only extensions of the central government. Article 240(1) declares that “our system of Local Government shall, as far as practicable, be decentralized”. The vagueness of this Article, however, weakens it and some citizens have expressed their views on it for an amendment. The media carried the discussion of this Article for public discussion and debate thereby drawing the attention of the constitutional Review Council to consider it for parliament amendment.

Secondly, when there is a defect in the constitution the media through its programmes set the agenda for public discussion to alert the government on such defect that may cause harm to the development of the state. The media raises concern by holding group discussion on the defect with resource personalities to ignite both the public and the government of such out-sighted problem. They write articles, publish press releases and seek public views on a particular topic related to that defect. When this is done, it draws the concerns of parliament who are alerted by the media through headlines on newspapers and radio and television programmes to take necessary action to that effect.

More so, the media influences the importance attach to issues through the subtle means of "framing." They select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communication context, in such a way to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation and treatment or recommendation for the item described. Recently, the media in its various activities and news content in newspapers, radio and television have alerted the public and the government about the shortcomings of some articles in the constitution that has provided limited power to the NMC thereby making it ineffective in its operations and with opinions expressed by the public advocate for an amendment of that section of the constitution. For example, Article 162 sub-section (4) of chapter twelve states that “editors and publishers of newspapers and other institutions of the mass media shall not be subject to control or interference by Government, nor shall they be penalized or harassed for their editorial opinions and views, or the content of their publications.” This sub-section gives provision to editors and publishers who appeared before the NMC only to be exonerated because the NMC as a body has no control to penalized or harassed these “professionals” for their views.

In a nutshell, the media has a responsibility of awareness creation about certain policies and laws that are detrimental to the citizens and the nation as a whole to bring to bear such issues in the media content for authorities to take necessary action to amend those laws.

STREET VENDING AT ATIMPOKU(2009) BY MARGARET A. ANKRAH

CHAPTER ONE

The study of this research was based on street vending at Atimpoku, a town in the Eastern part of Ghana. Atimpoku is an Akan area but because they are near the Ewe’s, most of their inhabitants are Ewe’s. The area is made up of Adas, Akans and Ewes. They are traditionally farmers. Although the people sell different items on the street for traveling passengers, this study  concentrate on the selling of Abolo, One Man Thousand and Lobsters.

 “Abolo” as it is a called was introduced by Davi Afi popularly called Sam Nene (Sam’s mother) and was successful so she passed it on to the daughter Dora Nyinpa, the current president of the Market Women Association. “Abolo” itself cannot be really enjoyed without fish so a woman named Tettey Mary also introduced the one man thousand and was later joined by Esther Dogbaji. One Man Thousand is the name given to the wevi because of its tiny nature and one cannot take it one by one but rather in handful as in thousands.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

}  The study  aim to examine the reasons why the people go into street vending

}  The products they mostly sell and the cost involve

}  Profit Maximization

}  Risks involved

}  Future of the business

METHODOLOGY

     The methodology that was used for this research was informal interview and participant observation under qualitative research.

}  Informal interview: This method of interview was suitable for our study since most of the vendors cannot speak and read English. We simply begin a conversation with individual on friendly basis and then bring up the issue of our study along the way, obtaining information through willing participation, personal experience and opinion. The questionnaire was verbal but the questions were based on the objectives of this research.

}  Participant observation: The rationale for using this method was for the group to have a firsthand experience.

Time frame: A day

Location: Atimpoku

Targeted Group: street vendors at Atimpoku

Sampling size: 15-20 people

CHAPTER TWO

DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS

 At Atimpoku most of the traders are women and female children. The ages of the adult women that sell ranges from 20 -50 years and the children age from 11 – 16 years. Amazingly the children who sell are students and speak very good English. Most of the vendors live in Atimpoku while a few come from the neighboring town. Some of the traders have other professions like hairdresser and dressmaker yet they venture into the business.

The Abolo is prepared from corn. The corn is grind in a mill to get the corn dough. The corn dough is mixed with water, flour, sugar, and yeast, and then it is put down for roughly 9hours. After that they put firewood in the oven to heat it for some time then they knead the mixture of corn dough, sugar, flour and water nicely and put it in a husk before it is put in the oven. After two hours the Abolo is ready and it can only last for 2-3 days. The clay- made oven is called “Abolo Kpo”.  The cost of each Abolo is GHC 20p.

Fig 1.1 Abolo kpo for baking Abolo

Fig 1.2 This a ready Abolo from Abolo kpo

Also the traders who sell the wevi (one man thousand) buy it fresh from either Ada, or Akosombo and they fry it with cooking oil. They add some ginger, salt to the frying oil to reduce the scent of the fish before it is fried. Lobsters are also used alongside the one man thousand. A fresh lobster is very black. After catching it they wash it and add water and salt then they steam it for some time. It is then taken from the fire; the water is poured from the lobster before it is fried to get that actual red colour. The “One Man Thousand” ranges between GHC 50p to GHC 2 whilst the lobster ranges from GHC1-GHC5. The lobsters are not normally counted but rather they are packed into white polythene till it’s full. The lobsters can only last for 3days whilst the one man thousand can last close to 2-3 months. According to Dora the lobsters are caught 3 at a time because it is believed that when you catch beyond 3 you will drown or die.

Fig 1.3 The frying of wevi by a vendor

 Most of the traders are parents, they start vending around 5am  and end at 12midnight whilst the students amongst them come around 9am to 10pm that is if they are not in school but when they are, they sell after school. They sell to support their parents and some also sell for other people to get money to pay their classes fees.

 The traders stand along the street awaiting vehicles who pass by. They run after each vehicle with ease as soon as the vehicle stops to alight a passenger on board and most of at times because they are all selling the same product it becomes difficult as to which seller a customer buys from and this sometimes brings quarrels between the sellers. We also observe that whenever they are selling they try as much as possible to establish eye contacts, and smiles which make the customer feel like buying even if he/she does not want to. They normally make profit between GHC25-GHC35 and they attributed it to politics.

Fig 1.4 The vendors struggling to sell for passengers

Fig 1.5 A student share experience in street vending

Some have been selling as long as 20 years and it takes about two to three months or even less depending on fast and aggressive you are to learn on the job.

 Surprisingly, the vendors are very organized most of them belong to the Market Women Association of which Dora Nyinpa is their President and they pay a monthly due of GHC2 to GHC5. These dues are used to support any of the members in case of any in eventuality.

 Currently there are 500 registered members. They are divided into two groups and they run shifts. If group A sells today, group B sells the next day and that is how they run their days of selling. Each person makes a very good use of her selling day because if you miss your day, you cannot join the other group to sell.

During the lean season the sizes of the “one man thousand” decreases. Their best sales are always weekends and 25^th-30^th of each month. This is because it is during this time of the month that workers are paid and many people travel along their road to other towns. They account for low sales from 9^th-15^th and on week days. On a bad day one can sell between GHC40-GHC50 whilst on a good day they sell between GHC50-GHC100.

IDENTIFICATION OF A VENDOR

The street vendors belong to the Market Women Association which is headed by Dora Nyinpa. They pay monthly dues between GHC2-GHC5. These dues are used to support members in times of need or emergencies. When one dies within the organization, each person contributes GHC2 to help the family of the deceased and this GHC2 is not part of the monthly dues they pay. The organization is also in charge of dividing the vendors into groups. They currently have two groups A & B and they run shifts. The association makes sure that the groups adhere to the rules and regulations in terms of which group comes Monday or the day after. Each member of the Association has an identity card.

Fig 1.6 The Market Women Association card

The traders venture into street vending because of the following reasons;

Ø  To begin with, they go into the trade because of the extra income they make from selling the Abolo and one man thousand. The income ranges from GHC25 to GHC35 per pan and a pan can contain about GHC25-35 worth of Abolo or one man thousand.

Ø  Secondly, it is passed on from generation to generation. This is because there is no predominant job that fetches them more money than the selling of Abolo and one man thousand. Parents normally start training their children as soon as they are eleven upwards till they master and take care of the business themselves. So when the mother is of old age she leaves the business in the hands of the children and by so doing her also passes on the business to her wards.

Ø  Traditionally, they were mostly practicing subsistence farming but because of the predominance of the dam and the Adomi Bridge, of which most fishes are found, they quickly switched to Abolo trade and ever since then that has been the trend.

Ø  Furthermore some are also selling because they are unemployed so they volunteer to sell for someone and also get some income to feed their family.

Ø  Some are also mandated to sell Abolo on the street. This reason is they have no choice. Again that is the only source of income them and accessibility to raw materials are very easy to come by since they prepare the Abolo themselves.

CHAPTER THREE

OBSERVATION/RECOMMENDATIONS

In our research, we realized that if vendors were train to package their product well than what they are doing, many tourists most especially the white will patronize them and this will boost the economy of the nation.

Secondly, we suggest to the government to take a keen interest in the business of the people and provide a befitting place for them to market their products to traveling passengers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

 Individual vendors, Atimpoku. Interviewed by the group,21 February 2009

MARGARET AKUOKOR ANKRAH AMENHOTEP IV (AKHENATEN)

In the history of the 18^th dynasty saw another ruler called Amenhotep IV who ruled for 17 years. Although he was traditionally raised by his parent to worship Amen, he chooses Aten, the sun god that was worshipped in the earlier times. Amenhotep IV is said to have break with traditional religion and introducing the worship of the Aten, the sun god which is described as monotheism and to prove his loyalty, he changed his name to Akhenaten, “He who is of service to Aten.”[1] He married Nefertiti the daughter of the vizer Ay who was of no royal blood and also changed his queen’s name to Nefer- Nefru- Aten which is “Beautiful is the Beauty of Aten”

Amenhotep introduced a new monotheistic cult of the sun worship, Aten. He worship him in his own way and he was accessible only Akhenaten and prevented any intermediary priesthood. It was said that during his reign, he prevented people from worshipping Anum so he built a temple to his god Aten outside the gate of the temple of Amun at Karnak. And made illegal the cult of Anum and sent his officials to destroy Anum Status. There was opposition against his actions  so he left Thebes to a capital in middle Egypt, half way between Memphis and Thebes and named the new site Akhenaten- The horizon of the Aten which is now know as Amarna.

He summed up the ethos of the Aten cult and made the concept that only him had access to the god: “Thou arisest fair in the horizon of Heaven, O Living Aten, Beginner of Life … there is none who knows thee save thy son Akehenaten. Thou hast made him wise in thy plans and thy power.”[2]

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[1]Tour Egypt. Akhenaten 1352-1336 B.C. 18th Dynasty. (online) available http://touregypt.net/18dyn10.htm  07/04/2011

[2] Tour Egypt. Akhenaten 1352-1336 B.C. 18th Dynasty. (online) available http://touregypt.net/18dyn10.htm  07/04/2011