Gay Right Debate And The Church...MY TAKE

I get a heart break each time I hear Ghanaians advance a religious based argument in the anti gay debate. It convinces me we aren't serious in our supposed anti-gay stance as a people.
In my generation, fear of the supposed repercussions of disobeying the commandments of God has NOT really scared us from ‘sin’ therefore if the main argument in this gay right debate is that ‘God would get angry’, then I am sure we are on a wild goose chase because that claim hardly puts fear into anyone these days.
For instance, my recent conversation with several teenage folks taught me that the fear of contracting a deadly Sexually Transmitted Infection (STIs) or an unplanned pregnancy is keeping more young people away from premarital sex, than the biblical doctrines of fornication and hell fire. Oh yeah.
I am on the view that an evidence-based argument outlining the adverse medical effects and health dangers of anal sex (homosexual sex for that matter) is more likely to scare people from the act than merely telling them ‘God does not like it’.
They know God is ‘forgiving’ and has been generally tolerant of all the nonsense going on even among Christians and persons who claim to be Pastors. I doubt if there is any homosexual out there who does not know that religion, be it Christianity, Islam or others frown on homosexuality. This knowledge has not been enough to curb homosexuality or prevent people from getting involved.
Rather than attempting to pray away homosexuality through long days of fasting and speaking of strange tongues, we should go the extra mile of opening up the debate and engaging in some candid intellectual masturbation.
Pretending homosexuality is a moral challenge with a religious solution is pure lazy thinking.
The world has moved beyond that. The debate now transcends religion and the religious folks should be in a position to engage in an all round debate on whether it is a medical condition caused by hormonal imbalance which can be cured if detected early or whether it is a life style people adopt by choice.
What I mean is telling people the exact dangers and health risk of homo sex sinks better than leaving it to God. It sounds abstract and the least scary…..
And before I forget.... I have a fiancee...her name is Akosua.
Halifax writes,

Tuesday July 7, 2015.

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I AM HARD, NOT EVIL – Delay

Delores Frimpong Manso, popular entertainer and rising entrepreneur, has said she has no apology or regrets over her style of questions on the ‘Delay Talk Show’ though it has ruffled feathers and earned her some public condemnation.

The celebrated radio and television presenter has also described as false, suggestions that she deliberately engages her guests in sensational discussions that would generate controversy.

“Many people hide behind social media to insult me and call me an evil person because of my style. I even suspect some of those insults are stage-managed by people using different pseudonyms. These are people who can’t stand my style, people who can’t see a woman host her own show for seven years and continue to remain in top rating, people who want to see me fall, people who know I am not evil as they want to paint me publicly  but perhaps because I am too hard for them to confront me in person, they hide behind social media to attack me. That’s cowardice”,   Delores aka Delay told NEWS-ONE.

She said the Delay Talk Show, is not a platform for pampering people and hiding the truth and that she has to “ask the hard questions to get the uncensored truth out.”

“I remember when Wanlov Kobulor appeared on the show and I asked him whether it was true he does not wear underwear, most of the people who insulted me and called me evil did not watch the show but only heard Kubolor had showed his sex organ on my show. It never happened. We did the professional thing of censoring that part before it was aired but the insults came at me for asking the question. I did not point a gun at the head of the male adult to show whatever he showed, why should be the one who gets called evil for asking such a question.

“Recently, Akua Donkor was on the show and it was a tough interview which got her to speak from her heart. When she said things that were clearly not true, I pointed it out and this irritated her. It was a good show which I was expecting to be congratulated for but all I got were insults and the usual ‘evil’ tag”, Delay explained. 

The popular radio and television presenter opined it was a combination of “ignorance and hate” which makes some insult her after each episode of the show which airs on Viasat-1 Friday evenings.

“I think radio and television presenters should be bold enough to ask all the tough and hard questions without fear or favour once it is done with respect and within the confines of the law.

“We are not dumb people just going on radio or tv to ask questions. Most of the time the questions are well researched by your production team and we know what answers you are likely to give.  It would be silly for you to host a show and ask someone a question and the persons give you a false answer and you fail to point it out to the person that the facts and reality on the ground differ”, Delay concluded.

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SABHAGHA: Ghanaian 22, Gets Fashion Label

A 22-year old second year Senior High School student, Emmanuel Sabhagha, has established his own clothing line label that has become very popular and has expressed optimism of becoming an international brand from Ghana.

Sabhagha told NEWS-ONE his label, ‘Life On The Streets’ (LOTS), was conceived from his personal experience of the harsh realities of living life on the street.

The brand has maintained an increasing popularity among the youth.

“I am 22 now but would soon complete Senior High and become a man so I had to think of how to earn a living rather than completing school and searching for jobs that do not exist.

“It was just an idea I tossed over with a few friends but now it has become a reality and I am selling my cloths and making money. I believe ‘Life On The Streets’ is not just a fashion label but a statement to motivate people and challenge them into coming out with creative ways of earning a living and becoming self employed.

“When the idea came, I did not have money so had to rely on a loan from friends, get designer to put my idea of a logo, get it registered, invest the loan into the business and now  we are selling T-Shirts, Polo shirts, hoodies, sweat shirts, snap bags, wrist bands and our stock is moving fast”, Sabhagha explained. 

The 22-year old Ghanaian is venturing into the fashion industry at a time the United Nations has outlined creative industries’, including fashion, as a viable potential to boost development especially in developing and under developed countries.

Sabhagha confirmed to NEWS-ONE the fashion industry is a lucrative venture with a profit margin worth writing home about.

“People love to look good and generally consider what they wear as a major way of enhancing their public image. And if you come out with a nice label on a quality fabric that has durability, people would start to associate with you and help you grow.

“In this era of social media, marketing your stuff is not that difficult. From the beginning, I have relied on facebook, instragran and other social media sites and because the strategy is working well, I am not encouraged to look for a huge amount of money to rent a big office in town”, Sabhagha stated.

Explaining his target market, Sabhagha said LOTS is for persons who believe there is hope for everyone, including those living on the streets.

“There are many people out there who were not pampered to reach the top, people who are down but believe they can get to the top, people who want to encourage themselves and encourage others to think of creative ways of surviving and making a living, they are my target market and they have not disappointed me so far”, Sabhagha added. 

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BBnZ Goes Live!

By all standards, it certainly is a good time for Ghanaian music star Elorm Adablah, popularly known as EL; his videos are making constant rotations on Channel O and he has bagged 3 nominations for this year’s Ghana Music Awards.
EL has been nominated for the Best New Artiste of the Year, the Best Rap Artiste of the Year and the Best Collaboration of the Year for his duet with Sarkodie titled ‘You Go Kill Me’.
As if that is not enough, NEWS-ONE has picked reports that EL is about to release a 20-track album- quite unprecedented for any Ghanaian musician.
EL is about to accomplish that feat courtesy his management company, BBnZ Live; a relatively new multi-purpose entertainment cum media company seated on the topmost floor of the Flore Heights Towers on the Ring Road Central in Accra.
NEWS-ONE (NO), out of sheer curiosity, decided to find out about this relatively new but enviable company called BBnZ Live. The paper spoke to two of the company’s four directors- Kwame Blay (KB) and Alvin Bekoe (AB).

NO: What does BBnZ actually stand for?

KB: BBnZ Live is an acronym. It is actually an abbreviation of the surnames names of all the directors of the company. So you have Bekoe, Blay and Zinney. There is actually a fourth partner, Michael Jaba and he brings the ‘Live’ bit. He is our UK partner and works with OH TV.

NO: Aside the studio works what else do you do?
KB: The studio is actually the smallest aspect of what BBnZ Live does. We are a complete marketing firm and we provide a range of media-related services including account management, media planning, indoor and outdoor events, commercial printing and visual marketing. We are also into creative media, advertising and we are a management agency. Aside that, we also do brand management. We have artistes, artists, sound engineers, music producers, clothing lines; we have about six different brands which we manage under BBnZ Live. Ian Isigo is a Nigerian clothing brand which we manage; Sons of Elizabeth is a Ghanaian clothing brand we manage; we have EL the musician.

AB: We also want to focus on improving the quality of entertainment in the country and this is one of our major priorities. We came up with all the concepts in EL’s videos and for real they are raising eyebrows on Channel O. We are also doing a lot of productions, as in actual shows, which we want people to come to.

KB: We have a show on TV now which is ‘Pamper Your Mum’, with Anita Erskine; we have a new show with Gzigbodi, the Allure lady and it’s called the ‘Gzigbodi Show’. We basically want to focus on Ghanaian entertainment but doing it at international standards to prove that despite the fact that this is Ghana and we started later than the Nigerians and the South Africans, we still have a lot to offer the music, entertainment and branding industry.


NO: How long have you been around?


KB: BBnZ is a new company. The directors are not new to each other but we incorporated the company last year and started operations in August 2011 as a full-fledged company. I believe we have gained a lot in a few months.

NO: You seem to have avoided the Ghanaian media

AB: Well that was strategic. We believe in letting our works speak for themselves. We want to be behind the scenes at least for the first year or two. So far, people call us and ask what exactly we do and when we tell them what we have done, they get surprised.

NO: Is artiste management lucrative in Ghana?

KB: If you are serious about it and you plan properly, it can be a very lucrative venture. I mean in any market, it is all about proper planning. Yes, Ghana is smaller than Nigeria, South Africa etc but at the end of the day, there are still shows that can be planned properly in this country. There are a lot of high schools in Ghana and there are times EL plays 30 shows per weekend.
AB: There is a fundamental issue with artiste management in Ghana. This is basically the image of the artiste. It is not just about walking into the studio, drop a track then off you go until there is a show. This is a full-time job so we would ensure the artiste gets the best image and this is about branding and when you brand your artiste properly, the right sponsorship deals would follow with the endorsement deals and mouthwatering deals. The two are inseparable. So we are careful of what our artistes wear and how they carry themselves; when they release a song and all the little little things that others miss.


NO: You mean to say you determine what your artiste wears?
KB: Yeah. The clothes, the shoes, the perfumes and everything just have to be right.
AB: We have a tailor-made modus operandi at BBnZ and when you go to our site for instance and we say we are about to go live, everyone knows it means we are about to drop a song. Both of EL’s videos were dropped on the net at 12 midnight for instance and yet people stayed awake in wait of them.

NO: What’s the future like?

KB: Well, the prospects are bright and we say we are about to go live. That’s the catch phrase. There are a couple of projects we are into now and we feel they would change the Ghanaian entertainment industry. We have 24 million plus Ghanaians wanting to be entertained so the options transcend just music. We are talking of a special type of monthly events for different target audiences.

NO: Is it worth having the most expensive studio in Ghana?

KB: We believe in working with the best to get the best. As to if it is worth it, we can say yes.
AB: This is not our first time dabbling in this. It is a tedious job and we want people to have value for their money. We have already had international stars in our studio. We have had Jesse from Chocolate Boys: He is the main producer for MI, Ice Prince and all those guys. We’ve had Omotola, Eddie Kaddie, and Eddie is already bringing a lot of big guys.
KB: We are about doing a movie with Eddie and that guy is big. Currently, he alone fills the O2 Arena and that’s no easy thing to do. We’ve already had a show with him last Christmas.

NO: Your final words

AB: We want to change the face of entertainment in this country and be a major entertainment force
KB: We want to build a big brand to compete on the international market. And we are bent on bringing the best of entertainment Ghana has ever seen.

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ALARM BLOW Over Ministers’ ‘Chop Chop’

By Halifax Ansah-Addo
Daily Guide of Sept. 28, 2010

Reports reaching DAILY GUIDE indicate that the Information Ministry has suddenly become an avenue for siphoning public funds into pockets of appointees of the Mills administration, with the Minister, John Tia Akologo, being fingered as one of the appointees.
John Tia, who recently jumped to the defence of Stanislav Xoese Dogbe, a Presidential Aide over the GH¢169,000.00 hampers’ scandal even though he was not the Minister at the time when the money was spent, is said to be plundering the account of the ministry with his unrestrained profligacy.
Sources at the Ministry of Information have hinted that President Atta Mills caused the dismissal of Nee Agiri Barnor also known as Mije Barnor as Acting Director of the Information Services Department (ISD), mainly on suspicion that he was a whistle-blower who would not justify corruption by calling it an ‘indiscretion’.
The President’s aim is to ostensibly conceal corruption at the Ministry including the GH¢169,000.00 hampers’ scandal, sources swore to DAILY GUIDE over the weekend.
Days after government sacked Nee Agiri, workers within the ISD have told the media there was collective looting of the taxpayer’s money by the Information Minister, John Tia and his two deputies.
Yesterday, a group within the ISD accused Mr. Tia and his two deputies, Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa and James Agyenim Boateng of unbridled corruption.
The ISD workers, in a press statement, alleged that John Tia picks between GH¢2,000 and GH¢5,000 Ghana cedis from the coffers of the Ministry anytime he travelled outside Accra, according to a Citi FM report.
The group referred to the Minister and his deputies as “greedy, corrupt and selfish”, and alleged that funds meant for the ISD had been deliberately locked up in the Ministry’s coffers.
It claimed only GH¢45,000 of a budget of GH¢340,000 allocated to the ISD was released in 2009.
The concerned staff also alleged that a budget of GH¢145,000 released for public education on the H1N1 influenza was diverted.
They claimed Mije Barnor was sacked because of fears that the widespread corruption at the Ministry could be exposed after Mr. Dogbe was caught pants down with the ¢1.6 billion he was said to have spent on buying hampers for journalists.
John Tia has however denied the allegations and asked his accusers to provide evidence of the alleged corruption.
He told Citi FM yesterday that it was rather the sacked ISD boss who wanted to corrupt him.
However, the Information Minister said he failed to report the matter to the police, but warned him not to try it again.
According to John Tia, since it was a mere intention, he did not find it necessary to report to the police, but rather asked Nee Agiri to go home and sin no more.
Sources from the ISD have told DAILY GUIDE that Agiri Barnor was overly principled on instilling accountability and productivity and was therefore seen as a thorn in the flesh of some bad nuts in the Ministry. This paper was reliably informed that a plush party was thrown to celebrate his dismissal in the home of one of the stooges ‘used’ to plot his dismissal.
The sources said barely 24 hours after his announced expulsion, his official vehicle and office were taken over by a retired officer who was one of the ‘coup makers’.
President Mills’s golden boy - Stanislav Dogbe - cannot account for a cash of GH¢169,000.00 (¢1.69 billion) he admits to have personally received from the Principal Accountant of the Ministry of Information on December 21st, 2009 (three days to Christmas) to “enable me to carry out public education on the 2010 annual budget.” The budget had been read on November 18, 2009, over a month by the Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor.
This is the third time within a period of two years that the President Mills has publicly victimized public servants suspected either rightly or wrongly to have raised an alarm over government appointees involved in alleged corrupt practices and cannot account for the taxpayer’s money.
Our sources at the Presidency say Tourism Minister Zita Okaikoi has become the target of the powers that be at the seat of government, after she refused to defend Mr. Dogbe on several radio stations, though she was the Minister for Information when the said money was signed for and collected in a ‘Ghana Must Go’ travelling bag.
It would be recalled that the Mills Government caused the interdiction of a former Chief Director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Albert Anthony Ampong and Adim Odoom, a Principal Accountant of the same Ministry, after they exposed alleged corrupt practices by the then Sports Minister, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak.
After DAILY GUIDE broke the story that Mr. Dogbe had collected the cash of GH¢169,000 meant to educate the public on the national budget but used an undisclosed part of the money to buy Christmas hampers for some unnamed journalists, a number of pro-government media houses accused Agiri Barnor of being the source of the story.
Interestingly, President Mills was quick to sack Mr. Barnor but he is still rewarding Mr. Dogbe by keeping him as a special aide, though the latter has fumbled in explaining what he used the money for, prompting widespread calls for his dismissal.
A clear instance was when Mr. Dogbe claimed he had given part of the GH¢169,000 cash to the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ), only for the association’s president, Lloyd Evans to openly come out that his association had never received any money from Mr. Dogbe for any reason at any given period.

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Essien Vs Dad: The Full Story

Interview By Halifax Ansah-Addo
Essien Vs Dad: The Full Story
Soccer hero Michael Essien and his dad, James Essien, are trading accusations and counter accusations about who neglected who and the world is watching the tango between dad and son.
Michael has issued a detailed press statement on the matter and threatened to take a few media houses to court because he was unhappy about the way the story was carried and when News-One contacted James for an interview on the matter, he gave some shocking revelations.
We present excerpts of the interview as well as a full text of Michael’s press statement.
News-One: “You seem to be destroying your son with this claim that he has neglected you.
James Essien: “It is not true I am out to destroy Michael, at least I am proud he has sent my name to the international levels and if I played football for Gold Coast and my son is playing for Ghana, what can I say but to be proud of him but truth must also be said that Essien is not looking after me as he is making the world to believe”
News-One: Why is not looking after you as you are alleging
James Essien: I believe it is because he grew up with the mother, Aba, so he is closer to her and takes care of her but I am an old man and I cannot tell lies against my own son, Michael does not care about me. I have not seen him for the past 15 years and I have not spoken to him for the past six years because I do not even have his number, let alone contact him and his mother has refused to give me the number; the sister, Diana also says she does not have the number”
News-One: But you know where to contact him when he is in Ghana.
James Essien: “No I do not. There was this time I heard he was in Ghana and would be training at the stadium so I dressed in my best cloths and travelled all the way to Accra…After the training I went to the dressing room but when my son saw me, he bent his head as if he was lacing his boots and remained there for over 15 minutes so I went to him and raised his head.
“Michael asked me who brought me to the stadium and it came to me as a surprise and I told him I was playing football at the stadium before he was born….When he got ready to leave I followed him to his car and reminded him that I came to see him for a discussion but he insisted he was busy.
“I then asked for transportation back home but he did not give me and asked me to meet him at Novotel the next Monday. I managed to perch with friends in Accra and finally got to Novotel on Monday only to be told Michael Essien left the country Friday night soon after my meeting with him”
News-One: Could it be he was hurt because you neglected him as a child?
James Essien: “Ha ha ha ha. I did not neglect Michael. When the mother and I broke up, he was about two years so all the children stayed with her but they always came to me during festivals and some holidays, it was after he got to France that I stopped hearing from him and had never had his number.
“I looked after him and I was the one who even sent him to Sewedro Secondary school after his JSS. On that day I even had an accident and this is a story many people in Sewedro still remember. From there he had a scholarship to St. Augustine.
“I must confess I was not sending him money when he was in school but it was not deliberate because I was not having money at the time… I did my best to look after him but as a revenue collector what could I have done. I took him to secondary school, when he had the Liberty opportunity I played a major role. You ask Alhaji Sly Tetteh.”
News-One: What about the three-bed room house he built for you?
James Essien: “This is where I live; a mud house built by my brother many years ago even before Michael was born. It is the room in which I stay that he renovated and added a hall. He has never built me a house. I do not believe he wrote that statement himself.”
News-One: He claims he sends you money for your up-keep and car maintenance.
James Essien: “Yes once in a while he sends me GH¢500 (about $400) but the money is not regular and at times has about six months interval. As for the car, it is still at the workshop because there is no money to repair it. I am the third person to own that car and it is not as new as you think.
News-One: Is it true he pays for your medical bills and sent you to the Asikuma Hospital?
James Essein: “If Michael Essien says he sent me to Assikuma Hospital, it is a big lie; it is a traditional medicine man that comes here to take care of me.”
News-One: “If you had a message for your son, what would it be?
James Essien: “Oh I want to see him. We should live as father and son. It is not that I am interested in burdening him with my problems. I was taking care of myself before Michael was born and since then I still take care of myself; look I was born on 28th September 1932 so I not a small boy and there is very little I still expect from this life. But Michael is my son, my blood, the one that makes me proud all over the world and I must at least be made to feel like a father but not a stranger to him. I would want him to know I still love him as my child and follow his career and all his games. In fact there are things I want to tell him as a father, things I want to tell him in person.”
News-One: Thank you for the opportunity.
James Essien: Thank you and tell those who do not believe what I am saying to come here to see things for themselves.”
FULL MICHAEL ESSIEN STATEMENT TO THE PRESS ON FATHER’S CLAIMSI have faced many many difficult challenges in my life but this is the hardest thing I have ever done as my heart bleeds over the false statements recently peddled by a small section of the Ghanaian media goaded by my own father.
I had never wanted to discuss my family in public or any good I do to anyone because when you do good, you go only for God’s recognition.
But for the thousands of Ghanaians and the highly respectable people of our country who have contacted me and know what I have consistently done for my father, I need to react to stop the attempt to destroy me in the eyes of the people of Ghana and disgrace my family.
Given what I have done for my father, when I was told of the false, vile and degrading comments he made about me, I wept because people normally do not get insults for doing good.
But my father decided to pay me back in such a terrible way. Because of this I have been unfortunately forced to say what I have done for him because he has gone to the extreme to disgrace my family. I will like to state the following facts:
1. My father currently lives in a three-bedroom house (not mud house) I instructed my sister to build for him with my own money.
2. He is visited monthly and more recently twice a week by my sister Diana on my orders to regularly give him money and other essentials I send. My mother, whom he has insulted so much, also provides for him.
3. I bought a car for him to make his transportation easier and part of the money I provide for him is used to fuel the car or repair it when it breaks down.
4. When his illness broke out I asked for him to be taken to the Asikuma Hospital but he said he wants traditional medicine. I provided money for him to undergo traditional treatment. It came to nothing and I ordered for him to be taken to the hospital. My family, I believe have also organised for a nurse to come home and look after him on regular basis.

Because of these reasons and many more reasons I won’t state publicly, I am shocked by what he is alleged to have said but God knows I have done my best to thoroughly look after a man who didn’t even raise me or take part in my upbringing and who has 8 other children who can help.
What has surprised me though is how certain media houses in Ghana can present one side of a story and not seek to check the other side before going all out to criticise my whole family.
I want to state here categorically that even after such distasteful comments; I will continue to support my father as I believe it is the right thing to do.
I will not discuss this matter further as I have asked my legal team in Ghana to investigate all the allegations and the media that callously carried out this agenda and take action where necessary.
Thank you
Signed: Michael Essien.

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