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Female Members of Parliament Undergo Affirmative Action Training in Ada

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A two-day training workshop was organised by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to sensitise Ghanaian female Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Affirmative Action (AA) Law was held from  May 6-7 2025.

The workshop held at the Aqua Safari Resort in Ada aimed at providing the MPs with lobbying skills, advocacy and the necessary tools for the act to be fully enforced.

Madam Kathleen Addy, Chairperson of the NCCE, opening the workshop, said the sensitisation was important for the female MPs to help materialise the benefits envisaged in the law.

Madam Addy said there were a lot of reforms to be made to help more women emerge as parliamentarians, citing Rwanda, where 64 per cent of its parliamentarians are females.

Madam Addy said the AA law must impress upon political parties to reserve a percentage of their parliamentary seats for women, an intervention she believes would make women part of policymaking.

She lamented that Ghana has 50 per cent of its population being women but only 14 per cent of women in Ghana’s parliament are women.

The MPs expressed satisfaction about the workshop, acknowledging that women have always been marginalised and less catered for.

The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Hon. Ablah Dzifa Gomashie, and MP for Ketu South and a queen mother in the Aflao Traditional Area, said that a female child could equally be raised by her parents to perform tasks of all kinds, rather than segregating duties to be performed with gender identification.

She said aside what biologically identifies us as men and women, and may be our strength levels, every other thing can be done by both genders, adding that countries that have women in leadership are doing better than Ghana.

The MP for Salaga South, Madam Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah, added her voice and said the Affirmative Action Law, which was passed and assented to last year, would not be one of the many laws that are not in use.

According to her, female MPs would get themselves acquainted with the law, engage various stakeholders, and then disseminate an action plan to the citizenry to empower and encourage many women to accept leadership positions in the country.

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Two suspect arrested for murder of Tahiru Zinabu

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The Central North Regional Police Command, has arrested two suspects in connection with the murder of , Tahiru Zenabu, at Kokoase, a suburb of Twifo Praso in the Central Region.

Tahiru Zenabu, was found dead in her room on April 3, 2025 with a cloth tied around her neck and blood stains on her hands at Kokoase, a suburb of Twifo Praso in the Central Region. 

The suspects, identified as Isaac Arhin and Richard Armah, were arrested on May 5, 2025 at Twifo Aboabo.

Preliminary investigations established that Richard Armah, a mobile phone Repairer and Spinner residing in Twifo Aboabo, was arrested when he used the deceased’s mobile phone to call a friend of the deceased who reported the matter to the police. 

Upon interrogation, Richard Armah mentioned suspect Isaac Arhin as his accomplice and he was subsequently arrested. The mobile phone has since been retrieved and is in the custody of the Police.

The two accused persons were put before the court on May 7, 2025 and were remanded into police custody to re-appear on May 21, 2025.

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Abla Dzifa Gomashie launches Fleet Pool Management Services

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On Monday, May 7, 2025, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts and MP for Ketu South, Hon. Abla Dzifa Gomashie launched the Fleet Pool Management Service (FPMS), a transport service by the Ghana Tourism Development Company (GTDC) that aims to solve the transportation challenges in the tourism sector.

According to Hon. Abla Dzifa Gomashie, the goal of the initiative is to ensure that movement between destinations in Ghana is as enjoyable as the attractions themselves.

She stated that tourism is not just about the sights. It is about the experience, and the experience starts the moment a tourist lands in Ghana. If transportation is poor, we risk losing visitors and damaging our reputation.

Abla Dzifa Gomashie stressed the need for better connectivity and called on African countries to work together to improve direct flight connections within the continent.

 According to her, travelling across Africa is expensive and tiring. We therefore need partnerships with countries that have national carriers to make this easier, she stated.‎

‎The Fleet Pool Management Service (FPMS) is designed not just as a short-term strategy, but as a model for long-term transformation.

 It will help support better driving standards, compliance with national regulations, and overall growth in the tourism ecosystem.‎

‎The minister urged other tourism-related businesses, such as hotels, restaurants, and cultural institutions, to also reflect Ghana’s identity in what they offer by playing Ghanaian music in their hotel lobbies, decorating the place with local art, and serving Ghanaian food in creative ways. She asked hoteliers to let tourists feel the culture at every turn.

‎Concluding her address, she urged stakeholders to embrace innovation and a spirit of service, which has Ghana’s development at the forefront.

 She expressed confidence that, with collective effort, tourism could become a key pillar of the nation’s economic growth.

The Ag. The Chief Executive Officer of the GTDC said the FPMS will use the Private Public Partnership Approach to improve transportation in the tourism sector, with GTDC doing the legwork to get the customers.

To do this, he said the GTDC will ensure that there is a database on drivers to organise tour driving and track to give accurate information to tourists.

Though he acknowledged that collecting data in Ghana is cumbersome and challenging, he said GTDC will support by organising this using a different kind of orientation.

The initiative is a way to position Ghana by helping to overcome the challenges for us to achieve the Black Star Experience.

According to Prof. Kobby Mensah, FPMS is a forward-looking transport network that would ensure a professional system that has a dependable supply system in place.

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Biography of Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost

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Prior to his election as Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. Here is the biography of the 267th Bishop of Rome.

The first Augustinian Pope, Leo XIV is the second Roman Pontiff – after Pope Francis – from the Americas. 

Unlike Jorge Mario Bergoglio, however, the 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost is from the northern part of the continent, though he spent many years as a missionary in Peru before being elected head of the Augustinians for two consecutive terms.

First Augustinian Pope

The new Bishop of Rome was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.

He spent his childhood and adolescence with his family and studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy. 

On September 1 of the same year, Prevost entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first profession on September 2, 1978. On August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.

The future Pontiff received his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. At the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). 

In Rome, he was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, at the Augustinian College of Saint Monica by Archbishop Jean Jadot, then pro-president of the Secretariat for Non-Christians, which later became the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and then the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.

Prevost obtained his licentiate in 1984 and the following year, while preparing his doctoral thesis, was sent to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru (1985–1986). In 1987, he defended his doctoral thesis on “The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine” and was appointed vocation director and missions director of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Olympia Fields, Illinois (USA).

Mission in Peru

The following year, he joined the mission in Trujillo, also in Peru, as director of the joint formation project for Augustinian candidates from the vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurímac. 

Over the course of eleven years, he served as prior of the community (1988–1992), formation director (1988–1998), and instructor for professed members (1992–1998), and in the Archdiocese of Trujillo as judicial vicar (1989–1998) and professor of Canon Law, Patristics, and Moral Theology at the Major Seminary “San Carlos y San Marcelo.” At the same time, he was also entrusted with the pastoral care of Our Lady Mother of the Church, laterestablished as the parish of Saint Rita (1988–1999), in a poor suburb of the city, and was parish administrator of Our Lady of Monserrat from 1992 to 1999.

In 1999, he was elected Provincial Prior of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Chicago, and two and a half years later, the ordinary General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine, elected him as Prior General, confirming him in 2007 for a second term.

In October 2013, he returned to his Augustinian Province in Chicago, serving as director of formation at the Saint Augustine Convent, first councilor, and provincial vicar—roles he held until Pope Francis appointed him on November 3, 2014, as Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo, elevating him to the episcopal dignity as Titular Bishop of Sufar. 

He entered the Diocese on November 7, in the presence of Apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Green, who ordained him Bishop just over a month later, on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the Cathedral of Saint Mary.

His episcopal motto is “In Illo uno unum”—words pronounced by Saint Augustine in a sermon on Psalm 127 to explain that “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.”

Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, from 2015 to 2023

On September 26, 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo by Pope Francis. In March 2018, he was elected second vice-president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, where he also served as a member of the Economic Council and president of the Commission for Culture and Education.

In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy (July 13, 2019), and in 2020, a member of the Congregation for Bishops (November 21). Meanwhile, on April 15, 2020, he was also appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Callao.

Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops

On January 30, 2023, the Pope called him to Rome as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, promoting him to the rank of Archbishop. 

Created Cardinal in 2024

Pope Francis created him Cardinal in the Consistory of September 30 that year and assigned him the Diaconate of Saint Monica. He officially took possession of it on January 28, 2024. 

As head of the Dicastery, he participated in the Pope’s most recent Apostolic Journeys and in both the first and second sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the 

Synod of Bishops on synodality, held in Rome from October 4 to 29, 2023, and from October 2 to 27, 2024, respectively.

Meanwhile, on October 4, 2023, Pope Francis appointed him as a member of the Dicasteries for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches), for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the Eastern Churches, for the Clergy, for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, for Culture and Education, for Legislative Texts, and of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.

Finally, on February 6 of this year, the Argentine Pope promoted him to the Order of Bishops, granting him the title of the Suburbicarian Church of Albano.

Three days later, on February 9, he celebrated the Mass presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square for the Jubilee of the Armed Forces, the second major event of the Holy Year of Hope.

During the most recent hospitalization of his predecessor at the “Gemelli” hospital, Prevost presided over the Rosary for Pope Francis’s health in Saint Peter’s Square on March 3.

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