HUMPHREY HAMMOND FOR GJA-GIJ PRESIDENT

With GIJ SRC general elections over, attention has now been turned to the election of GJA-GIJ Student chapter executive. One candidate who has popped up in the race to contest for the Presidency slot is L300's Humphrey Hammond. Below is a comprehensive release by Mr Humphrey.

Humphrey Hammond is aspiring for the
GJA-GIJ Presidential office

Political colleagues, fellow students, I bring you greetings from my campaign team and my very self. This is your chief and humbled and servant HUMPHREY HAMMOND who once again has offered himself to serve the Association. I seek to contest for the position of President of the Association.

My history with the Association has been remarkable and pertinent experience. In level 100, your chief servant served as the GJA Class Representative for this particular community. I succeeded in communicating all matters of the Association to members and got some registered. Also, my contribution was seen in the Associations outside engagement such as our industrial visits to Graphic Communications Group, New Times Corporation and TV3.

With these experiences, I contested for the position of Programs Coordinator in my second year of which I won. I served in this capacity for one academic year and my policies and programs greatly affected the Association in diverse ways. All workshops and seminars were organized well and publicity for these activities was treated with great consent.

I partnered the other executives in bringing some renowned media professionals such as Gideon Aryequaye, Samuel Adjemang, Kwame Sefa Kayi , Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Gifty Anti, amongst others who shared their experiences in the world of work to us.

In partnership with the office of the President, we successfully organized a seminar on human rights advocacy which was highly patronized and certificates of participation issued. I ran several errands for the Association including the purchase of stationary, hiring of chairs and the issuance of notices.

I managed to make the informal session of our general meeting more informative, interactive and more educative.

Currently, I am the Vice Executive Chairman of The Black Toms and Associates, an election think-tank and the Public Relations Officer for Campus TV. Apart from these, I was appointed as the Chairman of the Election and Vetting Committee of GJA-GIJ in 2011.

MY SOCIAL CONTRACTS WITH THE ASSOCIATION
I pledge to in the short term:
 Totally eliminate the relationship gap between GJA-GIJ and the Parent Association.
 Seek answers to our qualification or otherwise for the Media Development Fund.
 Liberate our caged membership ID cards.
 Project towards a peaceful election in December 2012.
• Partner the Parent Association in its elections projects.
• Establish a GJA-GIJ Book of Peace.
• Broadcast the 2008 Election Film.
• Produce a peace jingle; TV and Radio.
• Political Forum to interact with major political parties.
• Seminar on GJA Guidelines on Election Coverage.
 Reinstate the educational and industrial visits.
 Embark on a massive membership drive.
 Employ the use of all communication channels to publicize events of the Association.
 Make our website more interactive, attractive and current.

LONG TERM
 Establish a GJA-GIJ Charity Fund.
 Observe some celebrated world days
• World Press Freedom Day
• World AIDs Day
• World Malaria Day, etc.
 Build and sharpen the human resource of the Association. Motivate and transform members into more professional and ethical people with a corporative touch.
 Market the Association to the outside world.
• Affiliate associations.
• International institutions.
• Corporate bodies.
 Deepen the decentralization process through an effective class representative system.
 Make members the fore runners of the proposed GIJ Radio.
 Make the Association a modern and corporate entity.

I humbly solicit for the support and votes of students to help materialize these policies.
THE NEW WAVE OF REVOLUTIONARY LEADERSHIP HAS ARRIVED
BE INFORMED TO INFORM
VOTE HUMPHREY HAMMOND AS GJA-GIJ PRESIDENT.

RAYMOND BAYOR DECLARED SRC PRESIDENT, BATINI AND FREDA DEDZIE CRUISE

Raymond Bayor Yeldidong is the SRC
President elect!

Raymond Bayor Yeldidong has been declared new SRC President after being massively endorsed by students in the SRC general elections on Monday.


Freda Dedzie managed to pip her competitor Gifty Amevor to the race by edging her with 54.93% percent of the total votes cast.

Miss Dedzie whose candidature was known in the last day of nominations beat expectations to emerge winner of the polls and becomes the new Women's Commissioner.

Her supporters celebrated the victory late into the night on campus after the EC declared the results.

In the Financial Secretary contest, Isaac Kofi Batini survived a late scare to beat Miss Selina Owusu to get the nod.

Fans of the L300 student staged protest outside of the voting room after the Electoral Commission allowed GBC students who showed up after the closing time to vote.

Calm was restored and the process continued smoothly. In the strong room, agent of Miss Selina Owusu, Samuel Creppy, initially protested the results but his concerns were no means a concern.

Mr Batini went ahead to sweep 324 votes representing 53.64% of the total votes cast with Miss Selina Owusu gaining 279 votes.


More to follow........................

RAINS DISRUPTS ELECTIONS TWICE

By: Joscelyne Ahiable

EC Chair, David Banamini  checking the eligibility of a voter

The GIJ general elections which began on Saturday was brought to an abrupt end by a heavy downpour after 104 people had voted.

Before the rains, Weekend students had been trickling in to cast their votes.

Despite the low turn-out which was worsened by the rains, the Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Banamini, had high hopes for when the elections resumed on Monday.

However, it turns out the Regular and Afternoon students are more apathetic than their counterparts in the Weekend Program as the elections have recorded the lowest turn-out ever in the history of elections in the school.

 Mr. David Banamini, the Electoral Commissioner, attributed this unprecedented apathy to the lack of competition for the various offices being contested for.

The rains, which disrupted the elections again on Monday, forced the Electoral Commission to relocate to Top-Up lecture room 1.

Students voting

In spite of this, David Banamini refuses to be pessimistic. To him, what can redeem the appalling turn-out are the students in GBC who, he believes, are more than enough to cause a definitive change.

He commented that the Commission is working with Mr. Richard Quashigah, head of the Broadcasting Department, to bring the students over to exercise their franchise.

The elections will come to a close on Monday at 1600 GMT with provisional results to be declared later that night with candidates, their polling agents, and some students expected to leave the school’s premises at least by 12 midnight.

POLLS SET TO OPEN ON SATURDAY FOR SRC ELECTIONS

GIJ weekend students go to the polls on Saturday to elect their SRC Executives for the 2012/13 academic year. 

According to the Electoral Commission voting will begin at 7 GMT and end at exactly 16 00 GMT on campus. 

Eight (8) students have put themselves up to contest for six executive positions. However four of these positions have one aspirant each running for them; Bayor Raymond Yeldidong is going unchallenged for the position of SRC President with Godfred Gogo, Gyan Enock and Philip Atawura have their candidature unchallenged. 

Former GA Speaker Godfred Tawiah Gogo is running solely for the office of General Secretary while the assertive Gyan Enock is expected to be endorsed by the students body after he emerged as the only runner for the External Affairs Commissioner position. 

The soft-spoken Philip Atawura is hoping to secure the nod to get to the office of Organising Secretary.

The EC gave the green light for aspirants to official launch their campaigns after the Vetting Committee declared all aspirants eligible to run for their various positions.

The fate of the heated race between Miss Gifty Amevor and Freda Dedzie will initially be known on Saturday as results will be announced by the EC.

However, the winner of Saturday's polls cannot afford jubilation yet as the weekend population form just a small quota of the whole student population. 

Isaac Kofi Batini will have to fend off competition from a last-gasp contestant Selina Owusu Nyamekye. Little has been seen of Miss Selina's campaign with her constituents somehow unknown.

The general atmosphere has been calm during campaigning and politicking. A public vetting was held on Thursday. Students had the opportunity to quiz aspirants on their campaign promises and aims and vision.

Gijelection2012coverage.blogspot.com will bring you live updates from the election centre on Saturday and file comprehensive reports after results has been declared by the EC chair. 

Joscelyne Ahiable leads the team.

THE WOMEN'S COMMISSION RACE:A GOLIATH AND GOLIATH AFFAIR?

The 2012 GIJ elections has not, fortunately or unfortunately, been marked by any scandals so far. It has rather been quite diplomatic to say the least though there has been some undercurrents that have been rippling for quite a while now. GIJelection2012coverage.blogspot.com, per its mission statement to bring to its readers a balanced reportage of ongoing events, brings you the first in a series of features geared towards bridging the gap between candidates and the electorate. 

Joscelyne Ahiable, Co-Editor of GIJelection2012coverage.blogspot.com brings you this feature.


The Women’s Commission is a monument to sexism.  Yes, I said it and you can quote me on that. But though its existence affects both sides of the gender divide, Women are perhaps the most affected since the Commission’s name in itself demeans them by implying that they are weak and thus need ‘special’ attention.

While a gender equality advocate will campaign for the scraping of such a testament to eons of cultural stereotyping and discrimination, it is a fight to be postponed to another time. For now, the women on campus’ incessant cries for ‘attention’ have dredged out two candidates willing to bell the cat.

GIJelection2012coverage.blogspot.com therefore sat down with Miss Freda Dedzie , the 22 year-old L300 student vying for the office of Women’s Commissioner; her contender, Miss Gifty Amevor, failed to honour the appointment for an  interview and so everything I write about her is based on observations and what I heard during her public vetting.

Concerning the welfare of the female students on campus, Miss Dedzie identified certain issues she tags ‘pertinent’ such as the women’s lackadaisical attitude toward taking up leadership positions and the seemingly perpetually deplorable state of the women’s wash-room.

To these, she outlined a tantalizing program to garner support from the school’s feminine population and prolific plans to source for funds outside of the school; she had been to General Assembly meetings and realized that getting support from the SRC in the form of financial aid for most of programs was as possible as the phenomena of flying dogs.

She expects to succeed in her quest to ‘making a difference’ with the full support of the female student-body, her stellar background in having held several leadership positions at various stages of her life, as well as her enviable experience in women’s welfare as the Women’s Commission Rep for her class since L100.

I cannot say same for Miss Amevor though, internal experience wise, since she is a Diploma 1 student. It cannot be told also as to whether she has represented her class as the WC rep.

GIJelection2012coverage.blogspot.com can however affirm, from the horse’s own mouth, that she is a certified teacher; of what grade nobody knows.  Although her modus operandi was similar to that of Miss Dedzie in certain aspects such as their shared passion for encouraging women to take up leadership roles and the fight to make the female wash-room more humane, I noticed at the public vetting that she tended to limit herself, in re funding for her programs, to the SRC and the school administration.

This cast her whole campaign in an amateurish glint and exposed a naiveté that could make her tenure, if she should win, a disillusion, and lay to waste a whole academic year of running with scissors, trying to grasp wisps of nothingness.

Despite her staggering shortfalls however, she seems to have massive and unwavering support from her home turf, the Diploma students, not, dare I say, because of her policies but rather because she is one of only two aspirants running for Executive office from Diploma.

Miss Dedzie has emphatically stated that whether win or lose, she is ready to work with her contender if she (Miss Amevor) is willing to.

I say that a monstrosity of an avalanche of responsibilities awaits the winner and they better be able to clear the hurdles or it will be war. Besides, nobody prodded them to go bell the cat.

COMMUNIQUE MANIFESTO OF ISAAC KOFI BATINI, AN ASPIRANT FOR THE OFFICE OF THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY OF THE SRC OF GIJ FOR THE 2012/2013 ACADEMIC YEAR, PRESENTED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 16TH OF MAY, 2012.

All Aspirants appeared before a public vetting on Wednesday and your election platform brings you the full statements as read by the aspirants.

Honourable Chairman of the Electoral Commission, his excellence the SRC president and other Executive Committee Members present, my elegant looking contender, fellow aspirants, ladies and gentlemen, Good afternoon.

My name is Isaac Kofi Batini, a third year Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies student of GIJ. I began my educational journey at Aflao E.P. Tokor Primary & JSS for my BECE in 2003 and proceeded to Three-Town Secondary School, where I offered General Arts with Economics, Elective Mathematics, Government and Geography as my electives.

After getting my WASSCE in 2006, I joined the National Youth Employment Program where I was posted to Aflao-Agblekpui L.A. Primary & JSS as a Community Teaching Assistant. I taught English, Mathematics, Agricultural Science and French for three years before applying to GIJ in 2009.

Mr. Chair, I stand before you this lovely afternoon to narrate my AGENDA for the office of the Financial Secretary of the GIJ-SRC. But before I do that, one may ask, what function does the Financial Secretary perform?

Mr. Chair, fellow colleagues, the office of the Financial Secretary of the SRC was established under Article 7, Clause 7 of the GIJ-SRC Constitution. By the provisions of this article, the Financial Secretary is supposed to keep and maintain accurate records of all financial transactions of the SRC; present financial statements to GA for approval before the execution of any plan or action needing finance; prepare and present periodic statements on the income and expenditure of the SRC at least twice every semester; together with President and General Secretary, be signatory to the SRC financial accounts; shall be treasurer to the SRC Week celebrations, and perform any other functions not inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution.
Mr. Chair, what I intend to do when elected the Financial Secretary of the SRC can be classified under three thematic areas:
1. PROMOTE TRANSPARENCY IN SRC TRANSACTIONS
2. PROMOTE ACCOUNTABILITY IN SRC,
3. AND BRING INNOVATION ON BOARD IN LOOKING FOR SPONSORSHIP FOR SRC PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES.
Mr. Chair, in promoting transparency, I intend to involve all stakeholders at every stage of the budget cycle; that is the preparation, implementation, auditing and monitoring and evaluation stages. I will follow best practices in the drafting and implementation of the budget. The class reps, the notice boards and the internet will be fully utilized in the dissemination of information about the income and expenditure of the SRC.

On accountability, Mr. Chair, I intend to persuade the President to put in place an effective and working Audit Committee within the shortest possible time of assuming office. The Audit Committee which was established under Article 23 of the SRC Constitution to audit the accounts of the SRC including all halls and clubs. I would make sure the Committee is given all the necessary support and freedom to work without fear or favor. This will ensure that SRC executives and appointees, including the executives of the halls and clubs are held accountable to students on how they spend students’ money.

On innovation, Mr. Chairman, I believe the time has come for GIJ-SRC to boast of its own sets of canopies, plastic chairs and public address systems. I intend to work with my co-executives in instituting an ‘Alumni’s Day’ where both the alumni and current students of the institute raise funds to sponsor the purchase of these items. More than 90% of the weekend and top-up class are alumni of this institute. They constitute a good source of funding for the SRC and I intend to fully explore this area. Steps shall be taken to fully include the alumni in all activities of the SRC.

   Mr. Chair, Article 9(b and c) of the SRC constitution states that “a student shall not be qualified to any executive office unless he or she has considerable exposure and experience in GIJ-SRC affairs and has served on GA or on any SRC committee for at least 6 months. Mr. Chair, fellow colleagues, the past three or so years of my stay in GIJ has not been spent as a PASSIVE ONLOOKER. I have, since the first day I step my foot in GIJ been ACTIVELY involved in all spheres of SRC and student activism.

I was an Organizing Secretary of CCF-GIJ Chapter; Degree Coordinator of Osagyefo Hall; Vice President of the French Communicators Club; Past Member, vetting committee of GJA-GIJ chapter; Programs Manager of SIFE-GIJ; immediate past Chief Statistician of the Black Toms & Associates, an on-campus election think-tank; Member of the External Affairs Commission; Honorable Member of General Assembly; Member of the Audit Committee of the SRC, to mention but a few. Hon. Chair, fellow colleagues, having served students in these diverse portfolios, I am of the highest conviction that I am highly qualified to step into the shoes of the Financial Secretary of the SRC, and I believe you all share in my conviction.

Mr. Chairman, fellow colleagues, this contest is never about who is a female and who is a male. It is never about being in diploma or degree. It is a contest of ideas, of experience, exposure and competence. And I believe I fully satisfy all these criteria. I therefore call on you never to sacrifice competence, experience and exposure for anything.

Come Saturday and Monday, please TAKE THE RIGHT STEP AND GET ISAAC BATINI ENDORSED AS THE FINANCIAL SECREATRY OF THE SRC.
Thank you and God bless us all.

TEAM McCARTHY FOR GJA-GIJ CHAPTER COMMUNIQUE

As the main SRC elections draw closer, there are also students who are interested in vying other offices. Charles McCarthy is contesting for the position of GIJ-GJA chapter President.

For immediate release 16th May, 2012.

Today, I confirm that after wide consultations spanning the nine geo-political zones that make up Ghana Institute of Journalism, making up of members of my class, my year group, the opposition, level 300, the morning class, members of the afternoon class, weekend students, student groups and our revered religious community, I Charles McCarthy BK by the grace of God hereby offer myself and my services to GIJ-GJA as a candidate for the office of President in the fourth coming elections. 

In presenting myself for service, I make no pretense that I have a magic wand that will solve all of GIJ-GJA’S problems or that I am the most intelligent Student. Far from it.

What I do promise is this – If I am elected President, I will make a covenant with GIJ-GJA members to always do right, to tell you the truth at all times, to carry you along and most importantly to listen to you, fellow citizens in our communities and also those of you on this campus. I do not want to win your affections by giving you fat promises of things I would do in the future which others before me have given and which have largely been unfulfilled.

Rather, I would want you to judge me by my records. Since God Almighty and you permitted me to serve you in the present capacity as a member, I have busied myself with setting GIJ-GJA on the path of peace and progress.

I know you are tired of empty promises, so I will make only one promise to you today. The only promise I make to you my friends, fellow students, is to promise LESS and deliver MORE if I am elected.

I call on you to join me to work together in harmony and synergy to forge a GIJ-GJA where we understand our differences instead of pretending they do not exist and work towards a perfect Association founded on transparency, equity and justice.

Association that is on her way to repairing her Institutional reputation and project to the world that things have changed and the people of GIJ have now taken GIJ-GJA back from a few into the hands of her people who are eager, very eager to pull her weight in the forward movement of the African continent and the world in the pursuit of Journalism.

I call on you my friends and all GIJ Students to give me your support and prayers so that together we can liberate our association from the confines and self –inflicted wounds and limitations of the past. My dear friends and fellow students, to borrow an often used slogan by our youths, please join me in proclaiming: Forward Ever, Backward Never! Please let us all unite across tongue and creed to move our long suffering association forward together.

Charles McCarthy BK

Diploma One Morning