Francis Gbormittah Takes Office As GAW President

By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu

The Ghana Association of Writers (GAW) at its 2019 congress held in Accra last Saturday, elected Mr Francis Gbormittah as the new president after serving as the General Secretary of the association.

He took over from Nana Kwesi Gyan-Apenteng who has served as president of GAW for eight years. Nana Gyan-Apenteng is also the immediate past Chairman of the National Media Commission.

Other executives elected were Mrs Doris Adabasu Kuwornu as Vice president, Anthony Obeng Afrane as General Secretary, Mr Kofi Marrah, Deputy General Secretary and Ms Catherine Effah as Treasurer.

The rest included Mrs Mariska Araba Taylor-Darko, Organiser, Sylvanus Bedzrah and Crystal Kwadwa Tettey as Deputy Organisers.

The elections were supervised by Electoral Commission (EC) with a Justice of the High Court, Mr Justice Yaw Baidoo swearing in the newly elected executives of GAW.

The Advisory Board, Publications and Membership Committees of the association were also inaugurated to help the newly elected executives in their work.

Nana Gyan-Apenteng congratulated the new officers and asked members to get on board to help the executives to make the association pursue a successful mandate.

He said this was the third congress since the revival of GAW in 2011, adding "the presidency will now change hands after eight years and give the opportunity for others to serve."

The past President of the GAW commended the association for ensuring gender parity at the end of the election and expressed confidence in the new crop of leaders to lead the association to the next level

Mr Gbormittah called for support from the members to ensure his tenure ends successfully saying, "we are receptive to new and constructive ideas to make GAW a successful one."

Meanwhile a veteran journalist and columnist of the Ghanaian Times, Mr Cameron Duodu, urged writers to rid nation of 'wreckers' through their works.

He was of the view that Ghana was harming itself by allowing its citizens to destroy its God-given resources, saying that "because we have a liberal economy, we have the effrontery to destroy our natural resources."

Speaking at the Ghana Association of Writer's 2019 congress, Mr Duodu, lamented that people in the fraternity including journalists have surrendered their microphones to charlatan pastors and false prophets who were milking the country dry through their actions.

"We also bring in people to come and destroy our water bodies, I therefore ask you to use your imaginations rather than sitting down and allowing idiots to ruin the water bodies and the nation for our children," he lamented.

Mr Duodu said it was unfortunate that Ghanaian use excavators to overturn the river bed and destroy the water bodies and other resources in the country and also invite foreigners to use equipments to destroy the future of the nation.

He was of the view that the actions of some Ghanaians today will have an effect on the next generation asking if there would be a nation in the year 2119.

The veteran journalist called on Ghanaians to be patriotic and put the nation first and how they could contribute to the success of the nation no matter their political affiliations.

Mr Duodu urged members of GAW to ensure their works set the agenda for national discussion to bring about the needed change.

The Acting Dean of the School of Performing Arts, University Ghana, Legon, Professor Kofi Agyekum, who graced the occasion, said the contribution of writers to the development the nation was enormous, saying that their works live on after they die.

Prof Agyekum stated that without writers, Ghana would have lost its history, religion and culture and encouraged them to continue writing as the well being of the nation depended on their works.

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