Alhaji Mohammed- Muniru Limuna
THE MINISTER of Food and Agriculture, Alhaji Mohammed- Muniru Limuna, was yesterday offended when the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, Eric Opoku, his deputy Justice Samuel Adjei and the entire Regional Coordinating Council reportedly snubbed the minister’s programme dubbed, ‘Farmers Forum’ held in Sunyani, the regional capital.
The forum was organized ahead of the National Farmers’ Day celebration on Friday, November 4, 2016 at Kintampo in the region.
Without mincing words, Alhaji Limuna told the gathering that he was not happy with his colleagues’conduct and would write a protest letter to President John Dramami Mahama about Eric Opoku’s ‘shabby treatment.’ He wondered why the regional minister would consider the Farmers’ Day an unimportant event and so would not come nor delegate a representative.
The Agric Minister said what even annoyed him most was the conduct of the Regional Coordinating Director, Felix Charha. He said the dirctor was sent for and that though he (director) was in his office, sent words back to him (minister) that he had a serious and more important thing doing in the office and so he would not turn up.
According to Limuna, the Farmers’ Day observation has been rotating among the regions and in every region that he hosted it, it had never been like this, saying that the regional ministers take it serious, except in the Brong-Ahafo Region.
“If the road and highway minister is coming, people are running to meet him but if it is the minister of agric then, they are running away from him. Our people, including the minister, should get serious about agriculture because it is the only sector that can develop the economy and alleviate poverty,” he stressed.
The programme itself, ‘National Farmers’ Forum, is the 7th in a series organized by the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to bring past national farmers award winners together with the current ones to meet with experts, including scientists from various fields in the agricultural sector, academia and the economy to deliberate on best practices to adopt in improving food production.
This is normally done ahead of the National Farmers’ Day celebrations.
FROM Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani