Cocoa Farmers
The fire stoked by the cocoa sector crisis continues and would persist until there is a reversal of the price haircut.
The National Security challenge it is posing should not be ignored. It is time for serious business; addressing the challenge prompted by the price haircut and to avoid the insulting propaganda being churned out in response.
The subject on our hands is beyond the National Democratic Congress (NDC) ‘choboi choboi’ propaganda associated with campaign rallies or TikTok political garbage by novices.
Not even government WhatsApp group members can handle what is unfolding now regardless of how hard they try. The harder they come, the harder they fall, as Jimmy Cliff captured in his epic ‘The Harder They Come The Harder They Fall.’
It is unproductive to employ campaign trail propaganda at this time of a national crisis posed by the cocoa sector haircut.
The resistance from the victims of the haircut cannot be put down by the amalgam of lies and inaccuracies from infantile political actors.
The impression being created by the NDC is that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is behind the demonstration against the price haircut.
Insulting the intelligence of the victims by claiming that they acquiesce to the haircut should not be a path to tread on at this time when tempers are flaring and the position of the haircut victims is uncompromising, at least for now.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference has jumped into the fray with a strongly-worded reaction to the crisis.
This underscores the importance of the subject on the public plate.
One segment of the reaction of the Roman Fathers is about how Ghana is losing its second leading producer of the golden pod in the world.
We are simply unserious about protecting the public purse and the sources from which it is replenished from financial predators.
These predators mess up a sector as important as our cocoa sector, yet when crisis such as being played out is noticeable, politicians at the helm engage in unconvincing blame-game and throwing of tantrums.
International market prices of commodities do fluctuate, this is a fact, known to all who understand about this aspect of economics. Under the circumstances, given its citizens’ welfare, responsible governments step in with measures to cushion especially farmers from such vicissitudes.
When circumstances make this challenging, the status quo must be maintained; downward varying of the price as being administered by the government is ill-advised and unacceptable.
What is the relevance of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) if it does not shield farmers from the harsh fluctuations of the international commodity market?