John Mahama
We have been very disturbed about the attitude of certain people on the political space. These people, in the words of John Mahama, engage in ‘mix mix’ on the political platforms to convince the electorate to buy into their messages.
We hope Ghanaians have not forgotten about John Mahama’s dictum of “nokware kakra, ntro kakra, yede frafra”. We wonder whether the truth and lies coming from the same personality do not project John Mahama as speaking contradictions.
That is why he talks about making agric “cool and sexy” when before he exited office in 2016 the Ministry of Food and Agriculture under his garrulous General Secretary grew negatively.
That is why John Mahama promised his supporters that in the unlikely event of his return to Jubilee House, he would provide them with “nkukor buo nkitinkiti”. We admonish John Mahama and his NDC leaders to desist from demonising the Akufo-Addo government if they would not praise it for strides in the agriculture sector. During the run-up to Election 2024, we urge all the players to stick to the issues by minding their words.
It appears to us that despite the modest strides we have made, some elements in our society, the opposition NDC does not think anything good can come out of “Jerusalem” when the party is not in power.
The NDC and its Minority in Parliament have elected to be prophets of doom. We are sure the NDC and its leaders would contest this assertion. Nonetheless, one needs not to look far to agree with our position. Not too long ago, the Minister of Trade and Industries, KT Hammond sent a proposal to Parliament to curtail unbridled importation. The NDC Minority opposed it, with the support of their 138th member in the saddle. Just last week, however, the flagbearer of the NDC, John Mahama told Ghanaians that in the unlikely event that Ghanaians give him the mandate in December he would restrict importation of goods. The question to ask the NDC is what has changed to necessitate the U-turn.
Mention any major policy intervention that the NDC in government introduced besides GETFund to help the Ghanaian to lead a better life. Interventions such as the guinea fowl project in the north, tree planting during the dry season, Hope City Project, STX housing project, bus branding, rlg laptops for schools and journalists left a deep hole in the public purse.
The NDC believes Ghanaians have short memories, so when it raises issues about this government it forgets about its own records. For sometime now, commodity prices have been surging on the world market. From the beginning of the year 2024, the world market price of cocoa has been surging, reaching about $10,000 per tonne. Knowing very well that the government would act on the developments, the NDC Minority decided to take the wind out of the sail of the Akufo-Addo government. The NDC called on the government to increase the producer price of cocoa immediately, a ploy to get the farmers to believe that the NDC cares for them.
What is sad is that Eric Opoku, the Minority Spokesperson on Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs knows that the producer price of cocoa does not rise out of the head of the managers of the cocoa industry. It is announced after a series of consultations with all stakeholders to ensure that the price meets the expectations of all.
Eric Opoku comes from a cocoa growing area and knows the challenges facing the industry such as climate change and all kinds of diseases. The surge in prices on the world market is due to non-availability of the beans and not necessarily as a result of a windfall.
Assuming there is a windfall in the wake of the beans crisis, any forward-looking government must take decisive action to get the industry back on track. And that requires serious moves to replant diseased farms and take care of “kum akate” that has destroyed large tracts of cocoa farms.