THE 2012 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has congratulated Ghanaian cocoa farmers on their hard work and enterprise as the country edges closer to achieving the production target of 1 million metric tonnes of cocoa by 2012.
In a statement made available to the New Statesman, Nana Addo welcomes the news that the nation is on the verge of attaining its production target, adding that this is a manifest justification of why a new Government must continue with good policies it inherits from its predecessor.
Nana Addo makes believes the deliberate policies initiated by the NPP government under the leadership of President Kufuor, including the free mass cocoa spraying exercise, the application of subsidised fertilisers, provision of free mosquito nets, solar lamps and bulbs to farmers, payment of bonuses and the cocoa farmers housing scheme, have given the farmers the required impetus to increase their output.
According to the NPP Presidential Candidate, the success story in Ghana's cocoa industry has been achieved with a consistency of active and dedicated participation of Government and also the decision by the Mills-Mahama NDC administration to continue with these support services introduced by the NPP, adding that it is the right way to go as a country.
Nana Addo, in the statement, recounts the efforts put in place by the Kufuor-led NPP administration that resulted in doubling the volume of cocoa production from 389,590 metric tonnes at the end of 2000 to a peak of over 750,000 metric tonnes in 2006/2007 for the same land area under cultivation.
“The efforts of cocoa farmers were rewarded with a four-fold increase in producer prices, boosting their income to a level not seen since the 1950s. The price paid to farmers for a 64 kg bag of cocoa at end of the 2000 season was GH¢21.7 (¢217,187.5). The price for the 2008 season was GH¢102 (¢1,020,000), representing a 370% increase over the 2000 figure”, the statement notes.
Nana Akufo-Addo also recalls how the situation, prior to the advent of the NPP, where cocoa farmers received bonuses only in 1992 and 1996 was done away with, adding that the NPP government paid six bonuses to cocoa farmers in its last seven years in office and instituted a policy where cocoa bonuses were to be paid twice every year.
The NPP flagbearer adds that these were not the only measures put in place by the NPP to make life easier for the nation's cocoa farmers and their families.
“The NPP also introduced the cocoa farmers housing scheme which was meant to offer cocoa farmers affordable housing and improved living conditions and as at June of 2007, the scheme had been expanded to cover 66 cocoa districts in the country,” Nana Akufo-Addo recounts.
The era, according to Nana Addo, where many frustrated farmers had to cut down their cocoa trees to cultivate teak, cola nut and oil palm was no more, adding that the days of the 'Go Ahead' system of payment where Government took the produce of farmers and paid them at a later date was no more.
Nana Akufo-Addo notes further that the benefits of not “removing” the current head of the COCOBOD, Anthony Fofie, who was appointed in December 2008 by President Kufuor, are now evident for all Ghanaians to see.
The announcement by the Ghana Cocoa Board, on May 19, 2011, that it was on the verge of establishing the first ever Pension Scheme for cocoa farmers, a 2008 Manifesto promise of the NPP, according to Nana Addo, was indeed heart-warming and a testament to the results that can be chalked when policies from the opposition are embraced and implemented.
Nana Addo reiterates the commitment of the NPP to keeping its promises to the cocoa industry, as spelt out in its 2008 manifesto, which include the expansion of the mass spraying exercise, the continuous working with cocoa farmer representatives to review producer prices and also the promotion of alternative livelihoods in cocoa growing communities as a way to further boost incomes of cocoa families.
“The further addition of value to Ghana's cocoa coupled with the exploration of new markets for processed products and the resulting increase in output on the land currently under cocoa cultivation should lead to better use of scarce farming land as land is released for other use, thereby minimising deforestation and environmental degradation”, Nana Addo advocates.
The management of COCOBOD in February this year reviewed upward its pre-season cocoa output forecast from 700,000 tonnes to 800,000 tonnes for the 2010/11 crop year, the highest in the history of cocoa production in Ghana.
So far, some 735,150 tonnes have been produced, 42 percent more than what was produced over the same period last year, and also well above the 623,000 tonnes produced during the entire 2009/10 crop season. The head of COCOBOD also stated last week that he was very confident Ghana would achieve its one million tonne production target for 2012.
Nana Addo damns Mills
THE decision by the Mills-Mahama administration to abandon projects started by the New Patriotic Party government has come under heavy criticism from the 2012 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, the negative consequences of the NDC government's refusal to continue projects initiated by the NPP in several areas are being felt across the country by Ghanaians.
The criticism is contained in a statement available to the New Statesman in which Nana Addo commends the nation's cocoa farmers on their hardwork that has put Ghana on the brink of achieving a record production of one million metric tonnes by 2012.
Nana Addo explains that this milestone has come about as a result of deliberate policies put in place by the NPP administration, and being continued by the Mills-Mahama NDC administration.
“This is the way to go as a country”, Nana Addo stresses, while deploring the decision by the NDC not to continue NPP projects, such as the affordable housing project and many road projects across the length and breadth of the country.
“The affordable housing project started by the NPP, involving thousands of housing units across regions, majority of which are nearing completion, have been abandoned by the NDC, in spite of a two-year old assurance from the incumbent President,” he laments.
The NPP Presidential Candidates is sad that numerous road projects started by the NPP, including major commercial routes such as the Achimota-Ofankor road, Nsawam-Suhum road, Madina-Pantang road and the Sofoline interchange, have all suffered from lack of funding under the NDC.
“This negative behaviour must not be encouraged and I urge government to reconsider its position on such projects,” Nana insists.
On Saturday, January 31, 2011, the Head of Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at the Presidency, Tony Aidoo, advised the ruling NDC government to leave projects and programmes started by the erstwhile NPP government to rot.
Dr Aidoo remarked: “The projects were ill-conceived, and therefore the cost of executing these projects is not in our budget, nor do they fit into our scheme of things so far as our electoral promises are concerned."
He continued, “On the other hand, we also have our electoral promises to the people of this country to fulfil...Sadly the resources earmarked to fulfil our electoral promises are the one we are using to complete haphazardly-thought of projects that were not properly designed.”
Against this background, Nana Addo has asked the entire membership of the New Patriotic Party to join hands with the leadership and work intelligently and courageously to deliver Ghanaians onto the path of a brighter and exciting future.
“This was the philosophy behind our successful 'All hands on deck' nationwide tour, which began on the 5th of May in Breman Asikuma in the Central Region and ended, on schedule, on the 16th of May in Tema, the Greater Accra Region,” Nana Addo stressed.
MPs angry with Mills over 'Juju Ring’
A senior aide to President JEA Mills last week raised more questions in the minds of Ghanaians in his attempt to explain why in 2008 Prof Mills curiously wore a big black ring over a heavily plastered finger.
During Metro TV's Good Morning Show on Monday, last week, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, Presidential Aide in charge of Operations, who called into the programme from the Western Region, where he was preparing for the President's visit, said that Prof Mills received a cut on his finger wearing the mystery ring after shaking hands with a chief in the Western Region during the 2008 campaign period.
But, just one little problem, though. The picture, published in the December 11, 2008 copy of the Daily Graphic, showed the plastered finger and the black ring on the left hand.
The claim by the President's aide has incurred the wrath of some Members of Parliament from the Western Region who are demanding explanation from the presidency as to why the then candidate Atta Mills could be that disrespectful to greet a chief with his left hand.
Kwabena Okyere-Darko and Catherine Afeku, MPs for Takoradi and Evalue Gwira respectively, believe President Mills owe the chiefs and people of Western Region an apology for greeting a chief from the Region with his left hand.
“It is simply disrespectful for anybody in Ghana to greet even an ordinary person with the left hand, and in the case of a traditional ruler it even becomes almost a taboo to show that kind of disrespect. So, if the President's aide wants the whole world to believe that President Mills greeted the said chief with his left hand, then the people of Western Region demand explanation and apology from the President,” Mr Okyere-Darko said in a chat with the New Statesman.
The MPs also find it distasteful the claim that a chief from the Western Region could be that callous to squeeze President Mills' left hand so hard to give him a cut.
In the view of the MPs, the claim creates a very negative impression about the chiefs and people of Western Region.
The MP for Bimbilla, Dominic Nitiwul, who first made the controversial claim last two weeks that the then Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress wore a magic or juju ring for the 2008 presidential contest again Monday last week, showed to television viewers that the ring with purported supernatural powers had some mysterious numbers engraved on it.
But in response, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye claimed that the ring, which critics suggest was given to Prof Mills by an occultist for spiritual reasons, rather carried the inscription, “I Love Jesus”.
Unfortunately, for the Presidential Aide, Mr Nitiwul pointed out, that evidence on the ring doesn't support Vanderpuye's claim.
The MP explained, “”President Mills wore that strange ring during the electioneering campaign; he didn't wear it before and hasn't worn it after. I am just relaying information from their own side of the political divide to the effect that he consulted an occultist, one of the varied and questionable spiritual consultations he invested in at the time, and one such feared and powerful occultist gave him that particular charmed ring with strict instructions. This is what I have been reliably informed and here is the evidence to support what I said.”
Mr Nitiwul, a member of the New Patriotic Party, insists, “the President who touts himself as a devout Christian, more holier than the rest of us, the most God-fearing, owes it to the millions of Ghanaian Christians, including me, to explain to us why he was wearing a juju ring as alleged by his own people.”
On the claim that President Mills had a cut on his finger after greeting a chief in the Western Region, the MP noted: “It is simply inconceivably disrespectful that the President would greet a Ghanaian traditional ruler with his left hand.”
Editorial
NDC toying with Ghana's development
On Saturday, 31st January 2011, the head of Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at the Presidency, Tony Aidoo advised the ruling National Democratic Congress government to leave projects and programs started by the erstwhile New Patriotic Party government to rot for no justifiable reasons, other than for the partisan reason that they were not started by the NDC.
This advice given by the PhD holder has largely been heeded by the Mills-Mahama administration, a clear confirmation of the wickedness, short-sightedness, and shallow-mindedness of the NDC.
The negative consequences of these strategic projects not being completed by the NDC are being felt in every facet of the Ghanaian economy.
Projects such as the affordable housing projects, the numerous road projects including the Achimota-Ofankor road, Nsawam-Suhum road, Madina-Pantang road and the Sofoline interchange have all been abandoned by the NDC.
One reason they cite for the non-completion of these projects is the non-availability of funding. When money has been available for the completion of projects, funding has been diverted for use in other “important” sectors.
Earlier this month, Vice President Mahama renegotiated a $250 million loan facility secured by President Kufuor for a dam project in the North to be now used to support the construction of the Eastern Corridor road that will link Northern Ghana to the south through the Volta Region.
The construction of this dam in the North would have boosted agricultural production in the North as well as improving the supply of power to the three Northern Regions.
However, government deems the construction of the dam unnecessary and has contracted the biggest ever loan so far by any government of the republic, US$1.8 billion, for the construction of the same Eastern Corridor road by the Chinese. In total, government has contracted $2 billion dollars for the “least used” Eastern Corridor road, leaving the “most used” Central corridor road unattended to.
The central corridor road, which is the most used in the country, requires less than $1 billion to complete. This corridor rakes in the highest amount of revenue of than any of the corridors to the country.
Instead of continuing the affordable housing projects started by the NPP, the NDC has contracted a $1.5 billion loan for the STX housing project. The amount of money required for the completion of the affordable houses is certainly less than the loan contracted by the NDC for the STX deal.
The houses under the affordable housing scheme, some of which just require roofing, could have been completed and offered to members of the security agencies.
It seems the NDC has not learnt from the achievements of the cocoa industry. Initiatives which were introduced by the NPP government such as the free mass cocoa spraying, payment of bonuses, the cocoa housing scheme among others, were intended to ensure that the lives of cocoa farmers were enhanced as well as increasing the volume of production.
These initiatives have been continued by the NDC, and this is what has led to the record cocoa production in the country.
What prevents the NDC from doing same with the other projects it has neglected?
In 2012 Ghanaians should use their own “thumbs” and the protection granted by the electoral booth to punish the NDC because it is playing with the wellbeing of Ghana and the lives of Ghanaians.
Unless the electorate use the ballot box to punish the NDC, they will ruin the country, not only through their thievery, but also through their wicked behaviour, such as abandoning projects and programmes started by their predecessors for partisan reasons, and to the detriment of the Ghanaian economy.
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