Where is the Commitment of President Mills and the NDC to Fishermen?

Fishermen Friends Of Nana Akufo-Addo

PRESS RELEASE

27/06/11

Where is the Commitment of President Mills and the NDC to Fishermen?

The Fishermen Friends of Nana Akufo-Addo (FIFNAA) would like to make public its strong exception to certain comments and statements that emanated from the President’s meeting with the National Fishermen Association of Ghana (NAFAG) on Tuesday, 21st June, 2011.

Certain statements that were made by the President really exposed the president and the NDC as a group of people who are just paying lip service and not really committed to solving the problems bedeviling the fishing industry.

First, fishermen are paying higher prices for premix than what fishermen were supposed to pay because Landing Beach Committee members have arrogated to themselves the power to add extra amount to the approved amount that fishermen have to pay for premix. Originally, a gallon of premix is supposed to be sold for GH¢2.48 but for the sake of change, a gallon of premix should have gone for GH¢2.5 but the Landing Beach Committees have added extra GHp 20 or in all GHp 22 to the original GH¢2.48 per gallon and as a result, a gallon of premix is sold at GH¢ 2.70 under OFARNYI KWAGYA II Atta Mills who happens to come from the coast. As a result, a whopping amount of GH¢660 unapproved profit is made by the committee members (NDC apparatchiks, even MMDCEs have representatives on theses committees) on the sale of each tanker- load of premix. It is this booty that appointees and relations of the president have been going round the beaches for their shares. The pronouncement by the president that those people going round in his name to collect these unapproved monies should be arrested and dealt with severely can never solve the problem. The problem has to be tackled from the source and that the extra charges on the sale of premix should be abolished totally because that has been the root cause.

On the president’s apology to the fishermen, FIFNAA does not see that apology as coming from a sincere heart. How can the apology of the president be taken seriously when his appointees who are the source of the problems are still at post and the problems continue unabated? Those appointees at the ministry, committees and beaches should be fired with immediate effect. For example, when some fishermen complained about the biased nature that has characterized the implementation of the Fisheries Regulations, 2010, the deputy minister of Agriculture, Nii Amasa Namoale, said that those fishermen could go and burn the sea. What an arrogant minister!

Even if the fishermen who went on the demonstration erred in moving in their numbers to the castle to present their petition, should the police use tear gas, water canons and rubber bullets on those innocent fishermen who were not violent? Are the police not having professional training on crowd control? In the fifty-four -year history of Ghana, it is only under the reign of OFARNYI KWAGYA II Atta Mills as president that fishermen in this country have seen gun, tear gas, water canons and rubber bullet being used on them in their legitimate attempt to present their grievances to the authorities.

Also, FIFNAA enjoins the authority to implement the Fisheries Act in a fair manner but not in a very biased manner as we are seeing today. The Fisheries Regulations ban the use of lighting, certain fishing nets, and certain chemicals in fishing but lighting is the only thing that has engaged the attention of the authority whilst some fishermen use the other banned fishing methods and gears unpunished. The Fisheries Regulations of 2010 should be implemented in a fair manner and in totality. The Fisheries Regulations of 2010 states inter alia that:

8.(1) A person shall not use

(a) a multifilament set-net the mesh size of which is less than fifty millimeters in stretched diagonal length in the marine water or riverine system;

(b) a monofilament set-net the mesh size of which is less than seventy-five millimeters in stretched diagonal length in a riverine system; or

(c) a monofilament set-net in the marine waters.

(2) A person who contravenes sub-regulations (1) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than one hundred and fifty penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than twelve months or to both.

9. (1) A person shall not use beach seine net in estuaries and areas to be designated as marine protected areas by the Commission.

(2) A person who contravenes sub regulation (1) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than two hundred and fifty penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than two years or to both.

10. (1) A person shall not manufacture, import, or sell or use a fishing net or gear, the mesh size of which is less than twenty-five millimeters in stretched diagonal length.

(2) A person who contravenes sub-regulation (1) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than five hundred penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than three years or to both.

(3) Fishing gear including winch net, “nifa nifa”, drag net, harrow net, bamboo and any other prohibited gear shall not be used in the inland waters in the country.

(4) A person who contravenes sub-regulation (3) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than one hundred and fifty penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than twelve months or to both.

11. (1) A person shall not within the fishery waters of this country

(a) use any fishing method that aggregates fish by light attraction including use of portable generator, switchboard , bulbs beyond 500 watts or bulbs whose cumulative light intensity attracts fish and long cable to facilitate light production or any other contrivance for the purpose of aggregating fish by light

(b) use of bamboo for the purpose of aggregating fish;

(c) use explosives, obnoxious chemicals and any other prohibited fishing methods which render fish more easily caught; or

(d) operate pair-trawling.

(2) A person shall not operate any fishing activity within the areas designated as oil and gas exploration installations as may be prescribed by the competent authority and in accordance with provisions of the Act.

(3) A person who contravenes sub-regulation (1) or (2) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to the fine specified in section 88 (3) of the Act.

A glance through those portions of the Fisheries Regulations, 2010 which was gazetted on the 25th of June, 2010 and came into force on the 3rd of August, 2010 raises a lot of questions. Why is it that those importing those prohibited fishing gears, especially the nets, are not arrested? When did the authority arrest a fishermen using prohibited net size for fishing? Is the use of light for fishing the only prohibited fishing method that this regulation talks about? If not, then why the concentration on only the use of light whilst other fishermen use other prohibited fishing methods and gears for fishing but not arrested?

It will also be in the interest of Ghanaians to know the hypocrisy of the authority. Whilst it is clearly stipulated in the Fisheries Regulations of 2010 that monofilament net is prohibited in the country for fishing, the government awarded a fisherman in the Central region with this monofilament net on the 2010 Farmers Day.

Furthermore, it is also factually incorrect that the Fisheries Regulations, 2010 came into being upon wider consultations with the stakeholders of the fishing industry. However, only few fishermen, mostly NDC fishermen, gathered at Dodowa to deliberate on these regulations. If indeed wider consultations had been done and the real fishermen had made inputs, then why are the same people kicking against something that they have fore-knowledge? What is happening clearly shows that only few greedy people gathered at Dodowa to come up with these regulations.

It is our wish to remind the president that the issues of pair- trawling, poor catch, scarcity and smuggling of premix, high cost of fishing gears, such as outboard motor, and poverty still persist in astronomical levels at the country’s beaches and coastal towns since president Mills became president. Meanwhile, these are the very issues that propelled him to the presidency in 2008.

FIFNAA wants to make it clear that it is committed to national interest in general and that of fisherfolks in particular and not pursuing any parochial interest of any individual or group of persons.

The president and the NDC should be true to their words and put in place measures to better the lot of the fisherfolks.

Signed

Nana Kofi Egyir

(CHAIRMAN)

Tel:0244187515

Kobina Aggrey (ORGANIZER)

Tel:0543057368

Kobina Badu ( PRO)

Tel: 0247952777