The National Organizer of the NDC, Kofi Adams has accused the NPP flagbearer of resorting to politics of convenience as his desperation to win the 2016 election peaks. Nana Akufo Addo he says has now resorted to blanket statements about Ghana’s economy with reference to that of neighboring countries without critiquing variables that exist.
The NPP has now resorted to strategy is to create panic among investors
According to him, it is dawning on Nana Addo and his NPP that the 2016 election is a forgone conclusion for President John Mahama because of the massive developmental projects which are changing the lives of Ghanaians.
Kofi Adams who was responding to what some describe as NPP’s ‘plantain politics’ on Accra based OKAY FM, expressed shock at whoever may be feeding Nana Addo with information because as he put it, “plantain like yam and few other food crops are seasonal. Their cycle is well known and Ghana does not import plantain from Côte d’Ivoire. So such comments only expose those deliberately spewing lies to mislead the public. But that won’t wash.”
The NPP and media houses assisting it to prosecute its campaign have in recent times tried to project issues in neighbouring countries in an attempt to portray the Mahama Administration as a failure. A couple of months ago, the NPP was loud on Nigerian President, Mohammed Buhari’s government. Unfortunately Nigeria is facing serious crisis and NPP has gone quiet. 72-year old Nana Addo who is struggling to convince electorates his age is not a setback has turned to Côte d’Ivoire.
He and his party are on record to have said Ghanaian companies are relocating to Ivory Coast because Ghana’s economy is deteriorating but has since failed to provide evidence demanded by President John Mahama.
The strategy to feed on people’s emotions by exploiting scarcity of some foodstuff, according to the NDC is being supported by some media houses. Tomato politics was on board recently and the focus is now on plantain and cassava. The trend suggests NPP is identifying soft targets. It’s a verifiable fact that cassava, plantain, yam among other food foodstuff are seasonal crops.
Around this time of the year, they are scarce and the situation has been compounded by the poor weather pattern yet NPP is painting a picture of a failed government.
But the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has set the record straight. Deputy Minister of Agric., Ahmed Alhassan in an interview with City FM said it is a palpable falsehood for Nana Addo who addressed Ghanaians in France recently to tell Ghanaians there that, the agric sector’s share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is 0.004%. Ahmed Alhassan, who is also the MP for Mion said sector grew by 2.4% instead.
“…There is no shortage of this commodity. I can tell you that in 2015, this country’s farmers produced 17 million metric tonnes of cassava; we need just about half of that to feed the population. This country’s farmers produced 3.9 million metric tonnes of plantain; we need about 2.3 million metric tonnes to feed the population. We do not import such products.”
“The supply into the market is a regulatory price receiving; that doesn’t mean we are importing into the country. And I’m saying that the statistics of what we have in the country is certainly more than what we need to consume,” the Deputy Agric Minister added.
A week ago, the NPP also made huge capital from a recent BBC report on Cote D’Ivoire’s cashew industry accusing government of crippling the agriculture sector. Its communicators went public claiming that country is the world leading producer of cashew to spite the Mahama Administration for neglecting the cocoa and other cash crops.
The debate on the matter however exposed facts the party tried to hide, that Ivory Coast has been one of the leading producers of cashew since 1960.
Ironically, the NPP which wants government to invest heavily in the agriculture sector is failing to commend government for establishing the new Komenda Sugar Factory. The 36.5 million dollar project, has the potential of heavily slashing Ghana’s over 200 million dollar sugar import and will create jobs for over 7,000 people.
The factory which has the capacity of processing over 1,250 metric tonnes of sugarcane can also generate three (3) megawatts of electricity from bagasse.
The plant according to officials will use half and the rest will be supplied to the Komenda Township
President John Mahama who took a bold decision to fulfil a dream of his predecessor, the late Professor John Evans Atta Mills will go down in history for steps to change the lives of people in the entire KEEA district and beyond.
Government has also secured over 24 million dollars to support outgrower farmers and high grade seedlings are available for distribution yet the NPP has gone berserk accusing government of establishing a white elephant.
The party’s communicators as expected are painting a gloomy picture for the industry and want to discourage farmers from going into sugarcane plantation, something political observers say is dangerous and threatened the steady economic development of the country.
<<Print>>