A Follow Up Open Letter To The Citizens Of Ghana-Fixing Ghana -Part 35

Dear Fellow Ghanaians.
First of all, I wish you are all fine and enthusiastically awaiting to leapfrog to 2023. So let me take this opportunity to express very good Health and joyful New Year to you in advance.

Folks, once again, let me assure you that by the Power of God in whose image man was made; Ghana is going to realize economic recovery in 2023 and subsequently economy emancipation or Ghana Beyond Aid (that is no ritual expectation of donor support to meet our annual national budget or syndicated loans to support the strengthening of our Cedis).

This is contingent on if and only if, we, see the Agriculture sector as a very lucrative business sector or as a kind of gold mine for massive wealth creation and not a social sector for poverty alleviation or job creation or crowing of the best farmer. We the citizens must eschew our penchant for foreign goods and do away with our political party narrowness (limitation) associated with our negative PHD (Pull Him Down) tendencies.

It will also require that we ensure our political leaders from the NDC and NPP and members of the two parties work together and demo a high sense of maturity for Ghana to sustain durably economic stability (that is no ritual expectation of donor support to meet our annual national budget). Lastly, this will need our leaders to put things in a very good order through the effective application of the provisions of the 1992 Constitution.

Folks, due to our way of doing things in this country, our current situation are expected but this too shall pass. This is established in the Holy Bible at 1 Peter 5:10 which states ‘So after you have suffered a little while, He will Restore, Support and Strengthen you and He will put you on a Firm Foundation’

We also need to contemplate on the Bible concept of No condition is Permanent, as in Ecclestsiastes3;1, that ‘’There is an appointed time for everything, a time for every affair under the Heavens’. So 2023 is going to be the appointing year for economy upturn. Note that from Ecclestsiastes3;1 Hardship or Riches is not Permanent (a time ago, we had Rockefeller as the World’s first billionaire, followed by Onassis as the richest person in the World, today they are no more, no condition is certainly permanent) We should note that our minerals and or oil reserves will be depleted in due course but Agriculture will continue to be the means to sustain our economy, hence let us protect our arable lands and our rivers/water bodies.

The Bible also says that Hardship is a step for Triumph. This is at 2 Corinthians 4;17 which states ‘’For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever’.

Folks, we need to take good lessons from our cyclic suffering and change the narrative. Hence, we should be guided by Ecclesiastes 1;9 which states that ‘What has Happened Before, Will Happen Again’, So our Country seeking for bail out from the IMF, is not news because it is expected since this situation has become part of our DNA, so Ghana is on the right direction, because the IMF, is a global bank of last resort for macro-economy stability or economic creditability when a nation’s economy is mismanaged or things are not correct due to external shocks or factors. Thanks to God, the IMF will surely come to the aid of the Country, but that is when we behave in a good order by putting the required terms of debt sustainability in place and this will happen in 2023. Hence, 2023 is going to be a good year for us.

As one of the Senior Citizens with some experiences gained in the past and these coupled with application of common sense, I write to you once again, with a heart full of high hopes, firstly to info you that our dear Nation will see economy upturn in 2023, and secondly, to make an attempt to submit some suggestions for the way forward for us to attain economy emancipation.

Folks, It is high time we teamed up, as one people with a common destiny and rise to the occasion by strong nationalistic approach including proper and unbiased analysis of the current situation and come out with national or home grown solutions and ensure our leaders appreciate and adhere to the relevant Constitutional provisions for the economic emancipation of this country.

Folks, this will require halting this cyclic canker of mismanagement of the economy by the Administrations of this Country by the NPP and NDC, with their always chopping the meat to the bone marrow, hence we have robbing Peter to pay Paul (the ritual dependence on huge loans like the Cocoa syndicated loans etc to stabilize our economy), governments since 1993. After chopping the meat to the bone marrow, we then look for the IMF to teach us on how to chop the meat and leave the bones, that is how to protect the hen or the fowl laying eggs (layers) or how we should preserve the layers but chop the broilers, hence what to do right. So, the IMF has to ‘cane’ our National Political leaders to apply just common sense to do what is right, that is act wisely in the management of the economy in order to ensure the macroeconomic fundamentals are anchored on effective economic production to ensure debt sustainability and low inflation.

Folks, some of us who were alive and matured in 1990/91 fought fiercely for a return to a democratic Constitutional Rule for very good reasons and with the support of the International Communities especially the Britain, USA, UN and World Bank, we succeeded in defeating the PNDC and came out with the 1992 Constitution which by the principle of majoritarianism, over 80% voted in a Referendum for it and thus placed sovereignty in the people of Ghana, in whose name and for whose welfare the powers of government are to be exercised in the manner and within the limits laid down in this Constitution. Unfortunately the PNDC metamorphosis into the NDC, so let us be guided by the mantra that a decorated donkey is still a donkey.

Folks we gave ourselves a Constitution, which survived the vicissitudes of the life of this Country and gave over 30 year’s political stability to the Fourth Republic of Ghana. Folks our Constitution is based on the Presidential System of Government, which took lessons from the Constitution of the United States of America and thus gives enough power to the Executive Arm of Government to act nationally but without so much power that will put fundamentals human rights at a jeopardy or risk.

The remedial measures to reduce human right risk and ensure good governance as by the Constitution were or are the establishment of three Arms of Government, namely the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary with clear Separation of Powers, with checks and balances on those powers to assure no any arm of Government gained supremacy. Furthermore, it provides the Council of State (please read my last mail on how to transform the Council of State), which is another measure to check on the powers of any of the three arms of Government as well as to ensure good governance by an advisory role to the three Arms of Government, to National Institutions and NGOs/CSOs. Furthermore, the Council of State is granted with quasi-legislative roles especially on amendments of the Constitution for a very good reason.

Since sovereignty resides with, we the people of Ghana, then we, the people of Ghana need to educate members of both the NPP, NDC and the current President of Ghana that it was based on our history therefore for a very good reason that, the 1992 Constitution unlike the Constitution of Nigeria does not demand that Presidential candidates for the seat of President must necessary come from or sponsored by a political party nor both the President and the Vice President must come from the same political party. Hence Presidential candidates are expected to be Independent.

They must be made to understand that Organization decides everything, so Sections under Article 55 of the 1992 Constitution on Political Parties only give recognition for the organization of political parties as election wining machinery by sponsoring candidates for elections to any public office either than to District Assemblies or lower local government unit. But by the true meaning of Article 62 and 63 of the 1992 Constitution, all Presidential Candidates and their Deputies (spare tires) for Ghana’s Presidential election are actually regarded as Independent Candidates and therefore are to present a nationalized manifesto (one with national character and not necessary a political party manifesto).

By our Constitution, a Presidential candidate constituency is the whole Ghana, when duly elected he or she is not required to toe in line with a political party. It is therefore odd for our President allowing the NPP party to somehow dictate to him or come out with recommendations on which Ministers should be retained or replaced by the President. The NPP Party like CSOs or the citizens can only lobby with the President for a reshuffle situation but not to arrogate the power to do so, when we have the Council of State for this and other functions.

Folks, to ensure presentation of a nationalized manifesto Article 86 and Article 87 of the 1992 Constitution detached the Economy Planning section from the hitherto Ministry of Finance and Economy Planning and ceded the Economy Planning section to the National Development Planning Commission which is required to formulate the master National Development Plan which presidential candidates or political parties as good machineries for wining an election are to tap and may tweak or polish it and present to the electorate.

So, Fellow Ghanaians for this Country to progress to Ghana Beyond Aid, it requires the appreciation of the relevant provisions of the 1992 Constitution coupled with change of attitude of both the National leaders and the Citizenry as the game changer by sense of Patriotism, Honesty, Discipline, Resourcefulness, Responsibility as per the dogma of the 1992 Constitution of Probity, Transparency, and Accountability. Thinking or Dreaming Big, Thinking Positive, have Faith in God as required at 1 Peter 5:10 and be innovative or up scaling our ventures are ways that can help in the economy emancipation .

Folks, as at date we have created over 20 Best National farmers. Hmm we need to visits the farms of the previous best National Farmers to see whether they have up scaled their ventures or simply maintained the state of their farms or their farms are moribund (have deteriorated). You may be shocked to note that some farms may be found to be dead because we have made Agric to be a social event like Miss Ghana contest or Miss Abolobo contest with apology to Atinka TV and not an economy venture for wealth creation, so no interest in the social event after winning the contest of best farmer. Hence food security seemed to be a problem. Cry the Beloved Country.

We need to do away with the penchant or taste for foreign goods, arrogance, selfishness, greediness, looking for accolades (nana oh nana or Dr something or Professor do little etc, with apology to Professor DK Poison our legendary international boxer etc. Hence due to our attitude misusing of title Dr or rather offering Dr Title has become a gold mine or business venture in Ghana, let me say good morning to Dr UN for his smart actions). So we need to change our negative attitude of Pull Him Down (negative PHD) to a Positive attitude of Patriotism, Honesty, Discipline,(positive PHD) and halt our habit of looking for accolades. National Agriculture Show instated by the late General Acheampong’s regime should be revisited and made more prominent than the Farmers Day with the fanfare.

It must be noted that the Holy Bible at Proverbs 10;7 states ‘Whoever heeds discipline shows the way to life but whoever ignores correction leads others astray’ and at Hosea 4;6 states ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’. Hence drawing intuitions from these two Biblical quotations, one may say that it seemed Ghana is not making progress because of lack of discipline as well as lack of knowledge of issues (including the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution) affecting the nations. Otherwise we have questionable integrity.

Hence, it is not a surprise that some undisciplined people (politicians and public/civil servants), since 1993 under cover of incompetency have executed clear daylight robbery of state funds and assets but made to go scot free with their booties due to no prosecution by the State which has numerous disfunction anti-corruption and anti-robbery institutions.

So, it is not a surprise that as part of our DNA we have the habit of adding cost to cost (compiling cost on logistics/goods and services) by superfluous parallel agencies and appointments. We have added a disfunctional Special Prosecutor in the name of fighting corruption to our national debt or cost but corruption has become monumental within the Executive, Judiciary and Parliament. The the Public Institutions, CSOs/NGOs also have a fair share of the corruption cake, hence CSOs/NGOs are becoming profitable ventures hence they must shout on top of the roof to be recognized, this should remind us with the babies with the sharp teeth now rich or influential persons . That is our Country called Ghana.

Fellow Citizens, the Central Bank in every Nation is actually the key institution for massive job and Wealth Creation, because of its Open Market Policy to deal with interest rate, inflation and economy recession. Federal Reserve Bank of USA has been doing so and the Central Bank of Nigeria involvement in the Anchor Burrowing Initiative which saw Hon Abraham Odoom of Ghana (my good friend and brother) playing a leading role.

The current President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) is supporting member countries in their Agric ventures for wealth creation. Hence, to create massive job and wealth in the Nation, the Central Bank of Ghana (under the fiat money regime) must use Expansionary monetary policy at the right time to lower interest rate as a measure to stimulate borrowing by the private sector which is noted for the creation of massive jobs and wealth in a Nation. It is also required to use the tool of Contractionary (tight) monetary policy to reduce inflation as it is been done now.

It is necessary for effective synergization of the efforts of the managers of both the Monetary Policy and Fiscal Monetary Policy of the Country. So, it is for this good reason that the proponents for both the 1979 and 1992 Constitutions, ceded the Economy Planning section from the hitherto Ministry of Finance and Economy Planning and established a constitutional institution as the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) you may call it the authentic Economic Management Team as at Article 86 and Article 87 of the 1992 Constitution or Article 73 of the 1979 Constitution.

It is very ludicrous otherwise childish for seasoned lawyers and some professors (especially Prof Henke of USA) to be talking of an unconstitutional Economy Management Team, chaired by His Excellency Dr Bawumia, the VP, simply because he said so therefore he is incompetent and must resign. The affected persons need to be schooled that the VP per the 1992 Constitution is just a spare tire with no executive powers.

Our Constitution for whatever reason does not require an academic qualification for the post of President and VP; hence Madam Akua Donkor is duly qualified to be elected as President or VP. So, the alleged Economy Management Team headed by His Excellency Dr Bawumia is just a Tea Party to play an unconstitutional advisory role (hence a Tea party since no executive powers).

so His Excellency Dr Bawumia (a celebrated economist) like any Ghanaian can only proffer an advice to the Minister of Finance, which he may consider or throw it into the dustbin because he is not required by the Constitution or a law to seek instructions or advice from the VP.

The late ex-VP Amissah Arthur also a celebrated economist was never a member of the Economy Management Team during His Excellency Ex-President JD Mahama’s regime. Mismanagement of our nation’s economy should be seen as a deliberate effort or for the good reason of corrupt acts, which have been come part of DNA (our body politics), so, the management of the economy has been left to the whims and caprices of the Finance Minister since 1993. So common sense should tell us that if Mismanagement of our nation’s economy occurs (sunshine) then the Minister of Finance must go or be sacked. This should not be a prolong debate.

The affected persons must read and understand the letter and spirit of our Constitutional provision on the Vice President (designated by the Constitution as a spare tire with no executive powers) and that Executive Powers are vested in the President, so the buck stops with the President. They should note that the magnificent Dr Kwabena Duffour (a Presidential aspirant), has proclaimed that the Mills era had a Economy Advisory Council or something worth same and the then Vice President JD Mahama was not a member and he never chaired an Economy Management Team under the late President Mills Administration. That is to say the then Vice President in the Mills administration was not required by law or the Constitution to chair an Economy Management Team. For those demanding the resignation of Dr Bawumia as VP (a Spare tire) or removal of Dr Bawumia from an alleged Economy Management Team as a condition for approval of some aspects of the 2023 Budget need to revise their notes in law or constitutional matters for whether the VP has locus in the management of the economy otherwise they have questionable integrity. Folks, I am sorry for firing on all cylinders but in the name of God I have to do so without fear or favour to correct the wrongs in God’s Ghana.

The establishment of the NDPC (Ghana’s constitutional Economy Management Team) is to facilitate the teaming up of the Governor of the Central Bank (Bank of Ghana), the Minister of Finance, and others like the Minister for Agric, Minister for Trade or the Chief Directors of these Ministries and key Industry players etc to work under the umbrella of the NDPC for effective economic planning in order to ensure the effective development of the national economy. Hence, for the economy emancipation of this dear country, the need for us to ensure the adherence to the relevant provisions of the 1992 Constitution cannot be over-emphasized.

Folks, I am firing on all cylinders because I am one of the persons who fought for Constitutional Rule and as one of the people, who actively participated in the work of the Consultative Assembly (coincidentally presided by my godfather, the late Pi Roland Adiali the First, then paramount chief of Chiana) for the drafting of the 1992 Constitution whenever it was within reach or related matters were in the local dailies, I consider It as very important to go down the memory lane on some of the deliberations of the Consultative Assembly and inform the general public on some relevant provisions of the 1992 Constitution. Hence this follow up submission.

It is anticipated by this action, it would help us to jointly and severally ensure the economy emancipation of Ghana from the claws of clueless otherwise robbers and looters of the state using the cover of incompetency to steal/loot. For them to go scot free with their stolen booties, they have termed their thievery as corrupt acts for them to escape from serious punishment under the criminal code. Furthermore they have made State Institutions which have been mandated to deal with their thievery/looting to be available but craftily underutilized or dysfunctional.

Folks, the Minister of Finance must be sacked by the President with minimum delay because he failed to provide adequate funding to the Ministry of Agric in the previous years National budgetary expenditures and he did not release the low funds so allocated timeously to ensure food security, help reduce importation of essential food items like rice etc to facilitate implementation of import substitution policy. His action contributed to, the nation not gaining enough fund from electronic levies and he could not tell the right time to seek for a bail out from the IMF, to prevent ‘haircut’ of investments until directed by the President. It is sad to note that he has still provided very low funds for the Ministry of Agric in the 2023 National budget. Previous Ministers of Finance in the Fourth Republic shared same blame with him, so it is not a dislike for him but a genuine patriotic request.

It is unfortunate that some people are not very fair to the Minister of Agric by grading the performance of his Ministry 3 over 10 and for that reason calling for his replacement. I must confess that it was simply due to the posture of the current Minister of Agriculture that in one of my submissions, I called for his replacement.

Folks, based on the notions of garbage in, garbage out we must be honest to say that he has performed satisfactorily. Considering the state of affairs in the Agric Sector when he took over the running of the Agric Ministry with low machinery, poor agric-infrastructure (deteriorated irrigation projects, low number of warehousing, roads etc), poor research work culminating in the very low yield of 4 metric tonnes of paddy rice per hectare in the Country. Above all the less than 0.5% yearly budgetary support to the Ministry because of anticipation of donor funds. Furthermore, the funds were not released timeously to his Ministry for his field Officers and relevant Research Institutions for the transformation and modernization of the Agricultural Sector and for the effective growth of Agribusinesses. Despite these problems, he and his Ministry of Agric were able to achieve over 970,00.00 metric tonnes of rice by 2020. This should be reckoned as satisfactory achievement.

Folks any honest and competent person who understand issues in the Agric Sector (poor agric-infrastructure, poor research work, poor yields, low funding and untimely release of the allocated low funds) and how employees’ performances are appraised may give the Minister of Agric and his Ministry (teamwork) 7 over 10 or 70% for the satisfactory achievement made in rice production. Furthermore achievement made on the production of other crops, animal husbandry which were done alongside with the renovation of some of the irrigation schemes including the Tono Irrigation Project and the Construction of the Kpong Left Bank Irrigation Project were good jobs. The renovations were made by his Ministry and the Irrigation Development Authority. He also gave his support for establishment of greenhouses. Greenhouses and Irrigation schemes are essential agric-infrastructures to help in the transformation and modernization of the Agric sector. These were done with low and limited funding.

So, based on the state of affairs when he took over the running of the Agric sector characterized with low machinery, poor agric-infrastructure (irrigation projects, warehousing, roads), poor credit facilities, issues of losses due to pests, poor markets and huge post-harvest losses, poor research work culminating in the very low yield of 4 metric tonnes of paddy rice per hectare in the Country but he and his Ministry were able to achieve over 970,00.00 metric tonnes of rice by 2020 he must be commended we may not like his face but we should be honest and say the truth.

Any problem in the Agric sector should be attributed to the bad attitude of the Ghanaian in smuggling of Agric inputs especially fertilizers and outputs coupled with some limited exportation of locally produced rice to other countries in the sub-region and the fact that the low allocated funds were not made timeously to the Agric Sector of the economy, not forgetting the President penchant for parallel institutions as a problem.

The President of Ghana is the line Manager for related Ministers for the success of the Minister of Agric, like the Minister of Finance for funding, the Minister of Trade and Industries for trade policies and agro-industries etc. The President is also the line manager for heads of security agents since he is the appointing authority and he is the commanding-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ghana, so he is to combat smuggling of agric items, hence the buck stops with the President. So the President should be blamed for not providing him with the required tools, funding in a timely manner, the right environment through the right policies including subsidies, good market (eat and buy Ghana farm products policy especially by schools, hospitals etc) to encourage production and the enabling environment with regards to security. So faults in the Agric sector should be the faults of the President, hence he knowingly graded the Minister of Agric with excellent grade.

So, folks we cannot place all the problems in the Agric Sector on the head of the Minister of Agric but we can do so on the head of the President of Ghana, especially the current President for his decision to run the Nation by setting up parallel institutions especially superfluous and wasteful elements at the Office of President or Government machinery, wasteful Ministries like Ministry of Special Initiative which among others was responsible for the one village one dam projects, the Warehousing etc projects. So it was very wrong or unfortunate that some scholars without conducting intellectual assessment on how to grade the performance of the current Minister of Agric scored him below 5 over 10.

A simple check on the national budget for funds allocated to his sector and for details on the time of release of the funds against the national agric statistics or state of affairs nationally speaks some commendable work by him. He did well by able to continue with good plans initiated by the regime of His Excellency Ex-President JDM Mahama. Some of these plans or measures include the upgrading of some of the Irrigation schemes in the Country and these plans were executed during the tour of duty of the current Minister of Agric.

Folks to address Food Security and create both wealth and jobs, both the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the AU came out with measures in order to ensure member African Countries make very good gains in both Agriculture and Agribusiness. The laudable measures included funding by the AfDB whilst the AU, made Heads of States of the AU in 2003 to sign an accord known as the Maputo Agreement so that member Countries are required `to ensure to provide sufficient funds for the transformation and modernization of Agricultural Sector.

A threshold of not less than 10% of national budgetary expenditure was agreed for the transformation and modernization of Agricultural Sector, which is noted as the engine for the growth of an economy and the driven force for industrialization. But a study of the yearly national budget from 2003 to 2021, reveals not more than 0.5% annual budgetary expenditure was allocated to the Ministry of Agric because our clueless governments in the Fourth Republic especially since 2003 have been depending on dwindling donor support including the support from AfDB for the Agric Sector. The Central Bank and the Commercial Banks did not also give much support to the Agric Sector through low interest loans. This situation must be reversed if we are to attain prolong macroeconomic stability by seeing the Agric sector as a gold mine for wealth creation and not a social sector for poverty alleviation and creation of jobs or crowning best farmers.

So let us inform both the Governor of Bank of Ghana and the Minister of Finance that the 1992 Constitution has provided a common platform under the umbrella of the National Development Planning Commission for them to combine their efforts for national economic development. That is for them and others to come out with deliberate support for the growth of the national economy especially the private businesses and the Agric Sectors.

This will require that we must ensure the President as the appointing Authority for the NDPC, appoints the Chief Directors of Minister of Trade, Ministry of Agric, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources etc as members of the NDPC and the NDPC among other action for the economy development must come out with measures to help the Minister of Agric for massive transformation and modernization of the Agric sector especially for rice, maize, soya bean, vegetables and horticulture items and poultry productions. They need also to support relevant research institutions for them to come out with improve crop yields, especially good yields in rice production to attain a yield of not less than 8 metric tonnes per hectare.

Likewise, for the right variety of tomatoes to halt the importation of tomatoes from Burkina Faso and help farmers to scale or step up tomatoes etc productions through large scale Greenhouses. Until this is done, the current national poor yield of rice of less than 4 metric tonnes of paddy rice per hectare, implies that Ghana has to put not less than 630,000 hectares of land for rice production to achieve not less than 2.2 Millions of paddy rice to be milled at 65% recovery rate for at least 1.4 Millions of milled rice for current national consumption.

Folks we must inform the Minister of Finance that though we are happy to note that he has now awaken from slumber due to his attempt to make the State to partnership with the private sector to beat down food prices, we want him not to regard the Agric sector as a social sector for poverty alleviation area or for managing poverty or creating of jobs hence a social sector. It is high time our Government(s) regarded the Agric sector as a gold mine hence as a business avenue for wealth creation sector, and an area to ensure import substitution policy and not a social sector for crowning Miss Ghana, sorry best farmer.

So we must demo our abhorrence for his notion of a mere or a mediocre (mean) 110,00 acres of land for the production of the numerous crops including rice with the view of reducing food prices. According to him as in 2023 budget, a planned for 110,00 acres of land for the production of the numerous crops including rice, maize, tomatoes to be coordinated by the Millennium Development Authority with the support of the Ministry of Agric as well as other Agents including my former unit of the 48 Field Engineers Regiment. As stated above considering the current low yield of about 4metric tonnes of paddy rice per hectare, we need to hear our Government speaks of the use of not less than 700,00 hectares of land specially for rice production. So, folks, we must push our President to sack effective immediate this clueless Finance Minister for poor plan for the economic recovery in 2023.

Folks, we are in the era of technology (digitization and digitalization), this has given us electronic wallets, electronic warehousing for the Agric sector as well as the service and the industrial sector by the establishment of a vibrant Commodity Market. Technology has afforded the use of robots, an unmanned planes or drones, artificial tech in agric, automated farm machinery. A great lesson from COVID-19 pandemic is that a farmer may be at home and with a computer he can use drones for farm activities or data collection, direct the usage of farm inputs. So we need to be guided by this.

Folks, we must therefore commend the Ministry of Education for the establishment of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) schools as a measure to develop technical skills of the youth for the youth to among others to embrace the Agric sector as commercial farming and lucrative agribusiness by coming out with innovations for value addition through the 1DIF to ensure Agric is commercial oriented and not a social sector. It must be noted that the Developed countries are wealthy because they process or add value to what they produce while Africa export raw commodities. At this juncture, let me commend the Ghana Armed Forces (the CDS, Service Commanders and their Regional Commanders) for introducing members of their families and others, recently on value addition to some agric farm produces.

Folks as part of the economy recovery plan, we need to commend the Bank of Ghana and the VP, His Excellency Dr Muhammadu Bawumia for the laudable idea of getting additional 20% gold from the Mining Companies etc. Folks, some of our intelligentsias must be educated that whether it is meant for barter trade for oil (gold for oil) or sale and then the use of the accrued revenue to buy oil, the value will be the same for the welfare of the people Ghana.

It must be noted that Ghana has a Commodity Market and Ghana Commodity Exchange in place and gold is one of the Commodity for the Market or Exchange, hence acquisition of more gold through the use of Ghana Cedis (fiat money) which Bank of Ghana can mint or print provided paper is available must be commendable as thinking outside the box. It must also be noted that gold is challenging the US Dollars as a safe haven as store of value and Ghana which has abundant gold, should not be suffering (with apology to then Candidate Nana Addo, he was 100% right) when Section 6 of Article 257 states that the minerals in Ghana are vested in the President on behalf of and in trust for the people of Ghana. So this attempt to share the wealth of gold fairly to the citizens must be commended.

Fellow Citizens, it is very sad to note that both Ghana and Ivory Coast produces not less than 65% of cocoa out of the 75% cocoa produce in Africa but gets only 2% of the over 100 billion dollars in the global cocoa industry. Our National leaders must be educated that the demand for raw commodities is elastic and that for value added or processed agro-products or commodities is relatively inelastic thus the price of cocoa may decline but not that of chocolate. So let us add value to our cocoa and other products, hence the idea of the 1DIF is commendable.

There is therefore the urgent need for value addition to agro-products by agro driven industries to process and add value to the farm produces. This will need us to halt some of our politicians with their childish conduct of accusing the other administration of land grabbing when, the State wants to adopt commercial agric production with use of massive land which may certainly make some small holders losing their jobs.

This childish accusation of land grabbing was the situation in 2007 or so that prevented a bilateral deal between the Government of Ghana and the Government of Brazil for Brazil to invest over 250million US Dollars in Sugar Series production in the savelugu enclave in the Northern Region by Messer’s Embrampa of Brazil and a Ghanaian Company. It must be noted that by researches conducted with support of the Brazilian Government in 2007 and during the Administration of Ex-President Mahama in 2014 or so by a Moroccan sugar production series company, the Savelugu enclave was found or has similar environmental conditions like Sao Paulo in Brazil for high yield of sugarcane with high brix content /over 75% sugar recovery for a viable sugar Production series in Ghana.

Sugar cane is a grass land plant or a member of the grass family. It is also a C4 plant that needs among others, abundant sunlight, some heat, enough CO2 as well as water for sugar production and the Savelugu enclave which is a grass land with irrigation potential and vast arable land for massive cultivation of crops was found in 2007, 2009 and 2013 as the ideal place for a sugar factory in Ghana.

This childish accusation of land grabbing is the same problem the McDan Group is facing with his attempt to introduce large scale commercial production of salt in the Ada Songhor lagoon areas. His commendable venture if come into fruition can help improve the economic stability of this Country through local usage by the petrochemical industries etc and for export. Let us support him to get achieve what he want to do for his Country and his people in the catchment area.

This negative way of thinking or story of Pull Him Down (PHD) has been the bane of the Africa continent especially Ghana. We must find a remedy for it through change of attitude and cure this canker by a combination of small holders and large scale commercial farming or enterprise and provision of jobs for the catchment communities are recommended. Hence the people around the Kpong, Afife, and Aveyime Irrigation projects should be given some acres of land for their farming activities and any private commercial farming Company and the Government should support the peasant farmers or small holders with technology as well as access to finances by leveraging rural banks to provide credit to the farmers.

Folks, lastly let me bring to your attention that the planned Gas Cylinder Circulation to replace the current filling of gas at Gas filling stations will take place effective Jan 2023. The idea may be said to be good, a safety measure to prevent fire hazard but may be a bad one for the nation and the whole world at large because you and me who have buying gas by tot that is not able to buy enough gas to the full capacity of even a mini cylinder which will cost about GHC150.00 may not able to get gas and the end result is use of fire wood and charcoal.

I know you will be shock to note that our President and the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources recently chaired an event in Egypt, on carbon emission or global warming and do not see that Gas Cylinder Circulation Exercise may drive majority of the population (including myself) who cannot afford to fill their gas cylinders to the full capacity to go back to our old ways of using fire woods and charcoal, Cry the Beloved Country with leaders in different universe. Otherwise, once again they need us to demo to them our problems.

They even told us that they are expecting a fair share of some billion dollars because of the protection of our environment and for planting of more trees. Hmm, our leaders have failed to note that, the administration of the late Papa J in 1983 or 1993 or so in an attempt to protect trees from being felled for firewood or charcoal or so made gas very cheap and encouraged the mushrooming of Gas filling Stations for the gas to be within reach of his people. Please note I did not use the word affordable to his people because affordable is associated with corruption or a looting scheme in Ghana.

Thanks and best regards, I shall return..
By Major Mohammed Bogobiri (rtd)