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10.09.2008 Politics

Fishing ministry is mere charade: Koku Anyidoho

By myjoyonline
Fishing ministry is mere charade: Koku Anyidoho
10.09.2008 LISTEN








Koku Anyidoho speaks to Joy News

Koku Anyidoho, head of communications for the Atta Mills campaign team has rebuffed comments suggesting that the opposition NDC is running its campaign on ethnic lines.

He also described Ghana's fishing ministry as a mere 'charade, facade, cover-up.'

His statement comes amid heightening accusations by the ruling New Patriotic Party that the flag bearer of the opposition NDC is shifting the campaign balance to ethnocentrism.

Mr Anyidoho was speaking to Joy News' Akwasi Sarpong.

Prof Mills in an earlier tour of the Central Region was quoted to have said that “because there is no sea in the Ashante Region President Kufuor does not see the need to pay attention to the plight of fishermen.”

The flag bearer had said the businesses of fishermen in the country were being destroyed by the activities of pair-trawlers and an ever-increasing cost of pre-mix fuel, a statement the fisheries minister, Gladys Asmah describes as unfortunate.

But Mr Anyidoho said the campaign team is in the least bothered by such claims as Prof Mills' statements are only an icing on the cake, that are buttressing the genuine concerns of Ghana's fisher folk.

“What we are concerned about is the way the fisher folk feel and what the fisher folk tell us everywhere we've been.”

Mr Anyidoho presented more explanation of what Prof Mills meant. “Prof Mills spoke to the issue of the President having neglected the fishing communities because he didn't grow there; he doesn't know the extent to which the sea is a source of livelihood for people in the fishing community. People marrying from the sea, they take care of their children from the sea, they take care of their families from the sea and they live off the sea,” he narrated.

“So if you have come as a government and your policies are killing the fishing industry, Prof Mills was only stating the facts.”

He played down suggestions that the establishment of a fishing industry by the government was a pointer to the President's concern for the plight of fishermen in the country.

For Mr Anyidoho, the fisheries ministry is only “charade, it's just a façade, it's just a cover-up of how they [NPP] are starving the fisher folk.”

“You set up a fishing ministry and create the impression that you are concerned about the fisher folk, and then behind the door you are killing the industry. Just allow a few party apparatchiks to import fish from outside so they can sustain their industry.”

Mrs Asmah in an earlier interview with Joy News outlined a package for the industry which she said may only be implemented under another term of the New Patriotic Party.

Listen to audio attachment for Koku Anyidoho's comments

Author: Fiifi Koomson

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