Author: Kwaku GhanaMPs

Outspoken NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Asunafo South, Eric Opoku is at it again; this time round, he punches holes into recent producer price of cocoa announced by President Nana Addo- Dankwah Akufo – Addo.

The MP who also doubles as Ranking Member on Agriculture in Parliament did not spare the COCOBOD and its Chief Executive Officer(CEO) Joseph Boahen Aidoo, while delving into issues on global Cocoa prices and developments therein.

According to him there have been vast discrepancies in the producer price of the commodity between the President’s and that of the COCOBOB CEO’S.

He maintained that whereas the President’s producer price rests on GH¢ 1308, representing 70.5%, that of the CEO hovers around GH¢ 1255, representing 70.03%.

Mr. Eric Opoku made these assertions at Dadiesoaba in the Asunafo South Constituency in the Ahafo Region last Wednesday, September 12, 2023.

Mr. Opoku together with the Minority Caucus in Parliament had converged in the auditorium of the Church of Pentecost there with Chiefs, Queen Mothers, Farmer – groups and party faithful to be briefed on current developments vis-à-vis the recent producer price as announced by the President, Nana Akufo- Addo in what was termed Cocoa Farmers and media encounter on the theme “Cocoa Sector stake holder’s management”.

According to the President, the price increment first in 50 years, was the highest in the West African sub – Region. This position was however rebutted fiercely by Eric Opoku, who maintained that this was a palpable lie.

According to him, this year should be the happiest in the history of Ghanaian Cocoa farmers. This, he said was due to the fact that Cocoa beans had come into short scarcity on the world market because global demand had outstripped global supply.

He maintained that Ghana’s Cocoa being the best in the world Ghana is given a premium of $4300 per tons. Subsequently if Ghanaian the Cocoa farmer should enjoy most, it is this year. However, the producer price as announced by the President is most unfair and short priced for the Ghanaian cocoa farmers.

According to him, even with the June Cocoa price, a tons of cocoa is supposed to be sold on the world market for $25,015 and a bag of it should be sold for 2500 Ghana Cedis for the farmer.

He bemoaned that instead; government had taken a chunk of it, 58.2% and given the farmer about 42%. He stated that the GH¢ 1308 given farmers is short listed and that farmers should insist on their right price, which the NDC Caucus in Parliament will pursue till Justice is done farmers.

Hon. Eric Opoku intimated that instead of the NPP Government giving the farmer the desired amount, it has become the reverse with the farmer getting less while Government takes the chunk of it.

COCOBOD RUN LOSES SINCE 2017, YET….

According to Eric Opoku, COCOBOD under the management of the current CEO, Joseph Boahen Aidoo had been recording loses since 2017. Yet it has been paying bonuses and building houses for the staff of COCOBOB, while farmers who toil and moil to produce the commodity wallow in poverty.

He revealed that even as at September 11, 2023 the World Market price for a ton of Cocoa was $3808 per ton. So plus the premium, a ton could hit over $4000, for which farmers need better treatment. “The NPP Government had not dealt well and fairly with Ghanaian farmer at all! “He said, attracting cheers and applause from the agitated farmers around.

FARMERS DENIED BONUSES, FERTILIZERS, INSECTICIDES BY NPP
The Ranking Member stated that since coming into power in 2017, the NPP has refused to pay bonuses to farmers and also refused to continue with the free supply of fertilizers, insecticides and mass spraying exercise during the NDC era.

He said because of this, free fertilizers that were marked not for sale, were left to rot when NPP came to power, it made these fertilizers got rotting thereby incurring huge sums as contained in pages 255 and 260 of the Auditor General Report.

IMF, EU halt cocoa road projects – NDC
Mr Eric Opoku, Ranking Member on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs has maintained that during the NDC era, government used proceeds from Cocoa on the construction of Cocoa roads, school buildings, solar energy, the extension of electricity to deprived communities and many more.

However, with the advent of the NPP, things have been messed up so much that government has gone bankrupt owing over 44 metric tons of cocoa.

And it is against this background that government has opened this year’s season in September instead of October. And without coming to Parliament for prior approval of the syndicated loan for the purchase of cocoa this season, COCOBOD has gone ahead to open the 2023/2024 Season.

“Though the government has opened the season, it has no money to pay farmers”, he stressed.

Accordingly, the IMF and ICCO have sanctioned the NPP government against embarking on construction of cocoa roads, payment of bonuses and free supply of fertilizers and insecticides, a situation which has declined cocoa production in the country.

He said the decline had been compounded by the influx of buyers of cocoa from Togo and La Cote d’Ivoire, buying both dry and wet cocoa beans at higher prices.

Also depreciation of the cedi and rise in exchange rate had made nonsense of the so called increment as against the NDC era, when farmers could make better use of their producer prices.

All efforts to get the version of COCOBOB proved futile as in the absence of the CEO, Fiifi Head of Public Relations said he was attending meeting and therefore could not avail himself.

S. O. Ankamah Dadiesoaba/Ghanamps.com

Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga said their intended demonstration against the Governor of the Central Bank through the street of Accra from Parliament House to BoG Head office poses no security threat.
He made the assertion after having a meeting with the Greater Accra police Headquarters.

According to him the Governor Ernest Aderson must come to receive the petition of the Minority on September 5, 2023 and this was made clear to the police during their meeting on Wednesday, August 23, 2023.

As to whether there was a fruitful discussion on the route to be used on the day for the demonstration, he noted that, though the police attempted that, they (Minority) insisted on their route from Parliament through Osu Cemetery Traffic Light, Ministry of Finance, High Court Complex Kinbu, Makola, Rawlings Park, Opera Square, and conclude at the Bank of Ghana.

He affirmed during an interview that the Minority has not accepted any alternative arrangements, saying “we have confidence in the Ghana police; we have seen them police more complicated route, there is no part of Accra that I have never demonstrated through and the police were there to ensure that it was successful.

So, the most important security installation is the office of the president as media person you have covered demonstration up to the front of the flagstaff house, senior people have come out of the flagstaff house to receive petitions, if you can do that why not the bank of Ghana head office building.”

“There are workers there and office buildings across the city and bank of Ghana workers use those facilities, I do not think there is a security issue here at all”, he added.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Dr Zanetor Rawlings, the Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle is advocating for a deeper analysis of some critical factors by the government of Ghana before making any commitment to the sub-regional bloc’s military intervention in Niger.

Authority of Heads of States and Governments in trying to address the coup crisis in Niger announced a number of sanctions including possible military intervention by the bloc.

This, was however, variedly received with Burkina Faso, one of the countries currently under military rule, and a neighbor to Ghana to the north as well as Mali pledging their support to the coup makers in Niger, stating that any military intervention means declaration of war against them.

Dr. Zanetor Rawlings pointed out that Ghana is surrounded by French speaking countries; to the North is Burkina Faso one of the Countries that has declared to take position in alignment with Niger should there be military intervention; with Cote d’ Ivoire aligning with the bloc, while the position of Togo is not yet known .

According to her cooperation between Burkina Faso and Ghana is key to keeping our Northern Borders safe. “So when we are looking at how ECOWAS takes decision of intervening in another country, we should consider what is our national interest; no country can be quiet of its national interest in spite of international treaties it might have signed”.

“Again, in all seriousness, rushing into a military intervention may not be the best thing to do. You may in theory think this thing that can be done in a period of time; forty-eight hours, seven days, in a month. When you go into a military situation and you notice that the conflict that you have entered into is not a straight forward one, it becomes difficult to determine where the end point should be. At which point should we say we are pulling out; are you going to leave the place in a worse state than you find it?

She advised that a critical look should be given to the common trend of these coups in the sub-region as it appears that the Francophone countries in the sub-region are taking a position with regards to France; “we need to have that conversation, we cannot ignore the elephant in the room any longer”, she added

The Deputy Ranking on Defense and Interior further questioned the possible outcome of a military intervention if it runs the risk of destabilizing the sub-region further in the event that we have exodus of refugees and whether member states have the capacity to absorb these refugees without completely collapsing their economy given the fact that the economies in the sub-region are generally struggling.

Citing Ghana as an example, she said the country is currently at the IMF for support which they don’t really know would get the country out of the economic difficulty; adding that the consideration of military intervention goes beyond trying to restore the status quo in a particular country which is a sovereign state despite being part of ECOWAS.

According to her, the issue of internally displaced persons first of all and refugees is not something that can be handled as it appears on paper; you have to find premises and resources available and with countries struggling that would be far-fetched.

As to what will be her stand should the military intervention issue come to the floor of Ghana’s Parliament; she said the good thing is that the Executive cannot take a unilateral decision and take a country to war without the buying in of the representative of the people. And stated that the Nigerian Senate has proven to the sub-region and all of us in the member states that the Executive which is represented by the President and the Commission of ECOWAS cannot do this unilaterally without the various legislative arms of member states we are talking about constitutional rule and democracy.

“That we cannot just stand up and declare war without the buying in of our people this is perhaps what we saw happen to Brexit; a referendum was held the people pushed for the exit from the EU, the representative of the people had no choice but to implement what the masses were looking for and like manner if the Senate of Nigeria has not agreed to a military intervention.

What it simply does is to allow a face saving way out in a way from this position of military intervention and push us back to the dialogue and mediation board because, none of what we are observing is happing in a vacuum; the reasons may be different base on the different countries but there appears to be a common underlying factor; mind you all of these are happening in Francophone countries so there is something that we need to be looking at beyond the obvious as ECOWAS.”

She affirmed that Nigeria itself is dealing with violent extremism which they are struggling to keep in check and if you combine that with an intervention in another country looking at the geopolitics in that particular region, that would be problematic.

“Again, we should certainly have that discussion whether it is the issue of the influence with France, whether it is the case of governance, or case of injustice perceived or real, or a case of corruption, we need to bring everyone to have that talk or discussion with regards to what the underlining factors are”, she concluded.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Deputy Ranking member of Ghana’s Parliament Committee on Defense and Interior Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings has cautioned that, the Nation needs to be careful as the sub-regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of States and Government blow military intervention horn in the wake of the coup in the Republic of Niger.

According to her it’s a difficult question to ask if, “Ghana is safe” in the wake of coup in Niger more especially because of the pockets of conflict happening along the Nation’s Northern borders which create weakness in our architecture.

“We need to be careful as we blow the horn for military intervention that we are not opening ourselves up because till date Ghana is the only country in the surrounding area between our three neigbouring countries that has not been hit by any kind of terrorist attack”.

In an interview, she added that this is not the time to be crackling the cage because we are having to deal with a lot of issues at the Northern part of our border. We have seen a lot of these activities of terrorists associated with illegal mining which we still haven’t come to terms with.

Again, we have not really handle that situation properly specifically the Executive arm of government has not handled that situation properly and there is a direct link between foreign person engaging in illegal mining in Ghana and perhaps supplying whatever resources they are getting to other parts of the sub-region.

“We do not have specifics of what the money is being used for, but your guess is as good as mine. How have we put measures in place to protect our own nationals, as we participate in what is being pushed for in Niger?”

“We need to ensure that going down this path, we are not creating more instability and opening ourselves to unnecessary incidents here in Ghana”, she emphasised.

She added that with regards to any kind of attacks or extremism crossing into our borders is Ghana, “maybe for now we are safe; just to add that we have a very large Niger citizens in Ghana, and whatever decision we take should be factored into our decision making with regards to whatever Ghana wants to be a part of as to what is happing in Niger and the sub-region in general.”

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Member of Parliament for Bia East constituency Richard Acheampong has taken a swipe at the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Dan Kwaku Botwe for having issues over he, benefiting from a one million Ghana cedis District Assembly Common Fund project.

According to him the Minister as a member of the Local Government and Rural development Committee member had benefited from such projects when he was in opposition and having been a member of the Committee.

In an interview, he noted that since his name popped up, the sector Minister should have enquired how he got the contract, which is even not a personal thing all; the Committee members have benefited and it is not an issue of only the Minority MPs benefiting but the Majority members also benefited.

“How much is one million cedis? Members of the educational Committee after passing the budget or appropriation benefited from six-unit classroom, which is more than one million Ghana cedis, but no one is complaining about that”.

“Again, the Health committee, they are putting up chips compound for them; is worth more than one million Ghana cedis. Why do you talk about this project; it’s not money. This whole issue started from the region, someone pulled the letter and sent it to the Minister and because he wanted a ground to fight the administrator, so he forwarded it to the president when he got the information. He thought it was a good ground to go fight the woman”.

As to if it’s his opinion for the president to sack the administrator in the wake of the brouhaha, he responded saying “for what crime? Everybody on the Local Government and Rural Development Committee got their share of the projects”.

And further pointed out that he is putting up a durbar ground and a CHPS compound and “I have invested eight percent into the project and no money has been paid to me even the contract has not been signed.”

“I use my own pocket money; I have used my own resources and I can show you pictures, so I do not get it for the Minister to report the Common Fund Administrator for giving me a contract worth one million Ghana cedis as if it’s a crime or a bribe. We are a twenty member committee; why do you single out and mention my name”, he queried.

According to him, he doesn’t know if the Minister has a personal issue with him; or there is a turf war of which he is trying to score political point with Administrator so he got it all wrong.

The Bia East lawmaker further indicated that per Article 252 of the constitution the Common Fund Administrator is appointed by the president and confirm by parliament; “so she does not work under the ministry. They need to collaborate and work for the development of the assemblies.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Minister for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Stephen Asamoah Boateng, has put an end to the swirling rumors surrounding the vast mineral royalties accrued to the Akim Kotoku Traditional Council.

The rumors were brought to light when the MP for Akyem Oda, Alexander Akwasi Acquah, posed a question to the Minister during a parliamentary press session, seeking clarification on the amount of money received in royalties from the Newmont Company.

After engaging with the media in Parliament, MP Akwasi Acquah clarified that the mineral royalties accumulated by the Akim Kotoku Traditional Council are not as substantial as previously speculated.

His statement comes after his inquiry to Mr Asamoah Boateng on the matter.

During the press session, Mr Boateng disclosed that the reason behind the apparent absence of royalty payments to the traditional council is due to an ongoing and prolonged litigation process in the Akim Kotoku area.

Ghanamps.com