Leader and founder of the United Renaissance Party (URP), Charles Kofi Wayo has donated cutlasses to farmers in at Anum Apapam, a farming community in the Suhum Kraboa Coaltar District of the Eastern region, to aid in the production of food to feed the country.
Having occupied himself with issues of the wellbeing of ordinary Ghanaians since his return from the US over two decades ago, Mr Wayo, otherwise known as Chuck, has been engage in humanitarian activities including providing free cutlasses to farmers across the country.
According to him having donated cutlasses to several farming communities across the country, it was the turn of Anum Apapam to benefit from his kind gesture, hence the donation, which he said puts the number of cutlasses he has donated so far to 250,000.
He said there are more arable lands to be cultivated to make Ghana the bread basket of Africa, but that vision has eluded the country because farmers have been left to their fate with minimal or no assistance from the people he described as �big men� in the society.
Speaking to The Al-Hajj on the sidelines of the presentation, received on behalf of the farmers by the Queen Mother of Anum Apapam, Chuck stated that �I am not an MP, but it behooves on me to contribute my quota to the development of agriculture and the production of food to feed the country.�
�We have vast fertile agricultural lands, but it is not cultivated because our farmers don�t have the needed implements, and nobody is willing to assist them� their MPs sit in parliament and make noise while their people don�t have common farm implements. They ride in expensive cars while their people suffer� I�m making this donation because I share in the hardship of the farmers, and I want to alleviate it,� Mr. Kofi Wayo asserted.
He said, over the past fifteen years, he has donated thousands of cutlasses to farmers free of charge, adding that, Ghana has the potential of becoming a net exporter of lots of produces than what the country is currently engaged in if farmers are given the needed assistance.
The URP founder noted areas that have benefitted from his benevolence have had some sigh of relief in terms of doling out their meager incomes to purchase cutlasses; a situation he said has forced lots of farmers to be less productive.
�The farmers are willing to work but they don�t have money to buy some of the farm tools� their MPs don�t help them, they only come to them when they need their votes, and after that, they sit in parliament and argue over needless things,� he added.
The queen mother of Anum Apapam told The Al-Hajj that farmers at the village have been looking forward to the day when politicians and �big men� in their society will take a cue from the URP founder�s kind gesture and help them.
She said �If all our big men can replicate what Mr. Kofi Wayo has done, I think we the farmers will be relief from some of the challenges that we face. It is obvious that most of our MPs don�t think about our welfare after voting for them; we are facing a lot of challenges in the agricultural sector but they don�t care.�
The queen mother commended Mr. Wayo for choosing to invest in agriculture by helping them with cutlasses; a situation she said will forever be ingrained in their minds as a result of which they will forever be grateful to the founder and leader of the URP.
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