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PRESENTATION BY HON. ERIC OPOKU, MP FOR ASUNAFO SOUTH AND RANKING MEMBER FOR THE PARLIAMENTARY SELECT COMMITTEE ON AGRIC, AT THE PUBLIC FORUM OF THE COALITION FOR RESTORATION (CFR), ON TUESDAY 25TH FEBRUARY, 2020 AT THE KAMA CONFERENCE CENTER.

Friends of the media,
Distinguished invited guest,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Introduction
I am exceedingly excited for the opportunity to join my colleague, Hon. Isaac Adongo, MP for Bolgatanga Central, in assessing the performance of the Akufo-Addo-led NPP Government.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in reaction to the invitation by Dr. Bawumia for us to counter data with data, we have decided to use this forum to provide incontrovertible facts to correct the deliberate falsehoods peddled by both the President and his Vice Dr. Bawumia in the 2020 state of the Nation Address and Kumasi Town Hall meeting respectively.

As the Ranking Member for the Parliamentary Select Committee on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs, I would like to start with the Agriculture sector.

Declining Growth of the Agriculture sector
Ladies and gentlemen, in 2017 the Agricultural sector grew by 6.1% which was largely driven by cocoa and food crops. In 2018, Government implemented an expanded version of the planting for food and jobs programme.
577,000 farmers participated in the programme and 183,000mt of subsidized fertilizer were distributed to farmers across the country.

In spite of this huge investment, growth in the sector declined to 4.8% at the end of 2018 (paragraphs 500 and 502 of 2019 budget and 76 of 2020 budget).


Also, in 2019, the NPP gov’t claimed that investment in the sector was further increased.

➢ 920,000 farmers were engaged and 292,242mt of subsidized fertilizer was deployed under the planting for food and jobs programme (paragraph 671 of 2020 Budget)

➢ They also claim that through the Canadian facility of 125 million Canadian dollars secured by the Mahama-led NDC government to boost Agriculture in Ghana, 216 Brand New Pick-ups were distributed to the departments of Agriculture of the District Assemblies.

➢ 3000 motorbikes were released to enhance Agriculture extension services.

➢ 2, 700 Agriculture extension officers were also deployed (paragraph 503 of 2019 Budget)

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the face of this huge investment growth in the Agricultural sector for the first half of 2019 was 2.6% compared to 4.7% within the same period in 2018.

The claim by the president in the recent state of the nations address that the Agricultural sector grew by 6.4% in the year 2020 is completely false and not borne out by the facts contained in government’s own 2020 budget statement approved by Parliament.

This paradoxical situation shows that contrary to the long cherished Agricultural principle that “you plant a seed and reap a harvest”, the Akufo-Addo Government has been planting a harvest and reaping a seed in the last three years.

In short, the declining trend of growth for the Agric sector from 2017-2019 completely belies the President’s claim that the Agric sector is doing well. Despite the political sloganeering and hollow rhetorics of President Akufo-Addo, the reality on the ground is that all is not well Ghana’s Agric sector. The much-touted interventions of government in the Agric sector are not yielding the desired dividends and farmers are suffering as a result of that.

Planting for food and jobs
Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to subject the much-touted Planting for and Jobs program to a more detailed evaluation and assessment.

Let me state for the records, that funding for the PF&J program was secured by the Mahama led NDC government in 2015 from Canada. The facility which was intended to implement a programme called Modernising Agriculture Productivity through the Local Economy (MAPLE) was delayed because of the Canadian election in October 2015 which ushered into office a new government.

The Akufo-Addo government inherited this facility upon assumption of office in January 2016, together with a 50% fertilizer subsidy program and changed the name of the programme to Modernising Agriculture Ghana (MAG), upon which the planting for food and jobs programme is anchored.

It is worthy of note, that the planting for food and jobs programme is solely for peasant farmers and does not include commercial farmers. Peasant farmers produce primarily to feed their families and only sell surpluses to enable them procure other basic needs. Commercial farmers on the other hand, produce in anticipation of market demand. Hence, the bumper harvest being trumpeted by the Akufo-Addo government is largely as a result of production by commercial farmers and cannot be attributed to the success of planting for food and jobs program.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the recent state of the nation Address, President Akuffo Addo stated that not a single grain of maize has been imported into Ghana over the last 2 years. This is palpably false.

According to US department of Agriculture (USDA) Ghana in,
2016 imported 31,000mt
2017 imported 19,000mt
2018 imported 26,000mt
2019 imported 50,000mt

The programme which was intended to reduce importation of maize among other things has landed Ghana into increasing import of maize from 31,000mt in 2016 to 50,000mt in 2019.

The declining fortunes of the Planting for Food and Jobs program is largely as a result of the continuous smuggling of huge quantities of fertilizer meant for farmers outside, in most cases by NPP apparatchiks.

Instead of admitting the failings and challenges confronting the program, the Akufo-Addo government has set up an office at the Ministry of food and Agriculture which has been cooking figures to mislead to nation on the true state of the Planting for Food and Jobs program. This propaganda department is different from the Statistics Research and Information Directorate of the Ministry of food and Agriculture which is officially recognized to provide statistics on the Agric sector.

The following are few examples of deliberately cooked data which have been churned out by the newly created propaganda unit at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Example 1: At paragraph 789 of the 2018 budget, it is provided that in 2017, govt distributed 2,000,000 bags of subsidized fertilizer to farmers under the PFJ. 2,000,000 bags of fertilizer translate into 100,000 metric tonnes of Fertilizer.

Also, at paragraph 502 of the 2019 Budget, they stated that they distributed 183,000mt of subsidized fertilizer.

This means that for the 2 years, 2017 and 2018, they distributed a total of
100,000mt+183,000mt=283,000mt of fertilizer.

Strangely, in paragraph 257 of the 2020 Budget, it is stated that in 2017 and 2018 they supplied a total of 551,000mt of fertilizer.

Ladies and Gentlemen, a ton of fertilizer is 20 pieces of the 50kg bags.
➢ 551,000=11,020,000 bags of 50kg
If the subsidy is GHC 75 per bag then subsidy paid to farmers =826,500,000
➢ Actual distribution was 283,000 metric tonnes =5,660,000 bags of 50kg each. If the subsidy is GHC75 per a bags of 50kg then, the subsidy paid is GHC 424,500,000

From these conflicting figures reported by the ministry in government’s own budget statements, it is clear that the amount of subsidy paid to farmers from 2017-2018 is bloated by a whopping GHC 404,000,000.

Example 2: In paragraph 388 of the 2018 Budget, it is stated that 201,000 farmers participated in the PFJ programme in 2017

Again, in paragraph 500 of the 2019 budget, we are told that 577,000 farmers benefited from the programme in 2018.

Surprisingly, in paragraph 257 of the 2020 Budget we are told that between 2017 and 2018, 880,000 farmers participated in the programme. Note that, this figure is cumulative and that those who benefitted in 2017 also participated in 2018 so total participation for 2017 and 2018 should have been 577,000 as per paragraph 500 of the 2019 Budget. This means that 303,000 farmers who never participated in the programme who been added to mischievously prop up the fortunes of the Planting for Food and Jobs program.

Sadly, these conflicting cooked figures is what form the basis for government’s claim that 1,541, 545 jobs have been created under the Planting for Food and Jobs program between 2017 and 2018.

Ladies and gentlemen, permit me to expose another palpable falsehood which as been peddled repeatedly by the Akufo-Addo government relative to the number of jobs created under the Planting for Food and Jobs program.

At paragraph 259 of the 2020 Budget, the minister of Finaceer reported that;
“Mr. Speaker, the intervention also created significant jobs along the commodity value chain. A total of 746,601 and 794,944 jobs were created in 2017 and 2018 respectively. About 94 percent of these jobs are linked to farm level employment, 4 percent to value addition and postharvest service provision and the remaining 2 percent to extension delivery and ICT”.

Out of these jobs created in 2017 and 2018, 1,449,052 representing 94% are linked to farm level employment. This is what we call “By Day’’., note that in most Akan communities, peasant farmers do not hire labourers but rather engage in what is called “Nnoboa”. Under this arrangement, the number of farmers belonging to the nnoboa group will work on the farm of Mr A who is a member today, tomorrow they will work on the farm of Mr B who is also a member and this will continue until all members are served.
In some cases, they solicit the assistance of neighbours and relatives to complete a specific task on their farms.

How can these constitute job creation by the Nana Addo’s government? And what mechanism did government use to determine the farm level employment.

Distinguish Ladies and Gentlemen, I strongly believe that, at this juncture, I have demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that the Government of Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo is executing a stratagem of deception in the governance of our nation.

We cannot forget the 50,000mt of fertilizer worth $12million that disappeared to neighbouring countries in 2018.
In 2019, we are told that 20,000mt worth over $5 million dollars could not be accounted for. When the parliamentary select committee of Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs inquired into the whereabouts of the fertilizer, the ministry responded that “it has been smuggled to neighbouring countries”.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the true state of the Planting for Food and jobs program. All is not well with our farmers as the President would have us believe. Our farmers are really suffering

Declining growth of the fisheries sector
Ladies and gentlemen, the decline in the Agriculture sector is reflected in fisheries sub-sector as well.

The facts show that in the year 2016, the sector grew at 3.1% under the Mahama government. Sadly in 2017, the sector grew at -1.4%. In 2018, it further decline to -6.8% and for the first half of 2019, it grew at -2.2 % (Page 20 paragraph 76 of the 2020 budget).

In other words, the Akufo-Addo government has supervised the continuous contraction and decline of the fisheries sector from a positive growth of 3.1% bequeathed to them by the Mahama-NDC government into negative growth for the past three (3) consecutive years. It is even sadder to note that this alarming decline is expected to worsen to as low as negative 10% at the end of 2019 due to gross mismanagement of the sector.

The fisheries sector has been neglected by President Akufo-Addo and fisher folks are being subjected to excruciating hardships and penury. The 2020 Budget captures some of these problems. According to paragraph 720 of the 2020 Budget, in march 2019, fish farmers along the Volta Lake suffered declining production through the outbreak of “infectious Spleen and kidney Virus Diseases(ISKVD)” that devastated their fish farms resulting in huge financial loses. Even though the Ministry requested 12 million cedis to address this problem, government released out only 2 million cedis leaving a massive shortfall of 84% causing the problem to persist. We can only hope for the return of President John Mahama to rescue our hardworking fish farmers from the shackles and tentacles of abject poverty and neglect.
This willful neglect of the fisheries sector is exacerbated by an increase in registration fees from ₴35 to $200 for fishing vesels.This vicious over 570% increase in registration fees is a death blow to an industry already on its knees. The NDC demands an immediate downward review of this registration fees to ameliorate the plight of suffering fishermen.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is sad to note that the fisheries college started under the NDC administration at Anomabo which was intended to qualitatively improve the fishing industry through research and academic engagement and was about 66% complete at the time we were leaving office, has been abandoned to rot by the Akufo-Addo government despite several assurances by government to ensure its completion.

Again, and still in the Central Region, the Elmina Fish Processing facility has been reduced to processing of ice blocks.

Due to the mismanagement of the fisheries sector by the Akufo-Addo government, importation of fish has been on the rise since the year 2017 For instance, From a total of $160million worth of fish imported in 2017, the Global Agricultural Information Network under the auspices of USDA Foreign Agricultural Service has revealed that Ghana imported $311 million in sea food and fish product in 2018 alone.

Decline in Annual Cocoa Production
Ladies and gentlemen, it is sad to note that the Akufo-Addo government is fast eroding all the gains we made in the cocoa sector under the Mahama regime.

Annual production of cocoa has continuously decline in the past two cocoa seasons thereby dwindling the incomes of cocoa farmers.

In the 2016/2017 cocoa season, Ghana produced a total of 969,000mt of coca which is the second highest production level in the history of Ghana. However, 2017/18 cocoa season the figure dropped to 904,000mt representing a 12% decline. Also, in the 2018/19, annual cocoa production further dropped to 811,125mt.

Ladies and Gentlemen, what is baffling is that in 2017 government claimed to have recruited 10,000 youth for the artificial hand pollination programme intentioned to increase cocoa production by 189 %( source paragraph 413 and 414 of the 2018 Budget). However as I have already indicated, at the end of 2017, production did not increase but rather declined by 12%.

Again in 2018, government claimed to have engaged 30,000 youth in the same Artificial Hand pollination with the aim of improving production. Here again, production declined by almost 100,000mt at the end of the 2018/2019 cocoa season.

In 2019, Government claimed to have re –engaged the 30,000 youth pollinators but the figures we are gathering from the LBCs indicate further decline in cocoa production.

These indisputable facts show that the cocoa sector is fast retrogressing under the Akuffo-Addo Government as a result of their poor policy choices for the sector such as:
➢ Cancellation of the free cocoa fertilizer program
➢ Over-politicization of the mass spraying and the pollination works

➢ Non-increase of producer price of cocoa for 2017 and 2018

➢ Discontinuation of over 200 cocoa road projects commenced by the Mahama-NDC government.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the only way Ghana can see growth and progress in the cocoa sector if for President John Dramani Mahama to be re-elected on the 7th of December 2020 to rescue the sector from the clutches of the insensitive and inept Akufo-Addo government. Upon assumption of office on 7th January 2021, President Mahama will restore the distribution of free fertilizers and chemicals to cocoa farmers, complete all abandoned cocoa road projects, restore the payment of bonuses and premiums to cocoa farmers just to mention a few.

Indeed, the trend of producer price of cocoa in the last 20 years I. Ghana is clear testament to President’s Mahama has a superior record in the promotion of the welfare of cocoa farmers as captured below:

Rawlings (2000/01) -20.17 (GH)
Kufour (2001-2008) -102GH (80.3) GH increase in 8 years
Mills (2009-2012) -212 GH
(110 GH increase in 4 years)
Mahama (2012-2016) - 475GH (263 GH increase in 4 years)
Akuffo Addo (2017-2019) -515 GH (40 GH increase in 3 years)

It is sad to note that rather than increase the producer price of cocoa and promote the welfare of cocoa farmers, the Akuffo Addo government has increased office expenditure significantly at the COCOBOD Head office to the detriment of hardworking cocoa farmers in the country. Indeed, cocoa farmers are suffocating under the clueless and insensitive Akufo-Addo government.

The Lingering but Ignorant Question of NDC and Social Interventions
In October 2018 the vice president, Dr. Bawumia asked the NDC to provide a single social intervention that reduce the hardships of Ghanaians. This challenge has been uncritically adopted by other NPP acolytes and re-echoed by Dr Bawumia during his town hall meeting in Kumasi two years later. This question will be answered by information from the finance minister, Ken Ofori Atta. I refer you to paragraphs 781,783,574,696 and 785 of the 2017 budget where he recounts achievements of the NDC. Take note of the first four words in paragraph 781.
“Other social intervention expenditures in the sector for the period under review included an amount of GHC 71.91 million for the provision of subsidies to Senior High Schools (SHS);GH25.96 million for the implementation of the progressively free SHS; GH22.57 million for Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) subsidies; GH25.03 million for capitation Grant; GH11.19 million for free exercise books; and GH50.53 million for feeding grants to colleges of Education, In addition, amounts of GH 10.11 million and GH 2.03 million went into the provision of free school uniforms and feeding grants of special schools, respectively”.

The Finance Minister lists 8 social interventions undertaken by the NDC government, and there are many more which do not need to be listed. As you can see, this so-called “Challenge” by the Vice President needs no commentary. We have noted that that beyond the failure of Dr. Bawumia to read basic information, other members of the NP were either ignorant or not bold enough to correct him. This question reflects how the NPP has reduced governance to jokes and uninformed questions. It again raises speculation as to why the Vice President and the Finance Minister, who is cousin to the President, seem to have figures that are at war with each other.

Free SHS
In his town hall speech, Dr Bawumia asked in paragraph 61 how to resolve the double track system, hundreds of thousands of students would not be able to access free SHS. Dr Bawumia conveniently forgets that President Mahama was building 123 community day senior high schools, out of which more than 40 were fully completed with the rest at various stages of completion by the time he and Akufo-Addo asummed office. If the NPP had not been as vindictive as to abandon these projects there would have been space for many of the children who are now suffering through an abject lack of quality education Akufo-Addo and Bawumia could have also undertaken the 350 SHS building that they promised to deliver within the 18 months in office. Beyond these, the NPP could have engaged creatively with the private SHS providers to find a way of having students attend their school. We have over 500 private SHS in Ghana. All their facilities were inspected and approved for SHS education by the Ministry of Education. Including them in the implementation of the free SHS could have prevented the emergence of the problematic double track. In other words, there were viable options that would have avoided the double track headache that the children are experiencing.

Thus, the claims that “Abolishing the double track system means abolishing free SHS as we know it” is borne out of stubborn refusal to think innovatively about a self-inflicted problem. It also highlights the facts that Akufo-Addo and his government did not think through the implementation of free SHS.
We have to remember that president Mills of blessed memory was faced with a bigger challenge when the 3year and 4years SHS programs clashed during his tenure. The numbers were more than the reported figures that led to double track and yet through innovative policies, parents and children never had to suffer through double track.

The failure of Akuffo-Addo to complete Mahama’s project, couple with a lack of planning, are the reasons why the double track nemesis is compromising the quality of education that our children are experiencing in SHS.
The NDC birthed the 1992 Constitution in which free Education at all levels including SHS is provided for. The free SHS is therefore our baby which cannot be taken away from us.

It is therefore strange that President Akufo-Addo who boycotted the consultative Assembly that drafted the Constitution and capture free Education now claims to be the father of the brain child of the NDC.

NHIS
In the 2019 state of the nation address, President Akufo-Addo claimed to have paid a phantom 1.2 billion-cedi NHIS debt left by the NDC government. Yet, I share with you a letter dated March 21, 2019 and signed by George Asamoah-Baah (Deputy Director, Budget and Management Accounting of the NHIS) addressed to the Deputy Minister for Health. This letter tells us that exactly a month after the claim, none of the 1.2 billion had been paid. The letter also clearly shows that claims arrears for 2016 were GH₵ 844,020,614.22.

Claims from January to March 2017 as well as money to be paid to suppliers, all of which happened under Akufo-Addo’s reign, were disingenuously added to an NDC debt. There have been multiple reports of different service providers threatening to stop working with NHIS. These incidents question the status of the president as an honest leader. They also suggest a return to cash and carry, which is not surprising due to some historical context.

It was under the Busia administration, which incidentally had President Akufo-Addo’s father as head of state, that Ghana experienced cash and carry for the first time. These two gentlemen introduced the Hospital Fees Act in 1971 to set off decades of the cash and carry system. This system was something that the NDC was determined to end.

Before exiting power in 2000, the NDC considered introducing the NHIS. This intention generated heated debate and opposition from the NPP. They held a press conference under Dr. Addo-Kufuor in 2000 to “encourage private insurance schemes.” Earlier in April 1997, this same NPP had said that money and energy had been wasted on the single NHIS and that it was not viable.

The bone of contention between the NDC and NPP was that while the NPP wanted a mutual health insurance, the NDC advocated for a national health insurance. Under the scheme r are district based; again, employees were paid only at the same district that they registered. In other words, there was no crossover. When we returned to power, in 2012 we abolished the old regime and passed a new law in 2012 to make the scheme truly national. Today, Ghanaians can access healthcare from any district, while payment to employees is not limited to districts.