Chartered Economist and a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Bernard Oduro Takyi (BOT), has urged Ghanaian farmers to vote against the NPP government in the 2024 elections for collapsing the agriculture sector.
The entrepreneur stated that previous budget statements of the government and statistics from the Ghana Statistical Service indicate that the agricultural sector growth has declined ever since President Akufo-Addo took over power.
Quoting the 2017 and 2018 budget statements on the Gumbe Show program on TV XYZ, Bernard Oduro Takyi popularly known as BOT said the figures in the budget depicted that the agricultural sector grew under the Mahama era but started to decline when Akufo-Addo’s administration took over.
According to him, the cocoa sector took a nose dive under Akufo-Addo, explaining that the scrapping of free fertilizers for cocoa farmers by the Akufo-Addo government has negatively affected the sector.
He said the cocoa road projects the Mahama administration introduced to rehabilitate feeder roads in the cocoa growing areas were halted by Akufo-Addo.
“This cocoa road project was halted by the Akufo-Addo to tarnish the image of Dr. Opuni, who was the then COCOBOD Boss. This government didn’t think about the farmers and they took huge amounts of Dollars to Kroll and Associates to audit the project but they couldn’t publish the report which stated that the project was a clean contract,” BOT told host Oheneba Boamah Bennie.
He further urged the cocoa farmers whose trade has been destroyed by the Akufo-Addo government to stage a protest against the NPP government.
“The cocoa sector has collapsed under President Akufo-Addo. Farmers should vote the NPP government out on December 7 as their way of expressing protest, ” he urged.
Again, BOT assured that the cocoa road projects will return under the next NDC/John Mahama government.
Source:ghanaweb