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Politics of Thursday September 17, 2020
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2020-09-17
Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang
John Dramani Mahama’s running mate in the December elections, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has accused the New Patriotic Party (PNP) government of nepotism in distributing premixed fuel to canoe fishermen.
According to Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, the phenomenon is regressive and divisive.
The situation, he said, has eroded the huge advances made by the previous administration of the Democratic National Congress (NDC) in managing the supply of premixed fuel.
“Why should there be discrimination in the allocation of premixed fuel? Why should only a part of the people have access to the product that is intended for everyone? “she asked.
She made the remarks while on her way to a fishermen’s durbar in the coastal community of Axim in the Western Region as part of her tour of the region.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang said it is regrettable that increasing marginalization and discrimination in the allocation of resources for development has spread to the fishing sector.
“Political power is not meant to create division. A government, like an elder, is supposed to provide and care for all its children without discrimination. This is very divisive. This is not how they raised us, ”he said.
John Mahama’s running mate, who was accompanied by former Second Lady, Ms Matilda Amissah-Arthur and former Minister of Fisheries, Madam Sherry Ayittey, assured that the upcoming NDC administration would ensure fairness in fuel distribution and subsidized outboard motors.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang recounted how the supply of premixed fuel and subsidized outboard motors benefited everyone, regardless of party affiliation, adding that the NDC would restore the fortune and integrity of the fishing industry.
That, he said, would be achieved by restructuring the distribution system to make it “very transparent.”
Ms Ayittey, responding to various concerns from fishermen leadership in the area, said that the cost of an outboard motor said to have increased from GH ¢ 6,000 in 2016 to approximately GH ¢ 15,000 would be reduced to the 2016 rate. .
In addition, he said that the installment payment system, which offered flexible terms for payment of the engines, would be restored by the NDC.
Regarding the restructuring of the distribution of premixed fuels, he explained that the current premix committees that have been kidnapped by members of the ruling party, would be reconstituted to have the main fishermen as heads of the committees.
Ebenezer Afful, 2015 Best National Fisherman and spokesperson for the fishermen, said that discrimination has seriously affected the canoe fishing business in the Western Region.
“Now, most of us don’t get premixed fuel to go to sea,” he said, adding that the high level of nepotism and corruption has collapsed the canoe fishing business.
He prayed for a change in the management of the industry to save the youth zone from unemployment and expressed optimism that the NDC represents that desired change.
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