Opinions of Sunday, 7 June 2020
Columnist: Bernard Addico
I have seen the most absurd things that have been done by our Political leaders in this country, But Komenda Sugar Factory is the Highest Level of Absurdity I have seen. It saddened my heart that we build a Factory which we are left to just Plant Sugar cane to feed the factory which will add up to our trade balance because the initial idea for the establishment of Komenda Sugar Factory was to produce sugar so we stop the importation of sugar.
Now we have used 3 years after the establishment of the factory to chastise the former Government for building a Factory without growing sugarcane and while allocation was made in the agreement for the growing of sugarcane which can be done in a year just to get the factory working, we have used three and a half years to do our normal blame game leaving the factory to rot at the expense of employment and having an opportunity to fix the fundamentals of our economy. The current government praises itself for singlehandedly bringing the price of a bunch of Plantain from Gh¢40 to Gh¢4 (according to the Minister of Agric) and I was thinking this was an opportunity to at least try to fix the Fundamentals of this Economy which we all believe needs to be the fixed for the country to move forward, but to my disappointment, we made this factory a victim of Politic and left it to rot...
What is difficult between building a Sugar factory and Planting Sugarcane? I believe the former is difficult, now if you have this opportunity where you can create employment, Produce sugar and Balance your trade by just planting sugarcane to feed a sugar factory and we have not done just that in three and half years and decide to let and rot.
I know people will ask why I think this was a deliberate attempt by the government to let it rot! this is why; The current Government has shown that when they want to do something nothing can stop them just to prove a political point. We remember how FSHS was implemented even with challenges, I was wondering how the 1V1D will be implemented and even thou I have a great challenge with how some of these promises are been implemented I see a desperate attempt to get some of this things done.
We also remember how the Ekumfi juice factory was done and pineapples were planted just to show that we can do it, I can give a lot of examples even with other projects that we see as a failure but the Government is trying everything possible to make sure it works.
Pineapple Juice factory is everywhere in this country and this is not to downplay the importance of the Ekumfi Juice Factory but will the government refuse to plant Sugarcane but go on to raise a new factory and plant the raw materials just to say we built our own! What is this country turning into? It got to a point where the sugarcane that was planted to feed the factory was sold to "Apeteshie" distillers by the order of the Ministry of Trade.
Now Elections is fast approaching so to defuse the opposition at Komenda so we pretend to approve some money which has been approved two times in the past so we can go and re- promise the people again...
Recently I heard an interview where a political figure said a respected man in this government talk a lot of ‘Crap’ and that makes him smart because that is what the people want and he always makes sure to give them that ‘crap’.
Enough of this Public relations governance where we pretend to care about the Country but neither the citizens or the political leaders give a "crap" about the country. I can bet you an official of this ruling party can win the seat at Komenda just by dishing out money to the electorate in the constituency and they will forget about that newly built factory that was supposed to turn around the Fortunes of the Constituent...
This depicts some characteristics of a failed State and our forefathers who toiled with their blood did not do this for the country to deserve such citizens and leaders...
Let us think and always see beyond the screensavers.