Am I the only dunce in Ghana? I am so stupid that I don’t know why we continue to insult ourselves, bribe ourselves, kill and maim ourselves to vote every four years for people who do not know our problems – politicians who do not know what science & technology does to an economy, whose best performance is the appointment of board chairmen, ambassadors and public service CEOs?
How, for instance, can Malaysian scientists come to take notes about oil palm from Ghanaian scientists in the early 1960s and produce the crop in such quantities and quality that, as of 2025, palm oil is “Nature’s Gift to Malaysia and Malaysia’s Gift to the World”?
Palm oil’s contribution to Malaysia’s GDP is so significant that it is called “Red Gold”.
The difference is clear between Malaysian and Ghanaian politicians.
Please, read below:
November 16, 2019: Rice farmers in Asutuare are facing challenges due to a lack of buyers for their harvest. They urgently need support to help market their produce and sustain their livelihoods.
March 5, 2024: Maize sellers in the Sissala area of the Upper West Region are crying for buyers of their produce weeks after harvest, forcing them to sell at lower-than-expected prices.
September 24, 2025: Farmers in the Asante Akim North Municipality of the Ashanti Region have confirmed the purchase of some boxes of tomatoes and bags of onions from them, in line with a recent government directive.
On September 15, 2025, President John Mahama directed the purchase of 1,000 boxes of tomatoes and 2,000 bags of onions from farmers in the municipality.
The move was aimed at addressing concerns over post-harvest losses and farmers’ lack of access to reliable markets.
I remember that in the 1980s, the cry of our farmers was post-harvest losses, lack of transportation and lack of access to reliable markets.
Shows we have learned nothing in 68 years.
At the height of our groping, the Minister of Agric in Akufo-Addo’s government sent trucks to the hinterland to buy plantain for sale to workers at the Ministries in Accra. This was in 2024!
And we call this planning?
Way back on April 11, 2017, Daily Graphic’s Tim Dzamboe reported that “rice farmers in the Volta, Upper East and Northern regions are groaning under a glut in the rice market.
In the Ho municipality, for instance, the Reporter found that more than 50,000 bags of paddy were locked up in various rooms.
“The marketing challenge had put over 1,000 rice farmers in Akrofu, Wegbe, Takla, Hodzo and Kpenoe, all in the municipality, in serious financial stress as they were unable to pay back their bank loans and to plough back into cultivation,” he wrote.
Yet, ironically, in 2023 alone, Ghana spent $286 million importing 516,000 tonnes of rice, primarily from Vietnam, China and Thailand.
Sometime in 2014, John Mahama, in a State of the Nation Address in his first term Presidency, made a wonderful advocacy for made-in-Ghana goods, including “Eat Local Rice”.
Among those fired up by that message was Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom.
The result? His hotels were the first in Ghana to serve local rice to guests, including foreigners.
John Awuni, chairman of the Food and Beverage Association of Ghana, says that "You don't wake up one morning and say that you want to stop the importation of rice or you want to produce rice."
Question: For how much longer can we never “wake up one morning”?
Remember, General Acheampong “woke up one morning” and produced Ghana’s best-known sustainable end to hunger programme, Operation Feed Yourself.
Do we need the IMF/World Bank to tell us that when you plant into good soil, you need water, and when the crop is harvested, you need transportation to the market?
Do we need PhDs or double Master's in Agric to know this? Acheampong was a commercial school graduate who majored in typing and shorthand.
Public relations A-Z at Jubilee House
Someone inside Joh n Mahama’s Jubilee House is dishing out some really good PR stuff to Ghanaians. It’s so good I call it ‘Public Relations A-Z’, the type which would turn P.A.V.
Ansah, Allotey-Pappoe, Nabanyin Pratt and Elaine Sam in their graves and earn a thumbs-up from Esther Cobbah’s IPR that boasts the likes of Mawuko Afadzinu.
When a President who is facing fiery darts from all corners over galamsey proactively invites his critics to a meeting over the evil that is sinking his government, this, in my opinion, is a communication masterstroke.
It disables the enemy.
If the President reads my piece before going into that meeting with CSOs, the clergy and the Labour Movement, he is advised to keep his intro short, soak in the criticisms and take notes on the best way out.
I have had occasion to insist that democracy is rule by the legislature, media and civil society, especially think tanks.
It should become obvious to so-called “communication teams” of our political parties that communication is not merely the ability to talk.
More importantly, it is not the ability to string together 100 words of abuse on opponents.
The writer is the Executive Director,
Centre for Communication and Culture.
E-mail: ashonenimil@gmail.com
