Mind your language Mr Minister
I wrote an article at the beginning of this year with the title “the woes of National Democratic Congress (NDC) were self-inflicted.” In the said article, I pointed out that the utterances of some former government appointees were part of the reasons why NDC lost power so miserably.
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On April 20, 2017, I listened to the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, being interviewed on Joy FM about the recently launched government flagship agricultural programme “Planting for Food and Jobs.”
I am very sorry to say that the attitude of the minister was, to say the least, quite unfortunate.
When he was told that members of the Peasant Farmers Association were complaining about lack of consultation prior to the launch of the programme, his response was, “forget about consultation”. Being the good interviewer that Kojo Yankson is, he asked a natural follow-up question as to whether the minister did not think consultation with such important stakeholders was germane to a crucial project such as this. His response was even more shocking. He said Ghanaians had voted for the government with a huge majority so they were doing what they promised to do. Really?
Question
My harmless question to the minister is this: Is he implying that, in view of their overwhelming victory, there is no need to consult the people whenever the government is embarking on any project? Is the minister aware that there must necessarily be a referendum (a form of consultation) before the government can go ahead to split the Brong Ahafo Region into two as the President promised which will ultimately affect them? Why can’t the government go ahead and do it given their resounding victory in the last elections? In fact, it is not for nothing that the constitution has made such a provision.
This is the kind of behaviour portrayed by some former NDC appointees for which reason they were humiliated in the 2016 elections and are now licking their wounds.
Effect of no consultation
Those who have studied Development Communication say that one of the major reasons why some projects fail to achieve their intended purpose or objectives is lack of consultation. Institutions or people who have funds and want to undertake certain projects sometimes assume that they know exactly what must be done to solve one problem or the other and, therefore, just go ahead to undertake the projects without recourse to the people who are to be affected or to benefit from such projects. At the end of the projects, they are shocked to realise that the people are not interested.
After the minister’s voice was played, Mr Charles Nyaaba, the Programmes Director of Peasant Farmers Association, was also interviewed. He was asked whether they wanted the minister to consult every single farmer before the launch of the programme and his response was quite revealing. He said they wanted consultation with, at least, award winning farmers or recognised farmer groups such as his or General Agricultural Workers Union. And I think this was not a request too difficult to grant.
Please sir, we know you are very intelligent as a PhD holder but that does not mean you can afford to come out with such an important blueprint, by rubbishing the concerns of such major stakeholders.
Mr Minister, please, do you want my village folks to take it that because of your resounding victory, if your government decides to build a new market or public toilet for us, we should not expect any consultation at all, even in terms of where the facility is to be sited?
Sir, kindly permit me to say that if all your colleagues decide to toe your line in their public discourse, your party’s defeat will one day be as resounding as your victory in the 2016 elections. If a minister who is expected to serve the people speaks like this on radio where thousands of people are listening in, I can imagine what he can say or do in private when he meets his party people.
Advice
My appeal to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is that he should put his ears to the ground and be firm. Please, Nana, if you condone or overlook such utterances, your own people will sooner than later make you unpopular.
I believe that if former President Mahama had looked through the crystal ball to see where he was heading, he would have publicly dealt with people such as Stan Dogbe and Nii Lante Vanderpuye. When several well-meaning Ghanaians such as Prof. Audrey Gadgekpo raised their voices against the maltreatment being meted out by Stan Dogbe to his fellow journalists, there was deafening silence from the President then.
He might have taken it as a comic relief when his Sports Minister, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, said the presidency was not for short people (poking fun at candidate Akufo Addo then). Now I am wondering whether he has fully recovered from the shock he suffered from his unprecedented defeat, even though he was made to believe he could garner one million votes from the Ashanti Region.
My advice to Dr Afriyie Akoto is that since he does not appear to have the requisite communications skills, he should endeavour to make very good use of his Public Relations Officer at the ministry. Whenever he is approached for an interview, he should let the PR Officer find out the areas where the interviews will touch so they would agree and prapare adequately.