BA Residents Cry Out To Akufo-Addo. Rescue Us From Bad Governance

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Created on Thursday, 20 October 2011 00:00

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BA Residents Cry Out To Akufo-Addo. Rescue Us From Bad Governance

RESIDENTS OF the Brong Ahafo region have called on Ghanaians to give Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the presidential

candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), a chance to run the affairs of the country to salvage the populace from the current economic hardships.

“We are suffering too much. We can not pay our children’s school fees, the astronomical increases in fuel prices has brought an untold hardship to us. Our roads are in terrible conditions, and there are no jobs for us,” the people of Tano South told Nana Addo during his listening tour of the area.

According to the people, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government had dashed their hopes because the president had failed to fulfil his campaign promises he made to them prior to the 2008 elections.

They noted that life had become unbearable since they could not even afford a two-square meal a day. They indicated that they were dying of hunger because as peasant farmers, they could not afford to buy fertilizers and farm inputs to undertake their farming activities. The people alleged that government had removed the subsidies on fertilizers and other farm inputs.

Nana Akufo-Addo, in response, asked residents in the region to remain steadfast and help bring the NPP back to power in order to help alleviate their problems.

The NPP presidential candidate told the people that the erstwhile NPP government, under the leadership of former President Kufuor, put in place prudent policies which brought a lot of relief to farmers, such as the mass cocoa spraying programme, highly subsidized fertilizer prices and a proposed pension scheme for farmers. He assured the people that he would ensure the implementation of these policies when he is elected as president.

Touching on the youth, Nana Addo mentioned that he intended to turn Ghana into an industrial hub in the continent, where the private sector would be strengthened to create more jobs for the youth.

Nana Akufo-Addo promised to revamp the tomato industry in the Techimantia area by setting up a tomato processing plant. He stated that if the tomato industry is revamped, the fresh tomatoes of the farmers will be purchased and would prevent the perennial glutting of tomatoes in the area.

Tomato farmers in the area had earlier complained to him about the lack of ready market for tomatoes, as the NDC administration had stopped a purchasing agreement the Kufuor government entered into with an expatriate to buy fresh tomatoes from farmers in the area.

According to the farmers, this development had created a lot of challenges because they had lost their capital in their operations.

Farmers in the area indicated that nothing would change their minds to vote out the “insensitive” Mills-Mahama government from power since they had woefully failed to live up to expectations.

From Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako, Bechem