AKUFO-ADDO ASSURES COCOA FARMERS (PAGE 16)

THE flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has given the assurance that an NPP Government will work to ensure that the country retains its position as the world’s leading producer of cocoa.
In this connection he said if voted into power cocoa production would hit one million tonnes within the next two years.
Furthermore, he said he would institutionalise a pension scheme for cocoa farmers, the same as government workers were enjoying, to serve as a moral booster to increase cocoa production.
Nana Addo-Addo said this when he addressed three separate rallies at Bibiani and Sefwi Bekwai in the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai District and Ankwawso in the Wassa Amenfi West District, at the beginning of his one-week campaign tour of the northern part of the Western Region.
"Now is the time for cocoa farmers to have pension rights," he declared.
He explained that when the NPP Government took over in 2001, it was able to increase the cocoa production in the country from about 350,000 tonnes to 750 tonnes, through various interventions such as the mass cocoa spraying exercise and scholarship for cocoa farmers’ children.
The NPP flag bearer was ushered into the Western Region through Bibiani where he addressed a mini rally, after the launch of the NPP Manifesto in Kumasi.
He said the next NPP government would do everything possible to ensure the increase in cocoa production in the country.
Again, he said the NPP Government had increased the price of cocoa from about GH¢20.17 in 2001 to GH¢120 per bag.
He noted that no government since independence had done more for cocoa farmers than the NPP.
He mentioned the mass cocoa spraying exercise, scholarship scheme for children of cocoa farmers and the cocoa farmers housing scheme as well as the tarring of roads leading to cocoa-growing areas, as some of the NPP government’s interventions that had boosted cocoa production in the country.
Touching on education, he emphasised that it was the key to the development of any country, citing Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore as examples of countries that had transformed their societies after wiping out illiteracy.
Nana Akufo-Addo stated that "we must wipe out illiteracy from our society to facilitate the total transformation of our society".
He said, if the country would succeed in its social transformation, there was the need to banish illiteracy.
Concerning the school feeding programme, he said when voted into power he would phase out the pilot scheme where two schools were selected in each district for the programme.
He said the next NPP government would implement the general programme for all basic schools in the country to have access to the school feeding programme.
Nana Akufo-Addo bemoaned the introduction of tribal politics into the body politic, saying “we don’t want tribal politics, it will take us back”.
A leading member of the NPP, Mr Alan Kojo Kyerematen, stressed the need for the party to win this year’s general election convincingly.
He, therefore, urged party faithful to spread the good news about the development activities of the party such as the provision of hospitals, good roads, electrification project and portable water to win floating voters for the party.
Mr Kyerematen described Nana Akufo-Addo as a brave and knowledgeable man and an astute politician who had been defending the rights and freedom of the people and called on the electorate to vote him as the next president of the country.