The Mediterranean Sea continuous to devour our children

Ghanaians seem to close their eyes and refuse to discuss a very serious issue which has been going on for quite a long time without any solution in the foreseeable future. Those of us in the inky fraternity who should have spearheaded the debate and sustain it rather prefer to deal with trivialities like Akua Donkor travelling with the president to Italy and some sensational stories.

Since the early eighties, our young boys and girls dare the treacherous Sahara Desert in order to reach Libya with the hope of ending up in either Italy or Spain to seek green pastures. When they started going to Libya, they would travel by road through Burkina Faso to Niger and enter the Sahara Desert on foot with little water and food to undertake the long journey. In the course of the journey, some of them would die through thirst, fatigue, disease and hunger. Some of them would be devoured by strange beasts as they went looking for water in the oasis. The lucky ones who were able to cross the Sahara Desert were faced with yet another dangerous situation since they had to climb Mount Hoga before they could enter Libya. Climbing Mount Hoga was so dangerous that many died when they slipped and fell down the mountain. No one would look back when a colleague fell not to talk of finding him a befitting burial. They only sent massages back home that the person had fallen when they were climbing Mount Hoga and that ended the story.

In the early nineties, a new route to Libya was found where they would no more climb the dangerous Mount Hoga. This time when they reached Niger, they were loaded like slaves in a slave ship in vans and traversed the Sahara Desert. Even in this situation, many died in the overcrowded vehicles and in some cases armed robbers robbed and killed them. As for the girls they were raped mercilessly by these miscreants.

The multimillion dollar questions are: For how long should we look on as our children continue to dare the Mediterranean Sea in search of greener pastures? What can be done to dissuade these boys and girls from undertaking such a dangerous journey? What should be the role of government in this respect? When Colonel Kaddafi was alive, he once decided to criss-cross Africa by road. During the journey, he passed through Burkina Faso on his way to Ghana. He passed through Bolgatanga, Tamale, Techiman, Kumasi and pitched his camp in Accra. When Ghaddafi returned to Tripoli, he told the people of Libya that Ghanaians are lazy. According to him even though he lived on the desert, he was able to improve agriculture to the extent that cabbages, onions, salad and many food crops were produced by the Libyan people. He said when he came to Ghana he saw virgin forests lying fallow as Ghanaians import food items from countries like Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. He saw no reason why Ghanaians should leave such an opportunity and travel to Libya to do menial jobs. Colonel Ghaddafi did not understand our plight.

It is not that the Ghanaian youth is lazy. The truth is that we are yet to get a government that will lay premium on agriculture. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah tried something which was not sustained by the Khaki Boys. He introduced mechanized farming and went ahead to import Zetor tractors from Russia to embark on large scale farming. His Workers Brigade took the challenge and in no time Ghanaians begun to reap the benefit of mechanized farming. In those days, Ghana was not importing huge quantities of rice into the country like what is happening today. The only imported rice was Uncle Ben which was packaged in small sizes. Even in that case only the elite in the society patronized Uncle Ben. Ghanaians were content with locally produced rice and it became fashionable. In fact, it became a national delicacy. Boarding schools were supplied with locally produced rice and same were served during state functions. The Khaki Boys killed that dream when they overthrew Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Professor Busia also tried something which could have helped but sadly before he could even sit well on the seat of government, the same Khaki Boys derailed the project. It was Busiah who introduced the “Go Back to the Land” project. Busiah appealed to the conscience of the Ghanaian youth to get involved in farming and he promised that his government would support anyone who will ‘go back to the land’.

Of all the military regimes that we had in this country, it was only General Acheampong who did so well in agriculture. He introduced, Operation Feed Yourself, Operation Feed the Factories and Operation Backyard Gardening which went down well with Ghanaians and they started doing backyard gardening. In Accra and other cities, government workers saw the need to grow tomatoes, pepper, onions, garden eggs, plantain and other crops at their backyards. It was Acheampong who told Ghanaians that a person who has eaten so well and satisfied does not need milk. (nea wadidi amee nhia milk). Acheamping invited a certain African American lady called Temple Black to Ghana who told us that ‘kontonmire’ (cocoyam leaf) was so nutritious that if Ghanaians patronized it we would grow strong and well. In fact, during those days we used to eat corn bread which was more tasteful than the one made with imported wheat. We even had Tiger Pito factory in the Northern Region where pito was brewed, bottled and sold in bars and even state hotels like Atlantic hotel in Takoradi, City Hotel in Kumasi, Meridian Hotel in Tema, Ambassador Hotel in Accra etc.

It was not for nothing that the Kufour administration imported three thousand tractors into the country and went ahead to introduce fertilizer subsidy. It was his intention to introduce mechanized farming but when the NDC took over power, all what they could do was to share the tractors among themselves with Mahama Ayariga getting away with more than ten tractors. The NDC too killed the dream of Kufour. The fertilizer subsidy has now become a dream gone sour. As for the Mahama led administration, agriculture is not a priority. They pay lip service to the issue. They said in their manifesto that they will improve agriculture but rather they have collapsed agriculture.

So you see why the youth prefer to dare the treacherous Sahara Desert and the yawing blue Mediterranean Sea to seek greener pastures despite the risk involved? The truth is that if we introduce mechanized farming, subsidize fertilizer and other farm inputs and give the youth starting capital, they will stay back home and farm. If you go to the Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Afram Plains and other farming communities you can see large acreage of fertile land lying fallow while the youth roam the streets.

Farming is not attractive to them since they will have to use hoes and cutlasses to clear the land. It is only old men and women who engage in subsistence farming. How do we grow an economy like this? In the US, about 3% of the population are farmers and yet they are able to feed the populace and store some for the rainy day. Let’s think about this together.