By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

The decision by President John Evans Atta-Mills to reduce the number of key cabinet portfolios may well have a laudable aspect to it, even if this is largely theoretical. For there is no gainsaying the fact that such ministerial portfolio retrenchment is very much in synch with the raging global economic crunch. Still, it is equally significant to take into account ministerial focus and functional efficiency in effecting such retrenchment agenda.

For, while we generally concur with President Atta-Mills that creating a Fisheries ministry outside of the traditional Agriculture ministry may be at once redundant and capital-resource guzzling, summarily overlooking the history behind such creation may, in the long run, not beneficially redound to the aims and objectives sought; in fact, such decision may actually end up costing the government and the taxpayer far more than originally envisaged.

What is interesting here, though, is the fact that as a perennial presidential candidate on the ticket of the now-ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), President Atta-Mills made a major campaign issue out of what he perceived to be the abject neglect of the fishing industry by the then-ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), even to the damnable extent of both “ethnicizing” and personalizing it. Thus, not only did he self-righteously claim that then-President Kufuor had woefully neglected the fishing industry, the now-President Atta-Mills went on to also outrageously claim that the mere fact of him having been born in Kumasi, away from Ghana’s coastal enclaves and in a forest region, both at once blinded and rendered Mr. Kufuor gapingly insensitive to the practical professional and industrial needs of the Ghanaian fisherman.

Making such judgmental observation in the predominantly Fante-inhabited Central Region was explosive enough, for while, indeed, Fante fishermen play a significant role in the development of fishery, they are not the only Ghanaians engaged in the sea-food industry. To be certain, the Gas and Ewes, as well as the Adangbes, have equally played a critical role in the fishing industry.

In the main, the gripe of the fishermen regarded the apparently inadequate supply of something called “premix” fuel which they direly needed to power their outboard-motor vessels.

Indeed, President Atta-Mills may well be within his rights in scrapping the Fisheries ministry altogether, if the former Legon law school professor’s argument verges on the fact that the creation of the portfolio of Ministry of Fisheries did not significantly enhance the development of the sea-food industry, and that the more expansively traditional Ministry of Agriculture will be equally efficient in catering to the occupational needs of the Ghanaian fisherman.

On the foregoing score, may we humbly suggest that an autonomous Department/Sub-Ministry of Fisheries be created within the Ministry of Agriculture, with a Deputy Minister for Fisheries in charge of that sector of agriculture, else President Atta-Mills’ action may be aptly and squarely envisaged as one that verges on the downright hypocritical.

Needless to say, the quite damning observation by Mrs. Gladys Asmah, the former Fisheries minister under the Kufuor government, of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), that the entire Ghanaian “fishing community has suffered [acute and perennial privation] and marked poverty since independence” due to abject governmental neglect, must be deemed with all the seriousness that it deserves, particularly since sea food is of central significance in the dietary fare of Ghanaians across ethnic and cultural boundaries.

Mrs. Asmah also points out that since the creation of the now-former Fisheries ministry in 2006, by the NPP government, “a new lease on life” has been opportunely granted the entire Ghanaian fishing community, which has, in turn, culminated in the ongoing construction of 14 cold stores. We hope that such cold stores are evenly spread across both the various fishing communities around the country, as well as being located in all the major consumer centers across the land.

The foregoing simply means that there is a great necessity for sizable cold-store facilities to be built in all the municipalities and metropolitan areas of the country, as well as the various district capitals. The objective must be to both ensure adequate supply of sea food throughout the years, as well as to render obsolete the cringingly primitive regime of seasonal pricing fluctuations, thereby making this vital dietary supplement available to Ghanaians across class and/or economic strata.

In terms of properly and effectively policing the fishing industry, in order to curtail such unhealthy practice as pair-trawling, we beg to disagree with the former minister of Fisheries that totally relinquishing this responsibility to the Ghana Navy was a desirable or even a responsible way of doing things. Indeed, what ought to have been done should have been for both the Navy and the Fisheries ministry to have worked hand-in-glove in order to more effectively promote safe fishing/industrial practices. This would, for example, have necessitated training Fisheries inspectorate personnel to work closely on a daily basis with the Ghana Navy. It would also have meant equipping these inspectors and Fisheries police personnel with their own vessels in complement to the multi-pronged activities of the perennially under-equipped Ghana Navy.

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is the author of 18 books, including “Ghanaian Politics Today” (Atumpan Publications/lulu.com, 2008). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@aol.com. ###