Former Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru Limuna has revealed that party foot soldiers in the region on several occasions openly told him he was one of the poorest regional ministers they have ever seen.

“My office was inundated with jobless party boys, popularly called foot soldiers demanding cash from me but when I offered some help through farming it was out rightly rejected”, he revealed

Besides holding the title of regional minister, Alhaji Limuna engaged in commercial farming which he indicated paid off.

He said that he had the shock of life when one Saturday morning he asked the foot soldiers to write down their names and accompany him to his farm to apply fertilizer so that they could earn some money for their labour.

“I was told in the face that I was a poor regional minister and that as a minister I was supposed to have ready cash to dole out to party foot soldiers as it has always being a norm”, he disclosed.

Alhaji Limuna, now the Minister of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) who revealed this at the inauguration of the West Africa Agro-Tech Company (WATCO) SONALIKA tractor show room in Tamale, observed that most of the youth in the region are not interested in getting gainful employment but rather want cash from politicians.

The worried agriculture minister said there are fertile arable lands for the cultivation of various crops in the region, but the youth are interested in contracts and other white collar jobs when they have no capacity and the requisite knowledge to execute such jobs.

In an appeal to WATCO to employ tractor mechanics in Tamale, he also warned Chiefs and Imams to allow the law to deal with recalcitrant youth who conduct themselves poorly at their work places.

“I am appealing to Imams to stop the usual mantra of begging authorities using Allah’s name to forgive workers who disobey rules and regulations”, he added

He cited the case of nine workers who are currently languishing in jail after they were convicted of stealing property belonging to their former employers, a Brazilian construction company, Geiroz Galvao which is upgrading Tamale airport to an international standard.

“I nearly reported the company to the presidency for their reluctance to employ the youth in the region but what do we see after they were employed, they misconducted themselves, some were sacked while others are now languishing in jail,” Alhaji Limuna lamented.

According to him, it was not easy for the authorities in the region to convince the Brazilians to employ the youth in Tamale and after they successfully convinced them, the youth misconducted themselves and were subsequently sacked. “Being a northern regional minister is challenging; the seat is hot.”