Bereft Of Sincerity

The integrity of government’s congratulation of President John Agyekum Kufuor, on the World Food Prize Foundation honour, has come under an interesting scrutiny.

Although the recipient of the award has not dismissed the government gesture, it is interesting that this has become a subject worthy of discussion in the media.

For those who find no sincerity in the government gesture, sneering and regarding it as nothing but a necessary formality, their stand is fueled by the blanket condemnation by government propagandists of the man who has made Ghanaians proud. They have, on numerous occasions described the former president as one who did nothing for the country.

We recall Koku Anyidoho’s puerile remarks and description of former President Kufuor as a man who destroyed Ghana and one he does not like. Those were distasteful words of disdain against a fellow human being spewed from a political trajectory by a spokesman of the President.

For the propaganda machinery, which saw nothing good in the man now riding high in the comity of nations, to turn around and congratulate him, the skepticism is only natural.

The doubts received an important boost yesterday when Baba Jamal, in his intervention on a discussion on the award, denigrated it in a subtle manner as to elude detection.

Describing the acknowledgment of the World Food Prize Foundation of former President Kufuor’s contribution towards the reduction of hunger and poverty in the way he did yesterday, suggested that it is nothing to attract the accolade it did.

The deputy minister explained that food production is only a creation of governance and that although important, it is by no means the whole picture of governance. This, for us, is a cynical remark intended to reduce the esteem of the award. A futile and wasted effort by the government minder!

We were not surprised at the envious intervention, laden as it was with the gentleman’s trademark propaganda. Coming at a time when the propaganda department of government is actively spewing mendacious stuff on the airwaves and on pages of newspapers, even as they are shot down, we can understand and appreciate how the award announcement overwhelmed the operatives.

President Kufuor’s contribution towards what is now the success story of cocoa production in the country, cannot be reduced to the uncharitable description and analogy put out by the deputy minister.

Food production is arguably the most critical aspect of our survivability as a nation and to berate it as the gentleman did yesterday on the airwaves was to expose his treachery and insincerity.

If all Kufuor did was to augment food production, according to the propaganda busybody, then he deserved the award. The World Food Prize Foundation considers food production and the reduction of hunger as critical contribution towards the survival of the world, especially in the least developed countries.

Source: D-G (Editorial)