The Minority in Parliament has condemned Mr William Quaittoo, Deputy Minister of Agriculture for his “ethnocentric, unjustifiable and unacceptable” comments he made concerning farmers in northern Ghana.
Hon. Quaittoo is reported to have suggested that people from the three regions of the north are difficult and insincere.
“If anybody who is in the north and said his farm was destroyed by fall armyworm the person must prove it. Our brothers (in the North) it is so difficult to deal with them. I lived there for 27 years, I speak Dagbani like a Dagomba and all that. They are very difficult people. Nobody can substantiate. If anybody says that his farm was destroyed by armyworm, the person would have to come and prove it. We have no records of that. It’s just a way of taking money from the government: that’s what they do all the time . . . ” he said.
In a statement issued and signed by the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, the minority claim it is “unjustifiable and unacceptable that the Deputy Minister would label the entire people of the three Northern Regions who he says he has lived with for 27 years, as unreasonable people, accomplished and persistent liars, people with a high propensity for perpetrating fraud, people who all the time use these fraudulent acts to steal money from the state.”
Meanwhile, Mr Quaitoo has rendered an unqualified apology for his unsavory comments.
Below is the full statement issued by the Minority:
Statement by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority in Parliament on the Ethnocentric and Tribal Bigotry of the Deputy Minister of Agriculture.
August 27, 2017.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) minority in Parliament is shocked, outraged and dismayed by a statement in the media by a Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Hon. William Quaitoo denigrating and heaping profuse insults on the people of the three Northern Regions of the country.
In an interview with Starr FM an Accra based FM station last Thursday, the Deputy Minister made scurrilous and disparaging remarks about the people of the three Northern Regions to the effect that they are unreasonable and by the virtue of their unreasonableness, are not amenable to engagement in decent and reasonable discourse.
The Deputy Minister who said he was speaking from evidence of his 27 years sojourn In the North, went further to indict the people of the three Northern Regions as having a penchant for concocting and peddling falsehood, deliberate deceit and engaging in fraudulent activities to rip off the nation or steal state resources.
The Deputy Minister said he stayed in the North for 27 years and that he knows for a fact the unhealthy character of the people of the North and their difficulty in comprehending ordinary decent discourse and that there was no shred of evidence to support the claim of the farmers from the North that their farms were devastated by the Fall Army Worms menace.
That not only were these claims totally false but also that the peddling of these lies is ‘‘Just a way of stealing money from the government, that is what they do all the time‘‘
The Deputy Minister also disparaged our hard working farmers by describing them as not serious farmers deserving of any compensation from government either because their farms were too small or those affected by the Fall Army Worms were negligible or non-existent.
We find it totally unjustifiable and unacceptable that the Deputy Minister would label the entire people of the three Northern Regions who he says he has lived with for 27 years, as unreasonable people, accomplished and persistent liars, people with a high propensity for perpetrating fraud, people who all the time use these fraudulent acts to steal money from the state.
In other words the people of the three Northern Regions according to the Deputy Minister are lazy people who are also prone to peddle lies, perpetrate fraud and engage in constant theft of state resources.
We in the Minority first and foremost wish to state unequivocally that a significant number of our hardworking farmers have fallen victim to the devastating menace of the Fall Army Worms. Indeed the livelihoods of many families have been compromised by these Army Worm invasions across the three Northern Regions through the destruction of tens of thousands of hectares of maize farms.
While the Deputy Minister speaking for government may, without any sensitivity to the plight of our farmers seek to deny them just unfair compensation, he has no right to flaunt his arrogance and ignorance in their faces and call the entire people of the North unreasonable people, accomplished liars, lazy people, and thieves who persistently steal from the coffers of the state via these false pretences.
We see in this unjustifiable, bellicose and unprovoked attack on the people of the three Northern Regions, a deliberate and futile attempt by the Deputy Minster, to cover up the shameful and glaring act of incompetence and insensitivity of his ministry and ministers and the NPP government in the Fall Army Worm debacle. This behaviour lends eloquent testimony to the saying that, an insincere man who cannot carry his load blames it on his head pad. This clearly is ethnocentric tribal bigotry which not only has no place in our dear nation but is actually dangerous and potentially destabilising of our society.
Let it be said for the records (and for the education of the Deputy Minister who after 27 years stay in the North has learnt nothing about the good people), that the people of the three Northern Regions are among the most honest, truthful, hardworking and hospital people in the country.
Indeed we daresay there are no people on the face of this earth currently, who are as hospitable as the people of the three Northern Regions. The fact that he himself says he lived with the people of the North for 27 years without suffering any untoward incident, is eloquent testimony to the good and kind heartedness of the people of the three Northern Regions.
The Deputy Minister is rather the ingrate who after living off the generosity of the people of the North for 27 years, is subjecting them to such profound level of insults, ridicule and indignity. For this ingratitude and profuse lies, God will deal justly with him in his own time.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, our attention has also been drawn to a statement purported to have been issued by the Deputy Minister apologising for this sordid act.
We think that this is grossly inadequate, insincere, hypocritical, an afterthought and therefore not deep enough to assuage the profound pain and huge damage done to the good image, integrity and respect of the people of the three Northern Regions.
We accordingly call on our colleagues on the other side to join us in unconditionally and unreservedly condemning this crass ethnic bigotry exhibited by Hon. Quaitoo.
Additionally, we urge all decent minded Ghanaians who cherish the unity, peace, order, stability and progress of our nation, to join us demand the immediate resignation of Hon. Quaitoo as Deputy Minister of State and Member of Parliament.
Should he fail to quit these offices voluntarily and now, we call on the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, to fire him immediately as a mark of his revulsion against this unprovoked and reckless ethnocentric bigotry against the entire people of the three Northern Regions.
For the avoidance of any doubt, we in the Minority wish to serve notice that we take this matter serious and will demand and take all legitimate, legal and appropriate measures to bring the originator of this offensive, mischievous and divisive statement to order in the supreme national interest.
Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media and God Bless Ghana.
Signed:
Hon. Haruna Iddrisu
(Minority Leader)
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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Nana pls appoint Hon.Quitto in different ministerial position he is soo good.U northerners are difficult and liars
The minister is correct. Northerners are difficult and hard to deal with. That is why their place is underdeveloped even though they get a lot of free and subsidised things. If you think I am lying
we shall see if NDC cares about you. Sing more songs for them.
we shall see if NDC cares about you. Sing more songs for them.
we shall see if NDC cares about you. Sing more songs for them.
What the minister said is the truth..... Some of you guys from the north are difficult and fraudsterssss.... Look at what the greedy and incompetent John Ford Kanazoe Mahama did to our country... Gargantuan stealing at SNNIT by his appointees, SADA, GYEDA, NSS, bus branding etc.... You guys have free education since Kwame Nkrumah era till now..... What do you want us to do for you people? John Mahama told the people of Kumasi if their roads are paved with gold they will still not appreciate it.... That is insulting from an incompetent president like him. Accept the hard truth from the minister and let us move on.... You guys are difficult and th.i.e.v.es.......period
Utter ***barred word***, did he mention Dagombas?? Are the Dagomba's the only ethnic tribe up north?? All the man said there are people who are claiming compensation but they will need to prove their claims.He knows they can make false presentations, he knows because he has lived with them for 27 years.Whats wrong with that???
Unity in diversity. Every tribe in Ghana has traits. In actual fact it is the very reason that they can be identified as a tribe. This is a very hard truth because when it relates to all and few do not have that traits then it becomes an issue. Haruna is always trying to be a superman and championing everything good or bad from the North. I am convinced that with this kind of posture, it will not lead Ghana anywhere. Unfortunately the comments is coming from a Government Minister. This saying has been with us from time immemorial. It is not necessarily a bad thing, BUT THE QUESTION IS, IS IT OR CAN THIS BE TRUE?
LOOK AT THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK. HAS IDDRISU FORGOTTEN SO SOON WHEN YOU SAID ON THE FLOOR OF PARLIAMENT THAT PEOPLE FROM THE NORTH WERE BEING MOLESTED AND/OR ATTACKED IN KUMASI WHEN THERE WAS NO IOTA OF TRUTH IN THAT STATEMENT.
No NPP Member should defend this comment our minister has goofed. let not repeat NDC mistakes