Despite his strenuous effort to restructure and revamp the cocoa sub sector in Ghana, reliable intelligence available to your authoritative aL-hAJJ indicates that farmers in the country, especially cocoa farmers, want the hard working Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Dr Stephen Opuni sacked.
This paper’s investigations reveal that, farmers in the country are currently fine-tuning a “powerful” speech to be delivered on Farmers Day, scheduled to come off at Bolgatanga in the Upper East region on Friday, December 4, 2015; demanding the immediate removal of Dr Opuni from office.
Though reason(s) for the farmers’ yet-to-be made call, which they plan to deliver in the presence of President John Mahama is unclear, pieces of information picked by The aL-hAJJ indicates that the farmers’ planned action is connected to what some of the them say is "Dr. Opuni’s authoritarian style and one - man show" in the running of the cocoa industry which they believed could collapse the industry sooner than later.
Deep throat sources within the farmers front told this paper that "we are fed up with Opuni's arrogance and not being a team player, resulting in the dying of the cocoa industry in Ghana since he became chief executive".
According to the aggrieved farmers, they have in their possession a secret recorded tape which contained a voice believed to be that of the CEO of COCOBOD bragging about how indispensable he has become to the President and government "no one can remove me as chief executive of COCOBOD...not even the President; John Mahama dare remove me from here", part of the voice on the tape purported to be that of Opuni was heard saying.
The farmers are therefore threatening that if after their call the President refuses to yield to their demand to sack Dr. Opuni, they will make the tape available to media houses to play for Ghanaians to make up their minds. Aside this, the farmers are also threatening to cut all dealings with COCOBOD until President Mahama “do the right thing”.
Attempts to get Dr Stephen Opuni's reaction on the matter by press time yesterday proved futile, but speaking to some workers and management members of COCOBOD, they spoke highly of their Chief Executive, insisting that “he is doing everything possible to transform the cocoa sector.”
They praised Dr Opuni for instilling discipline and positive work ethics since assuming office, with one of them (name withheld) saying “if you are not disciplined, you will have problem working with Dr Opuni.”
Dr Opuni, who until his present appointment by President John Mahama on November 30, 2013, was CEO of Food and Drugs Authority, workers and management members of COCOBOD say, has been among the best CEOs to head Ghana's mainstay foreign exchange earning organization, citing many innovative measures the COCOBOD has witnessed under Opuni’s leadership.
They cited the “Youth in Cocoa Farming Initiative,” which is part of ‘New Cocoa Sector Transformation Agenda’ introduced by COCOBOD under Dr Opuni, as a special package aimed at enticing a lot more Ghanaian youth to see the economic benefits of cocoa farming and be motivated to cultivate the crop…
“Let me tell you that through his (Opuni’s) initiative COCOBOD is to replace about 33 per cent of the country’s cocoa trees with hybrid seedlings that have high yields and are resistant to diseases, pests and harsh weather conditions… We have already successfully raised 50 million high yielding early bearing and disease tolerant hybrid cocoa seedlings and pod, with gestation period of two to three years under the exercise,” One of the workers told The aL-hAJJ
“Again, free fertilizer and agro-chemicals are being supplied to cocoa farmers while rehabilitation of roads leading to cocoa growing communities in the regions and insurance for the farmer continues in earnest by the Opuni administration”, another member of COCOBOD management asserted.
However, the farmers disagree, claiming the cocoa industry continue to slump due to what they described as Dr Opuni's mismanagement.
According to the farmers, before Dr Opuni was appointment by President Mahama to head COCOBOD, annual cocoa production peaked to a record one million metric tons in the 2011 crop season but, this has since been declining and that this year won’t be an exception as the yield of less than 700000 tons is expected.
To them, the once booming sheanut industry has virtually collapsed under Dr. Stephen Opuni. Stay tuned
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