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Deputy Communications Minister, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has said cautioned opposition parties and social commentators to be circumspect in their criticisms of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.
According to him, the recent attacks on government following the commissioning of the Komenda Sugar Factory in the Central Region.
“Sometimes, we need to tamper our criticisms. It is not everything that needs to be criticised,” he said during a panel discussion on Accra-based Radio Gold.
The country’s main opposition, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the founder of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom have questioned how government will get the needed raw materials to feed the newly refurbished factory.
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“Where will the sugarcane come from immediately to provide raw materials for this factory? Why did the raw material project not come first? How will we ensure that the sugar produced will be competitive against imports? Will the government protect this factory’s products and how? What measures have been put in place to insulate this factory against partisan politics so it is not abandoned when a party other than the NDC wins power?” Dr. Nduom asked.
In response, Mr. Kwakye Ofosu said persons, including Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom who are suggesting that sugar cane plantations should have been set up before the factory was rehabilitated have no basis.
“No farmer will go and grow sugarcane in anticipation of the setting up of a factory. It has taken two years to build this factory. It takes only six months or even less, between the time that you plant sugar cane and between the time that you harvest so assuming that sugar cane was planted before the commencement of the factory, it means that the sugar cane will be harvested and it will rot because there will be no ready market for it,” he explained.
He argued that the first thing which needed to be done was to guarantee the producers of the raw material of a ready market for it to become the basis upon which they will go into a venture.
“Nothing is lost at all by setting up a factory and taking the steps to ensure that farmers were equipped to supply it,” he said.