Please Stop Ridiculing 1D1F Vision

Recent calls on government by some personalities regarding the One District, One Factory policy suggest that the vision could be brought into disrepute, if care is not taken.

When in 2016 the New Patriotic Party announced plans to establish, at least, a factory in every district in the country, little did anybody know that the policy could trigger agitations for the proliferations of guns and Marijuana factories.

The policy was supposed to be a catalyst to ignite Ghana’s industrialization ambition, and set her on course for the rapid socio-economic transformation of the economy, from one dependent on production and export of raw materials, to a value-added industrialised economy, driven primarily by the private sector.

In fact, at the first launch at Ekumfi, President Akufo-Addo said unless Ghana took to the path of industrialization, with the goal of adding value to its primary products, the country would not be able to propel herself out of poverty.

Sadly, however, calls that are coming in about the policy can best be described as shocking. While some people are requesting a ‘wee’ factory, others are asking for a weapon manufacturing plant.

This began with the cantankerous reggae artiste and radio presenter Abubakar Ahmed, aka Blakk Rasta, who called for a marijuana factory under the policy.

Actually, nobody took him serious, probably because he was a Rasta Man, until last week when no less a personality than a traditional chief also made a similar appeal.

Nene Ogah Osuagbo I, Chief of Great Ametafor in the Shai Osudoku Traditional Area, appealed to government to establish an Indian Hemp Industrial Plant for him and his people.

According to him, the land of the area is fertile for the cultivation of wee, for which reason he wanted a factory sited there TO EASE POVERTY.

Nene Osuagbo, who made the call during the matriculation ceremony of Dr. Nyakotey College of Holistic Medicine in Tema, argued that both God, in his omnipotent wisdom, and scientific research allude to the many benefits of harnessing and ultilising marijuana.

Then, just as dust was about to settle on the Osudoku chief’s call, the Chief Executive Officer of the African Centre for Security Studies, Paul Boateng, also suggested that government could stop the proliferation of arms in the country by establishing a gun factory under 1D1F.

To him, that will create employment and provide foreign exchange for the state.

THE NEW PUBLISHER vehemently disagrees with these allusions. In our view, Nene Osuagbo had misfired big time. What, in our opinion, he should have advocated first, is the decriminalization of marijuana usage before thinking of factories for its proliferation.

We also believe that the Shai-Osudoku landscape is equally good for the cultivation of other crops, for which factories can be set up there.

The paper also disagrees with Paul Boateng on his gun factory claims. If even the few guns in our system cannot be controlled, how can we control them when they become more?

We hereby call on Ghanaians to stop ‘ridiculing’ the 1D1F policy. We cannot even mage the misuse of Okada, and they want us to add the menaces of wee and guns?

Please!