What The Papers Say
The Mirror Ghana
Help farmers
This country is supposed to be an "agricultural country" and there is much talk about agricultural policies, and the need for more people to go back to the land.Currently, the most pressing problem facing some farmers is how to settle their bank loans and labour costs in the face of the good harvests that have brought down prices so much that proceeds from sale of produce may not meet even half the planting costs.
Nobody is sad that harvests are good. Far from that. However, serious consideration must be taken of the fact that if no help is given the farmers especially maize farmers by way of humanitarian repayment terms of bank loans, it is likely fewer people will go into maize farming next season. The danger in this is obvious.
We accept that banks are in business to make profit, and that promptness of repayment is an important part of banking. But the circumstances are extraordinary, and hence need extraordinary solutions. This is where the Ministry of Agriculture should be able to come in as an intermediary.
And it is strange that although much criticism is made against the private middlemen, some of the state organizations who buy from farmers do not treat them with fairness.
A report in the Graphic of September 20 reveals that the Cannery Division of the Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation owes tomato farmers in the Upper East Region about C400,000 for produce sold in the last tomato season. Furthermore, the head office in Accra revealed that the division still has one million cedis to pay tomato farmers out of a total of 27 million worth of tomatoes bought.
The explanation given for the delay in payment was that the corporation was "reconciling waybills with invoices re- ceived from the farmers to check the genuineness of the claims". The question is: why on earth can't a business concern like the Cannery Division pay the farmers cash on the spot to avoid all these delays in payment which make life unnecessarily hard for the farmers?
And we will honestly say that it is time the Ministry shifted from the old-fashioned practice of making headlines in the press to the practical means of placing emphasis on doing things for the convenience of farmers. It is only in this way that the achievement of the present farming season can be sustained.
National Concord, Nigeria
Released detainees: unfinished business
While we welcome the recently announced mass release of 250 detainees by the Federal Military Government, we observe that some basic issues were left unresolved through the manner in which it was done.The government had not at the time of our going to press given any detailed reasons for her action. In consequence, the public has been left to grope for the whys and the hows of why Minister A or Commissioner Z who, only a few months back, was thrown into detention (amidst rumours of massively-acquired ill-gotten wealth) have suddenly regained their freedom. The explanation contained in the head of state's independence anniversary speech lacks (as it should be in such a speech) details. And going by the names and previous offices held by many of the released detainees, we believe that the Nigerian public deserves more explanations for the current action. This is more so not only because the events preceding the December 31st coup were very partisan and the list of those released can acquire partisan meanings if they are seen to be unfairly weighted in favour of any side; but also because their release was announced in the independence anniversary speech of the head of state. The immediate impression is that the release is a kind of political amnesty. Can it be that this was not what was intended?
Moreover, it is also in the interest of the erstwhile detainees themselves that their release be accompanied by publicly displayed clean bills of health. Otherwise, the odious connotations of imprisonment may cling to them permanently irrespective of their eventual freedom from detention.
Besides, it is about time we started bothering about the consequences of such unfinished business. It follows that decent citizens (and there are still many of such) would be wary of public service because of the wrong impression thus created that public service may lead to unjustified detention for months on end. And such beliefs can only be sustained by the present inadequate information on the outcomes of the ongoing stocktaking exercises.
We therefore call on the Federal Military Government to come out with more facts about the criteria used in effecting the release of the 250 men and women. This will clear all misgivings about the released detainees thus far.
The Guardian, Nigeria
Positive signal on the Saharaoui Republic
While consensus is desirable within the framework of the OAU, past experience, especially with the Angolan situation in 1975/76, shows that forward movement is often achieved when countries such as ours stand up early to be counted on critical questions. Over the Western Sahara, we have chosen to act differently, having apparently been suckered by Morocco's pettifogging tactics.The Moroccan monarchy has, through these tactics, the latest being the quixotic alliance with Libya, consistently defied OAU resolutions on arrangements for a referendum to determine the true wishes of the Saharaoui people. Polisario, on the other hand, firmly believing in the justice of its cause, has demonstrated enough flexibility and good faith to override whatever objections any disinterested party could have to deny it legitimacy. For instance, to help the convening of OAU summits, it offered on two occasions to abstain from attending, an option to which it was legitimately entitled given the support of its cause by majority OAU member-states.
Polisario's patience has, however, worn thin this time. It has resolved to attend next month's summit in Addis Ababa. We therefore have here the makings of another needless impasse which could adversely affect the convening or success of the summit.
To ensure that the summit proceeds as planned and that the OAU is saved, Nigeria should lead the way by recognis- ing the Saharaoui Republic now, and ought, therefore to move decisively to cause its admittance into full membership of the organisation. That would be the only logical step to follow our withdrawal from the Implementation Committee on the Western Sahara. And if for this reason, Morocco and her friends decide to abstain from the summit or to withdraw from the organisation, it would be good riddance anyway. Better to have an OAU that is small and effective than an amorphous mass of discordant states that do not take their responsibilities seriously.
