The outgoing Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru Limuna has revealed that party foot soldiers told him on several occasions that he was one of the poorest regional ministers they have ever seen.
The minister said while his office was inundated with jobless party boys, popularly called foot soldiers demanding cash from him, he offered some help through farming but it was rejected outright.
Besides holding the title of regional minister, Alhaji Limuna also dabbled in farming. He was however taken aback one Saturday morning when he asked the foot soldiers to write down their names and accompany him to his farm to apply fertilizer so that they could earn some money for their labour.
To his utmost surprise, he was told in the face that he was a poor regional minister and that as a minister he was supposed to have ready cash to dole out to party activists.
Alhaji Limuna, who is now the minister of food and agriculture revealed this at the inauguration of the West Africa Agro-Tech Company (WATCO) SONALIKA tractor show room in Tamale.
He said his observation about the youth in the region is that some of them are not interested in getting gainful employment but rather want cash from politicians.
The worried agriculture minister said there are fertile arable lands for the cultivation of various crops in the region but the youth are interested in contracts and white colour jobs when they have no capacity and the requisite knowledge to execute such jobs.
Alhaji Limuna, in making an appeal to WATCO to employ tractor mechanics in Tamale, also made a passionate appeal to chiefs and Imams to allow the law to deal with recalcitrant youth who conduct themselves poorly at their work places. “Am appealing to Imams to stop the usual mantra of begging authorities using Allah’s name to forgive workers who disobey rules and regulations.”
He mentioned the case of nine workers who are now languishing in jail after they were convicted of stealing property belonging to their former employer, the Brazilian construction company, Geiroz Galvaoto which is upgrading Tamale airport to international standards. He therefore cautioned those who will be employed by WATCO to be disciplined.
“I nearly reported the company to the presidency for their reluctance to employ the youth in the region but what do we see, after they were employed they misconducted themselves, some were sacked while others are now in jail,” Alhaji Limuna lamented.
According to him, it was not easy for the authorities in the region to convince the Brazilians to employ the youth in Tamale and after they successfully convinced them, the youth misconducted themselves and were subsequently sacked. “Being a northern regional minister is challenging; the seat is hot.”
“I won’t lie but with commitment and support, I did my best and the rest is left for your judgement,’’ Alhaji Limuna stated. He therefore appealed to the people of the region to give their full support to the incoming minister, Abubakar Abdallah who will formally assume office on Tuesday.
The Yeni Tamale-Naa who chaired the function appealed to the agriculture minister to assist farmers. The chief who is the technical officer (TO) at the Karaga district of ministry food and agriculture said farmers in the region are still facing several problems and need urgent attention.
Alhaji Limuna thanked everyone for their support during his tenure as regional minister.
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