A cocoa farmer who went viral for calling out President John Dramani Mahama for owing cocoa farmers following the reduction of cocoa prices has showered praises on the president.
In a new video, Mahama ‘Wo De Y3n Ka’ Cocoa farmer was captured praising John Mahama after receiving some money from the sale of his cocoa beans.
In the viral video, he stated, “Eii, as for this, Mahama has done well. Well done. Receive my salute.”
He, however, maintained that the president still owes them money saying, “But remember the remaining one. That one even involves a lot of money. No matter what you do, ‘wo de yen ka’ – you still owe us”.
Earlier, the cocoa farmer accused Mahama of owning them saying, “If President Mahama were here, I would ask him to listen carefully. Mahama, listen to this message: you owe us a debt. Whether you like it or not, you owe us.
Before the elections, cocoa farmers were receiving GH¢31 million, but Mahama, while in opposition, said the amount was too small. He even promised that if voted into office, he would increase the cocoa price to about GH¢60 million. On that basis, we voted for him,” he said.
President John Dramani Mahama then reacted to a viral video of a cocoa farmer saying, “Mahama wo de yɛ ka,” meaning Mahama, you owe us a debt.
Reacting to the video while speaking during an engagement with the Ghanaian community in Philadelphia on Thursday, March 26, President Mahama jovially mimicked the farmer, repeating the words ‘wo de y3 ka,’ with the audience bursting into laughter.
President Mahama stated, “The recent incident with cocoa, with the prices plummeting, and you see all the videos of ‘Mahama wo de y3 ka’ of cocoa farmers protesting in the cocoa farms, is because for almost 70 years after we gained independence, we’re still exporting raw beans to the world”.
“I believe that what has happened in the international market should be a wake-up call for us, and that we must allocate more of our beans, and we’re taking the first step to doing that,” he indicated.
President Mahama added, “We’re changing the financing model. Before, we got the traders and others who buy the cocoa to advance the money for us to buy the cocoa from our farmers. Now, we say we’re going to raise the money ourselves and buy our own cocoa,” he stated.
“While we’re taking the money from the traders to buy the cocoa from our farmers, the collateral for the money they were advancing us was the cocoa beans. And so once you bought the cocoa beans, it was collateral for the financing they gave you.
“So, now if we raise our money, we buy our own cocoa. Our cocoa is not collateral to anybody, and so we can decide what to do with it, and we’re saying that we’re going to allocate the bulk of our cocoa to the local processors to process that cocoa before we export it,” he concluded.
Watch the video below: