National Democratic Congress flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama has promised to rollout what he describes as ‘an aggressive tree growing’ program in 2021 if he is elected President at the 2020 polls.
The project according to him will be aimed at checking the impact of climate change in the country especially the Northern, Savanna and Upper Regions while also creating jobs for the youth.
Mr Mahama explained that “for this part of the country, because of climate change, we are going to undertake a very aggressive tree growing program. This is tree growing not tree planting because we are not just going to plant the trees, leave it there and go away. We are going to look after the tree until it grows”.
Speaking at a campaign rally Monday at Widaana in the Pusiga Constituency of the Upper East region, the former President said the program will also create jobs and other economic benefits for thousands of youth and households.
“We are going to employ a lot of you in the forestry department and pay you every month for the work to plant and nurture the trees until they grow. It will be a commercial enterprise too because some of the species of trees we are going to grow can be used for firewood and charcoal. And so we would have wood logs that our mothers can use as fuel wood or we can use them for charcoal to either sell and use the income to improve ourselves. A lot of our young men will be engaged to do this and be paid an allowance,” he explained.
This latest promise comes amid heavy political tongue lashing on the National Democratic Congress over a previously failed tree planting program which was poorly executed under the erstwhile Savanna Development Authority, SADA.
His political opponents in the New Patriotic Party have continued to use the infamous failed SADA activity to gain some political capital even at this year’s election campaigns, accusing Mahama of causing huge financial loss to the state.
Meanwhile, Mr Mahama repeated the promise in Tempane, Garu, Binduri and Zebilla where he has been holding rallies for his second term presidential bid.
