‘Any President worth his salt will focus on oil’- Norton says

Nov 02, 2022 News

– as Ali makes agriculture, eco-tourism his priority

Kaieteur News – “The story about Guyana is not oil and gas. We are a country that is rich in history, we are a country that will be, and mark my words, a leader in food security and agriculture and importantly, we will be among the best eco-tourism destinations you can find.”

Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton responds to a question during yesterday’s press conference

Those were the statements made by President Irfaan Ali in an exclusive interview with a Middle East news outlet, Al Jazeera last week. While the President has made it clear that his focus is not on the country’s oil and gas resources, but on boosting agriculture and tourism for the country, Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton, has warned that the Head-of-State is making a “fundamental” mistake by not fixing his attention on that area to ensure Guyanese get more for its wealth.

Norton was at the time responding to a question from this newspaper during his weekly press conference on Tuesday, when he explained that, Ali’s focus should be on effectively managing each sector. The Opposition Leader reasoned, “Any President who is worth his salt will know you have to give each sector the attention it deserves.” He went on to point out that the capacity of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must be developed for the body to be able to perform its functions, however, “if he (President Ali) says he is not focussing on that, then he is agreeing tacitly that you don’t need to monitor what is happening with ExxonMobil and so he is making a fundamental mistake.”

In the meantime, he also noted that if the President does not focus on the energy sector, and on truly reducing the cost of electricity, then he would be doing the nation a disservice.

“A President has to look at every sector, analyse its weaknesses, analyse its strengths; bring in his technical people to help him, and come up with clear plans and projects to improve every sector. That is the task of a President that is worth its salt,” Norton insisted.

He also argued that even though the President claims to be focussed on agriculture, there are no clear policies to support this.

According to Norton, “There is no evidence, except for corruption, that this government is focusing on agriculture. We have said regularly that Region 10 needs to develop its agricultural base. Could you show me anything in there that suggests in the government’s programmes that they are developing agriculture in Region 10?”

Similarly, the Opposition Leader told reporters that there is need for agricultural development in Region Seven, but the plans in this regard are missing.

In Georgetown, Norton argued that farmers in North Ruimveldt who were planting, had their crops bulldozed by government to allow for houses to be developed. In the same breath, Norton argued that there were other available lands that could have been used for housing.

Moreover, he explained, “If you are serious about agriculture, when you do housing schemes, you will do it in a way that first of all you provide lands that you can do small scale agriculture in the area, and it don’t have to be livestock, it can be crops.”

Citing an example that speaks to the need for agricultural lands to be available in housing schemes, Norton said at Mocha on the East Bank of Demerara, residents were forced to get rid of their herds of cattle due to unavailable lands.

To this end, the Opposition Leader concluded, “He’s showing no interest in agriculture. He says what he thinks should be said for the World to hear, but where is the plan for agricultural development? Could they show us their plan for agro-processing? How many products they are focussing on? There is no plan for agriculture in this country.”

He also questioned the success of government’s Farmer’s Market initiative that was geared at allowing producers to sell their crops directly to consumers, to reduce the cost of food prices. “The Finance Minister said they were putting these tarmacs so that the farmers could bring their produce direct to the people. Have you seen them emerge and does that policy make sense? The government has no plan for agriculture.”

To further elaborate on his position, Norton pointed out that sugar is included in agriculture yet the sector is declining under the present administration.