President Akufo-Addo has rubbished the physical projects touted as achievements by the erstwhile Mahama Administration, saying Ghanaians’ outcry about the awful conditions of their roads everywhere he goes today drops more questions than answers.
“I remember, during the election, that my opponent kept saying that in his time our country had witnessed unprecedented infrastructural development. When I said I didn’t see it, he said that I was asleep in the car and that was why I didn’t see these good roads.
“But yet everywhere I go, everywhere I go, the first thing people ask me is about their roads. So, this unprecedented infrastructural development— it cannot have been about roads; it must be something else, but certainly not about roads because you yourselves have pointed out how very poor the network is,” he said.
The President was addressing a durbar of paramount chiefs and queen mothers Wednesday in Bolgatanga to begin his two-day tour of the Upper East region.
He assured the region, “But we are going to work on it. We are going to work on it because we are going to ensure that all the money that is mobilised by the government is spent to deal with the issues that concern our people and they don’t find their way into my pocket or the pockets of my ministers. We are not going to allow that to happen in this country again.”
Collapse of Railway “the saddest decision we made”— President
The President also spoke of the collapse of Ghana’s railway network as one of the “saddest and egregious decisions” the country had ever taken.
He said, with emphasis, that his government would restore the railway linkage across the country in no time to boost its economy.
“One of the most important undertakings that I intend to do in my mandate is to restore the railway network of our country. It’s one of the saddest and most egregious decisions that was made to allow the railway network that we inherited from the colonial times to get into disuse. And we are paying for it.
“It is absolutely essential for the rapid development of our country that we connect the country by railways again and we are going to do it— very, very soon. The Minister for Railways is going to roll out before the country the exact plans that we have to redevelop our railway infrastructure again. And you can be sure that you, the people here in the Upper East, will be right in the centre of those considerations of railway redevelopment,” the President stated.
660 Communities to have electricity in Upper East
A total of 660 more communities that are without electricity, according to the President, would be connected to the national grid between rest of 2017 and 2018 in the region.
“The Upper East is the part of the country that has the least access to electricity. The lowest figure is 60%. So, it’s necessary that every effort is made to accelerate the provision of electricity to the Upper East. So, this year 2017 and 2018, a total of 660 communities in the Upper East are going to be connected to the national grid to expand electricity to all in the region,” he announced.
The President added: “But I think that the most important is if we recognise the programme that the NPP puts up before our country is a programme that can enable our country to develop rapidly and transform our fortunes. I have always said, and I will continue to say, that we are not a poor nation. Ghanaians are not a poor people. Our nation is not a poor nation. All it needs is good leadership and the prosperity that God has given to us will come out for all our people to benefit from. I need your active support whether you voted for me or you didn’t vote for me so that together we can rebuild Ghana.”
Source:Ghana/StarrFMonline.com/Edward Adeti
