Apowa-Mpohor-Adum Banso road, another deception? – Dr. Ato Aidoo asks

General News of Tuesday, 5 June 2018

Source: Eben Sackey

2018-06-05

Kwasi Amoako Attah NewlyKwasi Amoako-Atta, Roads and Highways Minister

Dr. Daniel Ato Aidoo, Policy Analyst for Kra Consult, has questioned the impending reconstruction of Apowa-Mpohor-Adum Banso road in the Western region in phases when similar promises were made in the past but failed woefully.

Writing under “Ogyakrom Diary: Is the Apowa-Mpohor-Adum Banso road another deception?, on his Facebook timeline, Dr. Aidoo said “Reports emerging that there will be a sod-cutting ceremony for only 16 km of the over 50km Apowa-Mpohor- Adum Banso road in the Western region of Ghana, after a 16 years wait is not only worrying but contravenes an essential requirement in national infrastructural policy direction”.

The ceremony slated for June 10, 2018, is an indication that President Akufo Addo is nurturing a new path to equitable distribution and infrastructure improvement in Ghana, but Dr. Aidoo stated that “questions remain whether this is a repetition of what President JA Kufuor failed to do between 2000 and 2008, and further worsened by Mills/John Dramani Mahama between 2009 and 2016”.

According to Dr. Aidoo, “The Mpohor district deserves better, explained by the fact that the Apowa-Mpohor-Adum Banso road was the only road in the Western region that was not reconstructed by the Mills/Mahama administration, due to the people’s overwhelming support for the NPP”, adding “That was what officials of the Mahama administration told the people”.

Dr. Aidoo explained that, “Statistics show a high rate of pulmonary diseases in the Mpohor district due to bad dusty roads, coupled with transport business owners complaining about frequent replacement of parts, and how difficult it is to cart foodstuffs to the main markets in Takoradi and Sekondi.

The Mpohor district is also one of the largest cocoa producing districts in Ghana. But many people have died due to years of neglect, poor infrastructure, lack of job opportunities, and low income”.

“The President will also cut the sod for the construction of a new district hospital in Mpohor, questioning “what purpose will it serve if people will continue using untarred dusty roads to the hospital”.

Dr. Aidoo quipped, ” Are hospitals built without considering community health policies aimed at prevention of diseases, and the use of good roads?”.

Conjecturing, Dr. Aidoo wrote, “Stephen Kraiku, a former stalwart of the NPP, who is from the Mpohor district, will be turning in his grave for the part he played in encouraging his people to accept a long-lasting marriage with the NPP, and the neglect thereafter”.

Dr. Aidoo postulated, ” one of the lessons for political actors in Ghana is that modern electoral behaviour is linked to psychological attachment to a political party. That is why managers of the President should provide him with cues as to the importance of a project in a particular district. Some projects can shape voting choices, and the Mpohor district is a typical example; especially when the people have waited for far too long through political deception by previous governments”.

Explaining further, Dr. Aidoo stated, “the central role of socialization of partisan identities also finds reason in responding to some needs and expectations of a constituent , and rightly so, because that contributes to alignment of choices even in the dynamic sense of partisanship”, pointing out that “the NPP should not underestimate, what he termed “electoral sophistication” in the Wassa area, especially in the Mpohor district”.

” A new army of critics are subtly emerging in the Mpohor district to correct the wrongs of the past, and of deception, which should guide the ruling government on how to explain its actions and inactions to the people, more so in a constituency where the political pendulum can easily swing as a result of its interesting demographics, Dr. Aidoo advised.

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