Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said
most of the claims by the erstwhile Mahama administration to have constructed a
lot of roads in Ghana during its tenure cannot be true.
He said, at best, most of those roads existed
only in the NDC propaganda booklet entitled ‘Green Book’.
Breaking the grounds at Jasikan for
construction works to begin on the 88-kilometre Hohoe-Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu
stretch of the Eastern Corridor road, the Vice-President told the people of Oti
Region that upon assumption of office, the Akufo-Addo government had a reality
check that revealed that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had been lying
to Ghanaians regarding the so-called massive roads construction in the country.
“Contrary to all the nice pictures in the Green
Book, we realised that the reality on the ground was very different. For eight
years of the previous NDC government, they did not pay much attention to Volta
or Oti roads. But today they want to tell us they care more about Volta and Oti
than we (NPP) do. For eight years, they accomplished very little,” he said.
“We identified these roads more than two years
ago and said we were going to do these roads and the Minister for Finance in
the budget mentioned specifically that we are going to do Hohoe-Jasikan-Dodo
Pepesu road; and this is what we are seeing today. We are seeing that
Hohoe-Jasikan is being done as we speak today, and Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu is being
done,” he added.
Dr. Bawumia asked rhetorically “so how can you
ignore a region by mobilising for the construction of their roads?” adding “of
all the roads that were listed under critical roads in the budget, the only
roads that have started are the Hohoe-Jasikan and Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu. They are
the only two. All the others that have been listed are still under procurement.
So how can you even think that we have ignored Volta Region when it is the one
that is starting before any other?”
“The NDC, I am sure, are very embarrassed by their record. They claimed they had fixed so many roads in the country, but today there are demonstrations everywhere across all the regions for more and more roads. In their eight years, they didn’t fix one major road in the Upper East Region; not one. In their eight years in office, not one major road in Upper West Region was completed; not one. So should these regions also say you have ignored them completely, wouldn’t they be justified?” adding “for eight years, you didn’t fix the Volta Region roads. You didn’t fix the Oti roads. And I can go on and on.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent
