Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson
From Ishmael Yamson Associates comes information transmitted by Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson about the Takoradi Port and plans to extend a railway line to Hamile in the northernmost end of the country bordering Burkina Faso.
Last week, when this information was shared, it provoked conversations bordering on the integrity of the information.
The Takoradi Port, according to the Finance Minister, empowered by Ishmael Yamson Associates, will be dedicated to the Sahelian Region of the sub-region.
While the information is heartwarming, we dare state that it is hot air, not feasible for now and joins the many Utopian promises by government.
Ishmael Yamson Associates, which now works for the government perhaps on consultancy basis, should in our view concentrate on feasible projects and avoid such matters which only infuriate already disappointed Ghanaians over many unfulfilled promises. The consultancy should deal with immediate subjects of concern to Ghanaians; infrastructure which would obviate floods and ensure the completion of the already commenced projects by the previous government among them railway redevelopment.
When Brig Gen Gordon Guggisberg conceptualised a Takoradi to the Northern end of the country’s railway line between 1919 and 1927 when he served as Governor, he was determined to make the dream come true and would have achieved this important goal but for Whitehall’s decision to replace him with Governor Alexander Ransford Slater, who did not buy into that project.
Our point is that this is not a novelty as those who seek to make a propaganda gain with it.
In a country where the continuum principle of governance, especially under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has no place, projects requiring massive capital outlay such as this will have to start from scratch regardless of what has already been commenced by their predecessors. Let government not lie to the people about this Utopian dream.
The previous government initiated a railway redevelopment programme, a dream which gave birth to the Mpakadan standard-gauge system and accompanying modern engines imported from Poland.
The Accra to Tema commuter service and the staff of the resuscitated railway system have suffered enough neglect from the government. It is on this score that we think that more dust is being put into the eyes with such impossible projects as announced by the Finance Minister.
This government is approaching two years of its four-year constitutional mandate with nothing to show for its commitment to building upon projects commenced by their predecessors, even as completed ones are begging to be put into use.
Important inroads were made on the Accra to Kumasi highway, the country’s most important and busiest road. Bypasses and dualisation of portions, some aspects of which were in advanced stages of completion, have been sidelined and replaced with a fresh expressway project between the two cities. This would not be completed by the time this government ends it tenure, leaving the unfinished task to join the abandoned one started by the previous government.
A railway line between Takoradi and Hamile is a wonderful project whose economic impact can only be imagined, but under the prevailing circumstances, the announcement is more propaganda than a reality.
We would wish to depart from the ‘Building Castles in the Air’ idiom to our own homegrown ‘Building Railways in the Air’ as headline for this commentary.
