The 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says contrary to claims made in the NDC’s green book that the “Eastern Corridor project is progressing speedily”, evidence on the ground proves otherwise.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, “it is unconscionable to make claims of having built critical roads when the reality is that the people are enduring unimaginable suffering because of the state of the roads.”
Addressing the Volta Regional House of Chiefs in Ho, on Friday, October 28, 2016, the NPP flagbearer explained that the last time he made reference to the state of the roads in the Western region, during his tour, President Mahama stated that Nana Akufo-Addo must have been asleep whilst on the roads and was, thus, unable to see the good works.
“I was very wide awake on the road from Asikuma, through Peki, Kpeve to Have and, yesterday, I was wide awake on the journey from Nkwanta to Hohoe, with a few detours, and from Hohoe to Ho. I was very wide awake on the roads from Dambai, Krachi, Nkwanta and to Kpassa. Indeed, I suggest that it is not possible for anyone to sleep whilst on these roads,” Nana Akufo-Addo stated.
He continued, “These are all part of our infamous Eastern Corridor project, which in the words of the Green Book is progressing speedily. The stretch from Asikuma through Peki and beyond is scandalous and I suggest it is cruel to play games with the people of Ghana. Work on the Eastern Corridor is NOT progressing speedily.”
With President Mahama and his assigns quick to make reference to the popular refrain “that Rome was not built in a day”, Nana Akufo-Addo retorted by stating that “I doubt that anybody ever claimed that the almighty mess we have today has the makings of a Rome.”
To this end, the NPP flagbearer appealed to the Chiefs to join in the quest “to build a prosperous and happy nation”, stressing that this is “a responsibility to ourselves, to our children and to generations yet unborn”.
He urged Togbewo and Nananom to help “change course from the disastrous path that the current government is leading us. I believe that you our traditional leaders have a critical role in this project to rescue and build Ghana into a prosperous and happy nation that is at peace with itself.”
Speech Delivered By Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 2016 Presidential Candidate Of The New Patriotic Party, To The Volta Regional House Of Chiefs, On Friday, October 28, 2016, At Ho.
Togbewo, Nananom, novinyewo,
I am very happy to be in your midst this morning. I thank the President of the House, Togbe Afede XIV, Paramount Chief of the Asogli state, for making it possible for me to address this august assembly and I am most grateful that so many of you have taken the trouble to come for this sitting. I have had the privilege of visiting many of you in your own homes.
Today is the fifth and final day of my current trip to this region to canvass for votes in the forthcoming elections. Back in May, I was in the southern constituencies and I can report that the reception I got then was heart-warming.
These past four days I have been mostly in the northern constituencies and dare I say that I have been astounded by the welcome given to me and my colleagues by the chiefs and peoples wherever we have been.
It is an undisputed fact that my party, the New Patriotic Party, has not had much support or following in this region and our performance at elections in the region has been abysmal. But, this time around, I sense a wind of change blowing in our favour. I must confess that the reception we have received from Kpando to Nkonya to Dambai, to Krachi to Kpassa to Nkwanta, and yes to Hohoe has been unprecedented.
I have been in this business of canvassing for votes for a long time and I can safely say that this has been an extraordinary trip. Togbewo, Nananom, sometimes on this trip my breath has been taken away by the exuberance and enthusiasm of the crowds. Something tells me that I can dare to hope that this year the message of the NPP is hitting home in the Volta Region, as well as the rest of the country.
I have always known and have always insisted that the NPP message of unleashing the energies of the people, especially their qualities of enterprise and innovation, to build a successful, prosperous economy is apt. For the private sector to grow, we need a strong, efficient public service to serve as an enabler to create the atmosphere to spur on the creativity of our people. This is a view that should find fertile ground here in this region.
I see young people who are keen to work, I see young people who are desperate to start on the first ladder to their own businesses and yes, I see young people who are dying to start families of their own. Many of these young people have been to school, many of them have done what society has asked of them, that is they have got qualifications but they remain unemployed.
I meet parents who are at their wits ends because their grownup children remain at home and are unable to start their independent lives.
Togbewo, Nananom, we seek political power simply to improve upon the lives of our people. There should be no other reason to ask for the mandate of the people. Having been given that mandate, the people have a right to measure the success or failure of your performance by the improvement or otherwise in the quality of their lives.
We need to build roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, airports etc etc; but they are only of any use if they lead to an improvement in the quality of our lives. There are airports built around the world where no planes land or take off, there are apartment blocks built in some cities that remain empty for years and there are schools built where children don’t go to school.
Infrastructure development should be aimed at improving the quality of the lives of the people. In the past four days, I have travelled on some of the most difficult roads in our country.
All politicians in our country have the same experience and, indeed, that is how it should be, because that is the reality of the everyday lives of our people. However, it is unconscionable to make claims of having built critical roads when the reality is that the people are enduring unimaginable suffering because of the state of the roads.
The last time I made reference to the state of the roads in the Western region during my tour, the President of the Republic took issue with me and suggested that I must have been asleep whilst on the roads and was, thus, unable to see the good works. I was very wide awake on the road from Asikuma, through Peki, Kpeve to Have and, yesterday, I was wide awake on the journey from Nkwanta to Hohoe, with a few detours, and from Hohoe to Ho. I was very wide awake on the roads from Dambai, Krachi, Nkwanta and to Kpassa. Indeed, I suggest that it is not possible for anyone to sleep whilst on these roads.
These are all part of our infamous Eastern Corridor project, which, in the words of the Green Book, is progressing speedily. The stretch from Asikuma through Peki and beyond is scandalous and I suggest it is cruel to play games with the people of Ghana. Work on the Eastern Corridor is NOT progressing speedily.
I have heard the President of the Republic and his spokespersons say that Rome was not built in a day. Indeed, it wasn’t, but I doubt that anybody ever claimed that the almighty mess we have today has the makings of a Rome.
Togbewo, Nananom, we have a responsibility to ourselves, to our children and to generations yet unborn, to build a prosperous and happy nation. We have to change course from the disastrous path that the current government is leading us. I believe that you, our traditional leaders, have a critical role in this project to rescue and build Ghana into a prosperous and happy nation that is at peace with itself.
There is a lot of unfinished business in the way we have tried to incorporate the traditional role of our chiefs into the modern and constitutional set up under which our country is governed. Everywhere I have been around the country and every palace I have been to pay my respects, I have been told by the occupants of our royal houses that there was general dissatisfaction with the current state of the laws regarding the relationship between chiefs and those who live in their jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court has made a ruling and it seems to me we need to give the matter further thought and try and come to a suitable form of words that would give legal backing to what we all accept and do instinctively anyway; that is give respect and authority to our chiefs.
A lot of work has been done already and we should move speedily on finishing the work on the codification of the traditional norms and rules that have guided our societies throughout the ages. The special problems of the Volta Region House in particular, should receive the urgent attention of the next government. We should bring all the remaining 55 paramount chiefs into the House, and expedite action on the approval for establishing traditional councils for 104 traditional areas that do not have them. I understand that work has stalled on the construction of two bungalows for the House. We shouldn’t have to break the bank to get that done quickly under an Akufo-Addo administration.
You would notice that we have made a manifesto pledge to increase the monthly allowances paid to chiefs and the quarterly budgetary support to the traditional councils and houses of chiefs.
If we have ever doubted the ties that bind the various peoples that inhabit these lands, one need only take a look at our traditional rules and practices. They are surprisingly similar, be they for the Nzemas or the Kusasis or for the Anlos or the Bonos: they all have a structured society with an inherent respect for authority; they all enjoin the people to respect the environment and take care of our natural resources.
There might be different reasons assigned for why you can’t farm near the river or go to the farm on a Wednesday or Thursday or fish on a Tuesday or Saturday, but there are rational and scientific reasons behind most of our traditional rules.
We should not be afraid of discarding those rules that do not fit in with modern and current realities. I refer in particular to the practices that seek to discriminate against women and children. It is difficult for example to find a scientific, legitimate reason why children should be given tiny pieces of meat or fish, when children need more protein than adults.
It is difficult again to find a justification for some of the widowhood rites that persist among many of our peoples today. I urge you, Togbewo and Mamawo, to be in the forefront of fighting to discard those practices that shame us.
I believe very strongly and the NPP and its antecedents have always put great store on the important role of chieftaincy in our governance structure. We will define a more active and consultative role for our chiefs especially in the operations of the District Assemblies.
I am sure Togbewo and Nananom have all by now heard about our Manifesto plans to bring development to the local level faster to have quicker impact on the lives of our people with the annual reallocation of the cedi equivalent of a million dollars to every constituency for capital expenditure. I promise you that our chiefs will be consulted at every stage in the implementation of this initiative.
Everywhere I have been on this current tour and the earlier one in the southern constituencies, I have been met with lamentations about unfulfilled promises, uncompleted and abandoned projects and been urged to give a pledge that an Akufo-Addo government would complete such projects and make good on other peoples’ unfulfilled promises.
I would like to draw the attention of this honourable House to one of the commitments in our Manifesto – the establishment of the National Asset Protection Project. One of the tragedies of this nation is the long list of abandoned projects dotted around this country; we have committed ourselves to tackling this disgraceful phenomenon through the National Asset Protection Project to ensure the continuity of projects.
We, in the NPP, do not see the construction of the road from Asikuma through Peki to Hohoe, no matter what it is christened, as a party political obligation on a ruling party. We see it as part of our national commitment to improve upon the lives of the people. Indeed, anyone who has been on the roads that I have been on recently, be it Yendi to Saboba, or Asikuma through Peki through to Hohoe or Jasikan or Dambai to Nkwanta, no one who has been on any of these roads or similar ones around this country would even think of abandoning work on them, because it was started by a political opponent. That is not the NPP way.
It is probably worth reminding all of us that, under the NDC government, the Keta Sea Defence project was close to being abandoned. The NPP government, under President Kufuor, implemented that project and indeed added extra details that were not in the original design. You would also recall that we have made a commitment in our manifesto to build, in collaboration with the private sector, a new harbour at Keta.
Maybe I should also remind us all that the NDC had almost given up hope of finding oil for Ghana when the NPP came into office in 2001. The Kufuor administration brought fresh vigour and added seriousness to the search for oil; the result was that we found oil in 2007. I would like to think that with God’s help, under an Akufo-Addo administration, we might yet find oil in the Volta Basin. By the same token, for the purposes of industrialisation, the next NPP government will expedite action on extending the gas pipeline to southern Volta.
Yesterday, I was at the centre of a most remarkable and unforgettable procession in Hohoe. It was almost like the old times when Hohoe was the stronghold of the United Party which was formed by the coming together of many parties around Ghana. I was humbled by the enthusiasm and excitement of the crowds that met us and took us to the grounds of our campaign rally. The NPP brought Hohoe to a heaving, happy stop. I chose to forget about all the frustrating times the NPP had endured in Hohoe and other towns in this region since 1992.
Two young men in the teeming crowd that ushered us into town said loudly to whoever cared to hear that they were voting for the NPP, because the country needed a change in direction and they needed jobs.
Finally, I said to myself and to whoever cared to hear, Ghana has come of age; we have thrown off the ethnic politics or accusations thereof that have dogged our politics for so many years. Young people are deciding to vote based on issues. I pray that those two young men and others like them around the country remain steadfast in their determination to vote to secure a bright future.
Togbewo, Nananom, I believe we of the NPP have wooed the Volta Region assiduously, and I dare say we deserve to be looked at with some favour. Under the Kufuor administration, we demonstrated our goodwill by not discriminating against those who did not vote for us. We will continue to work to gain the trust and confidence of the people of the Volta Region.
Let me conclude by presenting a copy of the NPP’s 2016 Manifesto, titled “An Agenda for Jobs” and its highlights to this House. I am aware that the Constitution of the Republic forbids you to engage in partisan political activity, but, your involvement in the public life of our country stems from your basic position as traditional rulers. I believe in all sincerity that, if, by the grace of God, we are victorious in December, the philosophy and programme of development set out in the Manifesto provide an effective platform for ushering our beloved country into a new dawn of Ghanaian development, progress and prosperity.
I hope the members of this august House will help set the tone in their areas of influence to ensure that we have a credible election. I want to wish the soon to be newly elected leadership of the House God’s guidance and the best of luck. I thank you very much for your attention and may the Almighty bless us all and bless Ghana.
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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