<<Print>>

I sometimes ask myself whether there are no men and women of valour in and from the Western Region, as very blatant and heart-breaking policies and utterances from people in the NDC are deliberately being inflicted upon us by the ruling Egya Atta alias Atta Cash�s administration. They do this with such impunity and total disregard for the feelings and sensibilities of the good people of this very well endowed region. I have always held the view that this nation has never been fair to the region, since even Dr. Nkrumah, the first President of this country who was a son of this region, also ignored the region. One would have expected that subsequent regimes would amend this old mistake against the people of this region. It seems however that we have gotten to a point where this government in particular is deliberately insulting the intelligence of this region. In fact, some Members of Parliament from the National Democratic Congress have taken a position that the people of the Western Region have no right to make claims, as regards resource allocation. Not quiet long ago, the Member of Parliament for Sene, Felix Twumasi-Appiah, whose constituents see a major resource like salt in their area as belonging to them and them only, rubbished the legitimate demand by the Chiefs of the Western Region for 10% of the government�s share of the oil revenue for the development of the region. For him, the people of Sene have the right to solely enjoy the salt in their area, but whatever is available in the Western Region belongs to all of us, as Ghanaians. The people of this region have never and will never lay exclusive claim to the resources available to them, be they on the surface of the earth or in the belly of the earth. All we are saying is that from whom much is taken, much is expected to be given back in return. News reports this week have also indicated that another MP from the NDC stables, with not too much of an enviable record, is reported to have told our chiefs to jump into the sea. This is the highest display of arrogance and utter disrespect for the traditional representatives of the good people of this region by someone who is alleged to be a swindler of foreigners; a man who is alleged to have duped some foreign business people under the guise of supplying them with gold. Strangely enough, there is no evidence of gold being produced where he comes from. As usual, this comment from Hon. Twumasi Ampofo, the MP for Sene, will go without anybody reprimanding him from the governmental level. At the governmental levels, the NDC administration has deliberately, and against the tenets of the spirit and letter of the 1992 constitution, left out the Western region in the scheme of things. While the constitution enjoins governments to ensure geographical and regional representation in cabinet, Western region remains the only region left out in the cabinet of Egya Atta�s administration. In deed the region has no single ministerial position, even in the sector ministerial allocations. Strangely enough, the NDC has many Members of Parliament from the region than the remaining political parties. Any reason for this? But let�s come to the substantial issues. It is becoming increasingly clearer that the NDC administration, under Egya Atta, has no genuine intentions to seriously develop this region. In the early part of 2008, the late Kwadwo Baah Wiredu visited me one Sunday morning, and in his usual unannounced visits to me, asked me to follow him to inspect sites for the impending construction of three hydro dams on the Pra, Ankobra and Tano rivers, all in the region. Apparently, he and his team had already visited the site at Sekyere in the Mpohor Wassa East District of the region. We therefore set off to locate the sites on the Ankobra and the Tano rivers. In the company of the current Member of Parliament for Evalue Dwira, Hon. Katrin Afeku, we drove to locate the Ankobra river in the interior. We walked a distance of about five kilometers, to a nearby village where the site was located because our vehicles could not travel on the road. On the trip were a Chinese and a French man, who represented the consultants to the project. From there, we drove to Ellubo, where we had to travel upstream by canoe to locate the site on the river. The canoe operator was unwilling to send us to our destination because he had closed for the day. And this was the Minister for Finance of the Republic of Ghana who had traveled all the way from Accra to help build a facility which in the long run was going to help improve his life and many others in that area, particularly, and the nation, generally. After a few persuasions, he agreed to ferry us upstream to locate the site. The funding for these very important projects was supposed to come from the government of Brazil. The then government began the negotiation; all the technical and feasibility studies were initiated and somehow completed by the NPP government, awaiting the final outcome of the financial arrangements with the Brazilian government. Today, the government of Brazil has finally offered us the facility, but painfully, it is being diverted to construct roads in the Volta Region, thus abandoning the projects in the Western Region. Ironically, the nation will have to rely on the resources from the Western Region to service the loan when it is due. The question is what has the Western Region done wrong against this government to deserve this shabby treatment? In the so called �Top 50 achievements of the Prof. John Evans Atta Mills-led government in his first two years in office�, hear what they had to say in respect of Western region roads. Western Corridor. Elubo-Asemkrom: 50km out of 84km have being surveyed and designed. Tender documents are being prepared for tendering and award by the end of the year. Under the NDC, this is an achievement that has improved the lives of the people of the region. Enchi-Benchema-Goaso- Sunyan: Sections of this stretch are in a satisfactory condition. Plans are being made for reconstruction of the sections in poor conditions. It is a TOP achievement to have plans to reconstruct sections of a road that is satisfactory under the NDC. Tarkwa-Bogoso- Ayamfuri: The Tender Evaluation Report has been completed and forwarded to the European Union for review. EU has provided about 83 million Euros for the works which is scheduled to commence by early 2011. The last time I read about this road, the EU had cancelled the Tender, and yet the President went there after he had been chased out of Tamale to use pick axe to cut the sod for the construction of this road. I challenge the Atta Mills government to tell us which contractor has won the Tender and where his work camp is in the region. Ayamfuri-Asawinso: Draft Tender Documents for procurement of works have been submitted to the World Bank. Tenders are to be launched before the close of this year. The works are estimated to cost US$52million. All the emphasis is mine. The Essam and Dadieso Health Centres were all built under the NPP by COCOBOD, yet they have listed them as their top achievements in the region. This government imported 22 x-ray machines for major hospitals in the country, which gives an average of two per each region. The Western Region was not given even one. This is the plight of the region and so when Egya Atta meets our chiefs or visits the region and makes promises to our people, he should not be taken seriously. He is at his hypocritical best. As I keep on saying, until the sons and daughters of this land wake up to tell the whole nation that enough is enough, we will contemptuously and disdainfully be treated as second class citizens of this nation, who are only fit for the crumbs of what we have produced and not the main meal. Let us wake up. As for me, my mahogany bitters is my ally, I shall fear no foe whether from a Game or a Funk.