Your projects will not even qualify as achievements of an assemblyman – Kwakye Ofosu tells Bawumia

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Former Deputy Communications Minister in the Mahama administration, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has described Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s presentation at a Town Hall meeting in Accra as mediocre.

To him, the ‘infrastructural projects’, touted by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the Town Hall meeting, will not even qualify as achievements of an assembly member.

“The Vice President listed 17,334 as the total number of infrastructure projects initiated by the current administration. Let me tell the NPP that these so-called achievements will not even qualify to be in the achievements book of an assemblyman.

“If the NDC lists their achievements, there is no way these projects will find space in our achievements because it’s mediocre and then you want to compare yourselves to the NDC. We will not consider it as worthy to show them to Ghanaians,” he noted in a Myafricatoday.net report.

‘Second to none’

The Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has described the infrastructure record of the Akufo-Addo administration as “second to none, with verifiable data to back up my claim”, when compared to any government in its first term of office under the Fourth Republic.

“The investment in infrastructure by the NPP government over the last three years has been massive. I dare say our investment in infrastructure, our infrastructure record, is second to none for any government in its first term under the Fourth Republic,” Dr Bawumia stated on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 during a virtual Government Townhall Meeting and Results Fair showcasing the NPP’s infrastructure record, held in Accra.

“Notwithstanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the completion times of some projects, the data indicates that in the fourth republic, no government has achieved as much in its first term of office in terms of infrastructure projects it initiated its first term as the NPP government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.”

Using a combination of film, tables and data, Dr Bawumia disclosed that over the past 3 and half years, the Akufo-Addo administration has implemented different infrastructure programmes across various sectors in line with the government’s agenda to ensure inclusive and accelerated economic development. The focus, he said, has been to provide infrastructure for all.

As a result, “about 17,334 individual projects have been started since January 2017. We have completed a total number of 8746 projects throughout the country. A further 8588 projects are at different stages of completion throughout the country.

“This is consistent with our strategic orientation to ensure the development of broad base, wide scale infrastructure, taking place in every district across the country instead of a few big infrastructure projects in a few cities.”

Zeroing in on sectoral performance, the Vice President revealed that a total of 1927 road projects have been undertaken across the country since 2017. Out of that, 1307 of them are completed while 620 are currently under construction.

“Government has selected three critical roads in every region. Work is ongoing on all these critical roads and are at various stages of completion, including the famous Eastern Corridor road, for example Jasikan-Dodo-Pepesu road, Bolga-Bawku (80% complete) and Lawra-Hamile (complete).

“In the Urban areas, across the country, since the beginning of 2017, we have done 589 km of Asphalt Overlay, rehabilitating and upgrading of 143.61 km of roads, reconstruction of 97.8km and resealing of 48.82 km of roads across the country.

“Four state of the art interchanges are also under construction: The Tema Interchange, where the loan, sod cutting and completion were executed by this government; Tamale interchange under the Sinohydro Programme, the first ever interchange in the Northern Sector of the country (44% complete and expected to be completed by the middle of 2021); Pokuase interchange (the first four tier interchange in West Africa – 75% complete.

“The, loan agreement for this (Pokuase interchange) project was signed in November 2016 for a three-tier interchange. We subsequently renegotiated for a four-tier interchange without any increase in cost.

Source: Daily Mail GH