$200m for Accra floods: Government behaving like a vulture – Sampson Ahi

A former Deputy Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Samson Ahi has said the Akufo-Addo-led government’s posture vis-à-vis the perennial flooding of the national capital Accra can be likened to the attitude of the vulture during rainy seasons where it resorts to ad hoc measures to stay afloat.

Recent downpours have led to heavy floods in Accra and other regional capitals leading to a number of deaths, especially in the Upper East and Ashanti regions.

In Cape Coast, the Central Regional capital, farms were submerged and lectures at the University of Cape Coast suspended on Wednesday.

Properties worth millions of cedis have also been destroyed as a result of the floods.

To help address the flooding situation, the Cabinet of President Akufo-Addo on Wednesday, 30 October 2019 approved $200 million for the Accra Resilient and Integration Redevelopment Project.

“Four ministries are spearheading this project. They include the Works and Housing Ministry, which is chairing the inter-ministerial committee on this; Sanitation and Water Resources; Inner-cities and Zongo Development; and Local Government and Rural Development. Among their respective roles, the Works and Housing Ministry is using its share of the fund to handle drainage of key water outlets including the Odaw River that has been spoken about for many years. Finally, it has been approved,” Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said at a press conference on Wednesday.

But speaking on the State of the Nation programme on Class91.3FM, Mr Ahi who is also the MP for Bodi, said the government was not being truthful with Ghanaians about the flood situation.

“The government is just lying to Ghanaians. Because of what happened three days ago, they are coming up with something to confuse Ghanaians. Is it not strange that you read the budget in November 2018 and it started operation in January, in that budget you said you’ll give GHS523 million for flood control measures; that amount is stated in the budget … but you’ve not even released GHS1 and when there’s a problem [and] you say you’ve secured $200 million? What has happened to the one in the budget which the Ministry [of Works and Housing] has applied to the Finance Ministry for since May 2018? Where is that money? You’ve not released that money and you’re telling the whole world you have $200 million … If the government has not been able to release that GHS523 million which the government has total control over, you want to believe they have secured $200 million?” he quizzed.

“The government now is behaving like a vulture. You know the vulture, anytime it’s raining the vulture will say to itself: ‘Tomorrow, I’ll put up my house’, but immediately after the rains, that’s it. The vulture will wait until the rains come again and say: ‘Tomorrow, I’ll put up my house’. That is the behaviour of government,” the lawmaker added.