Cape Coast airport: Should we live in poverty because we’re poor? – Buaben Asamoa questions critics

The Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Buaben Asamoa has justified that the Cape Coast airport is going to be an avenue to reduce poverty in the Central Region.

According to him, Cape Coast is a hub for tourism and developing the city will help its inhabitants and their communities develop, hence their need for an airport.

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia announced at the 2020 manifesto launch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the party will build a harbour and airport for Cape Coast in the Central Region when re-elected into power.

Speaking in an interview on the Epa Hoa Daben political show on Happy 98.9 FM hosted by Afrifa-Mensah, the politician said, “If we don’t open up our country for development, we will never grow. We must make Cape Coast a hub for tourist activities. Ghana is 63 years and would have been retired if she were a person. Should she live in a mud house during her retirement?” he asked.

“Should we continue to live in poverty because we are poor? We need to develop Cape Coast because doing so will create jobs. And constructing an airport in the town will serve as an alternative to a lot of people.”

The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Adentan Constituency furthered that it would even be best to have airports in all regional capitals. He argued, “Some people who arrive at Kotoka will wish to travel by plane to the other parts of the country by air and it is best to have an airport in all our regional capitals.”

Buaben Asamoa added that if not for the COVID-19 pandemic, the country would have been flooded with tourists and with most of them trooping to Cape Coast, and Ghanaians would have realized the significance of an airport in the historic town.

“Because the people are poor, shouldn’t we serve them with rich things? People will travel to Cape Coast and spend a lot more money there and citing an airport in the town is the best. The revenue from tourism alone will improve their lives,” he reiterated.

Commenting on the call made by a section of Ghanaians for the NPP to drop plans to build the airport and rather focus on dualizing roads leading to Cape Coast, he noted that doing so will only make travelling to the tourist town more stressful and unappealing.

“If we dualize the road, you’ll have to take a ‘trotro’ from Adenta to Kaneshie and that will take you about an hour. You will then have to sit in a Cape Coast vehicle for an hour until it is filled to capacity. After, it will take you an hour and 30 minutes to get to Cape Coast.”

Further explaining the need for an airport in Cape Coast, Yaw Buaben Asamoa said, “It is about opening up the city for future investments. If we don’t construct the airport, we will be the cause of our own problems. We should open up the city for the people who believe in Ghana,” that is tourists.