Member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) communications team, Padmore Baffour Agyapong, has reacted to ex-president Mahama’s promise of $10 billion accelerated infrastructural plan, dubbed the Big Push by stating that while the initiative is commendable, it is nothing extraordinary.
In an interview with Kwame Afrifa Mensah on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ show, he explained that John Dramani Mahama will only be pulling together the divided infrastructure ministries such as the Ministry of Roads, Works and Housing, among others to make an impact.
“All the governments from Rawlings to Nana Addo have all been doing well in infrastructure but these projects are scattered just to score political points. But I like this idea. When an idea is good, you support it. Sometimes we need to push politics aside. Can we have a ministry on its own to deal with Ghana’s infrastructure network? My feeling is that we need a ministry of infrastructure development.
This promise that John Mahama is saying that he will use ten (10) billion to make the big push in infrastructure, all that he is saying is that they will be pulling all the scattered infrastructural projects together. So with that, we can monitor and know what is going on.
That is all John Mahama is saying. So for those asking where he is going to get the money from, let’s consider that the budget for roads ministry, works and housing, railways, infrastructure in education, among others will be brought together. He does not need to even go for a loan”, he said.
He was of the view that many presidents have been unsuccessful in infrastructural developments because of what the ministers tell them instead of what is really happening on the ground.
He bemoaned how the division of infrastructural ministries has stalled infrastructural developments. Exemplifying his point, he noted, “When a contractor has to do a road and he gets to a storm drain, he leaves it at that because that is under works and housing which is then awarded to another contractor. The road contractor can continue only after the other contractor has finished with his job. Look at the time. So now there are contractors who haven’t been paid for the jobs they have done”.
The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, has announced a $10 billion accelerated infrastructural plan, dubbed the Big Push which he says will drive jobs and entrepreneurial agenda when elected in December 2020.