Mahama's attack on Agenda 111 an attack on NDC's own manifesto - Majority Caucus

It is "disingenuous" and "inconsistent" for former President John Mahama to describe President Akufo-Addo's Agenda 111 project as overly ambitious and unrealistic, the Majority Caucus in Parliament has said.

The flagbearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress had said many of the Akufo-Addo government’s Agenda 111 projects will be left uncompleted by the time he leaves office because they bit more than they can chew with the project, which aims to give every district a modern hospital.

He wondered why the government increased the number from 80 to 111 when, in his view, they lacked the funds and resources to complete every one of them by the end of the president's term.

“This government started their Agenda 111 as they call it and they started with 80 hospitals".

"I don’t know what survey was done before the hospitals were being put in, but most of them are at a certain stage of completion".

"One would have thought that they would start with what they can do and finish", Mr Mahama said.

“And, so, if you can do 40 hospitals, finish and open them, then you start another. But you spread to 80 hospitals, the time they leave office, I don’t think many of them would have been completed.”

However, Members of the Majority caucus on the Health Committee of Parliament say Mr Mahama's comment is an indirect attack on his own party's manifesto.

Dr. Ayew Afriyie, the chairman of the committee, said: “If you call this overly ambitious if you call this unrealistic, then it is an attack on the NDC manifesto. Because if you say what you mean and you mean what you say, you don’t forget it at any point in time. Your boys may go and make politics out of it but you, the leader don’t go that route because of the manifesto."

“If you said you were going to build 88 hospitals and the NPP says it will do 111 hospitals, what is wrong with that? The former president is being disingenuous, he has been inconsistent and Ghanaians don’t have short memories as he has always said. We are clear on the principle that every district must have a hospital for universal health coverage and to be able to attain it, there must be access for all and there must be equity.”

According to him, “Over 50 per cent of Agenda 111 hospitals have past 60 per cent completion and under the NDC, they were able to complete 6 hospitals.”