President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his predecessor, John Dramani Mahama
To bridge the inequality gap and alleviate the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian, political parties are given a mandate by the electorates to implement and manifest their goodwill and promises.
By and large, this goodwill of political parties contained in their manifestos in developing countries like Ghana, are mostly weighed per the number of developmental projects which are actually achieved at the end of their tenure.
These are not purposely for political gimmicks or banters but for the bridging of developmental gaps amongst other substantive reasons.
But over the past few years, Ghanaians have witnessed a display of undisguised political play with projects which are often funded with the public purse.
One of the main issues with the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in these discussions is the discourteous mannerisms of the ruling party in overlooking their roles in the success of projects. They claim the ruling party is reaping what they did not sow.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) often retorts by stating restructuring of projects and quoting instances of lack of value for money.
GhanaWeb hopes to put the debate into perspective by highlighting some projects which have over the years become the bones of contention for the two dominant parties;
The Bank of Ghana Hospital:
The argument of who owns what, who did what and who initiated what picked up when the Novel Coronavirus cases spiked in Ghana. The Bank of Ghana hospital was named as of the facilities to host and treat VIP coronavirus patients including public officials and diplomats. The explanation of this didn’t sit quite well with the opposition party leading to the eruption of arguments around who owns the bragging right to the property and other political banters.
In actual fact, the 60-bed ultra-modern hospital was completed in 2017 about three years after the project commenced.
Funding for the project was part of a GH¢445.8 million capital expenditure commitments of the Bank of Ghana which included the construction of a guest house and a data centre.
Though it is largely recognized as public funds, the opposition NDC maintains that it is Mahama’s legacy which the ruling government has decided to take credit for. They argued that the former president provided the needed leadership and vision to facilitate the successful completion of the hospital.
Tema Motorway Interchange:
Another one of the several projects the two main political parties are in a brawl over is the 19-kilometre Tema Motorway Interchange which had its first phase commissioned on Jun 5, 2020.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s failure to duly recognize the effort of the erstwhile Mahama government in the project led to another political fight over whose legacy it was.
The US$56 million project was financed by a grant secured from the Japanese government in March 2017. The issue was subsequently subjected to a number of fact-checks by concerned stakeholder and the result?
A preparatory survey on the project was entrusted to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and was scheduled to take place from March 2015 to March 2017. The source of funding is from the Japanese.
With preparatory survey commencing in March 2015 under the erstwhile Mahama administration, Vice president Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia of ruling NPP government cut the sod for the commencement of construction works on the Tema Motorway Roundabout in July 2018.
Pursuant to this, President Akufo-Addo commissioned phase one of the Tema Motorway interchange.
A fact check conducted by ghana.dubawa.org established that “the signing of the contract securing the grant and its execution was carried out by the current government led by Akufo-Addo.”
Pokuase Interchange:
The list has not been exhausted yet, the $94 million Pokuase Interchange is another one of such projects. The two parties are currently engaged in a heated public rant about who indeed own the bragging right to the project after Vice President Bawumia credited the gains of the interchange to his government.
He is quoted to have said amongst others in his result fair address “the Pokuase interchange was 75 per cent complete. The loan agreement for the project was signed in November 2016 for a three-tier interchange, but the Akufo-Addo government re-negotiated for a four-tier interchange without any increase in cost.”
But the opposition NDC would have none of that. In a rather swift rebuttal, a former Deputy Communications Minister in the erstwhile Mahama administration Minister of Communication, Felix Kwakye Ofosu took to his Twitter to challenge Bawumia’s claim.
He posted, “If Bawumia tells you the Pokuase Interchange is Akufo-Addo’s project, he is simply peddling falsehood. This is me announcing the approval of the loan for it in 2016.”
The project situated in the Ga West Municipality in the country’s capital was indeed redesigned from a three-tier to a four-tier stack interchange. And the loans for the project added on to the debt of the ruling government. Thus, the vice president’s claim to glories of the project.
To add insult to the injury of NDC, the Innovative Centre at Dawhenya was named after the president.
One of such stories was carried under the headline, “Akufo-Addo hijacks Mahama’s Greenhouse Project and names it after himself.”
It is quite obvious that the two main political parties in the country have a penchant of fighting over projects they both did not fund from their personal coffers. This could perhaps be the result of the need to please the Ghanaian people, who will on December 7, decide who they want at the hem of affairs.
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