By Nana Oben
On October 1st, 2012, our President, John Dramani Mahama promised the people of Kasoa that HE WOULD BUILD THEM A FLY-OVER TO RELIEVE TRAFFIC CONGESTION. REALLY??
Yes, Kasoa traffic is HORRIFIC!! The questions we, INCLUDING our President, ought to be asking are:
(a) What is the cause of this traffic jam? (b) what, or who created this situation? and (c) what are the possible cost effective remedies (including a fly-over)?
Some power hungry politicians assume we the populace are so dumb we can’t remember their previous actions or promises against new ones. President Mahama seems to be one of them. Otherwise he would remember that the Kuffour administration resolved the Kasoa traffic problem after the completion of the Mallam-Yamoransa road. How did they do it? The then government built a new large market nearby but away from the main road, resettled trotros from the main road to the market, AND DISALLOWED TROTRO STANDING ALONG THE MAIN HIGHWAY. THOROUGHFARE ACTUALLY BECAME JUST THAT. WITHOUT THE TROTROS REDUCING THE 3-LANES TO 1-LANE, TRAFFIC MOVED UNABATED.
Then during the 2008 Presidential campaigns, Candidate Mahama, his boss Atta-Mills , and their side-kick Rawlings went to Kasoa, and promised the Trotro drivers and traders “IF YOU VOTE US INTO POWER, WE WILL LET YOU COME BACK TO THE ROADSIDE AS BEFORE”.
The rest is history: Kasoa and Central Region voted Atta-Mills and Mahama into power, and immediately collected their payback – a return of trotros and traders into the thoroughfare, which has resulted in the massive traffic jams we see today.
And what does our educated, brainy President Mahama have to say about it? Instead of getting the MTU CLEAR THE THOROUGHFARE OF THE TROTROS AS WAS DONE BEFORE, AND CONFINING TRADERS AND HAWKERS TO THE EXISTING MARKET NEARBY, (which by the way will cost us almost nothing), OUR PRESIDENT IS PROMISING A FLY-OVER INTERCHANGE. TALK OF USING A BAZOOKA TO KILL A FLY!!
Fellow Ghanaians, BEWARE of this John Dramani Mahama. It’s very possible he has secured another Chinese loan for a flyover with his brother’s construction company as the front. In the end, just as in the cases of STX, Embryaer, GAF planes, we the taxpayers will be paying the “finders”, “modalities”, “documentation”, “financial engineering” fees while THEY smile to their banks with their booty in private jets.
