“You can fool all of the people, some of the time and you can fool some of the people, all of the time but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”- Abraham Lincoln.
On Friday, the 4 of November 2016, I was taken aback by an interview granted to Kofi Adda on the Nabiina Community Radio, in which virtually everything he spewed on that programme was a lie.
In fact , the ease with which he was spinning his convoluted yarn, lends credence to the insider information I have to the effect that the NPP in a meeting held at Vunania in Navrongo resolved to confuse the electorates with a whole slew of lies! In the said meeting at Vunania , the NPP had the understanding that with the massive evidence based infrastructure the NDC and of course Mark Woyongo have brought to bear on the lives of the people of Navrongo , it would be well nigh impossible for the NPP to win the elections without recourse to lies and deceit. Against this backdrop, the NPP has therefore resorted to lies with the intention of confounding or befuddling or if you like confusing the people.
One of their modus operandi is to attribute projects executed by Hon. Mark Woyongo or President Mahama to a certain nonexistent or a fictitious NGO in order to give the false impression to the people of Navrongo that Woyongo and for that matter Mahama hasn’t done anything to better their lot.
The interview Hon. Kofi granted to the Nabiina community radio was therefore in furtherance or in pursuit of their decision at Vunania to embark on a Campaign of lies and deceit .
However, I can assure Kofi Adda and the NPP that the people of Navrongo are not as gullible and pliant as they think we are . In fact , the People of Navrongo are a discerning bunch capable of reading between the lines.
Permit me, at this juncture , to address, piecemeal, the untruths, factual inaccuracies and downright lies peddled by Kofi Adda in the aforementioned interview.
Of all the ignominious lies that issued forth from the mouth of Hon. Kofi Adda in that fateful interview, the one that takes the Cake is his averment that Hon. Woyongo is not the instrumental force behind the erection of the Our Ladies of Lourdes Model Girls Senior High school.
He unabashedly tells the tall story, on Nabiina Community Radio ,that the documents regarding the intention to build OLL were handed to him, Kofi Adda, by Bishop Abadanlora and he ,in turn, handed them to the then Minister of Education, Hon. Banahene. This, Hon. Kofi would want us to believe, was the beginning of OLL .
Ladies and gentlemen, this account by Hon. Kofi Adda is not only dishonourable but outrageously false and scandalous.
The only snippet of truth in his account is the mention of the name Bishop Abadanlora, everything else is bogus and contrived.
Now, readers , allow me to render to you a vivid, lucid ,true and honest account of the genealogy of the Our Ladies of Lourdes Girls model Senior High School so that we can juxtapose that with the fairy tale narrative of Kofi Adda.
The Idea of putting up a girls model Senior High School was without doubt conceived by Bishop Abadanlora of blessed memory. But the idea then ,was to situate it in Paga and not Navrongo and, in fact, land had already been purchased in Paga for that purpose. But as fate would have it, Bishop Abadanlora passed on before the realisation of this noble dream and with his passing the end of the dream of constructing a solely Girls Senior High School. So ,the dream of Bishop Abadanlora was shattered because of his untimely demise and it remained just what it was – an idea or a dream.
Discerning readers, it was only when Hon. Woyongo became the Upper East Regional minister in 2008 that he ressurected and activated this noble ideal of building a model Girls School but this time around not in Paga but Navrongo. Woyongo had to collaborate with the Regional Director of the Catholic Education Unit at the time ,Mr Akanyani and Indeed Mr Kizito Akanyomsi ,the then presiding Member of the Kasena/Nankana District in the acquisition of the land on which the OLL Girls model School now stands.
Originally, the Idea was to situate it on a certain Parcel of land offered by Mr Kizito at Vunania but it wasn’t possible because encroachers had eaten deep into that Land.
Permit me to recapitulate that it was Hon. Woyongo, Akanyani and Mr Kizito that talked to the Chief of Gaani for him to release that land on which OLL stands today. Since it is sacriligious for the people of Gaani to sell Land ,the magnanimous Chief gave that large tract of land to them free of charge and all the appropriate rites and customary obligations in respect of the land were performed by Mr Kizito on behalf of the trio.
Let me state without any trace of equivocation that after the successful acquisition of the land, it was the MP of Navrongo Central, Hon. Woyongo who duly cut the Sod for work on the school to begin. It is also on record that it was Hon. Woyongo who run uphill and down dale to source for the funding that transformed the bushy land into an awe-inspiring ultra modern model Girls School. Again, when the school was accomplished through the toil and supervision of Hon. Woyongo , it was His Excellency John Mahama who came to commission it.
From the foregoing therefore , it would be tantamount to stating the blatant obvious for me to assert that Hon. Mark Woyongo and of course President Mahama are the brains and forces behind the actual materialization of the Our Ladies of Lourdes Model Girls Senior High School situated at Gaani. The chief of Gaani equally deserves accolades for thinking about the development of Navrongo by generously donating that enormous tract of land. In fact, the school is such an architectural masterpiece ! Little wonder that Kofi Adda has developed goose bumps!
In any case, at the time the Construction of OLL began in 2008, Mr Banahene , whom Kofi Adda claimed gave the permission for OLL to be built was a former Education Minister and for that matter couldn’t have authorize its construction. Or was he still a minister in opposition? These are the depths of absurdity Hon. Kofi Adda has descended into in his futile attempt at eclipsing Woyongo’s achievements with naked lies !
Besides, it is common knowledge among the inhabitants of Navrongo that it was Woyongo’s efforts that brought OLL to fruition, so why hasn’t Kofi Adda ever rebutted these claims until just a month to the Elections?
I am also privy to a documentary in which the Headmistress, who is a Roman Sister , is heard loud and clear heaping praises or plaudits on Hon Woyongo for his instrumentality in the successful establishment of the Our Ladies of Lourdes model Girls Senior High School. She was full of praises for him for investing his time, energy and resources towards the creation of the school. The veracity of the Sister’s utterances can easily be gleaned or ascertained from the fact that she wasn’t making any political statement but merely expressing her gratitude and appreciation to Woyongo for his hard work and dedication towards crystallizing the dream of having a Girls model Senior High School in Navrongo! Even the Saints are aware!
Hon. Kofi Adda wittingly attempts to throw dust into the eyes of the people of Navrongo by claiming falsely that the dredging of the Yusi , Doba and other Dams were done by LESKEN and not Honourable Mark Woyongo. This apparent mischief and falsehood perpetrated by Kofi Adda , which is intended to disown Hon Woyongo of projects he has worked hard to fulfil, would not wash with the people of Navrongo.
The people of Nogsenia , Doba and the other communities that had their Dams dredged were not blind to the conspicuous and visible presence of our efficient and hard working MP Hon. Mark Woyongo, from the beginning of the dredging to its completion or consummation.
Woyongo, to all intents and purposes did not only foot the bill of the cost of the project but also monitored and supervised it every step of the way in order to ensure that no shoddy work was done!
The venerable Navro pio, Pe Arthur Balinia, who is the custodian of the Yusi Dam would attest to or corroborate the fact that Hon Woyongo was the financier of the dredging project.
Permit me to reiterate very clearly, without any qualms in my mind that the Yusi , Doba among other Dams were dredged by no other person than Hon Mark Woyongo. In fact, the wages, fuel, accommodation and other refreshment packages of all the Workers that dredged the Dams were paid for by Hon Mark Woyongo- to the last penny !
If Hon. Kofi Adda is trying to mislead the public because Vehicles belonging to Lesken were spotted working on the Dam site, I want to inform him and those who have already been misled by his premeditated lies that those Vehicles were all fueled by Hon Woyongo and the wages of the Drivers of those Vehicles were paid for by Woyongo.
Lesken, as a fully fledged contractor , owns assorted heavy duty vehicles that could be hired or rented for variegated purposes including dredging of Dams !
Ladies and gentlemen, in his lie-laden interview on Nabiina Community Radio Hon. Kofi Adda also makes the mendacious and spurious claim that the 132 boreholes installed by Hon. Woyongo in almost every Community in Navrongo were rather done by an NGO.
Hon. Kofi Adda has forgotten that it was during the 2012 electioneering Campaign, when boreholes were few and far between, that Hon Woyongo made a campaign promise to install boreholes in every nook and cranny of the constituency to provide potable water for his Constituents. According to Woyongo, it was not permissible or fair for women to trek long distances to fetch water. He therefore made a solemn promise there and then that when elected he would make sure no woman walks for a kilometer to fetch water. In this connection , the 132 boreholes are therefore a fulfilment of Woyongo’s 2012 Campaign promise.
Besides, the inhabitants of the beneficiary Communities of the boreholes are aware that Woyongo is the one who brought the drilling Vehicle that did the drilling, supervised the fixing of the boreholes and commissioned them for the use of the Community to boot.
How could an NGO allow Woyongo to take charge of every minuscule part of the boreholes project including the procurement of the boreholes accoutrements and even their commissioning without the presence of the supposed NGO.
I can bet my bottom dollar on the fact that Hon. Kofi Adda is scared to death by the huge number of boreholes installed by Hon Woyongo and that is what has informed him, Kofi , to unleash such incredible deluge of lies !
It is obvious , from the frenzied and frenetic lies being told by Kofi Adda that ,the people of Navrongo are highly appreciative of the efforts and achievements of Woyongo. It therefore stands to reason that the boreholes and Dam dredging projects are of tremendous benefit to the people hence the desperate attempts by Kofi Adda to obfuscate issues in order to kill the shine of Woyongo’s successes.
I would therefore , on behalf of the good people of Navrongo implore Hon. Mark Woyongo to treat Kofi Adda’s falsehoods with the contempt that they deserve and keep up with the good work he is doing for Navrongo.
We entreat him to continue with the ongoing boreholes and Dam dredging projects because, we ,the beneficiaries in the communities are happy and grateful to him for placing the development of Navrongo over and above everything else. Woyongo should never feel he is casting pearls before Swine because we would forever be grateful to him for the clean drinking water he has provided for us and indeed for hearkening to our call to dredge our Dams. This time round our Livestock would not die of thirst and our dry Season farming would also flourish.
Hon. Kofi Adda also claimed erroneously that the 8.5 million dollar Navrongo urban Water rehabilitation project is a project of the World Bank. Ostensibly, this assertion flies in the face of the truth. In fact , nothing could be further from the truth!
I have said time without number that the Navrongo Urban Water Rehabilitation project is part and parcel of an overarching government policy to make water accessible to the growing urban population and the demands of urbanization. This gigantic visionary project is in Navrongo as a result of deliberate planning and the responsiveness of President Mahama and his right hand man Hon Woyongo. The same mind that informed Mahama to install a desalination plant at Teshie to provide Water to the inhabitants of Accra and its environs is the same mind that informed the Navrongo
Urban Water rehabilitation project .
It is my honour to inform Kofi Adda that this is just a tip of the iceberg! When the President visited Navrongo recently he assured us that a water treatment plant would be installed at the Tono Dam to provide potable Water to communities in Sandema, Navrongo, Paga and Bolgatanga.
Hon Kofi Adda also claims that Hon. Woyongo has never made any overtures towards him in respect of continuing with the library facility that kofi claimed he intended to build on a land he acquired opposite the War memorial Hospital during his unproductive tenure as an MP. He also claims without justification though, that he acquired that particular piece of land with proceeds from his father’s funeral.
Moreover, he claims he bought the land from Bawia bia, a claim which I understand has already been denied by Bawia Bia. My investigations have revealed that Bawia Bia were quite incensed by his claim that he bought the land from them ,so much so that, they had to confront him after the programme. Bawia Bia have however stuck to their guns that because Kofi Adda informed them that the land was going to be used for a project that would benefit the entire district , they decided not to sell it to him but to take a token as compensation for its use . He could not therefore claim the land as his personal property because the understanding they had before leasing it was that it was meant to be the property of the District.
My reconnoitring has further unearthed the fact that the District Assembly paid 60 million old cedis whereas Hon. Kofi Adda paid 20 million towards the payment of the compensation for the land in question. So, why is Kofi Adda deluding himself by pretending that the land is his personal chattel ? Why would Kofi Adda use the name of the District Assembly to acquire Lands at virtually no price and then turn around to shortchange the Assembly by claiming those lands as his private property?
A cursory glimpse into his era as an MP would reveal that this attitude of shortchanging or exploiting the Assembly has always been his hobbyhorse or stock-in-trade.
While an MP, Hon. Kofi Adda acquired a site opposite the District Assembly Block in the name of the District ,got some bricks moulded and pretended that he wanted to build a Children’s Park. That was the end of it ! The land had laid there for eternity and the bricks have begun to dilapidate but when the District Assembly wanted to take charge and continue with the project Hon. Kofi Adda declined.
It is this attitude of Kofi Adda that is militating against the development and progress of the Kassena/Nankana District. The only panacea to this malaise is to retire Kofi Adda once and for all by voting massively for the focused and hard working Hon. Mark Owen Woyongo to continue with his visionary leadership.
At this juncture , it is crucial for me to apprise Kofi Adda of the fact that NGO’s do not just come to a sovereign Country and start putting up projects. Leaders most often than not submit proposals to specific NGO’s to help prop up sectors that need support. Even those NGO’s that decide to assist of their own accord have to be given the greenlight by the government of the day before they could operate and, their mission must be in conformity or in consonance with the development agenda of the government. So, at the end of the day if any credit is to be given , both the government and the NGO are entitled to it. The gravamen or crux of my argument is that Kofi Adda should not think that he is discrediting the government or Woyongo by associating their achievements to NGO’s.
In conclusion, it is clear that Hon. Kofi Adda has deliberately chosen to confuse people on the major projects executed by Woyongo. Projects which he knows would certainly fetch Hon. Woyongo multitude of votes . The Navrongo Urban Water Rehabilitation project, the dredging of several Dams including the Yusi and Doba Dams, the installation of 132 boreholes across the Constituency and, the establishment of the Our Ladies of Lourdes Model Girls Senior High School, are all projects that owe their existence or creation to the people centred and visionary leadership of Hon. Mark Woyongo. We shouldn’t allow the fabrications, distortions, contortions and concoctions of Kofi Adda to mislead us. We all know Kofi Adda cannot hold a candle to Woyongo as far as the development of Navrongo is concerned. To put it bluntly, Kofi’s 10 years of self aggrandizement and personal enrichment cannot be compared to Hon. Woyongo’s 4 years of altruistic service to the people of Navrongo.