The 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has assured the people of Ghana that his government, God-willing, from January 2017, will not abandon any project on the basis that “it was started by a political opponent.”
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, everywhere he has been on his tour of the Volta Region, he has been met with lamentations about unfulfilled promises, uncompleted and abandoned projects, and has been urged to give a pledge that his government would complete such projects and make good on other peoples’ unfulfilled promises.
In an interaction with the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, on Friday, October 28, 2016, the last day of his 5-day tour of the region, the NPP flagbearer stated that his government does not intend to abandon any project, and will set up the National Asset Protection Project to address this situation – a pledge which is contained in the 2016 NPP manifesto.
“One of the tragedies of this nation is the long list of abandoned projects dotted around this country; we have committed ourselves to tackling this disgraceful phenomenon through the National Asset Protection Project to ensure the continuity of projects,” he said.
Nana Akufo-Addo assured the Volta Regional House of Chiefs that “we, in the NPP, do not see the construction of the road from Asikuma through Peki to Hohoe, no matter what it is christened, as a party political obligation on a ruling party. We see it as part of our national commitment to improve upon the lives of the people.”
He added that “anyone who has been on the roads that I have been on recently, be it Yendi to Saboba, or Asikuma through Peki through to Hohoe or Jasikan or Dambai to Nkwanta, no one who has been on any of these roads or similar ones around this country would even think of abandoning work on them because it was started by a political opponent. That is not the NPP way.”
The NPP flagbearer recalled how the Keta Sea Defense project, under the previous NDC government, was close to being abandoned, but was completed during the tenure of office of the Kufuor-led NPP government.
“The NPP government under President Kufuor implemented that project (Keta Sea Defense Project) and, indeed, added extra details that were not in the original design,” he said.
Again, Nana Akufo-Addo indicated that “the NDC had almost given up hope of finding oil for Ghana when the NPP came into office in 2001. The Kufuor administration brought fresh vigour and added seriousness to the search for oil; the result was that we found oil in 2007. I would like to think that, with God’s help under an Akufo-Addo administration, we might yet find oil in the Volta Basin. By the same token, for the purposes of rapid industrialisation, the next NPP government will expedite action on extending the gas pipeline to southern Volta.”
The NPP flagbearer reiterated the commitment of his government, as contained in the 2016 Manifesto, in collaboration with the private sector, to build a new harbour at Keta.
Touching on the special problems of the Volta Region House, in particular, those which will receive the urgent attention of the next government, Nana Akufo-Addo assured that “we should bring all the remaining 55 paramount chiefs into the house.”
An Akufo-Addo government, he added, will “expedite action on the approval for establishing traditional councils for 104 traditional areas that do not have them.”
He reassured that the project for the construction of two bungalows for the House, which has stalled, will be completed, stating that “we shouldn’t have to break the bank to get that done quickly under an Akufo-Addo administration”.
The NPP flagbearer told the House that, whilst on his way to Hohoe on Thursday, October 27, two young men, in the teeming crowd that ushered him into the town, said they were voting for the NPP because the country needed a change in direction and they needed jobs.
“I said to myself and to whoever cared to hear, Ghana has come of age; we have thrown off the ethnic politics or accusations thereof that has dogged our politics for so many years. Young people are deciding to vote based on issues. I pray that those two young men and others like them around the country remain steadfast in their determination to vote to secure a bright future,” he said.
In concluding, Nana Akufo-Addo assured the Chiefs that the NPP will continue to work to gain the trust and confidence of the people of the Volta Region, and appealed to them and residents of the region to look at the party with some favour, adding that “under the Kufuor administration we demonstrated our goodwill by not discriminating against those who did not vote for us.”
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