President Nana Akufo-Addo has taken a swipe at the members of the Minority in Parliament, saying they are “allergic to facts”.
Delivering the 2018 State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament Thursday, he said the inability of the opposition lawmakers to appreciate facts is a threat to smooth national debate.
Walking the Minority through what he says are the facts, the President said he inherited a weak economy choked by an avalanche of debts and with many projects abandoned.
He also noted despite the achievement of the erstwhile John Mahama government in the area of roads, there is a serious issue with road traffic.
According to the President, he is stating the facts regarding the state of the road for the benefit of record keeping in the Hansard irrespective of the heckling by the Minority.
“It is a shame that after seven years or so after work has started on the Eastern Corridor roads, we are nowhere near completion…and yet this is a strategic road that will provide a much shorter and cheaper link between the Northern and Southern part of our country and suitable alternative road for the land lock countries,” he said.
There are increasing concerns over the deplorable nature of the sections of the Eastern corridor road after contractors withdrew their working equipment over delays in payments in September last year.
The development of Ghana’s Eastern frontiers was one of the priority projects of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to open up areas which are the country’s food hub.
The improved transportation apart from ensuring easy flow of goods and services will provide easy access to the northern part of the country.
However, President Akufo-Addo noted that it is unfortunate the network of roads is suffering from deliberate unproductive propaganda.
He lamented how cocoa monies were used to fund cocoa roads in the country at a time when cocoa prices were going down under the previous administration.
“It comes as no surprise that COCOBOD has issued directives to suspend work on all three sections [of the road network] which comes up to almost 100 kilometres.
“Mr Speaker, we are determined to find the resources to complete the Eastern Corridor road…there is a crying need for work to be done on all our roads; the Western and Central Corridor roads, truck roads, feeder and town roads around the country for the required urgent attention.
“We are determined to bring out road network to a befitting status and this year we shall witness much activity on the roads,” he said.
Source:Myjoyonline