Akufo-Addo denies over 700,000 Kasoa residents quality health care

The Central Regional Communication Secretariat of the opposition NDC has accused President Akufo-Addo of denying over 700,000 citizens of Kasoa their right to quality health care.

The secretariat has also lambasted Nana Akufo-Addo for abandoning several mechanized boreholes initiatives which the NDC prioritized and greatly invested in to provide potable drinking water for some residents in the region.

According to the secretariat, the cancellation of the borehole initiatives has exposed the citizens to high risk of diarrhoeal and other related waterborne diseases.

This was contained in a statement signed and issued by Kwesi Ghartey, acting regional communication officer of the party to welcome the president to the region today.

Below is the full statement issued by Kwesi Ghartey;

CR-NDC WELCOMES H.E AKUFO ADDO TO CENTRAL REGION, AS THE REGION REELS UNDER UNPRECEDENTED JOBLESSNESS AND POVERTY DUE TO HIS FAILED PROMISES AND NEGLECT

The Central Regional Communication Secretariat of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) warmly welcome the President of the Republic of Ghana to Central Region, a region he promised so many jobs and infrastructure but has rather cruelly neglected and brutally abandoned its infrastructural and many job-creating projects started under the erstwhile NDC administration under the able leadership of His Excellency John Dramani Mahama.

There is a widespread feeling of disappointment, hopelessness and despair among the citizenry as they recall the good old days when every nook and cranny of the region could boast of life-changing development. The growing disappointment of the people of Central Region stems from the following:

1. Regardless of President appetizing promise of jobs for the region through its 1D1F policy, the region cannot boast of even a single factory that is employing people as a result of that policy. Instead, factories with potential of employing tens of thousands of people such as the Komenda Sugar Factory, Elmina Fish Processing Factory, Ayensu Starch Factory etc have been left to rot by this government.

The people of Komenda are frustrated and disappointed in your government deliberately ignoring calls from well-meaning citizens to operationalize the much talked about completed Elmina Fish Processing Plant and the Komenda sugar factory which your government has fraudulently devalued from $60m to $12m in order to sell it out cheaply to cronies.

We have come to the understanding that those promises were deceptions to win political power for our pretermit.

2. Beside obvious conundrums characterizing the nationwide near collapse of the once vibrant NHIA through mismanagement which has gravely affected access to health care in the region under the current administration, many health infrastructural projects which were under construction and at different stages of completion including the magnificent 80 bed-capacity Kasoa Polyclinic which was completed shortly before NPP took office have been abandoned, denying over 700,000 Kasoa citizens their right to quality health care. It is sad to note that the whole facility has been left to the mercy of weeds and reptiles.

3. Indisputably, many education infrastructural projects, notable among them being the E-schools, which were at various stages of completion have all been abandoned at the expense of both access to education and quality of education. It's sad to note also that a thirty percent (30%) quota of access to the first class senior high schools in the region which was introduced by the erstwhile NDC government under the distinguished leadership of the late Prof. John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills has also been cancelled under the hurriedly implemented free SHS policy.

The University of Education, Winneba has had its fair share of your government’s toxic mix of interference and manipulation at its apogee which has culminated in the massive humiliation after the re-instatement of Professer Avoke by the Supreme Court as the rightful VC of the UEW.

We remember with nostalgia, the unsolicited counsel by the revered Lawyer, now Dean of Faculty of Law at the University of Ghana, Prof Raymond Atuguba, admonishing Mr President against going ahead with the investiture of Prof. Afful-Broni as Vice Chancellor. As rightly predicted then, today, your credentials as a beacon of Rule of Law and Judicial independence which was far and near has been bruised, badly.

4. For those of us in cocoa growing areas of the region, it came as a great shock that once again, Mr President was grossly misled into challenging the 2020 Flag-bearer of the NDC, John Mahama to name any policy implemented in the cocoa sector.

We are excited at the speed at which Senior Comrades of our Party, former Appointees and indeed Ghanaians have criticized such defeatist and uninformed challenge and provided sufficient policies and proof under the NDC that greatly improved the lot of the farmers in particular and Ghanaians as a whole.

Undeniably, the Free Fertilizer distribution which is now been sold to farmers under President Akufo Addo, 60 million cocoa seedlings supplied free-of-charge to farmers in 2015, Expansion of Cocoa Seed Gardens from 27 to 200 across the country, Construction of Cocoa Roads across the country inter alia, many of which were under construction until they were unreasonably suspended.

5. Access to potable drinking water through several mechanised boreholes which the NDC prioritized and invested greatly in to provide enhanced access across the region have all been abandoned, exposing the citizens to high risk of diarrhoeal and waterborne diseases.

6. Several kilometres of road which were being constructed and others which were being asphalted during the previous administration have all been abandoned, resulting in extreme hardship to motorists and pedestrian, notable among such projects are Cape Coast/Twifo Praso, Dunkwa Offin/Obuasi and Dunkwa Offin/Twifo Praso/Assin Fosu roads.

News of the president's visit therefore serve as a painful reminder of our neglect as a region and also bring back fond memories of the good old NDC days. We therefore would like to call on the president to use the visit to accomplish the following;

i. apologise to our people for neglecting them,

ii. commission all completed projects by the previous administration in the region and make them operational for the benefit of the region and its people,

iii. restart work on all the uncompleted projects started by the previous administration for the benefit of the region and its people.

Anything short of the above would render your visit a mere propaganda tool for the purpose of deceiving our people again for their votes again which is dead on arrival since the people know you better now. Once again, Mr President, you're warmly welcome to the central region.

Signed

Kwesi Ghartey