Host of Okay FM’s morning show, Kwame Nkrumah Tikese, has described as misdirected the criticisms targetted at President Akufo-Addo by some groups in the Ashanti Region.
The government has been under intense condemnation over what some groups and individuals in the Ashanti Region say is the neglect of the ruling New Patriotic Party’s stronghold when it comes to development.
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But speaking on Monday, August 8, 2022, edition of his show, Kwame Nkrumah stated that the president should not be the one to blame.
According to the morning show host, nine out of the current 19 persons serving in the current cabinet are from the Ashanti Region.
He posits that the ministers who are in charge of various sectors of the economy should be held responsible for lack of development in the region instead of the president.
“A cursory look at the current cabinet shows that it is made up of 19 ministers. Out of that number 9 of them are from the Ashanti Region; the remaining number is shared by the other 15 regions. By that composition, Ashanti has a majority of about 50%,” he said.
“Let’s take agric, for instance; if the president has made Dr Afriyie Akoto a minister, what else do you expect from him? If there is a lack of development in the agric sector, do you expect the president again to come and resolve it?” he questioned.
He emphasised that it is rather the ministers and government appointees who hail from the Ashanti Region that ought to be blamed if the region has been neglected by the current government.
Some youth from Bantama, on June 22, 2022, hit the streets of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region to protest against the government for neglecting the region.
A spokesperson for the group, Kwame Awuah Nimfour, interacting with journalists, said the Ashanti Region, which has supported most politicians in the country to become who they are, cannot boast of any infrastructure projects over the years, especially in the era of President Akufo-Addo. Other youth groups have also followed suit by accusing the Akufo-Addo-led government of starving the region of development.
However, the National Coordinator for the government’s Monitoring and Evaluation Secretariat, Gifty Ohene Konadu, has dispelled the claims.
In a long list provided by the national coordinator, she listed several projects covering the areas of health, road, housing and aviation projects being undertaken by the government in the Ashanti Region.
Kwame Nkrumah Tikese
