Deputy Communications Minister, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has chided President Akufo-Addo for not crediting former president John Mahama for being the brain behind the Tema Motorway Interchange.
According to Mr Kwakye Ofosu, the heavy lifting required for the successful execution of the Tema Interchange project was done by Mr Mahama.
Inaugurating Phase 1 of the $57 million project, President Akufo-Addo described claims by the Mahama administration that it undertook unprecedented infrastructural development, including roads, as a mere fantasy that was contained in the Green Book of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
We made a pledge to the Ghanaian people to expand and improve the road network while closing the missing links in the network. We had to make this pledge because we know that the so-called unprecedented infrastructure development of the Mahama administration was fantasy; existing in the Green Book and not on the ground, he said.
Describing the President’s statements at the inauguration of the interchange as false, at the NDC’s press briefing on Moday, Mr Kwakye Ofosu said, as far as roads are concerned, and seeing as the President’s latest false claims about the Green Book were made at the commissioning of the Tema Motorway Interchange Project, which he has sought to appropriate in terms of conception, it is necessary at this stage to put to rest the needless debate about whose brainchild it was and who did the heavy lifting required to ensure its execution.
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He continued, saying the Minority in Parliament last week set the records straight, but just so that anyone out there who is not yet aware of the facts surrounding the project is left in no doubt, I wish to reiterate this, also in the hope it jolts President Akufo-Addo and his government into reality about the true state of affairs.
The Tema Motorway Interchange Project was funded by a Japanese grant of $57 million applied for in 2013 by the Mahama administration.The survey for the development of the project and the tender process began at the behest of the Japanese government through JICA in March 2015, he said.
The survey and design were completed in December 2016 and a detailed report presented in February 2017 when the Akufo-Addo government was barely a month old.
The only contribution of the Akufo-Addo government was to go through the mere formality of signing the grant agreement with JICA after work had already been done prior to their assumption of power. The rest was to go through the motions and respect the agreements so signed.
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It is beyond debate, therefore, that for all intents and purposes, the Tema Motorway Interchange is the brainchild and handiwork of President John Dramani Mahama, he noted.
It is regrettable that when commissioning the Tema Motorway Interchange, the zero-sum-game brand of politics practised by President Akufo-Addo, which emphasizes polarization instead of cohesion, caused him to depart from the noble tradition set by the venerable President John Evans Atta Mills and followed through by President John Dramani Mahama which saw them invite President John Agyekum Kufuor to the commissioning of the N1 project and the Bui Dam which he found money for, he added.