A leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Amoako Baah, has said the electorate in the Ashanti Region are irritated by the ruling NPP’s ‘Breaking the 8’ mantra.
His comments come on the back of the violent protest against the Member of Parliament (MP) of Atwimah Nwabiagya South, Emmanuel Adjei Ahwire, who was recently chased out by his constituents in the Amankyea and Kobeng communities in the Ashanti Region.
The MP was on a ‘Talk to Your MP’ tour in the constituency on issues affecting them economically and other developmental issues.
Unfortunately, angry community members of Kobeng, who were said to be disappointed in the performance of the MP, upon seeing him, started abusing him verbally while others were attacking him from behind.
The angry residents threw various items at the MP and hooted at him over the poor road network in the area. It took the security personnel to calm tension and protected the MP from the angry residents.
Speaking to Starr News, the Political Scientist said when the government does not fix the ailing economy, political leaders should expect more of such agitations.
According to him, the electorate in the Ashanti Region are highly disappointed vis-à-vis the failed promises of the government.
“When you come here and tell people ‘break the 8’ they get more upset, that is what they should know. We have said several times we don’t want any more slogans. Pay attention to the ills of the nation, and fix the economy not words. When you pay attention and fix the economy, the dollar comes down and that in itself will break the 8 for you. Not you saying things.
“Ashanti Region is very different from Accra. It has a lot of government workers and the amount of money spent there trickles down to so many other areas. So hardship there is not as bad as here, Kumasi 99% percent are self-employed,” Dr Baah stated.
He continued: “So when you don’t have money, you don’t have it. The only mitigating effect is that within the urban areas people come from their hometown so if it gets too hard you go to your hometown and hide there for some time that’s all.”
Dr Baah reiterated that the lack of jobs coupled with many abandoned projects started by the previous administration that could have been completed to give the people some employment have been left to rot.
“Why are we upset here that they have done everything here and we are okay? Is that what they are saying? Please when you say these things it gets people more worked up, yes there are so many projects slated for the Ashanti Region, go to Boankra it came during the era of Kufuor time, and it’s still hanging here. The place is rotten and who is going to be happy about that?
“If we do these things it creates a lot of jobs. So when the hardship comes you still have something to go by. Asare hospital rotting in there. The watermelon project is there and you want them to be happy about that?”
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