Developments from the railway resuscitation efforts of the government are worth savouring. The nostalgia about the good old days of railways are always activated when we hear about how close we are to a train ride from Accra to Paga in the Upper East Region.
As pointed out in an earlier editorial, President Akufo-Addo is on the verge of achieving what remained elusive to Governor Gordon Guggisberg until he exited the Gold Coast. After all his contributions to the development of the infrastructure of the Gold Coast, the surveyor/soldier dreamed of a railway line from Takoradi to Paga but failed to achieve the feat. What a befitting tribute to his memory when on that great day President Akufo-Addo commissions the Kumasi to Paga line.
The railway development project rubs shoulders with the feats in food production across the country. They are tangible developments unlike, if you like, the abstract ones. Call the railway development project the silent landmark in the making and you would be apt.
It is unimaginable for a country in this day and age not to have a modern speed train system. With the Chinese ready to enter into such projects, it is an inexcusable oversight that it was hardly considered under the NDC in their many years at the helm.
Even the colonial authorities in their days here considered and adopted it as one of their top priorities and the benefits thereof were remarkable.
It stands to good reason therefore when a government not only takes such a project serious but is seen visibly working on the lines especially their extension to virgin areas.
When the railway ministry was created as a new portfolio, for many used to unfulfilled projects, it was all but a populist move intended to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians. Such cynicisms are understandable in a country whose citizens are not used to seeing politicians live up to their billings.
A modern railway system in the face of a working ‘Planting For Food And Jobs’ project would provide a beneficial duo.
Crops and fruits, citrus especially rotting away in the hinterland would have an easy access to the urban centres and to feed the nearest factories under the ‘One District One Factory’ flagship project of the government.
It is sheer cynicism and hypocrisy when persons on the other side of the political divide ignore the optic reality of a railway system being resuscitated preferring to say without shame that nothing is happening.
The fact of this project is enough to expose the unenviable integrity of such persons who see nothing good in projects which have the potential of turning around an economy which was on the precipice simply because they are not originating from them.
The thought of riding on a modern speed railway coach on our way to the Ghana/Burkina Faso border with the possibility of dropping in Tamale and continuing to Yendi by a similar mode gives us an immeasurable excitement. Ghana is beginning to work once more after a Rip Van Winkle slumber.