President John Dramani Mahama began his re-election campaign yesterday with an attack on his main challenger, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), accusing him (Nana) of sleeping during his tour of the Western Region.
The president, who is contesting on the ticket of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), said, “During my campaign in 2012, I realized that most of the roads here are very bad. I made the promise to invest heavily in roads here if I am elected president. I have kept my promise. Under the cocoa roads programme, most of the projects are in the Western Region. The majority of roads in this region are many; I cannot name them. I heard someone came here and said he had not seen these roads. I am sure he was sleeping at the time,” he said at the start of his campaign tour of the oil rich Western Region.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
The NPP flagbearer, while in the same region earlier in the week, noted that the northern parts (of the region) were not accessible, and promised to create a Western North Region when elected in the December 7 president poll.
Nana Addo said the Mahama-led administration was doing little in terms of road construction in the region, otherwise it wouldn’t take about 10 hours to travel from the northern parts to the regional capital in Sekondi.
Mustapha Hits Back
Meanwhile, the spokesman for Nana Addo, Mustapha Hamid, has dismissed President Mahama’s accusation that the NDC had embarked on various developmental projects in the Western Region.
Mustapha told Citi Fm in Accra yesterday evening that the president was very economical with the truth when he was speaking, insisting that the region had not seen any major development under the NDC as being portrayed.
“The reality of the matter is that the living condition of the people in the Western Region is terrible. He says all the roads in the region are done but go to Prestea and go to Tarkwa and you will realize that there is no single motorable road in Prestea where all the gold is taken from. The youth in Prestea do not have jobs to do and instead of you telling the people ‘I recognize the problems you are going through so vote for me in the next four years and let me fix it,’ you are living in denial which means you do not even recognize that the people have a problem in the first place so how do you even purport to solve problems that you say do not exist?”
He believes the “few roads” being constructed by the NDC are just an attempt to deceive residents ahead of the general election.
Visit
The president began his four-day campaign in the Western Region ahead of the December 7 elections, following the official campaign launch of the NDC at the Central Regional capital of Cape Coast on Sunday.
His campaign comes a few days after Nana Akufo-Addo had ended his visit to the region, during which thousands of residents turned up to listen to his message of hope.
On the first day of his visit yesterday, President Mahama attended a National Fisheries durbar at Axim, in the Nzema East municipality after making brief stops at Agona Nkwanta and Abura – all in the Ahanta West District of the region – where he asked residents to vote for him.
The president gave the assurance that toilet facilities would be constructed for fishermen at the various landing beaches to help prevent open defecation by some people living along the coast.
He also visited the border town of Elubo in the Jomoro District where he interacted with the chiefs and people of the area.
President John Dramani Mahama asked the people to give him another term for his administration to implement livelihood and income-generating programmes to improve the socio-economic well-being of Ghanaians.
Some of the chiefs in the area commended the president for the completion of the Western Corridor international road – from Agona-Nkwanta to Elubo – and also praised some natives from the region who are in Government, for demonstrating prudent leadership.
President Mahama will also inspect an ongoing sea defence project at Abuesi and Aboadze as well as the Bosumtwi Sam Fishing Harbour at Sekondi. He will also call on the Omanhene of Essikado, Nana Kobina Nketia V.
He is supposed to visit the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Atta Mills – a floating vessel for the TEN oil and other places.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi