President Akufo-Addo exchanging pleasantries with the queen mothers
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has decried the lack of maintenance culture in the country, especially the public sector.
This was after he visited the Effia Nkwanta Government Hospital in Sekondi in the Western Region during his recent tour of the area.
Addressing chiefs from the Western and Northern regions who paid a visit to him at the Jubilee House yesterday, the President said “as far as the hospital is concerned, I saw it for myself; I went there, I went to Effia Nkwanta when I went to visit Nana Akwasi Agyemang, the Dixcove chief, who had been injured; and I can say it’s a very bad comment on all of us that we should allow a hospital like this to get in the situation where it is.”
This was after the leader of the delegation and President of the Western Regional House of Chiefs, Ogyeahohour Yaw Gyebi II, who doubles as the Paramount Chief of Sefwi Wiawso, raised serious concerns about the poor nature of the hospital which has almost become an eyesore.
But the President said he had already spoken with the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, for something to be done about it.
“It’s not a good comment that we allow our institutions to deteriorate in this manner; I think one of the things that all of us have to make a decision about is the maintenance of our public institutions. We are not good at it and we need to be good at it because it will save us a lot of money in future,” he noted with deep-seated concern.
“When we build something and we don’t maintain it, it means that five, 10, 20 years time, we have to have more money to build it again; but if we are able to maintain them, it means that little bits of monies over the years will keep these institutions going and it is something that all of us chiefs, politicians, opinion leaders and ordinary citizens need to imbibe,” he added.
On the deplorable nature of roads in the two regions, President Akufo-Addo reiterated what he told them during his recent visits to the areas to the effect that work would commence on most of those roads under the Syno-Hydro programme before the end of this year.
He also talked about the redevelopment of railway lines in the two regions and the construction of the head office of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in the Western Region.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent