Kwaku Agyeman-Manu
HEALTH MINISTER Kwaku Agyeman-Manu is up in arms against the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) over the issue of abandoned health projects in the country.
According to him, the erstwhile NDC administration, led by John Dramani Mahama, is the worst culprit with regard to abandoned projects inherited from a previous government.
The Health Minister stated emphatically that the NDC has no moral right to accuse the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of abandoned projects.
He used the abandoned Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) project at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, which was started in 1976, to buttress his assertion that the NDC abandoned projects.
According to him, the KATH MBU project, after many years of neglect, received serious government attention during the tenure of former President Kufuor’s NPP government.
He lamented that the 800-bed health facility was abandoned immediately the NDC won the 2008 elections until President Akufo-Addo’s government decided to finally complete the project.
“This is a clear example of abandoned health projects,” Mr. Agyeman-Manu said and pointed at the KATH MBU project last Friday in the presence of top dignitaries, including President Akufo-Addo.
Still fuming, the Health Minister said, ideally, the abandoned KATH MBU project should have been completed by now to serve the country, but it is still under construction because of the NDC’s obvious neglect.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu was addressing few invited people, including the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, when President Akufo-Addo cut the sod to complete the KATH abandoned MBU project.
According to him, contrary to the false allegations by the NDC, the NPP government is working extremely hard to complete health projects that the NDC and other governments left behind before leaving office.
“This is what is called abandoned national projects inherited from a previous government but nobody talks about it,” he once again referred to the abandoned KATH MBU project.
“They only talk about the smaller ones, which this government is working extremely hard to complete,” the Health Minister said, adding that the NPP administration was delivering in the health sector.
According to him, virtually all the health facilities that the NPP government inherited from its predecessor, especially in the Ashanti Region, are currently at different stages of completion.
He said works at hospital projects at Bekwai, Tepa and some areas would be completed by the end of the year, adding that the Regional Hospital at Sewua and Military Hospital at Afari would be completed in 2021.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi