The Secretary of the Opposition National Democratic Congress in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region Zinekena Solomon has registered some level of displeasure with the President and governing New Patriotic Party, especially with issues of Talensi developments and promises made the people of the Upper East Region.
In a press statement released by the constituency Secretary on Tuesday, October 6, 2020, captured by Apexnewsgh.com, they constituency Secretary said, they as a party are not against President visiting of Namoalogo Dam, but they believes, the said dam does not fall squarely under the 1 Village 1 Dam (1V1D) policy per chapter 4, page 50 of the NPP 2016 manifesto.
“The President cannot find time to visit one of such dams to commission it but rather seeks cover to inspect the progress of work of a project that does not fall squarely under the President’s flagship policy of 1V1D.”
He further stated that for over a year now, no work is going on at the site of Pwalugu Multi-Purpose dam. According to him, they expected the President to place a higher priority on the multi-million project to avert the perennial flooding caused by the spillage of the Bagre Dam as he suggested during his sod-cutting speech, which isn’t what they are currently experiencing as he described President pronouncement then as a deception to the people of Talensi and the region at large.
However, Mr. Zenekena pointed that another huge infrastructure project that the people of Talensi and the Upper East Region were expecting the President to pay attention to during his visit is the Pusonamogo 120 – Affordable Housing Units called Rock Estates in the Talensi District, which he claimed the Vice President Dr. Bawumia told a falsehood the people of Talensi during his launching of the NPP’s Delivery Tracker.
Below are the full details:
SPEECH BY COMRADE ZINEKENA SOLOMON T.T.B., TALENSI CONSTITUENCY SECRETARY OF THE NDC, AT PUSUNAMOGO ON TUESDAY, 6TH OCTOBER, 2020.
Title: PRESIDENT NANA ADDO’S VISIT TO THE TALENSI CONSTITUENCY; A FARCE AND ELECTORAL DECEIT.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media.
Thank you once again for your kind coverage of this crucial platform.
Ladies and gentle of the media, this venue is chosen because we want to engage in an evidence-based press conference to put things in perspective for the good people of Talensi and Ghanaians at large.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Talensi NDC has intercepted the itinerary of President Nana Addo’s visit to the Upper East Region. In the said document, the President will only inspect an irrigation dam under the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) at Namoalogo in the Talensi District.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have combed through the entire proposed programme of the President’s visit, and it appears that it is the only site/project that he is visiting in Talensi.
Ladies and gentlemen, the NDC is not against the President’s visit to the dam at the Eastern Zone of the Constituency. However, this press conference is to exposed the record shambolic, abysmal and crummy performance of the NPP government under President Nana Addo and Bawumia by cataloging the NPP’s so-called flagship and unprecedented projects in Talensi which have not caught the attention of the President in his visit.
A –The Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam and Irrigation Project.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, you will recall that President Nana Addo on Friday, November 29, 2019, cut sod for the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam and Irrigation Project. In his speech at the sod-cutting ceremony, he stated categorically that the project ‘will be the single, largest investment ever made by any Government in the Northern sector of the country’. He also stated that ‘construction of the Dam will avert the perennial flooding caused by the spillage of the Bagre Dam’. Prior to the sod cutting, Vice President Bawumia on Saturday, August 31, 2019, at the Upper West Regional capital, Wa said that it will be the single, largest investment made by any Government in Northern Ghana since independence. Ladies and gentlemen, were these speeches made by President Nana Addo and his Vice their usual rhetoric and lip service speeches where walking the talk become a heavy barrier? If not, why is the President not visiting the site on his way to the Region since Pwalugu is the first community one will first meet when visiting the Upper East Region from Tamale? It is actually the gateway to the Region. It, however, beats the imagination of discerning Ghanaians why the President would abandon and desert a project he claims is the single, largest investment ever made by any Government in the Northern sector of the country. It is also insensitive and clueless on the part of the President to have ignored the project amidst the recent devastating flood in the Northern sector which has claimed several lives, rendered hundreds homeless, destroyed thousands of hectares of farms worth millions of Ghana Cedis, carried away several livestocks and broke culverts and bridges leading to stagnation of economic activities in the affected areas. We expected the President to place a higher priority on this project to avert the perennial flooding caused by the spillage of the Bagre Dam as he suggested in his sod-cutting speech. In the contrary, ladies and gentlemen, it is almost one solid year today, and there is absolutely nothing going on at the site. If it is not for DECEPTION, then, what is this? Ladies and gentlemen, President Nana Addo is not physically stronger than any of us here such he will be the only person to use the pick-axe or shovel to cut sod but it must be backed by the action of implementation.
B – 120 Affordable Housing Units at Pusonamogo.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, another huge infrastructure project that the good people of Talensi and the Upper East Region were expecting the President to pay attention to in his visit is the Pusonamogo 120 – Affordable Housing Units called Rock Estates in the Talensi District, which the President cut the sod on November 29, 2019. It is worth indicating that Vice President Bawumia at a Town Hall Meeting in Accra on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 highlighted his government’s infrastructure records since assuming office in 2017. In his speech, he claimed at page 40 that his inept government is constructing 120 – Affordable Housing Units in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region which was 20%complete. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, is this project not worth a visit to inspect the progress of work since 50 – housing units are to be completed by the end of this year? Interestingly, our checks revealed that there was only a well-designed signpost erected on the site along the Bolga-Tamale Road at the time the Vice President was launching the NPP’s ‘powerful’ Delivery Tracker. It is only in the NPP that the mere erection of a signpost constitutes 20% of work done of a project. Not even his 2.5 million dollars 419 Ghana Post GPS could tame him from his regular bold systemic and genetic lies. In fact, Dr. Bawumia’s peddling of falsehoods appears to be a malignant cancerous tumor that is resistant to treatment. Two days later, after Dr. Bawumia and his Boss, President Nana Addo was caught flat-footed and pants down having thrown dust into the eyes of the good people of Talensi on the progress of work of the ghost project, a bulldozer was sent to the site to clear the area. Grasses and economic trees like the Vitellaria paradoxa which is commonly known as the Shea tree are cleared exposing the land to soil erosion. The bulldozer has since left the site and there is no single piece of a block at the site. This clearly means that the Nana Addo led NPP government send the bulldozer to the site to deceive the good people of Talensi and the Upper East Region at large. If the erection of a mere signpost could score 20%, then the clearing of the site will give a score of ‘50%’. Dr. Bawumia can kindly update his delivery tracker. Shame! What has accounted for the stalled of the project? Could this be due to insufficient funds to implement the project? Funding should not be a challenge because this government has borrowed over 140 billion Ghana Cedis in just four years, if not for their profligate utilization of the money on the bloated family and friends government that is bent on depleting the state resources for their egoistic interest, depriving the ordinary millions of Ghanaians of their right share of the national cake. This must not remain a ‘ghost project’. We are optimistic that the media will take on the NPP government to demand for full accountability because several economic trees are felled and the landowners cannot immediately use the land for any crop-related agricultural activity.
C – Namoalogo Irrigation Dam under GIDA
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, in chapter four (4), page 50 of the NPP 2016 manifesto, President Nana Addo then Presidential Candidate made a promise to facilitate the provision of community-owned and managed small-scale irrigation facilities across the country especially Northern Ghana through the policy of ‘One Village, One Dam’. After the assumption of office in 2017, the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives (MSDI) has been tasked to execute the 1V1D policy. However, the Ministry haphazardly and shoddily provided few potholes called dug-outs that cannot support domestic activities in the dry season let alone to mitigate crop failures related to inadequate rainfall and also to facilitate year-round farming. In assessment research conducted by the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana on July 2020 stated in the key findings that ‘most of the dams were poorly constructed as they did not meet the specifications or could not hold enough water due to poor location and low reservoir capacity which does not allow for any meaningful dry season gardening irrespective of the type of irrigation method to be implemented subsequently. This simply means that the policy cannot improve water availability for livestock watering, domestic use and irrigated crop production. More shocking but not surprising, ladies and gentlemen of the media, when some Ghanaians in some of the areas where the dams are being constructed expressed reservations and disappointments about the shoddy work done where most of the dams that were constructed in 2018 and filled with water during the raining season were dried by March 2019, received a ridiculous and frivolous response on July 2019 from the Minister of Special Development Initiatives, Mavis Hawa Koomson that ‘they (NPP) said One Village, One Dam. They didn’t say One Village, One Bui or Akosombo Dam’. Isn’t it an insult to Ghanaians who are raising genuine concerns about the poor work done and demanding for judicious use of their taxes?
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, what are we driving at? It must be made vivid here and now that the Namoalogo Small Earth Dam is one of the fourteen (14) dams awarded for construction by GIDA in the Upper East, Upper West, Savannah and Northern Regions. The thirteen (13) others include; Vunania, Douse, Dengri, Duong, Ko, Tokun, Sentu, Kataa, Kachilendi, Jayindo, Sangbaa, Dagbuni and Sunyeri. This project does not form part of the One Village, One Dam policy. The NPP claimed to have constructed 1V1D at Winkogo, Kaare, Sawaliga, Yameriga, Gbani yet the President cannot find time to visit one of such dams to commission it but rather seeks cover to inspect the progress of work of a project that does not fall squarely under the President’s flagship policy of 1V1D. The dodging of the President to visit one of his constructed potholes known as dug-outs or dams by the NPP is a classical admission of failure and disappointment in his own led corrupt and nepotistic government.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, the good people of Talensi are humbly demanding President Nana Addo to as matter urgency as a listening President do the following:
Ø Provide the 1V1D projects in the over 90% remaining communities.
Ø Complete the Yameriga Community Day SHS which was started by the erstwhile NDC government led by Former President John Dramani Mahama to help end the shift system currently ongoing in government second cycle institutions.
Ø Give our share of the 1D1F policy.
Ø Provide us the road projects under the year of roads mantra. It appears this has metamorphosed to the year of rots. In fact, Former President Mahama tarred the Winkogo-Tongo Road which was supposed to be continued to Duusi, Pelungu and Nangodi to get connected to the Bolga-Bawku Road to help reduce vehicular traffic in the main town of Bolga.
Ø Release our 1 million dollars per constituency which is in arrears of 4 million dollars for four years.
Based on the facts put out in this evidence-based press conference, we urge all discerning citizens of Ghana to show President Nana Addo and the NPP the EXIT in the December, 7 elections. He has kept the country in terrible reverse gear for four years and for that matter he should be discarded through the ballot.
Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana
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