Former President John Dramani Mahama has criticized the claims made by President Akufo-Addo’s administration that it built 12,000 km of roads during its eight-year term.
Speaking at a rally at the Wenchi Jubilee Park as part of his four-day campaign tour of the Bono region, the former president challenged the government to point to particular roads built in the Wenchi area, implying that the community had been overlooked despite the government’s road infrastructure boasts.
“If what the president said is true, that under their 8-year tenure of office, they’ve been able to construct 12,000 kilometers of road, then what I can ask him is, where are the roads you constructed for the people of Wenchi?”, the former president argued.
He described his encounters with the roads in the area, noting, “I use the roads here when I am heading to my hometown. Today we went to Nwoase to greet Nana Drobo. And when I looked at the state of the roads, it is nothing to write home about.”
He voiced amazement at the government’s statement of 12,000 km of roads, comparing it to a trip from Ghana to Japan. “If you sit in an airplane at Kotoka International Airport and you say that you’re taking a 12,000-kilometre trip, then you will end up in Japan. So if the president says he has constructed roads from here to Japan, then we’re supposed to see some of the road construction in Wenchi.”
He also mentioned a road project that was started during his government, which he claimed was abruptly interrupted when the contract was re-awarded to a different contractor. “The little construction that we were doing from Tubodom to Ofuman to Wenchi. We gave the contract to Kofi Job, he was on the construction of the road till he was changed by the government. From that period, the state of the road has remained the same.”
