Member of Parliament for Yapei- Kusawgu and a former Deputy Minister for Power and Energy & Petroleum, John Abdulai Jinapor, has revealed that Ghanaians are indeed suffering under the abysmal performance of the Akufo-Addo government.
According to him, during the recent visit of President Akufo-Addo to the Savannah Region, the chiefs of the Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency sought to enquire from the President when he will fulfil his campaign promises of creating a new district out of the Central Gonja District and the establishment of a new Senior High school in the Kusawgu area, which the President resorted to “throw wild and flippant allegations” at the Yapei-Kusawgu MP.
Mr Jinapor indicated that the President’s allegations were directed at his purported inability to connect some 17 communities to the national electricity grid. He noted that as if that was not enough, President Akufo-Addo proceeded to accuse him of not “helping to establish the Senior High school that he, President Akufo-Addo” promised.
“Ghanaians are indeed suffering under the abysmal performance of the Nana and Bawumia government and the least they can expect from this non-performing government is to be truthful and honest with the facts.”
John Abdulai Jinapor
In Mr Jinapor’s bid to expose the “fabrications of a non-performing” President, he stated that when he was appointed Deputy Minister for Energy and Petroleum, the Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency had only 4 towns connected to the national grid. However, by dint of hard work, the constituency currently has about 100 communities connected to the national grid as part of an aggressive national electrification programme under the John Mahama’s NDC administration.
“So, Mr President, if we have only 17 towns yet to be connected to the national grid, the critical question you should answer is what have you done so far to complement what you inherited? You cannot be sleeping on the job and blame others for your own failures.”
John Abdulai Jinapor
Assessing performance of Akufo-Addo government
More importantly, the Yapei- Kusawgu highlighted that at national level, the NDC Government expanded access to electricity from 50% to 83.24%. This, he explained, can be confirmed in Paragraph 463 of the 2017 budget as presented by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta: ‘Under rural electrification, 1,212 communities were connected to the national grid, increasing the national electricity access rate from 80.5 percent to 83.24 percent’.
President Akufo-Addo, on the other hand, Mr Jinapor opined that, since assuming office and “despite receiving over GH¢20 billion in ESLA Revenues”, has only increased the access rate by a paltry 3%— from 83.24% to 86.63% as captured under Paragraph 810 of the 2022 budget.
Commenting on education, Mr Jinapor lauded former President Mahama’s achievement as he “can be credited” for the provision of three Senior High Schools in the Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency. He revealed that it is an undeniable fact that under the leadership of President Mahama, the Yapei-Kusawgu witnessed the commencement and commissioning of the Buipe Cement Factory and the Sheanut Processing factory not to mention the ultramodern Buipe District Hospital.
“Unfortunately, under President Akufo-Addo, the Sheanut factory has been grossly mismanaged and run-down for some time now. No wonder he conveniently refused to visit Buipe, the district capital of the Central Gonja District.”
John Abdulai Jinapor
Mr Jinapor urged the President to “acknowledge the good works of his predecessor”, especially for someone who failed to provide portable drinking water for his own people as Minister and MP, until President Mahama provided portable water for the people of Kyebi. He further entreated President Akufo-Addo to crosscheck his facts in future before seeking to “deceive the citizenry with concocted, unsubstantiated, and fabricated” allegations.
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