According to the minority in parliament, President Akufo-Addo‘s administration has made the worst progress on roads in the fourth republic.
Speaking during discussions of the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), Minority Chief Whip Kwame Agbodza contended that the President’s claim was not substantiated by government statistics.
According to the Adaklu MP, there are many projects for which sods were cut for their commencement including the Suame interchange have not seen any action so far.
“President Akufo-Addo’s records are probably the most appalling in terms of roads, the records we have and I quote paragraph 505 of the 2017 budget as a reference point as against paragraph 700 of the 2023 budget. You will see that President Akufo-Addo’s record on road maintenance work is the worst in the history of the fourth republic.
“I wish my senior colleague, a very affable Road Minister will be here, let him know that if you are Road Minister you have to call for a bipartisan committee to investigate roads that are physical for everybody to see. It means you haven’t done any work because if you fix the roads we will see them,” the lawmaker stated.
The ranking member on roads further stated that the road sector in the country is in a very terrible state.
Background
President Nana Akufo-Addo has stated categorically that this Government has built more roads than any government in the history of the 4th Republic.
In his address on the State of the Nation in Parliament on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, President Akufo Addo said: “Mr. Speaker, the details of all these roads are attached in the annex to this Message. I have done so because, last year, when I made a similar pronouncement, I was met with howls and gasps of incredulity from the Minority benches, and so I thought it appropriate, this time, to present it as an annex to the Statement, which will be part of Hansard.”
He said he is proud of the amount of work that his government has done, especially in the road sector.
“Roads constitute the largest number of questions asked in this House by Members of Parliament; a large amount of the monies we borrow are for road construction. Shall we dare stop constructing roads?” he asked.