The president’s claims that his administration has built 1,800 kilometers of roads throughout the nation have been refuted by a road contractor with roots in Kumasi.
In his sessional speech to Parliament at the beginning of the year, President Nana Akufo-Addo declared that his administration had built 1,800 kilometers of roads nationwide.
In defending his position, the road contractor said that 80% of the roads included in the president’s statements have asphalt overlays.
The president’s claimed amount might be accurate, according to the road contractor, because many of the roads included in the president’s claims were asphalt overlays.
Mr Akwasi Yeboah said asphalt overlays are done on already existing roads and not wholly built roads in the country.
“It is the reason many Ghanaians contested they have not seen that number of roads as contained in the president’s State of the Nation Address (SONA),” he noted.
He stressed that many of these asphalt overlays were done in residential areas of the Accra metropolis and Kumasi metropolis.
“In Kumasi alone, the Manhyia South Constituency with the Minister for Energy, Mathew Opoku Prempeh as the Member of Parliament (MP), was the largest beneficiary of the asphalt overlays,” Mr Yeboah put forth.
Giving a breaking down of the president’s assertion, Mr Yeboah said going by the president’s figures means that each of the 275 constituencies across the country should have at least 39 kilometres of roads.
“As we speak no such feat exists in many of these constituencies across the country,” he narrated.
“It is the reason many of the residents in Kwabre East, Barikese among others in the Ashanti Region demonstrated for not seeing anything in terms of roads in their respective areas,” he said.
He noted that 39 kilometres of roads can journey from the Kumasi-Suame roundabout to the Techiman area in the Bono Region.
Mr Yeboah made these revelations in an interview with Mr Emmanuel Quarshie (The Hitman), host of Accra 100.5 FM’s Ghana Yensom morning show on Tuesday, September 20, 2022.
“Mr Hitman, let me use your medium this morning to correct this notion that has been lingering all this while in relation to roads constructed by this government,” he said.
He commended the president for his quest in ensuring many of the asphalt overlays were done.
He was quick to add that in less than two years, potholes have begun to emerge on many of the roads thereby blaming his colleague contractors for not being forthright in their work.
He said 90 per cent of contractors in the country are not truthful with their jobs.
He added that the contractors did the same thing during John Mahama’s era by building the same asphalt overlays which have diminished.
He disclosed that many recent contractors are doing shoddy jobs compared to roads built in the days of former president J.J Rawlings.
“Some roads built in Rawlings’ era lasted more than 30 years but what are we seeing today? A road is built and in less than two years you start seeing pot holes.
“Many of these roads built by Nana Akufo-Addo are crying for repair works,” he said.