Francis Asenso-Boakye, the honorable Member of Parliament for Bantama and a former Minister of Roads and Highways, has criticized President John Dramani Mahama’s State of the Nation Address during a recent parliamentary session. He specifically criticized the administration’s stance on road infrastructure debt.
According to Asenso-Boakye, President Mahama’s speech had a contradiction as he bemoaned the accompanying debt while also discussing the value of road building for the country’s future.
According to Asenso-Boakye, these kinds of investments are necessary for economic expansion, saying,
“Debt, in itself, is not bad; it depends on how it is used.”
He gave the example of the 1950s U.S. interstate highway program, which generated economic returns of six dollars for every dollar invested.
The former minister defended the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) record, stating that their government, led by Nana Akufo-Addo and Bawumia, constructed 13,624.25 kilometers of roads between 2017 and 2024, as opposed to the 4,636 kilometers completed by the previous administration.
“This amount includes construction, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and upgrading projects,” he explained.
Asenso-Boakye also discussed the NPP administration’s initiatives to build bridges and interchanges in order to increase safety and connectivity before leaving office. He pointed out that the Akufo-Addo administration finished nine interchanges and had thirteen more under construction, compared to the Mills and Mahama administrations’ five.
He added that more than 35 bridges were finished between 2017 and 2024, and that there are more than 50 more bridges in various stages of construction across the country.
In response to President Mahama’s worries on the percentage of subpar roads in cities, Asenso-Boakye blamed this on the city’s fast urbanization and population expansion.
Asenso-Boakye emphasizes the NPP’s dedication to infrastructure development by stating that the road sector is in a better position than it was previously. He said:
“Our record in the roads sector is unmatched and unprecedented. No other government in Ghana’s history has done more.”
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