Former President John Mahama has said that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will take up the District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP) initiated by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government if they win the elections to form government and do it properly than what is being done presently.
He criticised the Akufo-Addo government for the way and manner it is implementing this idea.
Mr Mahama described the initiative as a good idea but not well thought through. The programme, aimed at improving road infrastructure in various districts across Ghana, has faced scrutiny from Mahama for its lack of proper planning and implementation.
At a media engagement in Sunyani, Bono region on Wednesday, 11th September, 2024, to end his three days campaign tour John Mahama highlighted concerns about the quality of roads in the region, pointing out that some roads were poorly constructed or left incomplete.
The NDC flagbearer also raised issues regarding the budgetary allocations to effectively to address the road infrastructure needs of the districts.
“You just don’t go and bring that number of road equipment, you haven’t employed operators, so many of the districts do not have grader operators, roller operators to operate the machines so the machines are still standing there. Aside from that they didn’t make budget for fuel.” He said.
In addition, Mahama emphasized that a more comprehensive and thorough approach to the DRIP will be applied to addressing the challenges if he wins power.
” It is a good idea but not well thought through. They hurriedly brought in the equipment for political gimmicks without doing the necessary organization, so when we come we will take the concept but we will advertise and recruit the operators, we will train them on how to maintain it and we will make sure that the district assemblies have the budget to run those equipment, we will identify the roads, every district will have to identify the emergency roads to be worked on and the government will budget for it so that we can give them the money to go out and work on those roads,” he emphasized.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo -Addo on July 31, 2024, launched the District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP), a flagship initiative aimed at strengthening decentralization and empowering local authorities.
The programmes seeks to address the deplorable state of many rural roads across the country, which hinder community connect and trade as well as improve the quality of life for Ghanaians.
By Claude Kumi Abisa, Sunyani-Bono region
