The One-Village-One-Dam policy of the presidential nominee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, ahead of this year’s presidential elections, will breed mosquitoes if implemented, Dr Henry Lartey, flag bearer of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), has said.

According to him, whoever suggested to Mr Akufo-Addo to adopt the idea for his campaign misled him because that is not what the farmers in the villages need at the moment.

Ahead of the elections, Mr Akufo-Addo has made two key promises which, in his view, will transform the economy of this country and create more jobs for the youth. These promises include the establishment of a factory in each of the 216 districts across the country and the building of an irrigation dam in every village in the three regions of the north to ensure year-round farming.

However, speaking in connection with these promises in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Wednesday September 28, Dr Lartey said: “Nana Addo was given wrong advice. When they were in power for eight years, why did he not do it? [For] eight years they were in power with all the HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) money but they could not introduce the One-Village-One-Dam policy. He (Akufo-Addo) was in government and a Cabinet minister and it is Cabinet that makes decisions, yet they could not do it. They rather chose to do the Ayensu Starch Factory, which failed.”

He added: “It (policy) will breed mosquitoes, mosquito-infested dams are what he wants to provide. It will not work.”

“He is a lawyer, not a farmer, and so somebody has given him a wrong idea. He doesn’t know what he is saying. Give farmers feeder roads, seeds, and finance to engage in their businesses to produce. These are what they need, not the mosquito-infested dams.”