General News of Tuesday, 22 July 2014

Source: ultimate1069.com

We are an incomplete nation - Okyehene decries

The Okyehene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin has decried what he describes as the over concentration of developmental projects in the capital Accra.

According to the chief and president of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, government is losing sight of the needs of regions and towns outside Accra.

He said this after leading a host of other chiefs and members of parliament in a tour of roads to register their displeasure with the deplorable state of roads in the Eastern region.

Addressing the gathering, he bemoaned, “Truly speaking, the roads in Suhum and its environs can be described as death traps to say the least.”

“Ghana was established as a nation-state and not a city state, but everything in the country is now concentrated in Accra,” he added.

He strongly opined that no nation can obtain meaningful development if its hinterlands are neglected.

He lamented that after fifty years and over, Ghana could not boast of highways linking its major cities.

He was displeased the nation begins projects and never completes them and called the nation “an incomplete nation."

“We are now always crying we don’t have money. We start anything, and we don’t complete. If Ghana were a student, our grades will be ‘incomplete'.”

Citing examples, he stated, “you can talk of the national identification exercise, the roads in the country, and the problems with the national insurance scheme and so on.”

“We are an incomplete nation,” he reiterated.

He emphasized that, “the freedom to make suggestions is for leaders to inform policy” and stated that their action was not politically motivated.

He emphasized that the time wasted; cost incurred; the discomfort of residents; lives lost and economic activities lost to the state was their motivation for making the call.

He appealed to the president to come to their aid considering the immense economic benefits constructing their roads will bring to the country.