Opinions of Saturday, 17 June 2023

Columnist: Lawrence Appiah-Osei

Nana Addo’s government and by-elections

Nana Akufo-Addo Nana Akufo-Addo

The safety of our parliamentarians under Nana Addo has become critical because people want development in their constituencies, but they can’t get those developments unless there is by-election.

A video went viral in which a woman from Obuasi in the Ashanti Region, crying and praying that God should kill one of their members of parliament, so there would be by-elections. She said if there is by-election, the President and his Vice will all visit the constituency and developments will take place.

I heard my good friend, Rev. Charles Owusu (change is coming) on radio saying that he wished his Member of Parliament, Sylvester Tetteh of Bortiano-Ngleshie-Amanfrom constituency, will resign so the bad roads on some parts of the road from Accra to Kasoa will be fixed.

But do you blame Rev. Charles Owusu, No! The Roads Minister gathered some journalists, same time last year to inspect those rough roads. The Minister then assured the residents that a contractor will be on the road within four months’ time. That was over a year ago.

Should something happen to Sylvester Tetteh and there is by-election, the Roads Minister will be the first to go to the constituency and say the contract for the road was awarded long time ago and not because of the by-election. As soon as he leaves there, contractors will be on the road day and night.

So, have we seen the low-level Nana Addo has reduced governance to? We had Presidents like Rawlings, Kuffour, Mahama, and in their terms, people never equated developments to the death of their MPs. When we say Nana Addo has already gone down in history as the worst president in this republic, people insult us.

Because the NPP knew the mindset of the people in their strongholds, they went to Kumawu, in this 21st Century and provided them with two cups of either gari or rice or GHC20 and got their votes. They are in Assin North and struggling for a message. They are telling the people to vote for their candidate because they have shown him to Nana Akufo-Addo. They are going from house-to-house, paying light and water bills, some as low as GHC15.00. Such a disgusting political party.

The NPP have realized that they can’t fool all the people all the time. The people of Assin North should know that the machines on their roads just came from Kumawu after their by-election. If they haven’t seen a dead person before, they should look for someone who is sleeping.

They should therefore vote according to their good conscience and retain Joe Quayson as their MP.

Aba no, Quayson afa.