The Visit of President Nana Addo in the Nandom Municipality, a Waste of State Resources

On 22^nd August, 2022, the president of Ghana, Nana Akuffo Addo visited the Nandom Municipality as part of his three days tour of the Upper West Region.

One would have thought that as old as the president is and having been his third or so visit of the municipality, he would have been sincere enough to apologise to the discerning people of Nandom for his wanton failure to fulfil his promises of building a factory for Nandome, a warehouse, fertilizers, the six million dollars and many others.

It was so disappointing on the faces of Nandome that Nana Addo could not clearly point out a single project his government has started and completed in the municipality. The mouthwatering promises he made were unfulfilled. This made it uneasy for the president to articulate well to attract the audiences who were present. The president in both his submissions in the studio and at the park resorted to praising the paramount chief of the Nandom Traditional Council, Naa Prof, Edmond Nwinyem Delle Chiir VIII. This was conspicuous when the president was delivering his speech. All that he said could not attract any applause from the audience. A sign of unhappiness from the people. It took the member of parliament, Hon. Ambrose Dery, to beg the people to clap for the president.

What was more irritating was that the president shamelessly promised the people again, many other things his government would execute in Nandom. What has caught my attention is the promise to establish banks in Nandom municipality. The question many people asked and continue asking is that “where is the money for us to save in these banks?” It tells you that establishing banks in Nandom is not a priority of Nandome now. What the people of Nandom want now is quality education for their children. The municipality has shamelessly recorded an unprecedented poor academic performance in the BECE for some time now. The municipality chopped last and last but second for three consecutive times respectively in the Upper West Region according to the district league tables published by Ghana Education Service. Again, the unhappiness of Nandome against the president during his visit also stems out from the current state of most of the schools in the municipality. Many pupils lie on their stomachs to study in most of the basic schools and even some senior high schools within the municipality. Tantuo Primary School and Ko Senior High School are evident enough clear all doubts from the doubting Thomases.

The people in Nandom municipality are predominantly peasant farmers. This year most of them are unable to buy fertilizer to farm because of the inaccessibility and high cost of it. Many therefore expected to hear from the president, some interventions his government has put in place to cushion the people from the excruciating hardships they are in now and the looming crisis of severe food shortage in the country.

The president therefore wasted the state resources only to come and waste the people’s time with their usual rhetoric and the convenient game theory of political deception. However, the people of Nandom are discerning enough for Nana Addo and his substandard government to play on their intelligence. The appearance of the people signaled to the president and his cohorts that they cannot play ostrich with Nandome.

President Nana Addo after his speech, cut sod for the dualization of Nandom town roads. Whilst many of the roads in the municipal are unmotorable, the president decided to spend over 84.5 million Ghana cedis for a 2km fanciful dual carriage. Nandome suddenly found themselves in a state of confusion when the president spoke about dualizing roads in Nandom. This is because most of the major roads within the Nandom municipality have turned into gutters. People lose their lives on daily basis on these unmotorable roads. Therefore, Nandome could not understand whether or not the president meant to dualize the roads yet to be tarred. Nandome were informed some time ago that most of the roads would be constructed by European Union. This, we heard not today but the signs are not showing.

In conclusion, the people of Nandom did not actually know the essence of the president’s visit. It therefore means that Nana Addo visit was a complete waste of state resources and time of the good people of Nandom. The president should not repeat such reckless visit to Nandom. He could sit in Accra and say all that he said during his visit.

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