The Deleterious State Of The Eastern Corridor Road

Transport is seen as a necessary ingredient in all aspects of economic and social development. It plays a key role in getting land into production, in marketing agricultural commodities and in the development of industries, in the expansion of trade, in the conduct of health and education programmes and in the exchange of ideas. Also, the nexus between rural transportation and rural development are highlighted and noted that no society can exist above subsistence level without a measure of improvement in its transport system. The invaluable role of transport in the development of any geopolitically organized area is indubitable. The quality of transport services in an area (rural or urban), determines the extent of social and economic development in that particular area.

Roads in Ghana, as far as economic development is concerned serve the purpose of connecting communities. The responsibilities of these road networks differ between trunk roads. As far as records are concerned, trunk roads are administered by the Ghana Highway Authority, which was established in 1974, to develop the trunk road network. The eastern corridor road which forms part of the national routes in Ghana is a class of road/highway that forms the trunk route between major urban centers, and hence forming the backbone of the road systems in Ghana. In addition to the provision of access to the social and technical infrastructural facilities that abound in urban centres, rural roads connect rural settlements to urban market centers. It is therefore axiomatic to state that the deplorable nature of rural roads is a sinister canker worm to agricultural production and poverty alleviation in rural areas.

The eastern corridor road as one major trunk routes in the country connects the southern part of the country to the northern part, and as such is the shortest route to have connected these parts of the country. This road has been a huge political weapon right from the days of Mills administration till now and would have become one of the biggest legacies Mahama would have left bequeathed the nation with if he had completed its construction. Aside the politics associated with this road, the socioeconomic significance of the project gives reasons to appreciate the need for the construction of the corridor. However, the road has now been abandoned and completely stalled following the withdrawal of construction equipment by all the contractors working on the project, making portions of the road, most especially the Hohoe-Jasikan stretch very deleterious and pernicious. Not only filled with potholes, the road has portions which physically look more or less like dams in which people were practically spotted catching fishes. Oh! I cry for this nation. It’s now an eyesore and an insult to the nation. Do the people in this part of the country where the corridor passes not deserve a share of the national cake? Why must they be bamboozled and nefariously razzmatazzed by the government of Ghana? Why must the inhabitants of these areas go through rigorous, chaotic, demoralizing and an inexplicable situation? A team of us were so much astonished when we first traveled the stretch of Hohoe-Jasikan road. I don’t know but I think the crummy and beastly state of the road was left by these political rodomontadists to lampoon the people. The uncircumscribed, bluster, serpiginous, poor and deteriorated state of the eastern corridor road has left the people of these areas in a state of anomy as they feel that the government of the Republic of Ghana, after 62 years of independence, has abandoned them. The visionary leaders saw it in the government’s hocus-pocus explicandum when they, government, turned the parody to lampoon the massive expected improvements in the lives of the people. After the miserly penurious and parsimonious masturbation of the nation’s economy by both the past and the recumbent governments. It should be reminded and known that this is democracy; the government of the people by the people and for the people, and not plutocracy or aristocracy. Let us tread with caution as a nation for the betterment of the state. The government should be up and doing and quickly bring back the contractors to site so as to incarcerate the various levels and dimensions of problems arising from the malignant state of the road before it catches up with them because humanity and posterity will never forgive these political rodomontadists if they fail to construct the road. This is the message I have for the government.

Bright Kwaku Akpetey
University of Cape Coast
Ghana.