Akufo-Addo govt building ‘bomber latrine’ for 1 million dollars – Hanna Bissiw mocks

The National Women’s Organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has chastised the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, saying the Akufo-Addo led administration is governing with lies.

Speaking on ‘Battle Ground’ on Power 97.9 FM Wednesday, the former deputy Agric Minister observed that candidate Akufo-Addo “lied his way into power with lofty promises” and delivering nothing close to what he promised Ghanaians.

Touching on some of the “lies” of the Akufo-Addo government, Dr Bissiw said the current government is building ‘bomber latrines’ (public toilets) in some constituencies and claiming they are projects under the famous 1 million dollars per constituency programme.

Addressing Parliament in February this year, President Akufo-Addo announced that under a new budgetary realignment programme each constituency was to get “$1 million a year for priority projects.”

“We have re-aligned the national budget to ensure that every constituency gets the cedi equivalent of $1 million a year for priority projects,” the president said while delivering the 2019 State of the Nation’s Address (SONA), and added that the evidence of those priority projects were “the water and toilet provision segment of the Special Development Initiatives taking place in every constituency.”

But Dr Bissiw, who said she had toured most parts of the country and had seen some of the projects, fumed that the president was dishonest to Ghanaians because the public toilets do not amount to the one million dollars the government talked about.

“When he was being sworn in as the president, Nana Akufo-Addo said he will not lie to us. So what’s happening now shows he has lied… Mr President, you’re insulting us,” she said.

Dr Bissiw went on to encourage Ghanaians to rise and demand for accountability from the government, saying “Ghanaians are not angry enough…Look at these projects whose prices have been tagged one million dollars. This is an insult to Ghanaians. Why build these toilets and boreholes and say they cost one million dollars?”

“All these are lies. Nana Akufo-Addo and his appointees are lying to us and we need to change their government,” she added while referring to the promise the NPP made to Ghanaians to boost industrialisation in the country.

“These people (the NPP) said they will create a lot of jobs for the youth but today, what we see is the collapse of banks that has resulted in a surge in unemployment in the country…Many young men and women have lost jobs because of the ineptitude of the Akufo-Addo government yet the NPP say they have created jobs. All they said they will do while in opposition, they have not done… They keep lying to Ghanaians,” he told sit-in host King Nicholas.

Country Heading In Wrong Direction

Dr Hanna Bisiw’s disappointment in the government comes at a time more than half of Ghanaians have said the country is heading in a wrong direction under Nana Akufo-Addo’s government.

According to the latest afrobarometer survey by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), the response from 6 in 10 Ghanaians (59%) indicate that the country is “going in the wrong direction”. This is a sharp decline by 15 percentage points from 2017 to 35%.

The CDD-Ghana report said, “few citizens are content with the country’s economic situation and their personal living conditions.”

The survey indicates that “Only three in 10 Ghanaians (30%)” described the country’s economic conditions as “fairly good” or “very good,” which means there’s been a modest decline from 35% recorded in 2017.

“Still, more than half are optimistic that things will get better in a year’s time…Ghana has received positive reviews from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank and made important economic strides, including the successful completion of the IMF bailout programme and a clean-up of the financial sector. But so far, these successes appear not to have translated into concrete gains recognised by most citizens.

“And only 31% say the country’s economic condition has improved over the past 12 months. But more than half (54%) are optimistic that things will be “better” or “much better” in 12 months’ time…Six in 10 Ghanaians (59%) say the country is “going in the wrong direction,” the report said.