New Parliamentary Chamber: Use Your Own Money...Mahama’s Interchanges More Useful Than This-Akufo-Addo Told

General Secretary of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia has chastised the Akufo-Addo government and the Parliamentary Service Board for planning to construct a $200 million, 450-seater Parliamentary Chamber with auxiliary facilities.

According to him, every good leader must do things that are significant to his people and not resort to do things which do not add any value to the lives of its citizens.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, General Mosquito as affectionately called, said inasmuch as leaders ought to be remembered, they must strive to leave behind things which are of benefit to the nation and not individual interests.

“...but you must leave something good behind, as the people benefit from its usage, they will remember you for that and so if he starts today to build hospitals and the people start to use the service of the hospital, who told you that the people will not remember him? Again, if he builds brand new university in addition to the existing ones to accommodate the students who are graduating from the Free SHS and they are able to attend university after SHS, who told you that he will not be remembered for?”, he pointed out.

He however pooh-poohed President Akufo-Addo to go and look for his own money to do the things after his heart if his sole interest is to be remembered after his tenure as he cannot use state resources to do things which do not benefit the nation.

 “...if he does his own thing contrary to the interest of the people and still desires to be remembered at all cost, then he should go and look for his own money to do it. You are a caretaker of state resources and so if you use them to the benefit of the nation, you will definitely be remembered for.

He therefore alluded to the fact that the Circle interchange and others interchanges constructed by former President John Dramani Mahama which received derision from the NPP in opposition are more significant than the $200 million Parliamentary Chamber which the Akufo-Addo intends to erect.

“Only those who have no knowledge of interchanges will see them as mere beautification but if you sit down to do careful assessment if the interchange, you will realise that it pays its debt than what the President intends to do”, he jabbed.

“...those who are knowledgeable in the transport sector will appreciate the interchange like that of Nkrumah Circle where traffic used to be often as heavy traffic consumes fuel of vehicles and waste workable hours of Ghanaians going to work for money. Thus, government pays workers whose inputs are few due to the fact that they spend hours in traffic; all these are calculated to know the ripple effect of traffic when interchanges are not constructed and so if you put up a structure which addresses this traffic and not lose huge amount of money to traffic, you will be remembered for”, he explained.

He added that it is laughable for the Akufo-Addo government to only focus on one-district-one-factory without investing in roads, portable water and electricity to the areas where these factories will spring up.