Kyebi Youth: Prez Mahama employed propaganda on water project during his SONA

President John Mahama

Youths in Kyebi say President Mahama employed propaganda during his State of the Nation Address, he claimed credit for providing the area with portable water. In a statement meant to set the record straight, the Okyeman Youth Association (OYA) says the Kyebi Water Project was initiated by the Kufuor administration in June 2008 with funding from the Austrian government. It was completed in 2011 during the NDC government under President John Evans Atta Mills. General Secretary of the group D.M. Ofori-Atta questioned why President John Mahama would want to claim credit for a project his administration neither funded nor completed. The youths are wondering why the President would include a 2011 project in a 2016 State of the Nation Address. They further stated that in listing his achievements, the President ought to recognize that Kyebi youths are yet to benefit from the billions borrowed by the Mahama government.

Read Full Statement Below

 PUBLIC STATEMENT OKYEMAN YOUTH ASSOCIATION (OYA) REACTS TO STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MAHAMAH

The Okyeman Youth Association (OYA) wishes to note with grave concern and dismay crude misrepresentations in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) by President John Dramani Mahama before Parliament last Thursday with regards to supposed efforts and achievements of the NDC Government towards the social and economic development of Okyeman and the Eastern Region.

The most significant illustration of these misrepresentations and of much primary concern is with regards to the Kyebi Water Project to which the President expressly sought to portray it as one of the achievements of the NDC Government. The Kyebi water project or the five-town water project meant to serve Kyebi, Apedwa, Kwabeng, Anyinam, Asafo was initiated by the President Kufuor-led NPP Government and funded by the Government of Austria.

The delay of the Project was not as a result of the muddiness of the Birim River due to galamsey activities creating the need for project redesign as the President sought to illustrate. Rather it was a result of the gross incompetence, lack of collaborative effort of the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH) and officials of the ruling party scrambling over juicy project sub-contracts.

In any case Government may have to explain what could possibly be meant by its YOUTH IN SMALL SCALE MINING programme other than galamsey! May be Hon Baba Jamal and his boys might tell us. Related to this, there is something the President is not telling Ghanaians. The NDC government decided, to the utter disbelief of the people of Akyem Abuakwa and the Eastern Region to divert funds and the entire project to another Region. It took the intervention of the chiefs , community and social leaders for the MWRWH to desist from this obviously discriminating decision.

It is important to note two other misrepresentations with regards to the SONA address by the President Mahama. First is the obvious fact that the project was completed in 2011 under President John Evans Atta Mills and cannot be counted amongst the achievements of President John Mahama who only commissioned it. It then follows that the Kyebi Water Project funded by the goodwill of the Government of Ausria and completed in 2011 could not have been funded from any of the reckless borrowing schemes of the President John Mahama administration as the SONA address portrayed.

Kyebi had pipe borne water as far back as 1971 provided by the Busia Government. OYA wishes to make it clear that it is not the Government of President Mahama that introduced pipe borne water to Kyebi and surrounding areas. Actually it is the reckless privatization policy and withdrawal of public funding in water sector in the Rawlings P/NDC era of 80s and 90s which caused the deterioration of one of the most effective public water systems in the global south. OYA condemns the selective mention of the Kyebi water project for parochial electoral gain by the NDC Government.

OYA holds the position that the social, economic and developmental condition of Okyeman and the Eastern Region portrayed in the SONA is in direct contrast to actual situation. Today the Eastern Region is facing the fiercest challenge with regards to deteriorating social infrastructure, collapse in basic education and mass destitution and youth unemployment.

Whole districts are recording zero percentage points in WASSCE and Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE). There is strong correlation between this situation and growing school dropout rate, HIV infections and teenage pregnancy. According to East Akyem Municipal Health Directorate, the District ranks one of the highest with regards teenage pregnancy. HIV/AIDS is growing with increasing poverty. There is no need to mention how the unmotorable roads in a Region with vast economic potential is slowing down all economic activities and undermining the living standards and incomes of households.

There has not been any construction of even a single major road in the Region. What is happening is the farcical attempt to upgrade some of the few old roads. But even that came after a public protest led by chiefs in the Region in 2014. Currently none of the roads is near completion. Contractors with no clear commitment and competence have only graded the roads causing massive environmental nuisance by the dust storms they create. The abdication of responsibility towards the welfare of the people of Okyeman and the Eastern Region by the NDC Government must come to an end. We wish to call on the media and civil society to interrogate this situation critically to ensure the peace and prosperity of Ghana.

Signed: D.M. Ofori-Atta
OYA General Secretary
0541931435
2nd March, 2016,
Kyebi