Sissla East Young Democrats Call On MP And Government To Fix Deplorable Roadd In The Constituency

First of all, the leadership of Sissala east young democrats would like to congratulate the newly endorsed presidential nominee for MCE of Sissala east Municipal. After the long delay in the MCE appointment, it was important that the assembly gave its full support in endorsing the nominee. This massive endorsement speaks of one thing — the need for government to wake up from its slumber and deliver on its promises to the good people of the Sissala land. The MCE must see this as a clarion call on him to, at his very best, champion the course of development in the constituency.

 As a youth group having interest in the development of the constituency, we wish to use this medium to remind our honorable member of parliament for Sissala East, Hon. Amidu Chinnia Issahaku and the NPP government about the deplorable state of road network connecting communities in the Sissala land.

 This current MP appears to be doing more of a PR job on the issue of our roads network rather than finding real solutions to our roads problems. All his steps in this regard have always started and ended in the media, usually pandering to the worst instincts of his social media praise singers. Unlike other hardworking MPs who actually lobby with central government and other capable agencies to get real solutions, our MP seems to be paying a lip service to the issue of our very poor road infrastructure.

Whiles we agree that the roads problem is an age long problem, we believe this current NPP government has failed woefully in honoring its promises on roads (and indeed all other sectors) to the Sissala people. Since independence, various successive governments have always attempted temporary solutions on our roads. These quick fix solutions have often brought some improvement on our rather bad roads by maintaining and making them somehow motorable. Some of these maintenance works included;  regravelling, building of inter-community bridges, construction of feeder roads, filling of portholes using graders and caterpillars amongst others. These have been regular activities on our roads prior to 2016.

 However, it’s sad to say that, this Nana Addo/Bawumia NPP government, despite all the lofty promises prior to the 2016 elections, has failed to even carry out the usual maintenance works that previous governments used to do on the roads. Very little has been done, even on this normal activities to reduce our plight. We find this very disappointing and disrespectful to the Sissala people, especially, considering the road promises that Nana Addo made to the chiefs and people of Sissala east, ostensibly to win votes, in the heat of the 2016 campaigns.

It is really very worrying that most roads that were awarded on contract and being worked on by the John Mahama/NDC government were all halted upon inception of the Nana Addo/Bawumia government. Some of these roads included; the Tumu-Walembelle road, Kulfuo- Tumu road,  Tumu-Gwollu-Han road, Tumu-Bolga road, etc. It was reported that auditing were supposedly being done on these roads contracts. Interestingly, it is five(5) years on, and we are still to be told the outcome of these audit. The Sissala people must take particular note of this retrogression under the NPP, and punish them accordingly in the next elections.

These roads have since been abandoned and the little progress on the roads made to deteriorate, with same contracts not awarded to [even] different contractors for the work to continue. This is the height of incompetence and insensitivity to the plight of the Sissala people. We call on the current member of parliament for Sissala East to follow up on these contracts and many others due the Sissala people to ensure we have a fair deal in the execution of such roads contracts.

As a political party committed to improving on infrastructure in Ghana, the John Mahama/NDC government undertook the following major road infrastructural projects in the Sissala land; 

1. Creation of Nmandouanu to Nabugubelle
2. Nabugubelle – Sumboro feeder roard
3. Nabugubelle – Challu feeder road
4. Sakalu- Santie- Jijen feeder road
5. Nabulo – Duu feeder road
6. Taring of Tumu Town Roads
7. Creation of new roads in Tumu
8. Construction of Waalifuo Bridge
9. Construction of Chinchang bridge
10. Construction Bujan road bridges
11. Work was ongoing on the Bolga road
12. Work was fast going on the Tumu-Wallembele road
13. Construction of Tumu Jeffisi Road, etc.
14. There was ongoing construction of Walembelle and Bugubelle towns roads.

This was aimed at progressively dealing with the bad road network in the area. The above projects also provided jobs for the Sissala youth within the period. Appallingly, this Nana Addo/Bawumia government has rolled back the progress made on all these roads. After winning power in 2016, they continue to play politics with our problems, whiles we continue to suffer daily on these death traps.

After the current MP for Sissala East was allegedly implicated in some Tumu town roads contracts hitherto the 2020 elections, one would have expected that the honorable MP would up his game on this most serious issue confronting his constituents. However, he appears to have gone to sleep after the joint demonstration and press conference by the good people of the Sissala land early this year. We call on the MP to sit up and take this issue very seriously. He must not fail the people like others. We encourage the MP to also work with the central government to tackle the poor roads connecting villages and farms in the constituency.

Sissala east young democrats would also like to admonish the MP and his government to bring to halt its discriminatory tendencies in the allocation of the year of roads contracts. The honorable minister of roads and highways was recently in the Sissala land, and experienced first hand the predicament of our people over the years, when his car reportedly got a flat tyre due to the bad roads. We call on the minister to take steps to have our major Sissala roads tarred as part of the year of roads projects. This consideration should be done with the speed of light. The Sissala people have been marginalized for far too long.

Finally, we wish to advice the “basket of deplorables” who parade social media attacking dissenting voices and positive criticisms in defense of the honorable MP, to take a chill pill and allow for positive activism in our collective effort to better our good. Continuous singing of praises and bootlicking, regardless, has never gained any concrete achievement and never would. Rather than attacking well-meaning people critical of the MP’s sluggishness, they must channel their energies to advising him to wake up and honor his promises to the people.

LONG LIVE SISSALA EAST MUNICIPALITY!!

LONG LIVE GHANA!!!

Prince Justice Ali

Communications Director of Young Democrats Sissala East
Cell: 020 832 1513

Cc:

1. The member of parliament, Sissala East Municipal
2. The MCE, Sissala East Municipal
3. Radford Fm
4. All media Houses, Upper West region.