Political Aide to former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Akosua Manu, has questioned the government’s decision to hold a National Thanksgiving service at a time when parts of the country were grappling with the aftermath of devastating floods.
Speaking in an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen show, Ms Manu said the timing of the event sent the wrong message to Ghanaians who had been affected by the disaster.
“If you don’t have a plan beyond the ‘settings’, your optics will expose you. What is the purpose of a National Thanksgiving when people are dying in floodwaters?” she questioned.
According to her, many Ghanaians were surprised by the government’s decision to proceed with the thanksgiving event despite the loss of lives and destruction caused by the floods.
“Majority of people were bewildered by how the government held a National Thanksgiving when there had been such a calamity,” she said.
Madam Manu also accused some government communicators of attempting to shift responsibility for the flooding onto the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) Project.
“It seems this government’s leading communicators are struggling because they appear to want to blame GARID for the issue,” she stated.
She traced Ghana’s drainage challenges to the abandonment of earlier infrastructure plans, which disrupted projects intended to improve flood management.
She argued that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took steps to address flooding after assuming office, securing World Bank support as well as the GARID Project.
“In the Busia government, the Progress Party had plans to develop sewage and water systems so that even if flooding occurred, it would be controlled. Unfortunately, through coups and other events, those plans were abandoned,” she said.
“When the NPP came to power, we went to the World Bank with a plan for Greater Accra. The NPP made a move with GARID,” she noted.
She also recalled that following the 2014 and 2015 floods, then-President John Mahama announced plans to construct storm drains to address recurring flooding.
“In 2014 and 2015 there were floods and this same President said he had asked the Finance Minister to release funds to build storm drains that would stop flooding,” she said.
Madam Manu argued that the continued flooding in many parts of Accra suggests that more needs to be done to address the problem.
“Fast forward, the same places and even other areas you wouldn’t expect are flooding.
“It is not about the blame game, but if we are going to lay blame, the money is there, yet you are thinking about inflation going down instead of undertaking the projects,” she added.
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