NDC thinks everything promised by NPP is impossible – Bawumia
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) believes initiatives promised by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) is not achievable, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said.
According to him, the NDC has a penchant for tagging promises made by the Akufo-Addo government as “impossible”.
Dr. Bawumia made the comment in a post on Facebook to spite officials of the NDC who have raised concerns over government’s audacious Agenda 111 hospital projects.
“When we proposed the restoration of teacher trainee allowances, they said it was impossible. When we proposed the restoration of nursing trainee allowances, they said it was impossible. When we proposed free Senior High School (Free SHS) and free TVET, they said it was impossible…When we proposed Agenda 111 to construct district hospitals in all districts and new regional hospitals, they are saying it is impossible,” he wrote.
Government is seeking to spend over GHS600 million on constructing 111 district and regional hospitals in places without such facilities.
The President, Nana Akufo-Addo cut sod for the commencement of the project on Tuesday [August 17, 2021] at Trede in the Atwima Kwanwoma District of the Ashanti Region.
Some officials of the NDC have already raised red flags over the initiative.
For instance, former President, John Dramani Mahama, has described the hospital projects as an afterthought.
“It is only an afterthought that suddenly they realized that they must be doing some infrastructure and Agenda 111 has been conjured with no transparency as to how the money for the projects are going to be procured. Is it going to lead to more borrowing when we already have such a high level [of debt],” he said.
And also, former Minister of Health, Alex Segbefia, has said the project is just a repackaged plan that may not see the light of day.
“We have been building hospitals in districts for a long period. From Rawlings right to the time of Mills, and to the time Mahama, so this idea of every district should have a hospital is not new. You decide to package it differently and call it Agenda 111.”
In response, Dr. Bawumia said: “Thankfully, we have been blessed with a party and a president with a can-do spirit that can make many things that appear impossible to be possible”.
