‘It’s refreshing Mahama is giving us the hope we all need’ – Afede
The President of the National House of Chiefs, Togbui Afede XIV, has said it is refreshing that former President John Mahama is giving the people of Ghana hope.
The Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State made the comment when the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) paid a courtesy call on him during his tour of the Volta Region on Wednesday, 19 August 2020.
The traditional leader said the hope promised by Mr Mahama is needed because many things are weighing people down.
“We are also of the belief that consistent with the requirements of the Constitution, projects started by one government must be continued by subsequent governments”.
“Of course, we are ourselves are victims of the abandonment of some of the projects that have been going on in our traditional area”, he noted.
A “typical example”, he said, “is the Ho-Accra road, particularly the stretch running right in front of my private residence which spews a lot of dust onto properties in the community”.
“We agree that, indeed, times are very difficult for Ghanaians. Poverty is our lot.
“Our people are not happy and, indeed, our situation has been worsened by joblessness that is the result of the bank closures.
“A bad time for us to be suffering from the COVID pandemic – a time, when already, we have poverty and we are suffering joblessness, particularly among our youth”.
“So, it’s very refreshing to hear you try to give us hope, the hope that we all need. This is the time to give hope to our people, time to give hope to our youth”, the Agbogbomefia noted.
He said: “I believe that working together in unity, devoid of politics, we can transform our beautiful country into a paradise because we have all that it takes; the natural resources are there, energy and peaceful population, we have and of course a very young population that is growing”.
In his estimation, Ghanaians “have all it takes to turn our country into a paradise”, but noted that “if we have to succeed, we have to uphold the tenets of the Constitution, particularly the Direct Principles of State Policy, which require that the state should do all it can to maximise economic development”.
“Not only that”, he said “but to ensure that the benefits inure to every Ghanaian so that all Ghanaians can be happy and enjoy the wealth of the nation without discrimination”, he said.
“That is important because it’s critical for everybody to be happy if we have to live in peace and peace itself is an essential ingredient in development.
“The Constitution reminds us that we are all one people, we are, indeed, all Ghanaians; we all have similar needs.
“Our nutritional requirements and spiritual needs are all the same, which is why inclusiveness in planning and execution of development projects is very important.
“Unfortunately, some of our leaders are so conditioned by privilege that to them, exclusivity is only bad if they are not the beneficiaries of the spoils; but we, indeed, are all the same people, similar needs, similar rights under the Constitution.
“I like the idea of inclusiveness because we’ve all been victims of a winner-takes-all brand of politics – politics that benefits only and exclusive few”, he added.
Togbui Afede added: “We need to be united, your excellency, so that together we can confront our development challenges. We have roads to build, we have open gutters that we must over.
“We need to build our health facilities and of course our educational facilities. We need to provide our people with the basic necessities. All of these require that we are united.
“Without unity, we cannot confront these our challenges”.
