President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has drawn the attention of the electorate in the Volta Region to the fact that despite voting for the National Democratic Congress over the years, the region has seen very little in terms of development initiated and implemented by NDC governments.
“I am sure that all of you have seen that, today, the umbrella has got nothing but holes in it. It can no longer act like an umbrella; it’s got holes in it. When it rains and you put it up, the water will be upon you because it’s no longer working as an umbrella,” the President remarked.
“The umbrella has dominated the politics of the Volta Region in the Fourth Republic, but what are the results? What is the progress that the Volta Region has seen under the umbrella? Zero! Zero! Zero! Absolutely zero!” he said.
President Akufo-Addo therefore urged the electorate in the region to change their voting pattern in favour of the governing NPP when they go to the polls on December 7.
He made the appeal on Saturday at the launch of the 2020 campaign of the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary candidate for Hohoe, John-Peter Amewu, at the RC Park in Hohoe.
Volta under NPP
President Akufo-Addo indicated that in the three and a half to four years of the ‘elephant’ in the Volta Region, a lot of changes, in terms of development, are taking place in the region.
“The time has come, with Hohoe in the lead, for the Volta Region to come and sit on the elephant, and the promise I am making to you is that, when you get on the elephant, you will never get off the elephant. You will stay there and stay there for years and years and years to come,” he said.
The President stressed that “the elephant has come to bring progress and development to our country,” adding: “The New Patriotic Party has the blueprint for the development of Ghana. I am inviting you to join the New Patriotic Party for the development of our country.”
In John-Peter Amewu, President Akufo-Addo is confident that Hohoe has got an excellent candidate, describing him as one of the outstanding Ministers of his government.
“He was very good as the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and a brilliant Minister of Energy. The man who has kept the lights on in our country, the man who is saving us a lot of money, renegotiating with the IPPs of our country. Even without being an MP, you have seen the work that he has been doing in Hohoe. Add MP to the Minister, and you will see the rapid transformation of Hohoe,” the President told the people.
President Akufo-Addo indicated that, as opposed to 2016 when he had no record of holding the high office of the President, this time, “I have to come to you on my record, what I have done in these four years as President of the Republic.”
He added: “The question that you have to ask yourself: have I remained faithful to you? Have I stood by my commitments to you? And if I have stood by my commitments, if I have remained faithful to you, then you can look upon me as a man of integrity, a man who keeps his words, a man who fulfils his promises to the people.”
The President appealed to the people to continue to trust him, assuring that “the next four years is going to be even better than the four years that we’ve gone through.”
“I will not make any commitments to you that I cannot fulfil. I will never do that to the people of Ghana,” he stressed.
Micro-hydro power station
Earlier, President Akufo-Addo commissioned Ghana’s first micro-hydro power generating station, located at Tsatsadu, Alavanyo, in the Hohoe constituency.
Describing the ceremony as a happy day for the people of Alavanyo and himself, President Akufo-Addo noted that the 45kw Tsatsadu hydro power generating station will “provide power for rapid economic development in Alavanyo.”
The origins of the project date back to 2005, when the Ministry of Energy, under the government of President John Agyekum Kufuor, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and International Network on Small Hydro Power of China (IN-SHP) to undertake studies geared towards the development of small hydro power potentials in the country.
Abandoned
According to the President, before the project could be operationalized in the twenty-two sites identified, the NPP lost the 2008 elections, and, “like many other important initiatives of the Kufuor government, this project was also abandoned”.
Upon his assumption of office in 2017, President Akufo-Addo directed the Ministry of Energy, together with the Bui Power Authority, to re-develop the hydro power generating stations, including the one at Tsatsasu.
The Tsatsadu project was initially designed as a 30kW stand-alone system, but was redesigned and upgraded to a 45kW grid-connection system based on the outcome of the additional studies.
The President assured the Togbega of Alavanyo that the road leading up to the Tsatsadu Generating Station is “under active development, and will be done,” stressing: “Indeed, Alavanyo, it shall be well”.
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