According to him, the issue of bad roads was of great concern to the President and, therefore, measures had been put in place to pay contractors for work to resume on the roads.

“I tell you that between this month and November [next month], 80 per cent of all road contractors will be paid. And for the remaining 20 per cent, between this month and next month, you will see that they will receive 40 per cent of what we owe them,” he said at a grand durbar to climax the 2019 Yam Festival of the chiefs and the people of Klefe in the Ho municipality in the Volta Region last Saturday.

Volta roads bad

The Vice-President expressed shock at the level of bad roads in the Volta Region and chastised the erstwhile government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for doing little for the people, despite the NDC’s constant reference to the region as its ‘World Bank’ when it came to national elections.

“When you come to the Volta Region, you will get a big shock about the bad state of the roads. For eight years of a government, not one road was completed,” he lamented.

Dr Bawumia said all the roads the Mahama administration had boasted of were only in the NDC’s ‘Green Book’ and not a reality on the ground and assured the people that work on some roads in the region would begin before the year ends.

“This month, we will cut the sod for the Hohoe-Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu road,” he added.

Tribal politics

He called on the people to eschew tribal politics and reject politicians who thrived on tribal politics and rather support politicians who focused on bread and butter issues.

National politics, he said, must demonstrate unity of purpose, unity in diversity and the contest of ideas that led to solutions to the many socio-economic challenges.

Festivals for development

Dr Bawumia said festivals must not be used only for merry-making and family reunions but also as platforms for the cross-fertilisation of development ideas for communities.

The festival, which was on the theme: “Moving forward in unity for development”, was used to raise funds with a target of GHc350,000 to improve facilities at the Klefe Community Health Centre.

The project will cover the digitisation of the centre, equipment for the laboratory, completion of a dispensary and records facility and the construction of a 10-bed maternity ward.

The Vice-President assured the people of Klefe of the government’s support from the $1 million per constituency fund to complete the health centre.

Appeal of chief

The Paramount Chief of the Klefe Traditional Area, Togbe Koku Dzaga XI, appealed to the government to absorb the Klefe Technical Vocational School into the public system.

He commended the government for its development policies and expressed appreciation to it for awarding Klefe town roads on contract for reconditioning, as well as the one-kilometre road linking Klefe Dome and Ziavi Dzogbe and Demete Akrofu roads for construction.

The Member of Parliament for Ho Central, Mr Benjamin Kpodo, reminded the people of the district level elections and the referendum in December and called for a massive ‘Yes’ vote to amend Article 55(3) of the Constitution to allow partisan politics at the local level.