Former Chief Executive of Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) and a close associate of Late President John Atta-Mills, has chastised the Mahama-Led government for the country’s current predicaments.
Mr. Kobina Pra-Annan believes many of the persons put into ministerial positions have little clue as to how to solve the critical issues confronting the country.
“Many of these ministers are simply square pegs in round holes. Most of them don’t have a gist of how to move this country forward”, Mr. Pra-Annan told journalists in Takoradi.
“Aside the incompetence of most of these ministers, greed and selfishness has taken the larger part of their lives”, he added.
Mr. Pra-Annan, who was the Chief Executive of STMA during the late Mills’ regime, also bemoaned the current state of the metropolis, saying Sekondi-Takoradi is an apology of an “Oil City”.
According to the Chief Executive, poor sanitation, erection of unauthorized structures, vehicular traffic, lack of jobs, and high cost of living have become the order of the day in the metropolis despite the city’s enviable accolade, “The Oil City”.
He said the metropolis was not benefiting from the oil find yet it was faced with several adverse effects emanating from the oil find including high cost of living and congestion.
Abidjan, the economic capital of Cote d’Ivoire, he said, was rather benefiting from the oil find in the Western Region since most of the expatriates working at the Jubilee Field were residing in Abidjan, creating job opportunities for persons living there.
“Go to Abidjan and see. All these whites working at the Jubilee Field preferred to live there instead because Sekondi-Takoradi is not attractive. Everything here is haphazard”, he said.
He maintained that Abidjan is benefitting immensely from Ghana’s oil than Sekondi Takoradi, especially in the areas of supply and services.
Although Mr. Pra-Annan expressed confidence in Mrs. Chalotte Otuwa Odoom, the current Chief Executive of STMA, he said a lot of harm had already been created by his successor and the government as a whole and it would take special efforts to turn around the fortunes of the city.
“The future of this city is bleak because even when you have a committed Chief Executive at the STMA, some big men in the party (NDC) will want to manipulate the person for their selfish interest”, he said.
He said persons like him would not allow to be pushed over by any so-called big men in government and the NDC that is why he was booted out of his office.
“It is only when they can manipulate you will be allowed to stay in office. If that’s how things will continue, then I fear for this city”, he stressed.
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