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Former Minister for Roads and Highways, Hon. Inusah Fuseini has accused the Akufo-Addo government of hiding accurate information about road projects undertaken when the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta presented the mid-year budget review in Parliament on Thursday, July 23, 2020.

He argued that the government through the Finance Minister is not being honest to Ghanaians about the real state of the roads in the country.

The Member of Parliament for Tamale Central in an interview with Citi News charged the government to be honest with Ghanaians, without creating the impression that there have been significant gains in the road sector.

“If there is a shortfall and there is also a raging pandemic, you spend and eat what you have.  You have to explain why and how you don’t have [funds]. Ghanaians are reasonable people, we will understand you and go along with you. But you have come to create a false impression when we are all confronted with bad roads across the country. If you come and create the impression that work has substantially been accomplished in the road sector, then it is a slap in our face.”

The Akufo-Addo government named 2020 as a year of roads as it promised to prioritize and fix deplorable road networks in the country until the world including Ghana was greeted with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

During the mid-year budget review presentation on Thursday, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta noted that the “year of roads” agenda will be achieved regardless of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

“As a Government, we have been preoccupied with providing connective infrastructure to spur socio-economic development. This has remained a high priority as it is a bedrock for the agenda to make our country the Regional Hub for trade, manufacturing, and logistics,” he said.

He also mentioned that roads in areas such as Accra, Ho, Kumasi, and Takoradi, continue to receive major facelifts, adding that critical inter-regional road projects and bridges, including the Eastern Corridor Road Phase I are under construction and near completion.

These statements seem contrary to agitations of most residents who have been outraged by poor roads and have resorted to a series of protests to pile pressure on authorities to get their roads fixed.

But Inusah Fuseini has constantly accused the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) of failing to take pragmatic measures to fix the poor road network in parts of the country.