Thankyou, Mr Speaker, for allowing me tocontribute to the State of the NationAddress delivered in this august Houseon 25th February, 2016 by His Excellencythe President.
Mr Speaker, on page 62 of the State ofthe Nation Address, the President said inhis address, which he subtitled roads assuch and I beg to quote: “Mr Speaker, since 2009, we haveadded 3,772 Kilometres to Ghana'smotorable network.”
Mr Speaker, to add 3,772 kilometres tothe road network is to expand the networkby 3,772 kilometres. Mr Speaker, that beingso, that is accountability. Mr Speaker, why do I say so? In theState of the Nation Address, H.E. thePresident delivered to this House, heraised the notch of accountability higherby demonstrating true evidence of whatwe have been able to achieve since heassumed office in this country. Mr Speaker, that being so, theaccountability displayed by H.E. thePresident is demonstrated in this House.It appears to me that we can no longerassert without proving same. That wasevident in your ruling. You said that if onedoes not have anything to say, one shouldnot say it. Mr Speaker, there have been attemptsto show that 3,772 kilometres of theexpansion of the road network is woefullyinadequate as compared to what othersbelieve, that they added 30,000 kilometresto the road network of the country withineight years. Mr Speaker, I rise to demonstrate thepalpable falsehood of adding 30,000kilometres to the road network within eightyears. Mr Speaker, in the year 2000, when theGovernment of the National DemocraticCongress (NDC) was exiting office,Ghana's road network stood a little bitabove 37,000 kilometres.
Mr Speaker, that road networkrepresented the roads that wereconstructed before Independence, theroads that Dr Kwame Nkrumah, formerPresidents A. A. Afrifa, Dr K. A. Busia,General I. K. Acheampong, LieutenantGeneral F. W. K. Akuffo, Dr Hilla Limannand Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlingsconstructed; a history of 50 years of 37,000kilometres of road network. Mr Speaker, it is simply illogical to useeight years to build an equivalent numberof roads, which is said to have been builtby the Government of the New PatrioticParty (NPP). That is not correct. [Hear!Hear!] Mr Speaker, let me demonstrate whythere was an increase in the road networkin this country. Mr Speaker, the countrygrows at about 10 per cent every year. Thismeans that there were roads that existedin this country, which were not part of theroad network database at the Ministry ofRoads and Highways. So, in 2008, what happened was that,all the roads that existed, which were notpart of the national road network werecaptured to reflect in the national roadnetwork. That gave us the realisticposition of our road network database at67,000 kilometres. That is not equivalentto constructing 30,000 kilometres of roads.
