The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has according to myjoyonline.com report, unveiled plans to establish a new administrative city outside the Greater Accra Region. This initiative aims to speed up government services and address the severe congestion in the capital.
According to the story, the congestion has hindered business growth and disrupted the smooth delivery of government services, despite the country’s decentralisation efforts.
In a meeting with the European Union Ambassador and the EU Chamber of Commerce in Accra recently, Mr Mahama pointed out that the overcrowding in Accra has become a significant obstacle to economic development and efficient governance. The new city is, therefore, envisioned as a long-term solution to these pressing issues.
Mr Mahama stated that his next government would prioritise the planning, design and feasibility studies required for this ambitious project that is expected to span 20 years, reflecting the comprehensive and forward-thinking approach needed to ensure its success.
“We will commence a feasibility study with a plan to construct a new city. Accra is grid-locked, and the time has arrived for us to relocate certain parts of the government services from Accra.
“Accra will remain the capital, but we will transfer a portion of it elsewhere. There is already available land on the Accra Plains and opposite the bank of the Volta Lake. Moreover, we are establishing a port terminal in Mpakadan to transport cargo to the northern part of the country,” the former president was quoted as saying.
It is an undeniable fact that Accra, our national capital, has become very congested. Almost all the lands belonging to the Ga people have been sold to both government and private developers, who have put up residential apartments on them.
Due to scarcity of land, Accra has now extended to Kasoa in the central Region and Aburi and Mampong in the Eastern Region.
What has even worsened the situation is our failure to provide the needed infrastructure to match with the massive development. In most parts of Accra, the quality of the road network is nothing good to write home about. And despite the expansion of most of the inner city roads into dual carriage ways, traffic congestion is a nightmare the people are grappling with.
We are not exaggerating, but in a few years to come, Sogakope in the Volta Region will become part of Accra, looking at the rapid development going on in the eastern corridor.
It is upon the basis of this that we fully support Mr Mahama’s idea of moving some of the government agencies to a new city he intends constructing.
As we once stated in this column, Nigeria realised some years ago that Lagos was becoming congested and, therefore, decided to develop Abuja as the new capital. This is a good example Ghana must also emulate, if we want to improve upon our national productivity.
But much as this idea that the NDC flagbearer is proposing is a laudable one, its implementation and subsequent achievement of the targets will never be realised if Mr Mahama, should he win the December polls, fail to do the necessary consultation with stakeholders – chiefs, opinion leaders and the political parties.
Since all the governments under the Fourth Republic have the bad history of abandoning projects initiated by their predecessors, the movement of the capital from Accra will suffer the same fate, if we, as a country, fail to build a national consensus on the idea.
The national Cathedral project, in our opinion, is very laudable, but because the government failed to build consensus on it, but instead decided to treat it as a project belonging to the president, it has failed. We can also talk about the election of the Municipal and District Chief Executives which failed because of lack of support from a major stakeholder – the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
In our view, the idea of moving the national capital from Accra to a location yet to be decided will also fail if Mr Mahama, and again should he win the election to become president, fail to consult major stakeholders, especially the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The Chronicle is, therefore, advising the NDC flagbearer to do his homework well before deciding to implement the policy, otherwise it will never see the light of the day.
