The Member of Parliament (MP) for Yapei- Kusawgu and a former Deputy Minister for Power and Energy and Petroleum, Mr John Abdulai Jinapor has responded to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s verbal attacks on him at Yapei.
Speaking at Yapei in the Central Gonja District of the Savannah region on day two of his visit to the region, Mr Akufo-Addo intimated that, in his lifetime, the Yapei-Kusawgu constituency has had two lawmakers.
They are Alhaji Amadu Seidu, who he described as his former colleague in parliament and John Jinapor whi is also a former deputy minister of energy. However, the President said 17 communities in the constituency are still not connected to the national grid.
But in a response, Mr Jinapor said in a Facebook post on Friday August 26 that “For the record, when I was appointed Deputy Minister for Energy and Petroleum, the Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency had only 4 towns connected to the national grid (i.e., Buipe, Yapei, Sankpala and Kusawgu).
“By dint of hard work, the constituency currently has about 100 communities connected to the national grid as part of an aggressive national electrification programme under the John Mahama NDC administration.
“So, Mr. President, if we have only 17 towns yet to be connected to the national grid, the critical question you should answer is what have you done so far to complement what you inherited? You cannot be sleeping on the job and blame others for your own failures.”
Read his response below:
EXPOSING THE FABRICATIONS OF A NON-PERFORMING PRESIDENT
During the recent visit of President Akufo-Addo to the Savannah Region, the chiefs of the Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency sought to enquire from the President when he will fulfil his campaign promises of creating a new district out of the Central Gonja District and the establishment of a new Senior High school in the Kusawgu area.
In response, President Akuffo-Addo rather chose to throw wild and flippant allegations against me, John Abdulai Jinapor, for what he described as my inability to connect some 17 communities to the national electricity grid. As if that was not enough, he proceeded to accuse me of not helping to establish the Senior High school that he, President Akufo-Addo promised.
For the record, when I was appointed Deputy Minister for Energy and Petroleum, the Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency had only 4 towns connected to the national grid (i.e., Buipe, Yapei, Sankpala and Kusawgu).
By dint of hard work, the constituency currently has about 100 communities connected to the national grid as part of an aggressive national electrification programme under the John Mahama NDC administration.
So, Mr. President, if we have only 17 towns yet to be connected to the national grid, the critical question you should answer is what have you done so far to complement what you inherited? You cannot be sleeping on the job and blame others for your own failures.
More importantly, at national level, the NDC Government expanded access to electricity from 50% to 83.24%. This can be confirmed in Paragraph 463 of the 2017 budget as presented by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta: “Under rural electrification, 1,212 communities were connected to the national grid, increasing the national electricity access rate from 80.5 percent to 83.24 percent”.
President Akufo-Addo since assuming office and despite receiving over GH¢20 billion in ESLA Revenues, has only increased the access rate by a paltry 3%— from 83.24% to 86.63% as captured under Paragraph 810 of the 2022 budget: “In pursuit of H.E. The President’s aspiration to achieve universal coverage of electricity by 2024, a total of 162 communities were connected to the national grid thereby increasing the national electricity access rate from 85.17 percent in 2020 to 86.63 percent in 2021.”
On the education front, President Mahama can be credited for the provision of three (3) Senior High Schools (Buipe Senior High, Buipe Technical and Mpaha Senior High) in the Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency.
It is an undeniable fact that under the leadership of President Mahama, the Yapei-Kusawgu witnessed the commencement and commissioning of the Buipe Cement Factory and the Sheanut Processing factory not to mention the ultramodern Buipe District Hospital.
Unfortunately, under President Akuffo-Addo, the Sheanut factory has been grossly mismanaged and run-down for some time now. No wonder he conveniently refused to visit Buipe, the district capital of the Central Gonja District.
For someone who failed to provide portable drinking water for his own people as Minister and MP, until President Mahama provided portable water for the people of Kyebi, the least President Akufo-Addo can do is to acknowledge the good works of his predecessor.
I wish to entreat President Akufo-Addo to crosscheck his facts in future before seeking to deceive the citizenry with concocted, unsubstantiated, and fabricated allegations.
Ghanaians are indeed suffering under the abysmal performance of the Nana and Bawumia government and the least they can expect from this non-performing government is to be truthful and honest with the facts.
John Abdulai Jinapor
Former Deputy Minister for Energy and Petroleum
26th August 2022
