FOUR YEARS, NOT FORTY: STOP THE SCATTERED PROJECTS – FIX ACCRA – DODOWA NOW
The constitutional mandate under the Electoral Commission of Ghana gives every government just four years per term. Four years is 1,460 days, not a lifetime to experiment with grandstanding. Governance demands sequencing, prioritization, and disciplined capital allocation. Yet the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government is spreading itself, announcing multiple road projects simultaneously without a credible completion roadmap.
Public infrastructure is not a campaign rally. It is engineering, procurement, and project management. Data from the Ghana Statistical Service and periodic budget statements consistently show capital expenditure constraints and rising debt servicing pressures. With finite fiscal space, starting too many projects at once predictably leads to cost overruns, stalled sites, contractor claims, and abandoned works. Ghana has lived this cycle before.
Contrast this with the record of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which prioritized flagship corridors and completed strategic interchanges and highways within defined timelines. Under the previous administration, measurable outputs were recorded in kilometers of roads rehabilitated and constructed, backed by structured financing and phased delivery. That is governance by design, not governance by noise.
Now to the urgent matter: the Accra–Dodowa road. This corridor is not a luxury; it is a lifeline connecting communities, businesses, schools, and health facilities. The dust pollution alone constitutes a public health concern, aggravating respiratory conditions, increasing vehicle maintenance costs, and reducing productivity. Residents have endured this for too long. A government that claims social justice must treat this road as a first-order priority, not as an afterthought buried under a pile of simultaneous announcements.
Infrastructure policy must follow basic project management logic:
- Prioritize high-impact corridors.
- Secure financing before sod-cutting.
- Complete before commissioning the next wave.
The NDC must take one step at a time. Four years is unforgiving. Every unfinished road becomes a monument to poor sequencing. Every dusty stretch is a daily referendum on competence.
This is a direct and constructive demand: halt the scattergun approach. Reallocate resources decisively. Publish clear milestones with quarterly targets. Start with the Accra–Dodowa road and deliver it fully paved, drained, and marked within a transparent timeline.
Ghanaians deserve completion, not commencement. In four years, history will not remember how many sods were cut. It will remember what was finished.
By: Blessing Mantey
