We Will Not Vote Next Year; NPP Has Disappointed Us – Kwabre Market Folk

A group of residents from the Kwabre District of the Ashanti Region have said they will not vote in next year’s general election because the NPP government has failed them. The group, primarily consisting of Market women and Drivers say the poor infrastructure in the district has impacted their businesses very negatively and seems to only get worse by the day.

Speaking to our correspondent, the residents singled out the poor nature of roads as the number one factor affecting their businesses.

“Our cars sometimes enter a pothole and we lose our bumpers in the process. If we can lose our bumpers, how much more our tyres”? Simon Adjei, Chairman of the Kwabre East Drivers Association told Ghnewsnow.

“Anytime you travel to Ejisu and back, you have to visit the mechanics otherwise you can’t use your vehicle the next day” he bemoaned.

Mr. Adjei said, the situation has rendered the driving profession unattractive and unprofitable.

He said government has been unfair to the residents of Kwabre East in terms of the construction of roads and other developmental projects. 

Mr. Adjei shared his personal experience on the poor condition of the roads. “I have changed my engine twice in three years because the road is not good and is destroying our cars.”

 

I have changed my engine twice in three years because the road is not good and is destroying our cars

 

Reflecting on the stressful day they have on the roads, some drivers revealed that their ‘sales’ per-day is normally not up to the expected amount they made previously.

“My car owner always thinks i am stealing from her” one driver told our reporter.

“We have been voting for the NPP for the past 18 to 20 years so we should be the first to be considered when awarding road contracts,” he suggested. 

The Drivers Association threatened to give the government a ‘showdown’ come 2024 if their roads are not fixed. 

A trader, Madam Abena Antwiwaa also confirmed the plight of the drivers, adding that it in turn affects their business as traders. She complained of filth and lambasted the government for coming to them with flowery promises and engaging the services of people like actor Kofi Adu (Agya Koo) to convince them to vote during the last elections.

“The market is full of filth; people even ease themselves in there. We, the women in Mampongten market have vowed that until they come to fix the market for us, we will never vote in the upcoming elections, she said.

She added that the market women were particularly disappointed with their Member of Parliament because being a woman, they expected her to be sensitive to the plight of the women who ply their trade in the market.

In another development, a businessman who operates his shop in the Mampongten area decried the phenomenon of daily power outages in the area. Mr. Kwaku Nsonwa said even though neither the government nor the Electricity Company of Ghana, (ECG) have announced a power rationing scheme, there are daily power outages, reminiscent of the “Dumsor” days. He said the situation is even worse than ‘Dumsor’.

At least with ‘Dumsor’ they gave us a schedule so you knew how to plan your own schedule, but with this, no warning”. he said. He joked that they have named the phenomenon “Sordum‘.

At least with ‘Dumsor’ they gave us a schedule so you knew how to plan your own schedule, but with this, no warning

Francisca Oteng – Mensah is the Member of Parliament for Kwabre East.