The NPP’s Impressive Job on the NDC’s Eastern Corridor Road

The NPP’s Impressive Job on the NDC’s Eastern Corridor Road

Manasseh Writes

Psychologists must have a term for the feeling people get when they prepare for the worst and get the best treatment. That was precisely how I felt when I drove past Peki on Saturday. I had braced myself for the deplorable road from Peki to Kpeve and another torture to Have before turning towards Kpando. But I cruised past these towns in a few minutes because that portion of the road had been asphalted, and the contractors were still on site working to complete the project.

That road forms part of the Eastern Corridor Road, a major campaign promise of the Atta Mills and the Mahama administrations. Of all the road projects in Ghana, the Eastern Corridor Road project has been dearest to my heart. I grew up in Kete-Krachi and travelled on that torturous corridor either to Tamale or Accra. When the NDC administration started talking about it, I was filled with excitement and hope. However, my hopes were dashed when Mahama left office in 2016.

I remember the short section between Asikuma and Peki saw some work under the Mahama administration, but for reasons I cannot explain, the asphalted road developed dangerous potholes that are still visible after they were patched later.

In 2016, I also investigated a story that involved involved, Jibril Kanazoe, the contractor who worked on 46.4km Dodo Pepesu-Nkwanta road. That road developed potholes a month after it was commissioned and when I revisited it in 2020, sections of it needed reconstruction.

I feared the NPP administration would abandon the Eastern Corridor Road because it was the NDC’s project. Besides, that road travels through the NDC’s stronghold.

For years, travellers to the Volta Region, Oti and the North endured the worst nightmare on the Eastern Corridor Road because the contractors left the site after tampering with the existing road, and it worsened.

One day, I got to Kpeve, and instead of continuing to Peki and to Asikuma, I climbed the mountain and crossed over to the Sokode side and headed towards Tsito, from where I proceeded to Asikuma. On another occasion when I was coming to Accra from Hohoe, I decided to go through the Afadzato District to Ho West and then came from Ho to Accra. That was how much sacrifice some travellers endured in order to avoid the misery on that section of the road. Those travelling in passenger buses did not have options.

I could, therefore, not hide my joy when I travelled to Krachi last Saturday. For the first time in years, I did not curse the politicians in my heart while travelling from Peki to Have. It was one of those moments I felt the Akufo-Addo government deserved some plaudits.

I even started to believe in “The Year of Roads” mantra when some people who have travelled further north said many portions of the Eastern Corridor Road, from Hohoe to towards Jasikan, Kadjebi, Nkwanta and beyond, have seen serious attention from the Akufo-Addo administration.

NB: I’m aware that in this season of politics, you don’t write anything without keyboard warriors attacking, but even the staunchest NDC supporters who travel on these roads to the Volta, Oti and parts of the North would agree with me that their suffering has dramatically reduced. Those who still endure the deplorable sections while entering Hohoe from Accra and proceeding from Hohoe to Santrokofi will understand what it means when a major road receives significant attention.