President Akufo-Addo has admitted he made a mistake when he said the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) never promised to construct a harbour in Cape Coast during his second term in office.
The President in a recent radio interview during his tour of the Central Region stated that the infrastructure project was never a part of the list of commitments tabled before him for his second term.
“I never said I was going to build a harbour in Cape Coast. I said I was going to build a landing site like what I’ve done in these six other places in the Central Region. Cape Coast will also have its landing site, and the construction of that will start next year.” he said on Cape Coast-based Eagle FM on Monday.
This comment by President Akuf-Addo contradicted a statement made by his Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
During his address at the launch of the party’s manifesto in August 2020, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia also disclosed that “for the people of Cape Coast, I have good news for you. We are building a new harbour in Cape Coast and a new airport in Cape Coast.”
The President’s denial drew criticism from both the residents of the region and entire country as a whole.
A citizen from Cape Coast who is also one of the leaders campaigning for an airport and harbour in Cape Coast, Abeiku Adams expressed shock over President Akufo-Addo’s claims that the NPP never promised the city a harbour.
Mr. Adams said that “it is actually shocking, it is surprising to hear such kind of contradiction from the President. For some of us personally it exposes the weakness in our system, and how unintentional our governance system is like in Ghana. It tells you that we are just doing anything anyhow for political gains that we may get from doing so.”
But speaking in an interview on Peace FM, President Akufo-Addo apologized for the denial, saying it was a clear mistake.
“I made a mistake, let me just confess it, I made a mistake…I made a mistake. In looking at the manifesto…I tried to do that before I go…in doing that I saw one page which talks about a landing site, I didn’t go further to see. But even with the mistake, I think still we have to re-think a lot of things. We have a harbour in Elmina which is being developed now, Takoradi, Elmina, then we have another one projected for Cape Coast before we go further down…I think some re-thinking has to go on for us to be able to find out what is the value for money arrangement”.
“But it was a mistake and I have to apologize to the people of Cape Coast and Central Region for that mistake. Presidents are human after all, they are not superman, and they make mistakes.”
