The Upper East Regional Legal Officer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mohammed Tahiru Nambe, has criticised the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government for failing to deliver meaningful development in the Upper East Region nearly two years after taking office, despite the party’s total dominance of the region’s parliamentary seats.
Speaking on the Bluewaves Breakfast Show, Nambe said that from 7 January 2025 to date, he had seen “no serious impact on development” in the region. He noted that the NDC won all 15 constituencies in the Upper East in the last election, improving on its 14–1 margin in 2020. “As the party to whom much has been given, much is expected,” he stated. “By now, we expected to see development across the Upper East Region, but that is not the case.”
Nambe highlighted the unfinished portion of the Zuarungu roads, which he said the previous NPP administration had left only a small section incomplete. He questioned how long that remaining stretch has taken and pointed to the casualties, injuries and deaths recorded there. “Even if it is only one death, it is unacceptable, reckless and not the best,” he said.
On education, he claimed that almost two years into the NDC’s tenure, not a single new classroom block had been constructed for primary or secondary schools. “I expected that by this time we would be commissioning projects, not looking for sod cutting,” Nambe added. He linked the region’s infrastructure deficit to the difficulties facing the Junior High School to Senior High School transition and criticised the government’s overall approach to education, noting that teachers are currently on strike.
The NPP official also raised concerns about the cost of living and the state of the economy. He pointed to repeated increases in electricity and water tariffs while salaries remain stagnant, arguing that these measures hit workers, non-workers and farmers hardest in a deprived region. Farmers, he said, continue to struggle with lack of markets for their produce, expensive fertiliser and other inputs, leaving many with unsold harvests from the previous year and discouraging cultivation this season.
Nambe dismissed claims surrounding the 24-hour economy, describing it as “wobbling.” He said the government campaigned on the policy but that “nobody even knows which part of it is working,” and that newly built markets lack any clear policy to operate around the clock.
In contrast, Nambe listed several projects he attributed to the previous NPP government. These include the transformation of BIG BOSS and Bawku Secondary School into model schools, the expansion and upgrading of Bolgatanga Technical University from its original Bukere campus with additional laboratories and lecture halls under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, a monument in Navasco, and improved road networks linking Bongo to Bongo-Soe, Nangodi, Pelungu and Tongo. He also cited progress on the Bolgatanga–Bawku–Pulmakom road, which he described as a former major headache for the eastern corridor, aside from small unfinished portions and the ongoing Bawku crisis.
“We are saying that the NPP has done a lot in the Upper East Region, even though it did not get the votes,” Nambe concluded. He acknowledged the region’s distinct political dynamics across its eastern, middle and western blocks and claimed that residents had been “seriously brainwashed against the NPP,” but maintained that the NDC has not performed as expected since returning to power.
Nambe’s remarks form part of ongoing political commentary in the region as the NDC administration approaches the midway point of its term.
By Gayheart Abraham
Source:Mybluewavesonline.com/Maurice Duncan/Bolgatanga
