Nana Addo and our MP have neglected us -Gyankama Residents Cry Out

A recent visit by Soireenews.com to the Gyankama community in the Akwapim South District of the Eastern Region has exposed numerous teething problems generally facing the residents in the area.

The residents of over three million population are saddled with problems such as lack of hygiene, no jobs, water and sanitation, toilet facility, poor road networks, no proper market centre, lack of educational facility, lack of health facility, and poor environmental sanitation.

Our investigations have revealed that the poverty level in the area is so high since there are no jobs for the teeming unemployed youths.

The soireenews.com was told that the only employable job in the area which is one of the electoral strongholds of the ruling NPP is a construction.

Speaking in an interview with this news outlet, some visibly worried youth groups in the Gyankama community have stated categorically that their area has been neglected by the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, and Akwapim South Municipal Assembly.

They accused Member of Parliament, Osei Bonsu Amoah, and Akufo-Addo-led administration of neglect with claims the Gyankama community within the Akwapim South constituency has received little or no development from the government.

The youth group made up of market women, taxi drivers, farmers, student associations among others lamented that the poverty level of the people reflects the reality on the ground that the current NPP government has done nothing in the constituency to improve the living condition of the people.

"We want to state that the Gyankama community has been short-changed in the distribution of the national cake under the leadership of O. B Amoah. There is the reality on the ground that the NPP government has not done enough for the people of Gyankama,"
the residents said.

“The core mandate of every MP is to enact laws but it takes a very bold, matured, honest, intelligent, and above all selfless MP to lobby for projects for his constituents but O.B Amoah has failed us to lobby for the projects to be done in our area. He is non-asset to the people of Gyankama and its adjoining communities," the residents angrily stated.

"Our MP O. B Amoah didn't care for our lives he only visits us here in Gyankama community in the election times and when the election is over you won't see him again.

On the lack of water in the Gyankama community, the residents told our reporter that the pipe treatment water from the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has stopped flowing for the past eight to nine months, making residents only depend on the sacket water for domestic use.

"Our pipe treatment water stop to flow for the past eight to nine months now but we then reported the matter to the authorities of Ghana Water Company Limited they only give us assurance that it would come but we are still not having water," the residents reaffirmed.

On the lack of public toilet facilities in Gyankama, the residents stated that the nonavailability of a proper place of convenience is dangerous to their lives.

According to them, the majority of the residents including students attend a nature call at the deeply cracked old constructed public toilet facility seated at Gyankama Methodist Primary and Junior High School.

They lamented that those residents who fear for using the dangerous public toilet facility practice open defecation which continues to put residents particularly, the children and their communities at risk.

They mentioned that majority of people in the area do not have adequate toilets and among them, 7 hundred defecate in the open fields, bushes, or bodies of water – putting them, and especially children, in danger of deadly faecal-oral diseases like diarrhoea.

On the education facility, the residents lamented over the poor nature of the classroom structure of the Methodist Primary and Junior High School saying that efforts to get the authorities of the Ghana Education Service to fix the problems proved unsuccessful.

Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu, Eastern Region