MP raises questions over VRA's celebrations

The Member of Parliament for Hohoe South, Hon. Kosi Kedem last Tuesday raised a major question on the floor of Parliament over what he perceives as an attempt to deny Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah a tribute for his foresight in establishing the Volta River Authority (VRA).

The Member of Parliament for Hohoe South, Hon. Kosi Kedem last Tuesday raised a major question on the floor of Parliament over what he perceives as an attempt to deny Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah a tribute for his foresight in establishing the Volta River Authority (VRA).

According to the Parliamentary Debates Official Report for Tuesday, November 27, as soon as Hon. Kwakye Addo, MP for Afram Plans South had made a statement on VRA’s ongoing 40th anniversary celebrations which was commented on by Hon. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, Hon. Kedem caught the Speaker’s eye.

In his submission, he asked the Speaker to join him in expressing misgivings about the way the VRA’s anniversary celebration is being handled. “Conspicuously missing is any tribute to the founding father, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.”

Continuing, Hon. Kedem said in paying tribute to Dr. Nkrumah it should be remembered that he was uncompromising as far as the implementation of the Volt River Project was concerned.

In apparent reference to the politics of the sixties, he said, “Mr. Speaker, you will recall that at the time that Dr. Nkrumah was trying to execute this project, most people did not understand what he was doing.

In actual fact, the opposition at that time did not only label the project a “prestige project” and a money-wasting project, but they went all out to the United States to lobby the United States Government not to give money for this project.

Mr. Speaker, that is after they had successfully convinced the British not to help Nkrumah to build this dam.

Hon. Kedem sought to say that it is ironic that the political tradition that opposed the project is now overseeing the celebration of the VRA’s 40th anniversary.

However, when The Independent laid hands on the speeches of VRA Chief Executive Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby and its Board Chairman Dr. Jones Ofori Atta, in commemoration of the 40 years celebrations it came out that some references were made to Dr. Nkrumah’s role in the establishment of the VRA.