STX Saga: They Said We're Jealous... Now We're Back To Square One

Minority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu says the failed STX housing deal, should serve as a lesson to the government and members of the majority, that caution needs to be taken before deals are finalized.

“We don’t want to derail the development of the country but we only want to caution with circumspection and ask the government to be cautious in rushing through some of these things because at the end of the day; even when they come, they are not for free. This country has to pay back using our own resources. So above everything else, we should question the value for money aspect of these loans that we are contracting,” Hon Osei Kyei told Xfm 95.1.

The controversial STX housing project would have seen the construction of about 30000 housing units across the country.

However, Vice President John Dramani Mahama expressed his fears about the success of the project recently during an interaction with journalists as he disclosed the failure of the deal due to internal wrangling within STX.

To members of the minority, this comes as no surprise as they never supported the deal from the onset which eventually led to the minority walking out from parliament on the day the deal was passed.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu who insists the minority’s stance has always been right and in the best interest of Ghana, says this opportunity presents a perfect lesson to the majority that “when we in opposition raise issues, people should take them in good faith and not use sheer numbers to bulldoze their way through”.

“We washed our hands off it; we said the whole thing was a hoax, not feasible and the people of this country were going to be short-changed. We raised these things, but they wouldn’t listen. They used sheer numbers to bulldoze their way through. Now history will indicate to the world which of the two sides was “wiser” in this enterprise. There are many things that they have used sheer numbers to walk through and later they have come back to realize that they ought to have listened; this is a typical example,” he said.

According to Suame NPP MP, even though the problem with the deal has to do with the company’s own internal wrangling, the government cannot be absolved totally from blame, since “they have been shifting the goal post as we go along”.

He added, “when there were initial problems and we raised issues, the minister came to say that they were no longer going to get the money from Korea, and that they were looking for money from StanChart. Later when he came to Parliament, he changed his mind and mentioned different banks. These things are serious matters for us as a nation…a minister who double-speaks like this elsewhere, would have been called to resign, because, he has not been faithful to the nation. But in Ghana when you raise it, people will say the opposition is being too critical. These are serious matters,” he added.