Member of Parliament for Oforikrom Constituency, Michael Aidoo, has called on President John Dramani Mahama to focus on completing unfinished sports projects before building new ones.
He said this in response to President Mahama’s statement that six new sports stadia will be built in six recently created regions in Ghana while on the Western North Region leg of his “Thank You Tour”. (Click highlighted text to read full story)
President Mahama’s statement delivered in his speech on the tour comes at a time when Ghana is struggling to maintain sports facilities including the Baba Yara Stadium, Essipong Sports Stadium among others.
Though the Member of Parliament welcomed the news, he called on President Mahama to complete Youth Resource Centres that are near completion but have been abandoned in an exclusive interview with Citi Sports.
“It is welcoming that the President will have the thoughts that we should build sports stadia especially in the regions where we do not have any form of recreational facilities. Where I have fears is the funding for these projects because as it sits now, we have facilities that need maintenance like the Essipong Stadium…these facilities need maintenance.”
“We have ongoing projects such as the Nyinahin Sports Centre and other facilities…where some have reached about 95% completion, some 70% completion, some 45% completion in various districts across the country so it was my hope that the government in its first year would look at completing some of these infrastructure so that we do not go into the conundrum of the continuous disbandment of projects where government come, government go, projects are left to rot.”
Sports and Recreation Minister Kofi Adams recently expressed concern over the stalled development at the Nyinahin Youth Resource Centre while inspecting the state of facilities in the country.
