Cynicism Over Bui Is Not Good Politics
The decision by the parliamentary minority, in the main the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to take the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to task for the proposed? construction of a $3 million golf course by the Bui Dam Authority (BDA) is wrong-headed (See “Bui City Resort a Necessary Investment – Casely-Hayford” Citifmonline?6/21/14).
It is wrong-headed because such criticism fails to take account of the necessity for the employees of the Bui Dam Power Plant to be availed of recreational facilities, if the best and the brightest of these engineers and other technical experts are to be retained for any considerable span of time at their functionally critical posts.
We must also quickly observe that the amount involved is not that humongous. In fact, tens of millions of dollars will be needed to develop the Bui township into the sort of tourist attraction that the management of the Authority clearly appears to have in mind. And it is primarily on this score that I slightly differ in opinion from my good friend and respected financial analyst Mr. Sydney Casely-Hayford on the question of funding sources.
In other words, I am of the firm opinion that the best way to go at it would be for the Authority to invite private investors to take over such a project, or at least most of it, both in terms of the construction of the proposed resort and the operation of the same. And the simple reason here is that private entrepreneurs are far more likely to profitably and efficiently manage such a resort. And it is also for the preceding reasons that I strongly believe that the Authority erred in denying that it has begun work on any such laudable venture.
Like its Akosombo antecedent, Bui is likely to grow into a major tourist attraction, if the appropriate facilities are put in place; and this would become another remarkable source of revenue for the Government. My only worry here, however, regards the decision of President Mahama to appoint Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, a man whose conflict-of-interest dealings with the Authority have been shown to be flagrantly embarrassing, as the CEO of Bui.
But then, again, the question of having Mr. Jabesh Amissah-Arthur chair the Bui Dam Board was no more politically savvy. For those of our readers who may not know the man, the former CEO of Bui is also the younger brother of Vice-President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur. Jabesh was also the man who vigorously defended the criminal over-pricing of cement blocks produced by a company owned by Mr. Asiedu-Nketia and supplied the Authority at the same time that the General-Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress sat on the governing board of the Bui Dam Project.
It well appears that Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, a former NDC representative in parliament and a former deputy minister, secured his current plum job, as CEO of the Bui Dam Project, after he had caustically carped the Mahama administration for unduly distancing itself from the party that fiercely fought off the New Patriotic Party’s legal challenge to retain the former NDC-MP from Bole-Bamboi in the Flagstaff House. I also feel uneasy about the blatant “ethnicization” and/or “tribalization” of the post of CEO of the Bui Dam Authority; for it strikingly mirrors the operation of GYEEDA, SADA and the SUBAH capers, as is also the post of Minister of Petroleum Resources, deftly masked as Energy Minister.
As for the cynically populist question of who gets to use the facilities of a Bui township resort, as raised by Attorney Yaw Oppong, the answer is very simple: Anybody who can afford it. The Authority could, however, make provisions for the accomodation of talented locally resident youths who show remarkable flair for sporting and entertainment activities whose facilities may be readily available at the proposed resort, once the latter has been brought into full operation.
