ACCORDING to the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) classification of roads in the country, the eastern corridor road stretches from the Tema Roundabout through Kpong, Atimpoku, Asikuma Junction, Peki, Kpeve, Have, Hohoe, Jasikan, Kadjebi, Nkwanta, Damanko to Yendi and beyond in the Northern Region.
A survey conducted by the GHA has revealed that the route from Tamale through Yendi, Nkwanta, Kadjebi, Jasikan and Hohoe to Accra is shorter by 70 kilometres than using the route that passes through Kumasi to Accra.
In fact, it is a major road network which is closer to the eastern border of the country and has overwhelming influence on the political and socio-economic lives regarding the movement of people in Ghana, Togo, Mali and Burkina Faso.
Over the years, the construction of this important road has been used as a propaganda tool to win votes by political parties but nothing fruitful has come out of it.
Ad hoc measures have been applied on road rehabilitation and construction, with the excuse that there is no money.
The road from Kpeve through Hohoe to Kadjebi is almost impassable because of big potholes that have developed on it.
From Kadjebi up north is a nightmare because majority of vehicles travelling on the route get stuck in the mud of the untarred road during the rainy season. It is still happening today because nothing has changed. If anything at all, the old pains still persist.
Landlocked countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso desire to convey their domestic and industrial cargo through this route but that cannot be.
Some years ago, the government mounted a big signpost at the junction opposite the residence of the Nkwanta District Chief Executive that the road had been awarded to a foreign contractor for development, but after the end of that regime and subsequent ones, nothing has happened and the people have been left to continue wallowing in poverty and political deceit.
In fact, the condition of life in the northern sector of the Volta Region, which is the major gateway to northern Ghana and the food basket of the nation, cannot be taken for granted because the suffering there is real.
The area is the forest zone of the Volta Region which produces cocoa, timber and other valued forest products, but it is a pity that the people have been neglected, despite their immense contribution to the national economy over the years.
The recent visit by President John Atta Mills to strike the deal on road construction from “Hohoe to Kunlungugu” made a good reading when it was published in the Daily Graphic of September 30, this year.
The story stated that the project would be executed under a Japanese grant and not a loan. According to the basics of political economy, a grant is not a loan which the beneficiary is expected to pay back with interest over some years. It is believed to be “free money” sourced from international magnanimity.
The question, then, is, “When is the grant going to take effect because the people along the eastern corridor are facing the worst form of poverty following the collapse of the cocoa industry?”
They have not been able to diversify the rural economy, a situation that has led to the migration of settler farmers, with its attendant capital flight, leaving a lot of communities to decay.
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