Video: Demanding credit for gov’t projects petty – Baako

Veteran journalist, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako is exasperated with the incessant demand for credit from previous administrations for projects completed by the government of the day.

Speaking on news analysis programme, Newsfile on Joy FM/MultiTV Saturday, Baako described this as “petty.”

He said government is a continuum and new administrations are supposed to continue projects they inherit, therefore, the demand for total credit for such projects by the predecessors just because they started it is not tenable.

“You hear them say: ‘you have been here for a year or two so where are your own projects; and that all the ones you are commissioning are our babies’…it’s petty in a way” Baako declared.

The veteran who is the Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper believes the substance of projects should be aimed at nation-building. Paraphrasing Harold Lasswell, he said it should not be about who gets credit, when and how.

He added that its pettiness notwithstanding, credit for anyone who contributed to a project can be assessed in the records.

He cited Parliamentary records and publications as a source for all that information. When the loan bill came to the House and when it was approved are all in the records, he said.

Has the immediate past administration made any credit demands?

When Terminal 3 at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) airport was commissioned in 2018, the opposition trumpeted it as an achievement of former President, John Mahama.

Supporters of both parties engaged in heated social media debates whether the Akufo-Addo administration should take part of the credit for superintending its completion.

Same debates erupted earlier in the year when it was declared that the Ho Airport - in the Volta Regional capital - was ready for commissioning.