Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South and member of Parliament’s Education Committee, Dr Kingsley Agyemang, has urged the government to prioritise payments owed to teachers instead of committing funds to a proposed GH¢2 billion Accra–Kumasi Expressway project.His comments come amid an indefinite strike by pre-tertiary teacher unions over outstanding concerns including promotion-related payments, the Collective Agreement and the Deprived Area Allowance.Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Monday, September 28, Dr Agyemang said teachers deserve to be paid what is due them and argued that government must demonstrate the financial capacity it has repeatedly claimed to have built.“I cannot pay teachers what is due them. I wish to re-emphasise that it has nothing to do with technicality. The teacher is deserving of his wage. They should pay them,” he said.He questioned why teachers should remain at home while government commits substantial resources to other projects.He specifically referenced the government’s reported allocation of GH¢2 billion for an express road project, arguing that the funds should be considered in addressing the concerns of striking teachers.“After all, they said they have available two billion cedis ready for Accra–Kumasi Expressway to be built. So are you saying that we should go and construct the roads while the teachers stay at home and our children are all…If the money is really at the Bank of Ghana, two billion, whatever. The teachers are not asking so much. They should even take it and give it to them,” he said.Dr Agyemang said government should be transparent with teachers if financial constraints are preventing it from meeting its obligations.“If we’ve gotten to a point where they have to tell them what the truth is, they are broke, and that we can’t do much, let the teachers understand, as they have been very understanding all these years,” he stated.According to him, repeated assurances from the government have contributed to a loss of trust among the teachers.“They say that the promises have become one too many. They have lost trust and confidence in the government. The government has deceived them several times. Therefore, they are not yielding,” he said.Dr Agyemang further argued that resolving the dispute goes beyond the Education Ministry, since the ministry can engage the unions but does not control the government’s purse.“It goes beyond the Ministry of Education. I mean, they, like you said, they can do all the engagement, and somebody keeps the purse. The person that keeps the purse should be ready and willing if the money is available,” he said.He therefore called on the government to make the necessary resources available to settle the outstanding obligations to teachers.