A 30-year-old businesswoman, Ms Amanda Oppong, has started vigorous house-to-house campaign at Asafo in Kumasi with the hope of mobilising the people to vote for her as their assembly woman for the Asafo Electoral Area.
Ms Oppong, who visited the Kumasi Office of the Daily Graphic as part of her campaign, said it was time women in particular and the youth in general, got involved in the district level election as a way of encouraging them to support development initiatives at the community level.
Ms Oppong is the youngest among the four candidates, including two other women, who are keenly contesting the election in the electoral area.
Giving reasons for her decision to contest the elections, she said she had something special to offer the Asafo community, and therefore appealed to the youth to actively support her campaign to enable her to win massively.
She said she was born and bred at Asafo and was therefore, conversant with the challenges facing the community. She said she would collaborate with the opinion leaders and leadership of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to address those challenges .
She mentioned sanitation as her priority, and that with only one dump site that serves the entire Asafo community, sanitation was not the best in the area. She said she had started negotiating with the KMA and other organisations to provide litter bins at vantage points at Asafo as a way of improving sanitation in the community, stressing that with hygienic environment, the health of residents would improve.
Ms Oppong said when elected, she would encourage parents to invest in their children’s education and also gave the assurance to collaborate with the KMA to support the education of brilliant needy students, saying “ many of them have the potentials to excel but their parents do not have the means to sponsor their education”.
She explained that the assembly had a special scholarship scheme to support them so she would take advantage of the scheme.
She said as a young woman, she would also liaise with the various sports personnel to nurture the potentials of the youth who have the desire to develop their talents in sports.
“ I will seek support for them, so that those who have special interest in football volley, tennis, hockey and basketball would be actively assisted”.
On her chances, she said, “my chances are very bright. I will continue with the house-to- house campaign and also mount a platform when the need arises to let the public appreciate the need to vote massively for me when the time comes”.
“Over the years, the people of North Suntreso have known me as the people’s mother due to the tremendous support I have offered the youth, children and the needy. That is why I am appealing to them to vote massively for me during the forthcoming district assembly elections so I can represent them at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA)”.
These were the words of Madam Rosemary Adjei, aka, Nana Anima, a 45-year-old mother of four, who is contesting the elections in the North Suntreso Electoral Area with five others, including three men.
She said voting for her as the assembly woman would enable her collaborate with opinion leaders at the assembly and others at the highest level to lobby for support, and initiate programmes and policies to nurture potentials of the youth to enable them acquire employable skills.
She said she appreciated all the challenges that confront the community, stressing that it is time women in the community assumed leadership position, so that they will become initiators of policies and programmes that are people centred, to accelerate socio-economic development.
“ Since the inception of the district assembly concept, women in this community have supported the men to get into the assembly, and I think this is the time to give the same opportunity to women for them to be at the helm of affairs, considering the role they play in developmet” she said.
Nana Anima gave the assurance that she would not disappoint the people, if given the nod, stressing that the deplorable road network at North Suntreso, coupled with poor sanitation and drainage, as well as inadequate security that results in robbery and theft even at day time, will make her solicit the support from all sectors to make life more meaningful for the people.
She noted that because of the poor nature of the roads in the community, trotro and taxi drivers were reluctant to ply routes in the area, and gave the indication that she would lobby the department of urban roads to maintain roads in the community.
She said public places of convenience and public bath-houses in the community were in deplorable state, creating inconveniences for the community.
She said she would collaborate with the opinion leaders to form community watchdog committees, with the active involvement of the youth, to improve security in the area.
She also gave assurance to support the building of a fence wall at the Akosa D/A basic school to reduce intrusion and enhance teaching and learning.
Nana Anima said if given the nod, she would collaborate with relevant agencies to open employment avenues for the youth who have the requisite qualification.
“ You know I can do it, that is why you should offer me all the support and vote massively for me, and with your votes, I will assume leadership position to lobby for support that would bring meaningful development to the North Suntreso Electoral Area” she said.
Madam Esther Mensah, an incumbent Assembly woman of the Kensere Electoral Area in the Amansie West District in the Ashanti Region, is optimistic to retain the seat in the forthcoming district assembly elections. This is because she has endeared herself to the electorate over the last four years.
“Since I was elected as the assembly woman four years ago, I have made much impact by not only supporting communities in my electoral area to have projects such as electric power, but I am also helping to improve sanitation” she said.
She explained that she started with a programme to provide communities in her electoral area with electric power when she was elected as assembly woman, a situation, which she said was enhancing income generation activities, especially among the youth.
“It is for this reason that I have confidence in the electorate that they will give me all the necessary support to retain the seat and continue initiating development projects at the grassroots” she said.
According to Madam Mensah, a male candidate is also contesting her seat but said, “he would be no match for me because I have firmly gained grounds”.
She said before she was elected in 2006, she worked with a non-governmental organisation (NGO), providing primary health care to the various communities in her electoral area.
She said through that programme, she saw that health care was very challenging, so she devoted of her time to it, providing quality healthcare to many people, “ so they approached me to stand for the district level election and voted massively for me”.
Madam Mensah said, notwithstanding her initiatives “much needed to be done, especially in the field of education. “That is why they are encouraging me to contest again to support the youth to focus on their academic programmes”
She said inadequate educational infrastructure and facilities were undermining quality teaching and learning, and pointed out that results of the last BECE were bad and that posed problems to parents.
She gave the assurance that she would support the construction of a library facility to inculcate the culture of reading among the youth.
This, she said, would enable the youth improve on their academic performance, get better grades, and gain admission in to second cycle and tertiary institutions.
She said she was also in the process of lobbying the Amansie West District Assembly to improve the drainage system and sanitation in the area to reduce erosion, which was affecting the various communities.
She said she was keen to procure a cassava processing machine for farmers to enable them process their cassava and increase their earnings from farming.
She called on the electorate at the Amansie West District to support the election of more women to enable them to initiate projects that would impact positively on their lives, explaining “with more women at the helm of affairs, we would be able to initiate projects that would impact positively on your lives to reduce poverty which affects most rural communities”.
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