Zongo Lady Enters Madina Race

NASIBA TAAHIRU-SWALLAH, a rising female academic in the Zongo community has made her debut in the political plane eyeing the Madina/Abokobi constituency as an independent candidate.

She works at the Islamic University College as a clinical psychologist and a lecturer and is already attracting young female Muslim students as a role model.

Speaking to DAILY GUIDE she said there is an urgent need for someone to restore the lost constituency of her people who have lost confidence in the status quo and would want someone with no political bias to come and champion their cause. 'I meet that standard,' she has asserted.

As a Zongo lady who lives among her people she claimed that 'the people want someone who understands their challenges and is ready to address these with no partisan coloration.'

Affable and eloquent Nasiba said she is primed to represent her people given her experience and academic standing.

'It is about equal opportunities and therefore as a qualified lady I must be given a chance to serve my people,' she said.

All must encourage people with ambitions to realize their dream of rendering service to the people in their communities she said adding that 'such service should go beyond the face of a party.'

She pointed out that one of her missions is to inspire the youth so that they too can aspire to reach the top from where they can serve the needs of their communities.

Politics devoid of indecency she said is what she seeks to practice and this she added 'is being manifested throughout the areas I have visited with my message. We can do politics without indulging in such intemperate language and this is what I want to impart on the political terrain.'

On how she can weather the challenges of local politics, the clinical psychologist said every occupation has its challenges and hazards explaining that 'politics is no exception. All one has to do is know this reality and rise above these.'

Nasiba's political emblem is a circle of three systems, a concept derived from Urie Bronfenbrenner, an ecological psychologist who developed the ecological systems theory similar to James Conner's social network approach.

The theory says 'basic science needs public policy even more than public policy needs basic science.' The concept is built on the following four nested systems of meso, exeo micro and macro systems which according to her interact powerfully to shape development.

Nasiba believes that to achieve a holistic and sustainable development, we should employ a multidimensional approach bearing in mind the interaction of these systems.

At 31 she was born to a modest Muslim family and holds an MPhil degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Ghana (2010) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Education (2009) from the University of Cape Coast as well as Bsc degree in Psychology (2005) from the University of Ghana.

By A.R. Gomda