NDUOM TAKES CAMPAIGN TO DUNKWA

The ancient town of Dunkwa-on-Offin was last Tuesday a scene of pure ecstasy, joy and excitement when the presidential candidate of the Progressive People's Party (PPP) took his community-based campaign to the mining town.

Dunkwa has a great tradition as a strategic town in the ancient Denkyira Kingdom.

Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom defied the obvious poor state of the roads leading to Dunkwa and indeed landed in the town as early as 8 A.M. Notwithstanding the time of his arrival, party faithful(s), supporters and other well-wishers besieged his vehicle immediately it was sighted in the town.

He had a hectic time driving to his first designated programme — an interview with a popular local radio programme at Dunkwa. The virtual siege of his vehicle was so compelling that he had to address and interact with the enthusiastic crowd before he went for his first planned programme for the morning.

Under very tight police escort, Dr Nduom and his team later drove through the main Dunkwa township to the palace of the Dunkwahene, Nana Nyarko III. In attendance were all divisional chiefs of the Denkyira Traditional Area.

The police although disclosed that they had a duty to protect all presidential candidates in the 2012 General Elections, they led the Dr Nduom team with that air-tight approach not because of any anticipated bad incident, but “to enable Dr Nduom move around his programme within the stipulated period because of the scourging number of people who wanted to catch a glimpse of the PPP presidential candidate.”

Team Nduom that made it to Dunkwa included Belinda Bulley, the Women's Coordinator; Divine Nkrumah, the Youth Coordinator; Richmond Keelson, the Communication Director, and; executives of the Central regional branch of the PPP, led by Mr Kwame Edu-Ansah.

The party's parliamentary candidate for the Denkyira East constituency, Mr Samuel Yaw Asamoah, as well as the constituency executives of the party were all in attendance.

Dr Nduom introduced Mr Samuel Asamoah, the PPP parliamentary candidate for the Denkyira East constituency, to the chief and his elders. Mr Asamoah who contested the same seat in the 2008 elections on the ticket of the Convention People's Party (CPP) has decided to run for the PPP in the 2012 elections.

He recounted some of the numerous projects that he had done for the people of Dunkwa.

He disclosed that he was very instrumental in helping nip-in-the bud many conflicts and other disturbances in and around Dunkwa-on-Offin.

“I also played significant roles in ensuring that we got a police station at Dunkwa; a satellite pole that has today made it possible for our people to get good pictures on their television sets,” he declared.

It was later discovered that Mr Asamoah also owns a popular radio station at Dunkwa which reach covers the Central Region, parts of Western and the Ashanti Regions.

The chief himself paid glowing tribute to Mr Asamoah whom he described as their own son for his immense contribution towards the development of Dunkwa and its environs and cited an instance where through the instrumentality of Mr Asamoah, the people of Dunkwa were able to go to the Castle to meet with the president.

He assured him of their total support this time round and hoped his people will offer him their mandate in this year's parliamentary election.

Dr Nduom who was extremely happy about the reception accorded him by the chief and his elders said it's about time every Ghanaian took elections in the country very seriously. In his estimation the fact that a potential rich area like Dunkwa, with all of its natural resources, was wallowing in abject poverty, showed how past governments had failed the people of the area and by any stretch, the entire country .

“Ordinarily, I would have preferred traveling through Twifu Praso to Dunkwa because that route is comparatively shorter, but I couldn't because travelling on the Praso road to here is a real difficulty. The alternative arrangement road is to travel from Assin through Ashanti to Dunkwa which comparatively is longer. But to my amazement I realised that that road is equally bad to the extent that it took us more time to travel on it to Dunkwa,” Dr Nduom recounted.

He added, “Why should it be so. What happened to your gold, the gold at Obuasi, the diamond at Akwetea, the timber from the Western Region and many other natural resources that we are endowed with as a country,?” Dr Nduom asked.

The problem, in the estimation of Dr Nduom, was leadership and asked the chief and his elders to critically examine all those vying for the presidency closely before making choices or advising their subjects on the available choices.

He advised them to look at the track record of all aspirants — their family lives, records in private and public sectors and vote for the candidate with the best record in all these areas.

“This year's presidential election is going to be keenly contested by three candidates. They are Professor John Evans Atta Mills, the sitting President, Nana Akufo-Addo and Papa Kwesi Nduom. Take a closer look at each one of us and critically analyse our records,” he declared, “the records clearly show that I am the best candidate.”

“We all worked in government; Professor Mills was a Vice President and a chairman of the Economic Management Team under the NDC II administration of former President Rawlings; Nana Akufo-Addo was an Attorney General and Minister of Justice under the Kufuor administration; I also worked in the Kufuor administration as Ministers of Regional Corporation and Economic Planning, Energy and Public Sector Reforms. You should ask all of us how successful we were when we were offered these portfolios,” Dr Nduom charged.

After receiving the permission of the Dunkwa chief, Dr Nduom and his team moved to the Dunkwa Lorry Station and market to interact with drivers and members of the GPRTU. Many of the town folk turned up in their numbers to listen to the open address of Dr Nduom.

He drove to some Zongo communities where he had fruitful interactions with the Zongo leaders and some other opinion leaders as well as scores of other residents of the area.

Richmond Keelson
(Communication Director, PPP)

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