Antagonistic Posture Of Assembly Members Will Not Help Kumasi!

The elected and appointed members of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) have, once again, failed to elect a Presiding Member (PM), after another round of voting in Kumasi on Tuesday.

As usual, none of the two candidates – Nana Kofi Senya, perceived to be the choice of the NPP and Baffour Agyei Kese Adumhene, who reportedly has affinity towards the ruling party – could garner the constitutionally required numbers to be elected to the position.

Unlike the previous meetings, the Tuesday election was not only characterised by exchanges of harsh words, but fisticuffs as well.

But, in the end, Nana Senyah polled 68 out of the 134 valid votes cast, thus forcing his bitterest rival, Adumhene, to the second position, with 66 votes. The Chronicle is disturbed about the entrenched positions both elected and government appointed assembly members have taken.

Somewhere last year, a youth group, claiming affiliation to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), went to the premises of the Metropolitan Assembly and invoked the wrath of the gods to strike   assembly members who sympathise with the opposition party, but would decide to vote for Adumhene.

The NDC, on its part, is also bent on ensuring that Adumhene is elected to preside over meetings of the assembly. For fear of being killed by the gods, the NPP assembly members went to the meeting and voted for their NPP candidate – Nana Senyah, whilst the NDC also followed suit by voting for Nana Adumhene.

Looking at the voting pattern, it is clear that party affiliation has overridden what should have been the collective interest of developing Kumasi. Both the NPP and NDC came to meet Kumasi, and the Ashanti Kingdom as a whole, and would probably go into oblivion, whilst the city called Kumasi remains in existence.

If this is not known to the assemble members, The Chronicle is drawing their attention to this fact. There is no way the election of Nana Senyah would propel the NPP to gain maximum votes in Kumasi. In the same vein, the election of Nana Adumhene would certainly not be the magic wand for the NDC to become the most popular party in Kumasi – that will never happen today or in the nearest future.

The assembly members must, therefore, do away with the current conduct they are exhibiting, and think about the interest of Kumasi first. Some of these developments defeat the purpose of the decentralisation policy that Ghana has been pursuing for some years now.

It is instructive to note that Kumasi is not the first assembly to have exhibited this bad conduct when it comes to election of PMs. Most of the District, Municipal and Metropolitan assemblies are fond of doing this, which, to us, is not helping our democracy.

The assemblies are mandated to formulate policies to develop their localities, but if there is a problem of electing a PM, who, per the relevant laws, is the person to summon meetings to discuss these policies and sanction its implementation, then where is the assembly heading towards?

The alleged statement by Nana Adumhene that he was prepared to step down from the race, provided his opponent, Nana Senyah, would do same, shows clearly that he does not have Kumasi at heart, but is rather pursuing his parochial partisan politics.

The same can be said about Nana Senyah, who, from all indications, is not prepared to forgoe his ambition of becoming the PM of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, and is bent on pursuing his agenda, even if that would affect the development of the historic city.

Since the issue has now become completely partisan politics, The Chronicle, in the interest of the people of Kumasi, is advising the leadership of both the NPP and NDC to come together and dialogue on how to resolve the issue, to pave way for the rapid development of Kumasi.

The antagonistic posture on the part of both parties is a battle in futility, and would not benefit the masses whose interest they claim to be championing.