Sissala East Go Green for Bataglia as ORAL Pursues Amidu Chinnia

Tumu, the capital of Sissala East Constituency on Sunday, September 29, 2024 became heavily populated with NDC fanatics showing love and support for Issah Mohammed Bataglia, the NDC Parliamentary Candidate for Sissala East as he launches his campaign. This is to advance the NDC's determined effort to salvage the seat from 'Celebrity cannibals.'

In almost eight years, the NPP's record in Sissala East is as light as corn husk. There is no any record they can point to persuade voters to give them ears.

In contrast, the NDC have tarred Tumu town roads, opened feeders roads, connected communities to the national grid. The only nurses and teacher training institutions in Tumu are traced to the NDC and several other notable projects including the Tumu Senior High/Technical School.

Very sad is the abandonment of the entire Sissala communities by the most powerful appointee whom we believe was going to ably represent our interest. Unfortunately, our interest found a resting place in his stomach. This powerful appointee is Hon. Amidu Issahaku Chinnia, Member of Parliament(MP) for Sissala East and Deputy Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources.

Hon. Mohammed Adams Sukparu, MP for Sissala West was right when he said Sissala East must do well and vote for his twin brother Bataglia because Hon. Chinnia was not an adequate partner. If Hon Chinnia was adequate, he would not have stood on the floor of parliament to counter Sukparu's vivid description of the poor nature of our basic educational infrastructure.

The dilapidated school infrastructure is not only limited to Sissala West. It affects Chinnia's constituency even more because just recently, Sumborun Community Basic School in an attempt to construct an improvised shelter over an uncompleted classroom block led to a log falling on one of the school girls causing severe head injury.

Hon Chinnia can best be described as a loot. Remember the GH¢1.33 million fertilizer debt scandal under the Planting for Food and Jobs (pfj). He failed to honour payment for fertilizer he took on debt leading to the collapse of the noble pfj.

A leaked letter from the Ministry of Agriculture requesting payment for the fertilizer issued under the pfj reads; "Batuowiisi Company Limited (owned by the Deputy Regional Minister - Upper West Region ) is one of the companies that accessed farm inputs under the campaign in 2017, Per the arrangement, the company paid 50% GHc1,330,000.00 of the cost of subsidy inputs leaving an outstanding balance of GHc1,330,000.00 to be paid after harvesting of their farm produce."

Hon. Chinnia, was a vociferous promoter of the pfj. Any opportunity he gets be it radio or public gathering, he uses it 'wisely' advising farmers to settle their indebtedness to the scheme to ensure its sustainability. While good at convincing poor farmers to honour their meagre indebtedness, he deliberately refused to honour his mega indebtedness.

Must mention is the Tumu town roads. a letter from the Roads and Highways Authority has cautioned his company of failure to mobilize to site to work on Tumu town roads so that the needless accidents, injuries and deaths will be minimized. Roads in the Sisaala enclave are terribly bad, unmotorable and claiming lives.

If the MP has been able to use his connections to acquire a contract for his company to work on Tumu town roads, one would have expected that the MP will be more in a hurry than President Nana Addo in completing the roads. Who should we hold responsible if there is an accident leading to injuries or deaths on the town roads today?

Cecilia Dapaah was the boss of Chinnia. Cecilia Dapaah is known to have hoard dollars in her bedroom amounting $1 million. A search by the Special Prosecutor in her house and bank accounts revealed more dollars and cedis than the above. Who knows Hon. Chinnia's share of this heavy loot?

The MP has short changed the Sisaala people to acquire ill wealth for himself, family, and friends. The letters tell all of us that he cannot be trusted with greater responsibility. That is why the NDC's promise to institute an "Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL)" is commendable. Thumps up to Malik Basintale, Deputy Communication's Officer for the NDC for announcing that ORAL will catch up on Chinnia.

Before becoming a MP, Hon. Chinnia was the Deputy Upper West Regional Minister. In his bid to unseat his predecessor in parliament, he awarded a wile road contract from Fian-Issa-Kojokperi to Wahabu-Wellembelle at a cost of GH¢167.40 million.

The road was expected to be completed within 36-months commencing March 10, 2020 and completing on March 9, 2023. Nothing had been achieved on the road but his parliamentary bid was achieved. This is how we were scammed into believing that he was going to adequately represent our interest.

Hon Chinnia launched his 2020 campaign on 5-thematic areas. One is to have a stakeholder engagement with chiefs, religious leaders, assembly members, heads of MMDAs and other opinion leaders each year to discuss and find solutions to the developmental challenges confronting us as a constituency.

Second is to establish 6-Farm Merchanization Centres in strategic locations in the constituency. Twenty four tractors will be allocated to these centres with each centre hosting four. Each centre will also have a warehouse to store and distribute fertilizer and other farm inputs to farmers. Farmers will again benefit from new technologies and modern agricultural practices to enhance yields in the farms.

Third was to provide infrastructure and diversify our education by encouraging and supporting our students to accept law, medicine, engineering and other fields lacking in the constituency.

Fourth was to support women with soft loans from government's pro-poor financial schemes to enable them start businesses of their own to enhance their living conditions.

Fifth was to establish a MP's office to create a 24-hour access condition to the MP by constituents. Sadly, he took advantage of this promise to seize government land to establish a radio station to promote his 2024 campaign.

It is clear that not one of the 5-thematic areas have been achieved. It is not in my place to declare that Hon. Chinnia did not leave up to his promises but we are all here. The good people of Sissala East will do their own assessment and declare him good or bad on December 7, 2024.

Bataglia has been very passionate about the development of Sissala East. Through Virtue Foundation, he has been able to write his name with gold in the areas of health, education, targeted interventions and many more. If he is given the mandate to partner with President Mahama, Sissala East will receive abundant fortune as received under previous NDC administrations.

Bataglia in his address mentioned that Sissala Development Network (SIDNET) in their assessment of our developmental challenges reports that roads stand out as our critical challenge. All the other dignified speakers at the campaign launch were so loud on the the poor nature of our roads. The NDC's $10 billion Big Push will address these challenges.

Given the constituency's agriculture potential especially in crop and animal production, the NDC Parliamentary Candidate was emphatic on the need to establish a satellite compus for the study of agriculture. This will improve knowledge and boost yields in the farms.

Knowledge on agriculture is very necessary if we want to adequately take advantage of the Farmer Service Centres (FSC) the NDC will be establishing in all agricultural districts. The FSC will support farmers with modern agriculture equipment, technologies and inputs. This will result in increased production volumes of crops and animals.

Increased production volumes of crops and animals will make available adequate raw materials to facilitate the sustenance of the 24-hour economy. The Resetting Manifesto is excellent and Sissala East must benefit from it with Bataglia as their parliamentarian.

Sissala East must emulate their brothers in the West and install a MP that will give them ears and bring himself down to their level. Sukparu needs a twin brother to team up with him to bring development to our area and that twin brother is Issah Mohammed Bataglia.