Response To Iddi Adam Fuseini: Let The Records Speak Fairly

We welcome healthy political debate, but the recent piece on Hon. Adam Mutawakilu Garlus deserves a fair hearing based on the facts. Hon. Garlus, as Managing Director of Ghana Water Company and former MP for Damongo, has continued to serve the people of Damongo and Savannah Region with tangible results, not rhetoric.

In under two years, he has secured over 50 job opportunities for the youth, and 10 slots into the Ghana Education Service. He has also secured more than 20 other slots across various institutions, including but not limited to the security services. These achievements were delivered without regard to party affiliation, in keeping with his conviction that poverty has no political colour and development should never be held hostage to loyalty.

On the matter of the sewing machines specifically, it must be placed on record that the beneficiaries were selected through direct engagement with the group, based on their stated skills and personal needs. The recipients are seamstresses and fashion designers, and this donation forms part of a broader, ongoing empowerment strategy rather than an isolated gesture. Hon. Garlus is not an armchair leader. His initiatives are shaped by consultation with the very people they are meant to benefit, and that is the standard by which genuine leadership should be judged.

It is also worth reminding the public that long before Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor entered Damongo politics, Hon. Garlus had, for years, quietly supported and sponsored fashion designers and hairdressers in the constituency. That tradition of empowerment did not begin with any campaign season, it was built on consistency and genuine care for the people.

We ask, in the same spirit of fairness the writer calls for: what has become of the women's susu box scheme that once served so many in Damongo? Is it still functioning today? These are honest questions the people of Damongo deserve answers to, not for the sake of scoring political points, but because promises made to citizens should not quietly fade once the cameras are gone.

Let it also be stated plainly that, Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor is our Member of Parliament, elected by the people of Damongo to represent and serve them directly. That mandate is a social contract, and he owes the people direct accountability for it. At no point should he expect that another person's efforts substitute for the work he was elected and entrusted to do. When Hon. Garlus carried out his initiatives, he never sought a helping hand from anybody to fulfil his commitments to the people. Hon. Jinapor should therefore not view this as a competition with anyone, but rather focus squarely on delivering, in full, the mandate for which he was elected.

Indeed, Leadership must be measured not by declarations, but by delivery, not by who claims credit, but by whose commitments endure.

The people of Damongo deserve leaders, across the political divide, who complement rather than compete with one another for the common good. We therefore encourage all stakeholders, including the current Member of Parliament, to join hands in the shared work of lifting our constituents out of poverty, and to let consistency, not comparison, be the true measure of service.

Shalom.
Sir Hamza Apowda
A Constituent of Damongo.