The Bawaana Pandemic

As elections 2016 draws closer, the political atmosphere in the Jirapa constituency gets heated up day by day. The National Democratic Congress is poised and ready to recapture the Jirapa seat from the current independent Member of Parliament. No stone is been left unturned in the quest to accomplishing this mission.

The latest development is the outburst of the Youth wing of the NDC, this group of energetic young men and women have for the past week been organizing intense political rallies throughout major communities in the constituency.

With a heavy backing and support for the NDC parliamentary candidate Dr. Francis Bawaana Dakurah, these youth have been preaching and assessing the good works of Dr. Bawaana during the three years that he served as the Member of Parliament and even beyond the three years, the help and support he still gave constituents vis-à-vis what Hon. Paul Derigubah has been doing as an MP since 2012. The youth are convinced that Mr Paul Derigubah has not done a quarter of what Dr Bawaana did.

A major beef the NDC youth have with Hon. Derigubah is the fact that he suddenly disappeared from the constituency after winning the seat in 2012. For the whole of 2013, 2014 and 2015 he was nowhere to be found despite the various challenges of the constituency that needed to be addressed. He suddenly appeared from his hideout in the year 2016, an election year undertaking projects (mainly digging of boreholes) here and there. Many are tempted to ask whether is this election year that he has realized the people of his constituency drink or need water? A question which can only be answered by Hon. Derigubah

A major campaign message by these youth is that, their decision to vote out Dr. Francis Bawaana in 2012 was intended to be a short term remedy to an internal party wrangling. They were hoping that Hon. Pual Derigubah after winning the seat as an independent candidate will return to make peace with the party so that he could contest again on the ticket of the NDC. But to their outer dismay Mr Derigubah opted to abandon the party completely after he won the seat through the tireless effort of the youth. This attitudes of his and many other reasons informs the decision of the youth to do all they can to get him ousted.

My personal checks as at today indicate that majority of the constituents are under the grip of the Bawaana pandemic. The Bawaana fever is everywhere in town. In the lips of both adults and children the gospel of Bawaana is been preached. The sudden ‘baptism’ of some of the Derigubah fanatics (front liners in his 2012 campaign team) popularly known as Derigubah Raster, Derigubah Moris and Derigubah Maxwell who now prefer to called Bawaana Raster, Bawaana Moris and Bawaana Maxwell respectively is already a warning sign and an indication of doom for Hon. Derigubah. With about three more months to elections 2016, more of such intense political activities are expected throughout the country.

Watch out for more from the Jirapa constituency. To be continued.

Freelance Journalist
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