Auntie Becky, Nana Akufo-Addo Is Already Delivering On His Promises

During a recent courtesy call on her by the chiefs and some elders and the District Chief Executive Officer of the newly created Upper-West Akyem District, First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo (nee Griffiths-Randolph) was reported to have pleaded with the delegation, largely from Abamkrom and Kumikrom, to exercise patience with the present administration, as President Addo DankwaAkufo-Addo was poised to radically improving the lives of the Ghanaian citizenry at large. The delegation was on a mission of gratitude to thank the First Lady for having facilitated the timely rehabilitation of the sole health clinic serving the Upper-West Akyem District (See “Give My Husband More Time to Deliver – First Lady Urges Ghanaians” Ghana News Agency / Modernghana.com 9/7/17).

I have been meaning to heartily congratulate Mrs. Akufo-Addo for her great and admirable mission of healthcare promotion, upon which she has been embarked for quite a remarkable while now, in seamless complement of the policy agenda of her husband. But I have not been able to do so, because I have been deeply engrossed in fighting back the nuisance propaganda campaign of operatives of the country’s main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), whose leaders are hell-bent on stalling the progressive agenda of Nana Akufo-Addo. In the main, I take this prime opportunity to commend Mrs. Akufo-Addo for her work on the Maternity Ward of the KomfoAnokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), the nation’s second-largest civilian health center in the country. It is hoped that such generous gesture will be extended across each and every district of the country.Indeed, I could not help but equally recognize the tall order presented her by the Abamkrom and Kumikrom elders and community leaders, which amounted to a quite reasonable but, nevertheless, a relatively humongous demand for the construction of a Comprehensive Community Health Center in the Upper-West -Akyem District.

Indeed, what clearly needs to be done is for the First Lady to establish a National Development Committee (NADEC) in each and every district of the country, with the primary objective of soliciting lists direly needed health-related projects requiring immediate addressing and redressing. By the same token, I strongly advise Mrs. Samira Bawumia – I hope I have her first name written out correctly – to establish a fact-finding committee or team focused on education as her complementary agenda. The nearly 10 years during which period the Mills-Mahama-led regime of the National Democratic Congress literally brought the development of the country to a standstill, has meant that a lot needs to be done around the clock to ensure that Ghana opportunely catches up with the development level at which she presently needs to be. I make a similar recommendation to the wives of all our Regional Ministers and District Chief Executives.

Indeed, what our First and Second ladies ought to be doing is to be liaising with these First Regional Ladies, and District First Ladies, in the form of a comprehensive development network to complement the activities of their husbands, if the ruling New Patriotic Party is to exercise progressive and democratic power and influence over the long haul. It also means that, where applicable, the husbands or male spouses of our female Municipal and District Chiefs Executive also need to form a complementary development network around their powerful and/or influential wives. For, behind every successful woman is a father or husband who is willing to selflessly go to bat for her in both thick and thin.

The people of the Upper-West-Akyem District and their leaders also gave the lie to the pontifical pretensions of the previous regime, when they obliquely indicated that former President John Dramani Mahama and his executive appointees had been offering them lip service throughout the last 8 years, and that the National Democratic Congress, as it presently exists, has absolutely no viable and/or comprehensive rural development agenda for the country.

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