A Petition Calling For The Immediate Sacking Of The Mce Of The Sissala East Municipal, Honourable Karim Nanyua

We 16 coordinators in attendance, out of 21 NPP Electoral Area Coordinators comprising of 65 polling stations out of 80 polling stations in the Sissala East Constituency with the full blessings of majority of the former constituency officers, immediate past electoral area coordinators, majority of polling station executives, elders, patrons and the entire structure of the party in the Sissala East constituency humbly plead on you, Your Excellency, The President of the Republic of Ghana, to immediately release and sack the MCE, Hon. Karim Nanyua of his post and duties.

Your Excellency, since the nomination of Karim Nanyua as DCE for Sissala East and his subsequent approval by Assembly Members in May 2017, his conduct, poor managerial and leadership skills and his attitude of lying to each and every person has given our party a bad image and press. This his behaviour has further badly affected the growth and development of our party in the constituency, caused greater despondency and disenchantment among the rank and file of our party in the constituency, taking the shine of the achievements and positive strides of the government away and most importantly making the NPP a mocking stock in the Municipality. Because of these and many others, we would use this petition to humbly plead with you to have him fired with immediate effect. Below are details of some major reasons;

1. Before the beginning of the 2017 farming season, the MCE, Honourable Karim Nanyua, who doubles as the chairman for the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme, used his office to severely discriminate against a greater proportion of our party members from accessing forms meant for the registration of farmers for the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme. This action of his angered most NPP members who are farmers, driving them to rather resort to buying fertilizer at exorbitant open market prices. The forms he hoarded were released at the last minute when the planting season was almost over. The reason why he did all that was because he felt that these NPP supporters including polling stations executives and most of us electoral area coordinators would not endorse his choice of candidates in the then impending constituency executive election.

Also, as the chairman for the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme, he did not adopt any prudent management skills in managing the fertilizers when they finally arrived. It is sad to note that fertilizers were off-loaded and thrown to the ground without any caution. This resulted in many bags of fertilizers being wasted as a result of the height at which they were thrown to the ground. In many circumstances, instead of him to receive weigh bills from drivers who brought in the fertilizers and off-loaded them so as to cross check with the quantity contained in the weigh bills, his cluelessness and clandestine activity of stealing the fertilizer clouded his leadership and judgement. The attention of the party's rank and file were drawn to it and same was brought to his attention of which he recklessly disregarded. We were angered because we thought that if this was allowed to continue, this good government flagship programme to help poor farmers and increase food production in Ghana would fail. But because he was benefiting from the looting and mismanagement of the fertilizer, he allowed it to continue regardless of the numerous complaints.

2. On this same Planting for Food and Jobs Programme, the MCE, with the full support of the MP, Honourable Ridwan Abass Dauda, we were reliably informed stole 21,000 bags of the Planting for Food and Jobs fertilizer, transported some in vehicles and tractors to some selected polling stations executives in an attempt to induce them to endorse their slate of candidates in the then impending constituency executive election that finally took place on 24th February, 2018. In order for them to finance their extreme factionalism of our party, we were informed that they smuggled the rest of the bags of fertilizers to Burikina Faso through their then Nasara coordinator contestant by name Kuka and also Tohari Jabummie, the then first vice chairman contestant who also doubles as the Presiding Member of the Sissala East Municipal Assembly. These activities of theirs were discovered and apprehended by Ibrahim Mahama and Yakubu Basuglo the then Nasara coordinator and second vice chairman of our party respectively. These complainants made a case at the police station in November 2017, their statements were taken and the vehicles carrying the fertilizers to Burkina Faso were halted.

In an attempt to lie in order to cover up their lies, the MCE and his cohorts responded that he was transferring the fertilizers from one warehouse to another while Kuka responded that they were loading auctioned fertilizers. The question we are yet to get answers to is, "when in the scheme of things did Your Excellency or your esteemed office instruct your MCE for Sissala East to auction fertilizers especially those meant for the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme?". The late apprehension of their thievery happened at the time that many bags of fertilizer had already been stolen and smuggled.

However, the discovery of their unpatriotic and hostile attitude to the success of your flagship programme (Planting for Food and Jobs) drew the attention of your Regional Minister and his Deputy who subsequently came down to Sissala East, locked up the warehouse and took the keys to Wa. Dr. Nurah Gyiele, a Minister of State in charge of Agric at the presidency was called to our local radio station, Radford FM, where he indicated among other things that a forensic audit of the fertilizer was to be conducted. The Municipality waited in vain and due to this, many farmers who owed 50 percent cost of the Planting for Food and Jobs fertilizer for the 2017 farming season refused to pay with the impunity that until the presidency and government get the MP, MCE and their cronies pay for all the stolen bags of fertilizers they would not also pay for theirs. Your Excellency, doesn't this negate your fight against corruption for which you are well noted for? This also does affect the electoral fortunes of our party in the constituency since the head of government, the MCE, is seen as a corrupt thief. He is certainly an albatross on our necks as operatives of our party and campaigners for the retention of power in 2020.

3. Unfortunately for the MCE and the MP, the slates they projected and campaigned for in the constituency executive election lost en block. Out of 450 delegates for the 24th February, 2018 constituency executive election, the highest votes any candidate on their slate could garner was 145 votes. This election sharply divided our party into two groups. A massive majority and a minute minority. Polling station executives, electoral area coordinators and the ten elected constituency officers with their seven appointees are now being severely discriminated against for the reason that they either did not support their slate of candidates or were not their preferred candidate for the constituency executive election. Party jobs like Zoomlion sanitation workers, GES recruitment, afforestation workers, the security module of Youth Employment and many others are given to their selected few. We, Electoral Area Coordinators and our bosses, the constituency executives, are not consulted or helped. Our government is doing very well in bringing social intervention policies. The government has equally done well to create employment opportunities for the youth through many positive programmes. However, our MCE and our MP have not helped our party youth in this regard at all. Recruitments done in the Ghana Education Service, Immigration, Police, Military, Forestry Commission, NABCO, Youth in Arabic Instructors and many others are done at the blind side of the party structures. The MCE and the MP always have their own people to push and project even if that person is not a party person. There was not even a single day the MP or the MCE called any coordinator and asked him whether he liked a particular job opportunity or not, whether any member of his electoral area would like that job opportunity or not. In events that the electoral area coordinators even go to them to help them get jobs for their people through the government own initiated policies, they toss them and deny them the opportunity. Our polling station executives and grassroot members are then denied opportunities to benefit any project or policy from the party despite Your Excellency's genuine intentions to help all NPP members.

Your Excellency, judging from this behaviour and discriminations of the MP and MCE against NPP members in the Sissala East Municipality, do you choose the massive majority of NPP in Sissala East or the minority? Any further stay of Hon. Karim Nanyua at post communicates to us your choice and this would hugely discourage commitment, sacrifice, hardwork, and above all loyalty. Many people are grumbling and thinking that disloyalty is what pays in NPP since Karim Nanyua was rewarded with the position of the MCE when in actual fact he was out there campaigning against Your Excellency and your Parliamentary candidate in 2012. He and his MP have also vowed not to work with the constituency executives and the 16 out of 21 electoral area coordinators whom they campaigned against. Their discriminatory activities are getting worse by the day and the earlier something is done the better. Party operatives are being mocked at by opposition elements who brag that they get all the largess and opportunities even though they are in opposition. How can our efforts that resulted in the victory be used to punish we ourselves, Your Excellency?

4. It is our understanding that political capital and for that matter electoral victory is the cultivation of social capital. Our MCE and our MP do not cultivate enough social capital from social events in our constituency such as funerals, naming ceremonies, weddings and school anniversary celebrations among others. This lack of social capital has a negative reflection in the political fortunes of the NPP going forward. It was this lack of social capital that made the MP to lose at his own polling station in 2016 election by 45 votes. Your Excellency, this behaviour of the MP caused you to perform very badly at that very polling station (Dagbaso Primary School) in Wallembelle, the MPs hometown.

Lessons should have been learnt for our forward march and also building on the gains of 2016. However and unfortunately, both the MP and the MCE did not learn any lesson from the humiliating defeat at that polling station neither are they willing to resource or support the constituency officers and other party operatives to attend these social gatherings. The constituency executives too have exhausted themselves financially following the higher expenditure expended during the constituency executive election in their bid to respond to the largess and monies that the MCE and the MP generated from the thievery from the Planting for Food and Jobs fertilizers to finance their slate of candidates. The inability of constituency officers and other party operatives to continuously attend social gatherings in the absence of the MCE especially that of party members has created a general sense of despair and hopelessness among the rank and file of our party in the constituency.

It was so sad a spectacle when our long serving council of elders chairman passed on in June 2018. Honourable Henry Bipuah (the late council of elders chairman) who served our party loyally, suffered some political transfers during his active service in the Ghana Education Service, sacrificed his ambitions for the unity of our party when he wanted to become a presiding member in 2006 but most unfortunately, the MCE never considered him on any the many opportunities that were created by your excellency. After giving off his outmost best in the service of our party, he gained close to nothing after we came back to power in 2016. After he passed on to glory, the poor social capital of our MCE and the MP did not allow our party to organise properly to honour his family and pay the last respect to him. It was only Hon. Amidu Chinnia, the Deputy Upper West Regional minister, who came and donated assorted drinks to the family but his gesture was quickly dismissed as a donation from the party as he is an in-law to the family. The family of the late Mr. Henry Bipuah is the largest NPP family in his polling station. The family have therefore become furious and disappointed in our party and thereby nursing their wounds to visit our party with a revolt vote eventhough they never voted against the party since 1992. Our MCE who is supposed to cultivate enough political capital and put same to the benefit of our party in 2020 has now become the biggest political repelling factor. The earlier you sack him the better for our electoral fortunes in the Sissala East. An efficient, effective and proactive leadership at the assembly would revitalize and re-energize the party structure, attract floating voters and create the needed euphoria for election 2020.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

There are many more issues we can enumerate but we just want to maintain this for now hoping that our call will be heeded to. We initially intended to demonstrate on the principal streets of Tumu and locking the MCE out of his office but due to the bad publicity it will give to the government which we so much cherish, we decided to put down this humble letter.

Your excellency, for the sake of branding our party as the best and protecting the good image of your administration, we patiently suffered in the hands of the MCE for so long hoping that thing will normalize.

The continuous stay of Hon. Karim Nanyua as MCE for Sissala East has badly marred your fight against corruption and mismanagement and would automatically negate our efforts at retaining the seat and winning the majority votes for you come 2020. Your Excellency, we cannot associate with this deliberate attempts to make us lose the seat and continuously make you unpopular in the Sissala East Municipality despite your good heart and all your good works hence our call for the MCE's removal.

We would like to emphasise that we tried several times to call the MCE to order in private meetings but all our attempts failed. Whenever we meet him, he agrees to everything we say but returns to square one immediately the meeting is over. He has played a fool over us for several times and negotiation with him is out of the equation. He boasts to people that our complaints and grumblings does not affect him and that it is only the MP, Honourable Ridwan Abass Dauda, that can have him fired and even when that unlikely happens, it is only the Honourable Ridwan Abass Dauda that will choose who replaces him. Both the MCE and the MP boast that the final word of who becomes the MCE for the Sissala East Municipality, who is fired and who is chosen to replace the fired one when that happen eventhough they see it as very unlikely is in the hands of the honourable MP, Ridwan Abass Dauda.

Based on this and other disparaging statements and actions from both the MP and the MCE, We cannot carry him as MCE and head of government in the Municipality to campaign in 2020. Besides, none of us will like to be called a fertilizer thief and as such carrying honourable Karim Nanyua as MCE to campaign in 2020 is accepting to be called a fertilizer thief. Carrying Honourable Karim Nanyua to the 2020 elections will mean that our party has agreed to concede defeat to the NDC in the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections in the Sissala East Constituency.

Your Excellency, we will also plead with you to call our MP, Hon. Ridwan Abass Dauda, to order with regards to respect for party structures and social functions especially when it involves party stakeholders in the constituency.

Counting on your usual cooperation.

Thank You.
Yours faithfully,
1. Luri Shaibu (Spokesperson of the group)

0540744182
Kpaviara-Yalia Electoral Area Coordinator

2. Baluri Bayadomo
Bawiessibelle Electoral Area Coordinator

0552519674 (Spokesperson of the group)

3. Wutirirra Sumaila
Sakai Electoral Area Coordinator

0248404634 (spokesperson of the group)

4. Prosper Yaljie
Kusinjan Electoral Area Coordinator

0207076437 (spokesperson)
5. Ambra Danladi
Kong Electoral Area Coordinator

6. Nashiru Kuoro
Nabulo Electoral Area Coordinator

7. Mohammed Bayuoni
Gwosi- Santijan Electoral Area Coordinator

8. Suraj Bawujimie
Nyamijan Coordinator
9. Haruna Suara
Zongo Extension coordinator
10. Dauda Dakui
Dolibizon Electoral Area Coordinator

11. Dakui Danladi
Nabugubelle Electoral Area Coordinator

12. Dramani Iddrisu
Kassana Electoral Area Coordinator

13. Alhassan Achaw
Kwapun Electoral Area Coordinator

14. Abudu Issah
Banu Electoral Area Coordinator

15. Abdul Razak Issahaku
Challu- Pieng Electoral Area Coordinator

16. Nurideen Minawaare
Stadium Residential Electoral Area coordinator

Cc:
His Excellency The Vice President

Republic of Ghana
Accra.
The National chairman
NPP
Accra.
The Chief of Staff
Jubilee House
Accra.
The Minister of Local Government

Accra.
The Regional Minister
Upper West Region
Wa.
The Regional Chairman
NPP
Upper West Region.
The Constituency Chairman
NPP
Sissala East Constituency.
The Council of Elders
NPP
Sissala East constituency.
The MCE
Sissala East Municipality

The MP
Sissala East Constituency
Tumu.