POLITICS
AFTER THE SELECTION OF THE ANGEL – PAUL AYUONGA (Agbigim Gbaung)
Before the December 7 parliamentary election, life became hard in Tempane constituency in the Upper East Region of Ghana as major roads linking business communities were flooded in the rainy season, people drunk from rivers and dams due to lack of portable water, villages continued to suffer in darkness because government did extend rural electrification.
Meanwhile, prior to the 2016 parliamentary elections, the then NPP parliamentary candidate, Lawyer Joseph D. Kpemka promised to put full focus on these challenges when voted into power. His words “tasted sugar” in the people’s minds. They chose him over the NDC’s Hon. David Adakudugu, the then first and incumbent MP for Tempane. In some some occasions, J.D kpemka even promised to fix the bad roads in his first six months as MP when given the nod. He promised to dig 100 boreholes in the constituency every year within the four years [=400 boreholes].
The narrative changed in Kpemka’s third year as he failed almost 80% of the promises he made to the people and won the election. The major roads he promised to reconstruct in six months are still in their previous states; a sorry site. In an attempt to question why these promises were still unfulfilled, and the four year term was ending, J.D Kpemka told the people “if u are not satisfied with my performance, u can vote me out and bring an angel to lead u”.
However, the four year term ended, leaving Lawyer Kpemka (Hon) with nothing to show. The people begun to realise that the lawyer deceived them to win the election hence decided to change their minds against his re-election. On the 7th of December, the people flashed back Kpemka’s words; “if u are not satisfied with my performance, u can vote me out and bring an angel to lead u” and truly chose an angel, widow, corner stone whom people underestimated, Hon. Lydia Akanvariba Adakudugu as their new leader.
Afterwards, his own words [“if u are not satisfied with my performance, u can vote me out and bring an angel to lead u”] haunted him, J.B Kpemka became so restless as he began to blame people for his deserving defeat. In a Bolgatanga based A1 radio, the defeated MP soon forgot of his failure and cacophonic words to the people and said his defeat was “ethnic” since he lost in some polling stations that he does not belong to i.e, Kusaasi and Bisa polling stations.
It would therefore sound prudent from common sense perspective to conclude that the people of Tempane chose “an angel” to lead them and nothing like malice, hatred or ethnocentrism.
