Kufuor To Make Historic Trip To Nima

Barring any change in plans, Nima tomorrow would have a walk-about from the President of the Republic.

When President Kufuor makes this historic visit to Nima tomorrow, he would have succeeded in expressing hiss gratitude to a suburb of Accra, where in spite of a position held by some that it is a strong-hold of the NDC, he clinched a respectable number of votes to beat Prof. Atta Mills during the last Presidential and Parliamentary elections leaving pundits in total astonishment.

The NPP Regional Youth Organizer, Mr. Yusif Ahmed, told ADM that President Kufuor polled 32,000 as opposed to Mills' 33,000 even with the advantage of incumbency.

In the Parliamentary segment, after a disputable second counting, the NDC got 29,000 and the NPP 29,425.

Ever since the chairman of the East Ayawaso constituency, Mr. Majeed broke the news about the President's visit to an NPP club meeting in Maamobi last Saturday frantic and elaborate arrangements have started being put in place for a triumphant entry for the President.

According to the chairman who talked to ADM, the President would start his Nima visit from the Accra Girls' Secondary School area from where his convoy would drive slowly to the Nima Gutter where he would wait for some fifteen minutes "shaking hands."

From this point he would proceed to the Social Centre, which used to be a CDR haunt during the PNDC/NDC years. At this point he would interact with the local heads of ethnic groups or Sarakuna as they are known in Hausa, before finally proceeding to Alajo. It is expected that he would outdoor another signboard at the "Nima Political Square" where signboards of various political parties are competing for attention.

The President's visit to Nima forms part of an ongoing tour of constituencies in the Greater Accra Region, according to Mr. Yusif Ahmed.

The cosmopolitan nature of Nima, a marked segment of East Ayawaso constituency, including its population advantage sets it aside from the other electoral areas. As a microcosm of not only Ghana but the entire West African sub-region Nima, a popular turf for unscrupulous politicians to recruit "shit bombers" and other disturbers of democracy, would present an interesting political battle come 2004.

The infamy associated with Nima over the years has attracted the attention of opinion leaders and Islamic clerics and even former "thugs" and "toughs" all of whom have in recent times been condemning indiscipline among the youth in a bid to reverse the unacceptable trend.

Recently, Larry Awal, a self-confessed former NDC thug from Nima told surprised Ghanaians that he took part in shit-bombing the offices of the Crusading Guide during the NDC days and even harassing TV3 staffers during the heady years of Ghana's political history.

He has expressed his aversion for the practice by some politicians who come and engage "Nima Boys" to go and do their dirty work for them, adding that those days are gone because they have now seen the light.

Nima and Maamobi have in the past few months seen physical developments going on. A pedestrian walk-way is being constructed on both sides of the Nima Highway and the construction of deep gutters on the side of the road is nearing completion.

Beggars who line up a section of the Nima highway it has been learnt, recently offered special prayers for the President out of excitement over the construction of the pavements on the side of which they sit to ply their vocation.

Yusif Ahmed adds that for the past decade or so the streetlights did not serve any useful purpose because they were permanently off until the NPP came to power.

Perhaps what residents of Nima would want to hear from the President would be what other physical development plans he has for them so that they too can have enhanced living conditions.

Although little is known about the retinue of the President, the inclusion of the Greater Accra Regional Minister and the Minister of Tourism and the Modernization of the Capital not forgetting the Mayor of Accra would be expected to send not just a symbolic message it would signify business.