Dr. Anta's 20 years journey to parliament - Being focused, flexible : Matthew 7:7

As the first president of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah succinctly put it, “Those who would judge us merely by the heights we have achieved would do well to remember the depths from which we started.” The underlying drift of this article is a reminder to all the young men and women, to keep pushing, no matter the daunting challenges.

To those whose lights appear to be getting dim and dimmer, on their path to the "dream land", which also looks so patchy, hoping that the wording will give them, in fact, all of us, enough rope to hang. Just like Dr. Anta did. And many of his colleagues in different disciplines, trying to make their mark.

To this end, we are turning our spotlight on winners' qualities that have aided the efforts of Member of Parliament (MP) for Karaga Constituency, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, popularly known as Anta to open the door of parliament, which he started knocking two (2) decades ago.

To some, particularly, persons who are less than twenty (20) years, who didn't see how this tough journey begun, will think that he had it on a silver platter. That he was born with silver spoons in his hands, when maybe, just maybe, there was no cutlery in his days.

The road to success is a bumpy one. They say success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts. The courage to remain focused. And the courage to be patient.

Two (2) decades ago, Dr. Anta declared his intention to represent the then Choggu-Tishigu Constituency, which latter became Tamale North Constituency, and again birthing Sagnarigu Constituency due to subsequent demacations.

Dr. Anta came into the 2000 parliamentary elections on the ticket of New Patriotic Party (NPP) against the late Abukari Sumani who represented the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

This was a young, vibrant man who was still having the spotlight on himself as former National Secretary of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) and who later became the National President by popular acclamation at the Central Committee of NUGS.

He was very well exposed politically and among students across the country. I remember seeing him on different platforms in the then Gukpegu-Sabonjida campaigning for his colleague representing the NPP too, the late Alhaji Mustapha Ali Iddris.

He actually gave Alhaji Abukari a run for his money in the campaign which ended with 18,585 representing 34.70 % while the NDC candidate won with 18,937 35.40%. This means, a difference of 352 votes denied him the opportunity to make it to parliament that year.

He never relented, but put up himself to represent the party again in the 2004 elections, when the Tamale Central Constituency was first created. In that election, Alhaji Alhassan Wayo Seini of NDC polled 35,635 to beat Adam Mohammed Amin of NPP who got 24,61. His popularity in Tamale was demonstrated by the 5000 votes he got more than that of his presidential candidate.

"But for the circumstances in Dagbon following the murder of the then Ya Naa, in which the NPP government was accused of alleged complicity, he was expected to win the election to represent the people of Tamale", an article published on GhanaWeb in December 2019 said.

"In 2005, President Kufour appointed him as Deputy Regional Minister for the Northern Region. He was later to have the opportunity to serve the people of Tamale when the President appointed him Mayor of the City, where he provided exceptional leadership, transformed Tamale to a modern metropolis, and successfully hosted the African Cup of Nations (CAN2008). Again in 2008, Dr. Amin represented the NPP as its parliamentary candidate", it added.

As deputy energy minister under president Akufo-Addo's first term, he moved to Karaga Constituency, and was overwhelmely enforced by the party's delegates to represent them in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

Since the creation of the Constituency in 2004, the NPP had never won it and it had since been the NDC's stronghold, until the 2020 Ggeneral elections, when Dr. Anta defeated the NDC incumbent MP, Mr. Alhassan Sualihu Dandaawa with 8, 645 votes, when he polled 28,335 representing 59.0% while his opponent had 19,690, representing 41.0%.

"Never stop trying. Never stop believing. Never give up. Your day will come." — Mandy Hale

Never give up, if you do, that would be the worst mistake you can make. Keep trying and keep pushing and keep struggling, even if at the moment you don’t know what your goal is or why you would want to achieve it.

Do you see that little light at the end of the tunnel? The one that is so far out you can barely see it? Don’t stop until you reach it. Still can’t see it? That’s okay that just means you will have to dig until you create one for yourself. So take out your shovel and get to work.

You can’t give up when you face your first or second or third or even the fourth hurdle.

Indeed, Vince Lombardi was right, when he said, "Winners never quit and quitters never win."