Political seats are important but let’s think about competence and development

I write to admonish the people of Hohoe Constituency to consider the person who can transform the area, regardless of political affiliations. Some people think I am just an outspoken and a controversial person but I prefer speaking the truth, irrespective of the person in power. I am not a lawyer but a mining engineer and mineral economist residing in Colorado, USA but I am passionate about the country’s progress and its laws. I don’t support rigged elections, neither do I support incompetence. I, therefore, plead with the judges in the judiciary to ensure that justice is served and nobody is disenfranchised in order to restore peace and tranquillity in the area.

In my view, Hon. John Peter Amewu is the kind of leader Ghana needs to augment the developmental goals we are looking forward to. One unique quality about him is the fact that the honourable minister can easily identify talents, motivate them to thrive and empower them to produce their best in the interest of the nation. He likes to engage young, smart and fresh minds to bring changes. Such people are the leaders we need in Ghana for the transformation we are all looking for. It is difficult to get smart and honest politicians like his type these days, hence the people of Hohoe will be fortunate to have such a great man as their parliamentarian.

Concerning the parliamentary election issues, I will suggest that if it is not because of majority of seats that each of the major political parties is working hard to win, the people of Hohoe should allow Amewu to develop the constituency for them. I can confidently vouch for him in terms of social-economic developmental transfiguration that he can send to the constituency and Volta Region as a whole. When he filed for his intention to contest for the parliamentary seat, he personally notified me through a text message to ask for my views and requested for my unflinching support in terms of vigorous campaign. “Solo, I just came from Hohoe and I have filed to contest for the seat. What do you think? The campaign will start soon”. He is a likeable person who considers both convergent and divergent views as well as taking cues from them.

Unfortunately, I had resigned from the NPP party but I wished him well and helped with few campaign strategies, similar to the support I gave to Richard Ahiagbah, the current Danquah Institute Director when he contested for the NPP General Secretary position in 2018. In addition to Hon. Amewu’s exceptional leadership skills, he is simple, gentle, flexible, humble, respectful to everyone, easy to go, ready to listen and comfortable to work with. He is not the type of arrogant, wiseacres and corrupt ministers we see in the country. He succeeds in whatever he does because he avails himself for expert contributions. My association with him during my illegal mining (galamsey) fight when he was the Lands and Natural Resources Minister gave me the opportunity to know him better and learn a lot of positive attributes from him.

If anyone sits one-on-one with the man, the person can easily recognize that Mr. Amewu thinks about the people, especially the youth and he has good plans for the nation’s future generations. He always wants to assign developmental challenges to the right people who can fix them, regardless of age and political affiliations. He is always ready to give opportunities to the youth with exceptional talents to practice what they can contribute best by allowing them to explore, bridge the gap between academics and realities, monitor their progress and demand results. The youth of Hohoe are blessed with such a great elder who can empower them to grow.

This is the exact leadership style of the great men in the Western World and that is the secret behind how they leapfrog ahead of us as Africans. I can confidently declare that Hon. Amewu is one of the leaders in Ghana who is practising what he learnt from abroad. He is making good use of his studies and stays in UK and Australia. I hope the other Ministers, Members of Parliament, MMDCEs, Chiefs, Pastors, Bishops and other leaders will emulate his leadership qualities to make our country great. If the PDS scandal fell under the Energy Ministry and he was not indicted as the minister, then Ghanaians should know the type of leader he is.

Again, Ghanaians witnessed the swift change and progress he made within a short period in the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry in terms of fighting the illegal mining menace. His dream was to establish a sustainable small-scale mining practice in Ghana, where the operators would work in environmentally friendly manner to create jobs for millions of the Ghanaian youth to minimize poverty in the mining areas. Unfortunately, he was assigned a different responsibility at the Energy Ministry. In my view, if his successors had followed his excellent steps in the interest of the nation, NPP MPs might not have lost more than 22 seats in the mining areas to their opponents.

I’m commending Hon. John Peter Amewu because of my personal experience with him, although other people may have their personal perceptions about him too. I pray that the good people of Hohoe will accept and work amicably with him if he wins the court case. JP, as affectionately called is a great man for the future of the country. God bless the people of Hohoe! God bless Ghana!!