Chigabatia joins the NPP Upper East Regional Chair race

Bolgatanga, Dec. 22, GNA - The former Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Agnes Asangalisa Chigabatia, on Monday announced her intension to run for the Regional Chairmanship position of the New Patriotic Party. Her announcement at the Upper East constituency party executives meeting makes her the only female contestant so far among eight male counterparts vying for the position.

Mrs Chigabatia, who is the immediate past Member of Parliament for the Builsa South Constituency, attributed the NPP's defeat in the 2008 elections to disunity, which came because of greed, selfish interests, bickering and self-centeredness on the part of some party members. She said the divisive tendencies in the party have grown so high that it needed somebody, who is committed and has the clout to close the ranks and file of party.

She said NPP needed a person with the ability to reconcile, mobilize support through persuasion and with patience to tolerate all views irrespective of where they where directed at. Mrs Chigabatia said with her vast experience as a Deputy Minister for the region and she had come to appreciate the problems confronting the party in the region.

She said key among the problems was the lack of transparency in the work of Regional executives and promised an open administration when given the mandate to serve.

Mrs Chigabatia said another major defect that affected the party in the last election was the imposition of people as overseers of the party's structures in the region. She gave the assurance that when given the mandate she would ensure that all party members operated w ithin the confines of the party's traditional structures.

The former MP pledged to make socialization with constituents a routine activity explaining that visits to funerals in the community was a profitable means of attracting people to the party because it showed one's level of commitment to the welfare of the people. "You don't need to attend funerals of only NPP members, when other parties lose their members, we all ought to support with the funeral after all if we all take off the party colours we become one people," She said. She said it had become obvious that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was not delivering as it promised and so the NPP needed to reorganize itself to annex power in 2012 and prove to the citizenry that it was more capable to run the country better. The former MP said making the NPP more strong in the rural areas would be one of her objective and therefore promised to set up a women's wing to be known as Women's Patriotic Front (WPF), who would mobilize support for the party through community activities. She added that another action would be to get the constituency chairmen to form a caucus where issues affecting the party would be discussed and the necessary recommendations made available to the party national executives. She appealed for support to her vision and promised to be a listening leader ready to support the course of the party. 22 Dec. 09

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