‘NPP Nasara is for development’

The National Coordinator of the NASARA Wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kamal-Deen Abdallah, has described the “Zongo for Mahama” concept of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) as a “visionless and selfish initiative” only meant to lure people in the Zongos to vote for Mahama during election.

“That thing has no development or sustainability component in it; it was just to get the Zongos to vote for President Mahama on 2012. NDC has no intention of sustaining it, if they had, that thing would have been given a serious or a more meaningful name and not ‘Zongo for Mahama;’ what will be their stand in the NDC after President Mahama has left power?” he queried.

Kamal-Deen Abdallah, in an interview with DAILY GUIDE in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital, noted that the Mahama-led government had taken his brothers and sisters for granted, saying, the president heard the cry from many northerners and pressure groups about how funds into the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) were being mismanaged and yet kept quiet and allowed the people accused of this mismanagement to stay in office until they almost collapsed the programme.

He articulated, “If for nothing at all, SADA would have increased the number of people in gainful ventures and also reduce the level of poverty in the beneficiary areas.

"Unfortunately, the President and his National Democratic Congress did not mean business; they just did something to represent something and that is why when projects were priced far beyond the normal market rate – to the detriment of the beneficiaries – the government did virtually nothing about it.”

Touching on his role as the National NASARA Coordinator, Mr. Abdallah said NASARA had always been with the people in the Zongos and would have to find out at what point there was a disconnect.

According to him, whoever is holding a position as a NASARA Coordinator would have to prepare to work seriously to ensure that their various areas get the message of the New Patriotic Party and to vote for it to come to power to revive all the collapsed pro-poor initiatives and introduce new ones.

The New Patriotic Party did not fare well in the Zongos in the 2012 general election, probably due to the NDC’s campaign message that called on northerners everywhere to vote for their ‘brother,’ John Daramani Mahama – who hails from the north – but Kamal-Deen Abdallah has promised to work hard to reverse the situation.