NDC loses grip in Ketu north

If the adage that when a door closes many more open is anything to go by, then it can be established that the recent March for Survival in Accra, organized by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) against the Kufuor government and its policies, which was said to have gathered much opposition momentum has, in a way, been watered down.

This is because around the same time that top party executives stampeded the streets of Accra, drenched their foreheads and armpits with their own sweat and swaggered to go and listen to their leader and founder at the Hearts of Oak park, another red flag demonstration and a mass defection were taking place in the party’s “World Bank” – Ketu district in the Volta region.

But this one, which failed to attract media attention for proximity reasons, was more businesslike than the Accra one as it was crowned with a ritual meant to seal the common vow of hundreds of people, never to “flirt” with Hon. Modestus Y. Z. Ahiable, member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu North constituency and his NDC again.

And even though the heat of the disaffection was most focused on Adrume, a farming community of about 800 people and 30 minutes drive southeast of Dzodze, the constituency capital, it eventually spread to Ehi, Wheta, Penyi and other nearby settlements.

The bone of contention was the reconstruction of Adrume LA Primary School, which could best be described in its present state as a shed of palm fronds. While the DCE, Linus Codman Koffie tipped the community for the school project, the MP argued at the assembly that the project be shifted somewhere else.

Chronicle learnt after a two-day tour of the area that, even though there had been previous unfulfilled promises made by the MP to the people, which they had endured, his recent attempt to deny them the school was the last straw to break the camel’s back.

Every able-bodied person raised a war song and virtually everyone looked around for a red cloth, scarf or band.

After an hour of chanting, the town became almost empty as everyone embarked on a march towards the district assembly at Tukor to register their protest, while at the same time, a three-man delegation was dispatched to the regional coordinating council at Ho, the regional capital.

But no sooner had the great march on the assembly begun than the DCE, upon a tip-off, sent an assuaging word to them that the school would be built for them. At Adrume, Chronicle was also sent round a ‘T’-junction where the cord between the people and the MP was severed on a ritual note.

Asked for an account of the performance, two young men (names withheld) revealed that a clay pot, filled with several herbs was carried to the spot, which was a few hundred meters away from the town centre. Some elders prayed over it and later, everyone trampled upon it, amidst chanting and hooting.

Interestingly, known NDC activists openly washed their hands off their mother party.

Francis Nanaotso and Geoffrey Kofigah (area chairman and secretary respectively) unanimously condemned that attitude of making empty promises to the electorate only to dump them after elections.

According to them, it had been two years since the MP promised the chiefs and people of the area at a durbar of financial assistance for development projects.

They were however surprised that, after they had raised ?5 million from contributions, Ahiable failed to meet his part of the bargain. When contacted, the regent and traditional head of Adrume, Torgbui Ahlimetenu III, confirmed, in the presence of a large crowd of youth and elders, the events of the past weeks in the area as narrated by his subjects.

Asked what he and his subjects would do should their MP come back to plead for forgiveness, the chief said, “I will have two questions for him if he dares to come.”

Torgbui Ahlimetenu appealed to the youth to keep their cool since he had received assurances from the office of the deputy regional minister, Kofi Dzamesi, that construction work on the school, which serves pupils from Dzagoto, Hlormegobo, Agblomkope and other surrounding villages, would begin soon.

He also appealed to government to extend electricity to the town. At Ehi, this reporter tested the pulse of a group of young men working on a pipeline that was being extended to the town by flashing the “asee ho” sign at them; and their response was unbelievable.

Later Mr. Emmanuel Dartey, teacher and NPP constituency chairman, hinted that ongoing projects in the area had won the hearts of the people.

He said as at the time of our meeting, the NDC is trailing behind the NPP in terms of popularity by a 40/60 margin.

“There is an Ewe proverb which when translated means you can’t take a fool to the river side thrice,” he stressed, adding that the people have resolved to change.

Similar development programmes put in place in other towns indicate that the NPP is making inroads in the area.

At Wheta, this reporter noticed smiles on the faces of some 100 women who had just passed out after a free training course in tie and dye/batik making.

They had also been promised some ?500,000 each to start their own businesses.

Later at Penyi and Dzodze, Josephine Avinu, NPP women organizer took this reporter round many ongoing projects including roads, KVIPs and schools.

She said she was ever ready to bet her head for her party’s victory in 2004 and hinted that some defectors had of late been going to her for ‘T’-Shirts and other party paraphernalia; a thing that was hitherto unheard of.

Even though the MP could not be reached for comments on the apparent tilt in the political scale in his constituency, a source close to him said, “2004 is still far away.

The dust will settle before then.” In the 2000 general elections, 29,698 votes were cast in Ketu North, out of 51,556 in the Electoral Commission’s register.

Ahiable polled 16,252 while the NPP’s Albert Komla Avinu had a woeful 1,802