…Nandom NDC Tells President
By Innocent Samuel Appiah
EXECUTIVES of the Nandom Constituency of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Upper West are calling on President Mahama to as a matter of urgency sack the District Chief Executive (DCE) of the area, Cuthbert Baba Kuupiel or incur their wrath.
They are accusing the DCE on a range of issues, saying that his actions and inactions are making the party unpopular in the District, fearing that this could cause the defeat of the NDC in the 2016 general elections.
According to them, the DCE and the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Dr. Benjamin Kumbour, who allegedly sponsored the old Executives in the last Constituency elections, have failed to organize a handing-over ceremony to enable the new Executives fully take over the mantle of leadership of the party in the Constituency.
The Nandom Constituency, which is one of the latest to have been created and was inaugurated in June, 2012 as a District, had its first Constituency elections on August 23, 2014, where all the old Executives, who were alleged to be favourites of the DCE and the MP, were booted out.
The Executives contended that since the elections, no handing over has been done, complaining that they have never had any official dealings with the DCE and the MP, who are rather dealing with the old Executives for party activities.
“This is one of the issues that are causing anger amongst the youth who are secretly mobilizing to stage a demonstration to remove the DCE. Enough is enough. If the DCE does not make way for a different person to come, NDC will lose this seat to Ambrose Dery. Nothing can safe us with this DCE still on the seat,” the Executives maintained, stressing that they are not happy with the performance of the DCE, accusing him of virtually running down the Assembly with his way of spending.
A source from the Nandom District Assembly has alleged that prior to his nomination, the DCE had a restaurant known as Mama Mia in Tamale, which he quickly converted to a company of general operations, supplying almost all the services of the Assembly including contractions.
“The ‘expensive DCE’ as he calls himself has stated that the Assembly’s budget is too meagre for him to manage as compared to a budget of 47 District Assemblies that operated with the Ghana Social Opportunity Project (G-SOP), a World Bank project that he handled for the three Regions in Northern Ghana before assuming office as the DCE,” the source alleged and further stated that the District debt profile as at December 2014 stood at almost GHc500, 000.00.
“In fact, what baffles me about his abysmal performance at the Assembly is that, he is quite experience. He has been an Assemblyman at the then Lawra District Assembly for some time and I am told he even served as the Chairman of the Finance and Administration Sub-committee. He has done development work for more than 15 years, working at places like CIDA, CARE, SEND Foundation, G-SOP and the like. So I can even conclude that his handling of the District is sheer wickedness, for reasons best known to him,” a close ally of Mr. Kuupiel lamented.
Information gathered by this reported indicated that the DCE, who is a member of the Ghana Institute of Planners and the SPRING International Association of Development Planners, allegedly caused the arrest of a popular young businessman and philanthropist, Patrick Nakena for repairing a broken down culvert without any contract procedures in 2013.
However, today, it is alleged that one Arafat, a former Youth Organizer of the party and an ally of the DCE is seen busily working on a new culvert along a feeder road leading to the DCE’s family house in a similar way as was done by Mr. Nakena. This has also angered the youth of the area, accusing the DCE of selective justice and discrimination against some of the youth who earlier supported him when he was nominated as DCE.
Another revealing source close to the Regional Executive indicated emphatically that the Regional stalwarts of the party are divided over the Nandom case; rendering it difficult for the party to take a firm decision on the matter, a situation the source was not sure of retaining the seat, come 2016.
When quizzed whether the National Executives are aware of the situation, our source answered in the affirmative, but quickly added that they may not know the magnitude of it because the decision from the National will depend on the right and correct presentation of the issues by the Region.
A petition calling for the immediate removal and replacement of the DCE, says, “After such a hectic tolerance from the two sides, vis –a – vis the Constituency Executive at one side, and the DCE jointly with the MP at the other side, the Executives have reached a painful but an irrevocable decision for consideration by the Regional and subsequently the National Executive. We, the undersigned Executives of the Nandom Constituency, with the full support of party members, are compelled to use this medium to articulate our position after all efforts to smoke the peace pipe have failed.”
The petition averred that since the elections, neither the MP nor the DCE has sat through a single meeting with the Executives. “However, they have jointly found it appropriate to hold meetings and to engage with the ousted Executives, completely ignoring the verdict of the party.
“It is worthy of note that on the day of the constituency elections, the MP made such statements as ‘the vanquished in this election are, in fact, the victors; whilst those who think they have won the elections are rather the losers. I have given the elected Executives a six-month probation and it is after I will come to tell them and the party my position about 2016. I want to tell the new Executives that they have caught a lion’s leg but have not won positions.”
