80 Days to general election: NPP, NDC battle-ready for Madina seat

Maclean Kwofi Features Sep - 20 - 2024 , 14:06

The Madina Constituency in the Greater Accra Region promises to be one of the interesting constituencies to watch in the upcoming general election on December 7.

Parliamentary candidates of the two major political parties — New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) — are ready for a showdown, seeking the constituents’ mandate to represent them in the Ninth Parliament.

The candidates are Robert Lamptey of the NPP and the incumbent Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu of the NDC.

The political structure

The constituency, located within the La-Nkwantanang Madina Municipality in the Greater Accra Region, was formed out of the Abokobi-Madina Constituency prior to the 2012 general election.

Main entrance to the Madina Market

Its municipal assembly, La-Nkwantanang Madina Municipal Assembly (LaNMMA), was established by Legislative Instrument (L.I.) 2131 and inaugurated in June 2012. It was carved out of the Ga East Municipality and its capital Madina is a bustling mix of commercial and residential areas.

The LaNMMA is headed by Jennifer Dede Adjabeng, who has been Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) since 2017.

The constituency is divided into 15 electoral areas and has a population of about 200,000 people, majority of whom are between the ages of 12 and 45.

It is home to two of Ghana’s best secondary schools — West Africa Senior Secondary School and Presbyterian Boys Secondary School — as well as University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), one of Ghana’s topmost collegiate institutions.

Electoral performance

Since its creation, it has produced three Members of Parliament (MPs). The first MP was Alhaji Amadu Bukari Sorogho (2013-2016) of the NDC, who was unseated by NPP’s Abubakar Boniface Siddique (2017-2020).

Pedestrians crossing the Madina Zongo Junction road through an unapproved route despite the availability of a footbridge

However, in 2020 Mr Siddique lost the election to Mr Sosu of the NDC, who won with a convincing 56.58 per cent of the votes and had since been representing the Madina constituency in the Eighth Parliament.The NDC has won the parliamentary elections two times, while the NPP has won it once. As the 2024 polls draw nearer, the

race is heating up, with the incumbent MP and Human Right Lawyer, Mr Sosu, facing a fierce contest from Mr Lamptey.

Both contenders have vowed to mobilise an impressive majority of the constituency's electorate, aiming to engage at least 75 per cent of the 158,280 registered voters.

Electoral areas

Madina Constituency has 15 electoral areas, with four of them, namely Tataana South, Tataana North, Social Welfare South and Social Welfare North perceived to be the strongholds of the NPP.

A Kayaye empowerment training centre at Madina

Nine of the electoral areas, including Madina West, Nkwantanang West, Nkwantanang East, Danfa, Ayimensah/Kweiman, Oyarifa, Pantang, Teiman, and Okataban, are also considered as the strongholds of the NDC.

Two of the areas, North Legon and West Adenta, often swing for either NDC or NPP.

Community visit

A visit by the Daily Graphic revealed that the residents faced a number of challenges just like the other constituencies in the country.

Most residents complained about the perennial floods as the well-structured drains in certain areas were too small to contain the volume of rain water that runs through their communities.

Although the team noticed ongoing construction works on roads, bridges and drains during the visit, it was obvious that poor roads were a big challenge for the residents at Danfa, Kweiman, Teiman, Tataana and their environs.

Others complained of security concerns, which they attributed to poor visibility at night due to unavailable or malfunctioning street lights.

Interaction

The residents said their vote in the December general election would be based on development and its impact on the constituency.

Dormitories of the facility

A resident at Tataana South Electoral Area, Christopher Kojo Worchie, who has lived in the community from the 60s, said he would vote for the NDC parliamentary candidate to ensure more development in the constituency.

Another constituent at Tataana South Electoral Area, Ben Johnson, expressed his interest to vote for the NDC parliamentary candidate but expressed concern about the poor visibility in the electoral area.

“Recently, my wife was stabbed and robbed on this road because there were no street lights and the place was dark at night,” he said.

When the team contacted the Assemblyman of the electoral area, Abdul-Jalil Yakubu, he expressed worry at the security challenge and attributed it to the poor visibility in the area.

“I am currently in my second term as the assemblyman for this electoral area and we are yet to see street light support from either the local or the central government.

The only support we have received for street lights was from the incumbent MP and that is it for my two terms in office.”

“This electoral area hosts the major lorry parks, Madina Market, District Police Headquarters and other national facilities. When it rains, some parts of the area such as Point 5 and its environs get flooded,” he said.

However, a trader at the Madina Market, Sarah Naa Tettey, who is also a constituent from Oyarifa, expressed a different opinion, saying that, “development is crucial but I also prefer an MP who will often engage the constituents.”

“I do not see that in our current MP and so this time around I will try the NPP candidate who has already shown us that he is ready to serve,” she said.

Another constituent, Samuel Abankwa, said a vote for the NPP candidate could stimulate development in the constituency.

Francis Agyei also endorsed the NPP candidate's youth empowerment agenda, affirming that it had secured his vote.

Sosu’s position

When the team visited the incumbent MP in his office at Baba Yara, a community within his constituency, Mr Sosu was highly optimistic about retaining the seat for the NDC with more than 120,000 votes.

“My vision is to offer Madina the best representation and that is what we have been doing in the last three years and eight months because my role as an MP is in three folds, representation, oversight and legislation.

“The MP is an agent of development in the constituency but the situation I find myself in as an MP with my party in opposition means that there are limitations because the central government inspires development through its appointed municipal chief executives and so all that you can do is to draw attention to the developmental issues occasionally.”

“It is for that reason why you saw me leading a demonstration at Danfa for the roads to be fixed but they never constructed it anyway,” he said.

He, however, said as a first time MP he had to use his personal resources to support developmental projects such as bridges, roads, construction of classroom blocks, 12 boreholes for schools, provision of 2,000 street lights and donations to health facilities for the constituency.

“We also have the human development programmes through the Madina Job Centre, which have impacted 7,000 people through training, mentorship and job connection.

Through the Eduscheme we have distributed 23,000 books worth over GH¢1.4 million to support both public and private schools.

“Our health outreach has impacted 10,000 beneficiaries across the constituency,” he said.

Since taking office, Mr Sosu has demonstrated exceptional legislative prowess, sponsoring 17 private member’s bills and securing the passage of two pivotal laws, including the historic repeal of the death penalty and landmark reforms addressing witchcraft persecution.

In the words of the MP for Madina Constituency, he said, “I think we have achieved over 90 per cent of our target projects. The things we couldn’t achieve were the establishment of a mobile clinic, changing all black boards to white boards in all the schools in the constituency and home for aged people,” he said.

NPP’s ‘Okumkɔm’ alternative

When the Daily Graphic visited the office of the NPP parliamentary candidate, Mr Lamptey, also known as Okumkɔm, he said the election was a done deal for the NPP to snatch the seat once again with over 75 per cent of the votes.

This, he said, was because he was offering a solid alternative through his vision of restoration, empowerment, inclusion and service for the constituency.

He urged the constituents to have hope and choose him as the MP to help facilitate the development of the constituency.

He said the NPP government had already laid a strong foundation in the constituency with investment in education, health, water and sanitation, social intervention, peace and security.

“The government has constructed six-unit classroom blocks at Kweiman, three-unit classroom blocks each at Aisha Bintu Khalifa Islamic Basic School and Ayimensah Basic School, construction of three units Teacher’s Bungalow at Danfa, expansion of area town water supply to cater for 15,000 residents at Kweiman, and Agenda 111 hospital project at Danfa,” he added.