Eva Lokko opens up on her Parliamentary ambition
The Korle Klottey Constituency gained popularity following the internal wrangling within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
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While the NPP had to resort to a re-run of polls after a protracted court case between Lawyer Philip Addison and Nii Noi Nortey, the NDC is yet to settle on one candidate to run for the seat as incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Nii Armah Ashietey had sued Dr Ezenator Rawlings the elected candidate, saying she was not qualified to contest in the primary.
As members in the constituency await the judgement from the court, Miss Eva Lokko, who was the running mate to Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, the Progressive Peoples Party’s (PPP) Presidential Candidate in the 2012 elections, announced that she had joined the race.
The move, which came off like a political demotion for the former Director of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), was later explained as part of the PPP’s bigger strategy to winning more parliamentary seats in the November polls.
She said the PPP believed in teamwork so she came on board to help the party achieve its ultimate aim in the November elections and beyond.
Miss Lokko told The Mirror last week that joining the race had opened her eyes to some real issues facing members in the constituency.
She said although some people belonged to party A or B, they were ready to accept and vote for a candidate who was ready to deliver and not just make empty promises.
“The constituency is popular because it has been in the news so many times, but aside that, there is no popular or favourite party.
“What we have actually gathered is that people are tired of their parties and some have also defected because they felt the wrong people have been given the power for a long time.
“Our aim is to work hard to prove ourselves,” she explained.
Most of the development in the constituency, she said was done by private entities who could no longer sustain them because of the high rate of tax and other situations such as ‘dumsor’(erractic power supply) which directly affects their businesses.
She said when elected, the first thing she would tackle is to get the people together to work as a team.
She believes that when they understand the need to work together, development would be much easier.
Key amongst her projects are job creation, education and sanitation.
Miss Lokko attended the Wesley Girls’ High School in Cape Coast. She is an engineer by profession and holds a master's degree in Intelligent Management Systems, System Analysis and Design.
She is the chief executive officer of Totally Youth, a non governmental organisation based in Accra.
In 2002, she was appointed Director General of the GBC, becoming the first and only woman to have held that position since the corporation was established in 1953.
She was the first woman to be chosen as a vice-presidential candidate for the PPP.