Manso Nkwanta candidate rolls up sleeves to win seat
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Manso Nkwanta, Samuel Adjei, is counting on the youth and women groups as his main trump card to change the fortunes of the party and win the seat for the first time since 1996.
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He is overburdened with the poor and deplorable roads of the constituency but that ambition of helping fix it would have to wait till he wins the seat for NDC and then lobby for it to be constructed.
Mr Adjei’s main focus to brighten his chances of changing the narrative in the constituency is giving hope to the youth through a number of apprenticeship programmes to build their capacities to make a claim, especially in the mining sector.
The former Tertiary Education Network (TEIN) Ashanti regional student’s coordinator at the University for Development Studies, Wa campus, now Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Mr Adjei has also launched an educational project with a group of partners where all junior high school dropouts are to be provided with remedial classes for free and register them to write the Basic Education Certificate Examination.
Mr Adjei told the Daily Graphic after his victory that his focus on the education of the youth was critical to his victory in the general election.
Mr Adjei, a holder of a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from the former UDS, Wa Campus and a Master of Arts Degree in Communication Studies from the University of Cape Coast, said a lot of the youth have been misled in the past, contributing to the NDC’s poor performance in the constituency.
“For instance, despite the fact that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been winning the seat since 1996, they have nothing to show in the area, yet the people keep voting for them.
Due to the weak educational background of the youth, they tend to believe anything they are told including lies and I want to change that,” he said.
Mr Adjei, a communications expert and a member of the Ashanti Region communication team won last Saturday’s primary by a single vote beating his only contender, Bance Musa Osmane.
He garnered 512 as against 511 votes by Osmane in a keenly contested election.
At the 2020 general election, Osmane managed only 10,798 (23.8 per cent) votes as against 34, 408 by NPP’s George Kwabena Obeng Takyi, representing 76.1 per cent.
Osmane’s 23.8 per cent remains one of the best and even better than the 14.3 per cent he gained in the 2016 election, giving the seat away to the NPP incumbent
Member of Parliament, George Kwabena Obeng Takyi, who had 83.3 per cent.
Change
But Mr Adjei said the performance of the party has not been good enough, the reason why he wanted to change the status quo.
A native of the town, specifically from Tetrem, he has already mobilised women groups and paid experts to train them in various hands-on projects including soap making and dress making.
“I believe the women hold the key to success.
They outnumber the males, and once they get empowered, no one will be able to deceive them,” the current final year student offering Bachelor of Law Degree at Presbyterian University, Ghana and the SRC President for 2022/2023 academic year said.
Positions
Mr Adjei is the former branch secretary at Tetrem (2014-2018) and the director of elections of the Manso Nkwanta Constituency during the 2020 general election.