General News of Saturday, 19 March 2011

Source: Daily Democrat

Adjaho Must Go - Concerned Youth

…He is selfish, arrogant and visionless

...Has done little for Ave/Avenor

The Member of Parliament for Ave-Avenor, Mr. Edward Korbly Doe Adjaho has been described as a “selfish, arrogant and visionless legislator” who, the constituents are saying, must go on retirement in 2012.

Mr. Adjaho, the first deputy speaker of parliament and one of the longest serving members of Ghana’s parliament, is currently under attack from majority of his party members in the constituency and the constituents in general for what they described as a “selfish attempt to contest again on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the sixth time without any primaries.” According to the irate youth, his decision to contest again in 2012 will contravene his 2008 pledge to the party’s constituency executives that they should rally behind him to win the 2008 elections which would be his last time to contest.

The youth want to know why Mr. Adjaho would want to change his earlier pledge, which was applauded and accepted by all in those days, and now deciding to re-contest to enable him stay in parliament again.

An NDC youth activist, who identified himself as Daddy Poison immediately after the inaugural ceremony for the newly elected assembly members at Akatsi in the Volta Region, said they (the youth) were only patiently waiting for Mr. Adjaho to make an attempt of picking the nomination forms, “There, he (Adjaho) would know how stubborn and vicious we the youth of his constituency are”. Asked what they will do, should Mr. Adjaho picks up the nomination’s forms to seek for re-election, Daddy Poison said, “we are waiting for the D-day before thinking of what action to take.”

According to Daddy Poison, Mr. Adjaho has been in parliament for close to 20 years with little achievements for his area, and queried whether the MP is in parliament for only noise making and the use of big vocabularies? Daddy Poison underscored that it is not because he has been kept in parliament for all this while, that made him, (Adjaho) to think that he is the only qualified and competent person in the area , “which is not true” he remarked. When this reporter got to the Akatsi Old Market, the youth gathered were interviewed on the achievements of the MP and his chances of winning the next elections should he present himself again in 2012.

Surprisingly, not even a single person could praise the MP of the area for his performance, “He (Adjaho) only makes a lot of noise parliament but when it comes to development in his constituency is zero” and added, “As for us, come 2012 general elections, we shall see who actually represents us in order to bring massive development in the constituency”. At the Ave area of the constituency, a student leader, Mr. Adenyo said not much had been received from the MP since “our schools still lack computers, educational materials like books and none of the schools in the area has been hooked onto the School Feeding Programme” and asked “if it is not strange to have such a vociferous person as your MP but still struggling to develop in terms of infrastructure?” He, however, commended Mr. Adjaho for listening to the demands by Ave youth for assisting Ave Senior High School, by releasing a school bus through the GET Fund and an amount for the school infrastructural development. According to Mr. Adenyo, despite the fact that Mr. Adjaho has assisted the school, the youth are calling him to step aside for a fresh candidate come 2012 so that, “somebody can also bring new and better ideas on board for the development of the area”.

An acting secretary of a group calling itself, “Ave Pressure Group” and a former president of Ave Students Association, Mr. Anthony Kwaku Amoah said, for him he had nothing more to say than to wait patiently for those who will be presenting themselves for election 2012.

He said he, together with others, were vindicated a couple of months ago that Mr Adjaho is nonperforming and has to be changed but indicated, “Thank God, our people are beginning to see things clearer and for that matter, very objective in their criticisms.”

All attempts to get the MP’s comments on the allegations have been unsuccessful.