Public intellectual, lawyer and professor, Stephen Kwaku Asare, known better as Kwaku Azar, has condemned the Ayawaso West Municipal Assembly for ordering John Dumelo to stop dredging gutters in the municipality, proposing that the assembly should have coordinated with him to complete the dredging he had begun.

John Dumelo, a Parliamentary candidate on the ticket of opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC) in the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency, had been ordered to stop dredging gutters in the municipality because, apparently, he had no permission from the Municipal Assembly to undertake the exercise.

But Prof Azar stressed that if the assembly is unable or unwilling to undertake the important exercise of dredging gutters to avert flooding as the rains have set in, it should not stand in the way of persons doing so.

He conceded that even though Mr Dumelo should have coordinated with the municipality, his inability should not have led to the assembly stopping him.

“Yes, such help must be coordinated but that coordination should not be used as an occasion for bureaucratization and further denying the people of a service that they need but are not getting from the municipalities,” he posited.

“The Ayawaso West Municipal Assembly should welcome Mr. Dumelo’s effort to dredge the gutters in the municipality.

Rather than ordering him to stop, the assembly should contact and coordinate with him to complete, maintain and sustain the much needed dredging exercise.



As a voter and resident of that constituency, I welcome Mr. Dumelo’s voluntary spirit in identifying and addressing a problem that I see whenever I go for a walk…

The Assembly is unable or unwilling to dredge these gutters and fix these roads. They should not stand in the way of help,” he argued.

For him Ghana must strive to avoid the phenomenon of preventing others from doing things when they are unable to do it themselves.

“The new Ghana must reject all forms of Konongo Kayaism,” he stated.