While we grief over the loss of our honourable son, we still need to move on with our lives in the constituency. We do welcome individual citizens interested in contesting for the position made vacant by the late Hon. Wiredu. Ideally, it would have been appreciated that the body of the late honourable gentleman be buried; the best awards offered him and bid the final goodbye accepted by his vibrant undying spirit before seeking his replacement. However, the timing of his departure sets us all into restless motion that allows local politicking. But it is absolutely unacceptable to campaign acrimoniously using the name of the late honourable minister in pretence to score cheap points.

In a recent article by this author (Order, Order …. Point of Order) the question on political bitterness in our fold was addressed. We should attack our common problem with decency, discipline, maturity and fair play. At the end of the day, only one person will have to go to Accra to represent Asante-Akyem North Constituency. The author trusts that all the contestants are equally qualified to represent our constituency. What we would not want to see is our congressional district drifting into anarchy and notoriety. We demand respect for one another and a pledge to support the winner. Asante-Akyem North requires assembling all our former MPs into a constituent advisory board and development committee that future MPs would have to seek wisdom from. The winner would therefore need to cross the political aisle to beckon our citizens for development sake. Please do no force yourself to the august house if your sole aim is to go and enrich yourself in the parliament at the expense of the poor folks out there. Asante-Akyem citizens in the Diaspora led by this author are going to make life in the parliament house extremely unbearable for whoever wins the seat regardless of party affiliation, gender, etc. if the person lacks the basic skills to represent a community. And you are warned!

Asante-Akyem North has slowed developments over years and we need a proactive representative to liaise with all citizens anywhere on the globe. This author has set his 24-hour monitoring radar on the next Asante-Akyem North MP to keep him or her on the tows. The next MP must be development conscious, available to communicate with the community, and ready to serve not superimpose. We will all be readily available to offer assistance be it in finance, technical advise, special assignment, etc. to boost and increase the political acumen of the Asante-Akyem North MP. We deserve the best and are ready to pay dearly to develop our constituency; therefore the MP must be ready to lead a highly critical community of experts, no gimmicks, no favouritism, no liars, and no time wasters. We need a people’s person to pursue investments long overdue for Asante-Akyem North Constituency. We are closely monitoring developments; hence our quietness must not be misconstrued for taking fugitive errands.

We call upon the National Executive Committee of the NPP to create clearly laid down rules that can be easily communicated to the people to understand and follow. The voting site must remain in one place at all times, and that is in Konongo. Any change of venue that seems treacherous brings hate and bitterness. Voting must be free and fair with equal chances given to all contestants to campaign and/or make some presentations during the voting day, if necessary and constitutionally permitted.

Please let the people decide who they want to represent them. Any form of coercive smartness of a contestant perceived to be closely aligned with the NEC brings the authenticity of the team into dispute. Too much use of the law enforcement agents unnecessarily, perceived to favour a contestant against the others, questions the fairness of the NEC since the action as occurred previously looked more like the Kremlin’s Politburo political upheavals that tend to destroy itself. The invitation of numerous MPs from other constituencies and ministers of state to witness and beef up support for an NEC-anointed contestant against the others as it occurred previously should not recur this time.

The demise of most of our political careers is caused by our unacceptable diabolical behaviours. It is our collective expectations that our National Executive Committee will set a special strategy to cool the existing tempers in Asante-Akyem North Constituency created by the previous harangue. Asante-Akyem has continuously remained liberal democratic in the UP tradition and please let us all help maintain that noble direction.

The NEC must act responsibly, the contestants must behave, and Asante-Akyem must remain peaceful. And God be with us all as we finalize our constituent political decision making. Cheers!

Konongo Fordjour, Boston-USA

E-Mail: koafordjour@yahoo.com