Emmanuel Korsi Bodja
The Volta Regional Organiser of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Emmanuel Korsi Bodja has indicated that the party is determined to increase its base in the Volta Region.
According to him, the party’s long-standing strategy of gradually winning the region over is gaining grounds so much that the real fruits will be reaped from 2024.
Mr Bodja disclosed this in reaction to the party’s performance in the just-ended 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.
He explained that contrary to claims that the party in the region will be “a disaster” after the creation of the Oti region, the party in the Volta Region has done even better.
The Oti region until its creation was the part of the then Volta Region that voted more for the NPP as compared to the southern part which is now the new Volta Region.
But, the new Volta Region even without Oti region still increased its popular votes in the 2020 elections with 100,481 votes representing about 14% of the valid votes cast. Aside from that, the region managed to win a seat in Hohoe and closed the gap in Ketu North which is also likely to become an NPP seat in 2024.
According to him, while the NDC has been focusing on its tribal and ethnocentric mind games on the people, they have invested time in attending to the real needs of the people and connecting with them beyond, tribe, class, background and affiliations.
It is “working like magic, thanks to the able leadership of the Regional Chairman, Makafui Woanyah who insists that NDC is not a Ewe party.”
Moving into 2021 and beyond the party, he said is confident in its many developmental initiatives since the time of former President Kufour to that of President Akufo-Addo. “The NPP accounts for about 68 per cent of the monumental development in the region,” he stressed.
These include roads, educational and health infrastructure, agric development and industrial support among others. He said but for the NPP, the regional capital will not be elevated into municipal status. More so the transformation of Ho to meet regional capital status was done under the NPP through the construction of roads, traffic lights, streetlights, drainages and bridges among others.
To this end, it is not surprising that Hohoe Constituency has experienced a similar transformation under the NPP. He noted that with John Peter Amewu as the MP, the area will see more transformation for the people of the region to see the difference between an NPP member of parliament and an NDC member of parliament.
Mr. Bodja noted that just as the Regional Chairman, Makafui Woanyah has always maintained, “we as party executives will ensure that the Volta region has its fair share of the national cake. We will keep pressuring the appointees from the region till they deliver to the satisfaction of the people.”
From Fred Duodu, Ho (k.duodu@yahoo.com)