Dr. John S. Yaw Eleblu in a group photograph with some party executives
A Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. John Saviour Yaw Eleblu, has launched a campaign to unseat the North Tongu MP, Samuel OkudzetoAblakwa, whom he sees as a “vigilante chasing people for budget overruns.”
According to him, the people of North Tongu deserve a “real MP,” explaining that this means somebody who will represent the people and lobby for jobs and development projects.
He added, “And not somebody who is becoming like a vigilante round chasing people for budget overruns.”
Flanked by party executives and some supporters, Dr. Eleblu, who filed his nominations at the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) office in Battor to contest the party’s parliamentary candidate slot, said the NDC had not done anything to lift the people of North Tongu and Volta Region out of poverty.
“It is only the NPP that cares and we must begin to reward the party with votes,” he intimated.
“It is with great joy that I offer myself to serve the good people of North Tongu through the great NPP. I want to serve my country, region, and district in a leadership position as I have been serving the University of Ghana, the premier University,” Dr. Eleblu noted.
He said he had what it takes to be a parliamentary candidate to challenge the opposition NDC’s candidate to win the seat, saying, “I am very ready to change the narrative of NPP in North Tongu and bring hope to the party folks in the constituency.”
DrEleblu assured that although the NPP has been performing badly in North Tongu, he has the right strategies in place to canvas for votes and topple the NDC.
“Our target is to get 30,000 votes in North Tongu and we have mapped out many complementary strategies to achieve this. The first is our membership drive to register a minimum of 10,000 members,” he disclosed.
He stated that the NPP has made significant contributions to the constituency’s development, including a $34 million investment in the Togorme Irrigation project, which is expected to serve as a foundational infrastructure for the development of agricultural and agribusiness projects for the needed economic transformation.
He stated that the NPP has ensured the construction of new roads in the area, two new courts for the judiciary to promote the quick delivery of justice, the development of a new market complex in Juapong, and many other projects.
Vision for constituency
DrEleblu said he would serve the constituency with transformational leadership of service, transparency, integrity, and honesty.
He also stated that he would establish business development centres in all electoral areas, and that residents would be assisted in starting and growing firms in order to produce wealth.
“I will change our constituency into an agricultural hub to feed North Tongu and the entire country and also for export,” he said.
DrEleblu promised to facilitate the establishment of three Technical, Vocational, Engineering, and Technology (TVET) centres in the constituency to train the youths to become entrepreneurs.
He also assured he would assist qualified youths in the party to gain admission into tertiary institutions of their choice, as well as get employment opportunities in the security services and other government agencies.
Who is Dr. Eleblu?
DrEleblu has thick political roots and is the son of a former parliamentary candidate in the constituency, Christopher Kofi Eleblu, who previously served as director of the internal audit at the Ministry of Health.
He earned a PhD in Plant Biology from the Université Paris Sud 11, Orsay, France on a fully funded scholarship from the University of Ghana and the French Embassy in Ghana.
He holds a BSc and MPhil degrees in Agricultural Science from the University of Ghana.
He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Biotechnology Centre and a Coordinator of Research Programmes at the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Ghana.
He has served as principal investigator on many scientific research projects and has led project teams to train more than 4,000 farmers across West Africa and 300 extension agents.
He has supervised more than 22 PhD students and has over 30 scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals to his credit.
He has won more than 4 grant-funded projects in 8 years of working with the University of Ghana. He has supported and led project proposal development which has contributed towards raising more than $10 million from prominent donor institutions such as the World Bank, African Union, European Union, International Atomic Energy Agency, and the KGL Foundation, for the University of Ghana.
By Ernest Kofi Adu