RE:NPP LOVES KAMARAS THAN THE NDC-NPP.

Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese
(0244198031)

It is very refreshing to note that after failing the good people of Damongo Constituency, the NPP surrogates have decided to dabble in ethnocentrism and tribal politics. I am excessively bruised and ashamed as a Kamara who has high expectations for the Kamaras not only those who are back home in Laribanga and Nabori but Kamaras all over the world. We always deserve better because we are not one of those mediocre group of people who are so inward-looking that, nothing of external pricks our conscience. We deserve better as Kamaras!

It’s very interesting reading an article written by one Habib Mandeya with the caption: NPP loves Kamaras more than the NDC. In this article, one Osman Iddi who is supposed to be the NPP coordinator for the Laribanga electoral area was quoted in the context of the above caption. A further elaboration sought to highlight some scattered dots of development that the NPP undertook in Laribanga ONLY. Without much I do, I wish to add to these scattered dots of development projects but this time, not only would it be from the perspective of the NDC but it would be as comprehensive as possible. But let me say that the Kamara people are predominantly spread across Laribanga and Nabori so this would as well include the works of the NDC in Nabori.

Under electrification:
To begin with, it was under NDC that Laribanga was connected to the National Grid alongside Damongo and Canteen. In fact, Laribanga was the only community that was chosen outside of Damongo to be connected in 1998/99. So any other economic activity that operates with the support of electricity in Laribanga should be credited to the NDC. NPP in power for the 8 long years couldn’t erect a single streetlight to boost the security situation in Laribanga until the return of the NDC in 2009. Even as we speak the NPP is in power with a Kamara as a DCE and a Kamara appointee to the Hajj Board, but it has to take an NDC MP to replace fused bulbs and changed most of the streetlights  to LED streetlights. After the NPP failed woefully in the area of rural electrification, the return of the NDC saw the connection of Nabori to the national grid and got the entire community connected with streetlights to boost the security situation. In fact, Nabori was selected amongst two other communities (Busunu and Achubunyor) to be connected before the massive connection along the Fufulso-Damongo-Sawla road.

Under Education the following were/are the projects undertaken by the NDC in Laribanga and Nabori: the first ever school block in Laribanga was built by the NDC which is opposite the Laribanga park. It wasn’t just a single structure but other two structures were built alongside by same NDC. Also, A 6 unit classroom block was built opposite the Laribanga mystic stone. It is not true that it is the NPP that built the first teacher’s bungalow in Laribanga. There was a teacher’s quarters built by the NDC way before the coming of the NPP in 2001 which they came to add to, so my friend should do his research very well. Another three unit classroom block was under construction before NDC left power and it had to take the NDC members in Laribanga to ask for the school to be completed after its blocks were moved to construct a pavilion in Sieyiri. The first Kindergarten in Laribanga was built by the NDC government opposite the Mystic stone which was ably supported by USAID. The current teacher’s quarters at Nabori was built by the NDC in 2010.

Under health:
The NPP in 8 years from 2001 to 2008 struggled to complete just a two side-rooms CHPS compound for the people of Laribanga but couldn’t. Before they left office in 2008, the people of Laribanga still struggled to share the Mole Health Centre or at best travel on bicycles with pregnant women to the West Gonja District Hospital. The NDC MP and the DCE in 2011 came to complete the structure, furnished and commissioned it into use in July 2011. In the course of the commissioning, the then DCE promised to convert the said facility into a Health Centre by providing additional facilities for nurses to stay in Laribanga instead of traveling tro and fro Damongo to attend to patients. In view of this promise, additional two semi detached nurses bungalows were constructed by the DCE through DDF. As a result of the construction of the Fufulso-Damongo-Sawla road, an additional bigger facility with OPD and other units where patients can admitted have been provided and another two semi detached nurses bungalows constructed to house all staff with in Laribanga. This facility was furnished with up to date equipment for effective delivery of services. A mechanized borehole was drilled by this facility to serve the Health Centre and the staff with water. The MP for Damongo, Hon Adam Mutawakilu then added an Ambulance in 2016 to make the Centre more effective with emergency services. When the ambulance later broke down, the NPP government refused to fix it and it has to take the MP to still call for the Ambulance to be fixed as though it were his personal property. It’s still been worked on after the current administration refused to work on it.

The Fufulso-Damongo-Sawla road project didn’t pass through Laribanga just like that, it came with ancillary facilities. Under the project, a parking lot was constructed at the entrance of the Mystic stone, 6 mechanized boreholes were drilled in addition to an already drilled mechanized borehole which the people still refers to as “John Mahama”. A dam was also built as a result of the construction of of the road which is still the single most biggest source of water for building and other economic activities for the people of Laribanga. Due to this, the people have named it the “Chinese dam”.

In order to empower the women in the West Gonja District, the NDC government through the DCE and for that matter the District Assembly initiated the village savings and loans scheme in collaboration with Jaksali in 2011. In order to sustain this, the DCE through the District Assembly committed funds as collateral so that some level of trust was injected into the operations of Jaksali. Today, other organizations like the World Vision and the rest have joined this scheme and the District has not less than 380 women groups and counting. The first time it was rolled out, just a little about 4 groups were enrolled from Laribanga, today we are talking about more than 40 of these groups and still growing. This was a novelty and the most single initiative that is supporting families to sustain their economic activities and survival.

As for the issue of who was/is appointed by which government, the output and its relative impact on the lives of the people should form the bases of our conversation and not just the mere fact that they are our own. I have decided to build my argument on this analogy because of the position and posture of the NPP in not only Damongo Constituency but the entire Gonjaland to the effect that, our support as Gonjalanders for the NDC shouldn’t be because Former President John Mahama is one of us but what his contribution to the development of the place has being. When we mention the massive infrastructure and human capital developments in Gonjaland under John Mahama as President, they still tell us it’s not enough. So I dare say that the people of Laribanga haven’t had enough of developments with their own being at the helm of affairs according to the narrative of the NPP in the Damongo Constituency. But Osman has just told us that Mr Haruna Yussif, who is an elected constituency executive of the NDC in the Damongo Constituency isn’t a Kamara or less of a Kamara as Alhaji Adam who is the Constituency chairman of the NPP by accident . Or maybe the current Presiding Member of the West Gonja District Assembly, Mr Katribi, is less of a Kamara as he Osman Iddi. Is that good enough for our brotherhood? It’s a shame!

We are yet to see the completion of a single room of the so called Islamic Secondary School in Laribanga since it took the NPP 8 long years to build just one single CHPS compound.

Shalom 🙏🙏.