2020 Elections: Ursula Owusu Ekuful ready to retain seat?

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ablekuma West Constituency, Mrs Ursula Owusu Ekuful, has ‘laced her boots’ to retain the parliamentary seat of the party by throwing a challenge to anyone who wants to contest her to come on board.

She said if anyone thought they were bold and courageous and could face her, “the doors of the constituency office is open”.

“We have not started the campaigning yet, we just came to submit our forms. If you think you are courageous come and face me. What we have done so far is just comedy,” she said.

Mrs Owusu Ekuful, who is also the Minister of Communications, said that last Friday shortly after submitting her forms to contest the parliamentary primary of the NPP for the constituency.

Nominations are expected to close on February 20, 2020 and so far only Mrs Owusu Ekuful has filed her nomination, the Ablekuma West Constituency Chairman, Mr Bright Osei-Puni, has said.

Procession

Before the submission of the forms, Mrs Owusu Ekuful embarked on a procession from her campaign office at Zodiac through to the Dansoman Roundabout, Mama’s Inn, Bechem Junction, Exhibition market and then finally to the Exhibition Roundabout to the Ablekuma West Constituency office of the ruling party.

Mrs Owusu Ekuful, who was standing in an open-top vehicle, responded to cheers from party supporters and passers-by as she led the procession amidst brass band music and hiplife music from loud speakers mounted aboard another vehicle.

Excited supporters clad in the MP’s T-shirts also distributed flyers showing some of the works done by the MP in the constituency to pedestrians, those who came out of their homes and commercial and private car drivers.

Commended

When Mrs Owusu Ekuful mounted the stage, she said the people in the constituency were witnesses to the good works done by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and herself for the past three years and one and a half months.

“There is no household in Ghana which has not felt the positive impact of the change that we voted for in 2016,” she said.

She said the love shown by the people in walking with her from Zodiac to the party office to submit her forms was an indication of the fact that they had acknowledged the good works of the government.

She said, for instance, the issue of roads, which was a big problem in the constituency, was being addressed and that the government had begun improving the road networks in the constituency.

“Before the President declared the year 2020 as the year of roads, we had started ours in 2019. So if anybody doubts that they should come and see Ablekuma West,” she said.

She mentioned the end of the power crisis (dumsor), free senior high school (SHS) programme, planting for food and jobs, information and communication technology laboratory, small loans to about 2,000 people, among others, as some of the good works that had been done by the government and in the constituency.

“We are focused and on course to do more. You are all witnesses to what we are doing because the votes that you gave us are what we are using to improve the country. Please continue to help us because we would not disappoint you,” she said.

Development

Mrs Owusu Ekuful said this was not the time for experiment since the country had gone too far in terms of development, saying that “so we are not about to hand over the governance of this country to people who have no clue on how to govern, who have no clue on how to manage our economy, who are the reviewer’s general, reviewing what someone has done”.

“Come out with an original idea and try it and let’s see,” she said.

Ghana, she said, was on the move and there was no way the country was going to retrogress. She, therfore, urged the people to vote for her on April 25 for the good works to continue.

“We just don’t talk, we are working and we would continue to work,” she said.

She thanked the people for showing love to her on Valentine’s Day by coming in their numbers.

Mr Osei-Puni said so far it was only Mrs Owusu-Ekuful who had picked and submitted forms to contest for the parliamentary primary.