Dome-Kwabenya political cauldron heats up

…as Adwoa Sarfo leads the chase for the NPP ticket

By: Justice Lee

Political temperature in the Dome-Kwabenya constituency has been rising for some time now with various interest groups in the two major political parties, NPP and NDC floating various candidates for the primaries leading to the 2012 general elections.

However, adrenalines are beginning to pump faster as a result of the announcement that the incumbent Member of Parliament, NPP’s own Mike Oquaye.
Already Mike Nii Nortey Oquaye Jr, Robert Osei Bonsu and Adwoa Sarfo, daughter of Kristo Asafo’s Kodwo Sarfo are beginning to slug it out on the NPP turf with Adwoa Sarfo having a slight edge over her two male opponents.

She is so popular among party faithfuls in the constituency that, with Prof. Oquaye’s abysmal performance in terms of delivering development to the constituency, although she comes on as an underdog, she will give Mike Oquaye Jr a very GOOD run for his money.
Mike Oquaye Jr, although a son of the outgoing MP, and with a number of media appearances to his credit, does not look like the obvious candidate because constituents this reporter spoke to said NPP would be making a BIG mistake selecting the young lawyer since it would look like a dynasty, from father to son kind of thing, giving NDC a big advantage.
However, Mike Oquaye Jr is expected to put up a good fight to keep up the internal political temperature which foot-soldiers have been yearning for since the 2008 polls were over.
In their desperation, supporters of Oquaye Jr are beginning to throw mud at Adwoa Sarfo using the alleged different paternities of her two kids to campaign against her while there are also rumours of vote buying going on.
Robert Osei Bonsu lives at Hatso, just as Mike Oquaye Jr, and is relatively unknown in main-line politics, although spoken well of by those who know him.
He appears to be a candidate for the future, not the current primaries, but chances are that he could emerge as a compromise choice should there arise any tensed moments between the Adwoa Sarfo and Mike Oquaye Jr camps.
For NPP’s chances at retaining the seat, it may take the ethnic spread of the constituency to save the situation, because the Dome-Kwabenya constituency is one of the most deprived in spite of the high calibre of people who live in some of its communities. Places like Hatso, Ecomog, Atomic/ Atomic Down, Ashongman Estates, and Kwabenya townships have some of the crème de la crème of the Ghanaian society living there.
It also has masses of young executives plying their vocations with financial institutions including the central bank, telecommunications companies, oil companies etc, who together with the big boys in the area will, on a good day make informed choices devoid of ethnic inclinations.
However, the most densely populated areas in the constituency are Dome and Taifa where majority of the residents belong to ethnic groups with entrenched political bias.
These two communities will decide which part eventually wins the constituency. Dome for NDC and Taifa for NPP, and depending on how much vote the other communities bring along, Dome-Kwabenya may go either way.
This notwithstanding, the conditions of the place including the lack of portable drinking water especially in most parts of Hatso, Ecomog, Ashongman Estates, Kwabenya and other smaller communities could be one of the Achilles’ heal for any NPP candidate as the outgoing MP failed woefully to deliver.
Water tanker business, sinking of boreholes and water vending are some of the businesses that thrive so much in the area with the average households spending as much as 20 Ghana cedis on waterweekly.
In addition to this, the road network to Taifa, Ashongman Estates is so bad with huge pits expanding by the day in the middle of the road as if nobody cares what happens to the drivers.
The whole stretch of road from Atomic round-about to Ashongman Estates is so narrow, drivers have to maneuver carefully to drive to the estates and back. It has no side drains causing a lot of inconvenience for drivers especially because the area is one of the wettest parts of the capital due to an all-year-round rainfall pattern.
The part of the road around the community called Musuku on the way to Ashongman Estates is the most dangerous part and would need serious attention, not just for political expediency, but to avert road accidents
Some residents fumed last week when they heard Mike Oquaye Jr and Zita Okai Quaye, the NDC hopeful haggling on radio over who was responsible for the development activities going n in the constituency.
“Where is the development activity they are fighting over to take credit?” Benjamin Nartey a school teacher in the area fumed.
However, the recent arbitrary increases in transport fares and the lack of easy access to and from the area are some conditions NPP is hoping to take advantage of.
It is difficult for workers who reside in the Ashongman estates in particular to commute to work and back because of the unwillingness of commercial drivers to ply that rout.
Moreover when drivers increased their fares by as high as 60% instead of the approved 18 % transport sector regulators looked on unconcerned, leaving the people at the mercy of the greedy transport owners and their drivers.
This situation has the potential of pitching the people against the NDC.
Stay tuned.