The Minister-designate for the Oti region, Dr. Joshua Makubu has said although the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has not won any parliamentary seat in the 2020 general elections, he is confident that the pattern will change in the future.
According to him, although many NPP folks were disappointed in the election outcome, he believes that election is a continuous process adding that: "even though we did not win the parliamentary election the people in Oti region have demonstrated that yes the region that they’ve created for us is the reason for us to support the New Patriotic Party and the election is a continuous process it’s not a one-off thing”.
He continued that, although he is not happy with the Parliamentary results, his joy is that they have been able to garner more votes for the President in the 2020 polls than in previous elections.
“in as much as I was disappointed and still disappointed in the turn out of our parliamentary results in Oti region, I’ll be one of last people to feel that the people of Oti were not grateful to the President”
He also gave an analysis of the results saying: “if you look at our parliamentary performance in Nkwanta South, we were talking of a gap of over 12,000 as per the 2016 parliamentary result, and this gap has been closed to somewhere a little above 4,000 it tells you that we’re doing well. if you look at Nkwanta North, a gap of over 9,000 we pushed it and then we lost it by a margin of 1,600 votes, go to Krachi West, a gap of over 5,000 we closed it and we lost it by less than a thousand votes,” he mentioned.
The Minister who is yet to be vetted by Parliament further added that there is no reason to think that the Oti region has not been grateful to the President.
“we are not too happy we are disappointed but then Oti region has done well, Volta region has about 18 constituencies as against 8 constituencies in the Oti region, presidential votes they (Volta) gave 100,000, so if 8 is giving 103,000, then we have done our best” he observed.
Dr. Joshua Makubu, who was speaking during a brief media engagement on Tuesday, 9 February 2021 in Nkwanta, however, noted that if the right strategies are being put in place in the future, NPP will take over the Oti region from the NDC.
“I’m very confident that putting the right strategies in place, we should see the NPP nursing most of the seats in the Oti region to compensate. Those days, the Oti region we were around 74,000 but risen from 74,000 to somewhere 103,000 within a space of four years tells you that the creation of the region actually played a role” he said.