Don't threaten government with demands in exchange for votes – Woyongo

Mr. Mark Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister, has appealed to communities and various political groups in the region to stop threatening government with demands in exchange for their votes in the December elections.

Mr. Woyongo said the election was just one month away and certainly not the best time for people to try to take advantage and threaten government with conditions to meet before winning their support.

Mr. Woyongo made the appeal during the opening of a day's Capacity Building Workshop for the Navrongo branch of "Volunteers for Mahama".

He said development was a process and that it was highly impossible for government to meet the demands of every Ghanaian at the same time.

The Regional Minister said government had chalked a lot of unprecedented successes in the area of roads, health, expansion of education infrastructure, provision of potable water and the introduction of various agricultural interventions to boost productivity of smallholder farmers to enhance food security and reduce poverty.

Mr. Woyongo said those achievements by the government were just a tip of the iceberg and appealed to the people to vote for President John Dramani Mahama and his parliamentary aspirants to experience real developmental take-off from the strong foundation that had been laid.

He commended the “Volunteers for Mahama” for coming out strongly and willingly to work for victory for President Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), adding that they would certainly be remembered in his success story.

Mr. Moses Dramani Luri, District Chief Executive (DCE) for Sissala West, said the NDC believed in transparency and accountability and the rule of law and advised the volunteers to be guided by those core principles and conduct themselves appropriately during their campaign activities.

He said the NDC had demonstrated that it was a government for all in the distribution of the national cake, adding that within the last four years, there was no community which did not benefit from the government.

Mr. Luri stated that the spirit of volunteerism was dying among the youth and commended those who had volunteered to work for President Mahama for their effort.

He expressed the hope that it would help rekindle the volunteerism spirit among the youth.

Mr. Wudah Daniel, Coordinator of the group, said the capacity building programme was intended to equip the members with information about the achievements of the government to enable them to campaign effectively to retain the party in power.