Dome/Kwabenya: Adwoa Safo, Oquaye Jnr face-off again

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has won the Dome/Kwabenya Parliamentary seat in the last three general election.

The Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, was the NPP Member of Parliament (NPP) for Dome-Kwabenya for two terms (2004 to 2012).

His son, Mr Mike Aaron Nii Nortey Oquaye Jnr, decided to follow in his father’s footsteps by contesting the Dome/Kwabenya seat in 2012 together with the incumbent, Ms Sarah Adwoa Safo.

He however lost to Ms Safo, who went on to secure the seat for the NPP in the 2012 general election. She retained the seat for the NPP in the 2016 general election.

NPP parliamentary primaries

As the NPP gears up for its parliamentary primaries in areas where it has sitting MPs on April 25, 2020, the two, Ms Safo and Mr Oquaye Jnr, are going toe-to-toe once again.

So far, they are the only candidates who filed their nomination forms to vie for the position to lead the NPP in the Dome/Kwabenya Constituency for the 2020 parliamentary election.

The two candidates have laced their boots and are busy campaigning to get the nod from the delegates on April 25, 2020.

The filing of their nomination forms was marked with a float through some streets of the Dome/Kwabenya area.

Analysis

The incumbent, Ms Safo, seems to have a huge following from women in the constituency while her close rival, Mr Oquaye Jnr, has a following largely made of the male youth because of his promise of creating commercial ventures for the youth.

Checks by the Daily Graphic on the reason for the disparity in the followers of both candidates in terms of gender has revealed that Ms Safo is known for undertaking social transformation projects largely targeted at women and children.

Some of her transformation projects targeted at women and children include, the provision of a revolving fund of GH¢50,000 to be given out as soft loans to women in the constituency to trade, the construction of a two-storey maternity clinic at Haatso which is yet to be inaugurated, the construction of a modern market complex comprising 700 stalls and shops at Dome Market and the provision of scholarships for students who excel in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.

Followers of Mr Oquaye Jnr believe, the time is ripe for a fresh limb to represent the party in the Dome/Kwabenya Constituency.

While Ms Safo will be banking her hopes on the numerous infrastructural projects undertaken under her leadership, Mr Oquaye Jnr will hope his Programme of Action for Dome/Kwabenya will lure the delegates to give him the nod.

His Programme of Action includes the empowerment of women through skills training and provision of credit facilities, provision of more police stations for the constituency, provision of a fire service station, provision of jobs for the youth and the provision of scholarships for students to pursue high education outside Ghana.

The incumbent, Ms Safo is likely to get the nod to represent the party in the 2020 general election as she has proven to deliver on most of her promises to the people.

Some constituents the Daily Graphic spoke to said Mr Oquaye Jnr was out of touch with the people as a result of his ambassadorial position which took him out of the country most of the time.

As a result, maintaining Ms Safo will enhance the parties chances of winning the parliamentary seat in the constituency.

Statistics

Performance of NPP as compared to the NDC over the years

Presidential

2004 2008 2012 2016

NPP: 65.7% 60.3% 61.9%

NDC: 32.9% 38.0% 37.5%

Parliamentary

NPP: 65.5% 57.7% 63.8%

NDC: 32.3% 39.5% 35.6%