Election 2016: Know your female parliamentary candidates
They are women who have resolved to serve their country by becoming law-makers in Parliament and we want you, our dear readers, to become familiar with all of them through weekly features starting from this issue.
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We hope the information we put out about them would, in some way, help voters make up their minds about the people they want to represent them in Parliament.
Maame Efua Sekyi-Aidoo 
NDC parliamentary candidate, Trobu Constituency, Greater Accra Region
The great thinker, William Shakespeare, once said some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
The latter seems to sum up the description of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for the Trobu Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, Maame Efua Sekyi-Aidoo.
Politics has often been tagged as a dirty game and a male-dominated field and one would have thought that someone whose father is a medical doctor and mother, a broadcast journalist, would have spared herself the rough-and-tumble of this game.
However, Ms Sekyi-Aidoo is a towering figure and believes she is into politics to break the long-held notion that politics is a game for men.
This zeal spurred her on into beating four other contestants in the NDC primaries to win with 65 per cent margin.
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She admits the political tuff can be very slippery for women but believes she is ready to wrest power from the incumbent Member of Parliament, Mr Moses Anim.
On her motivation to enter into active politics, the ever-smiling Ms Sekyi-Aidoo says she believes politics is a bigger platform for her to “touch more lives” with her philanthropic works.
Her compassion to help people, she notes, is leveraged on the wide range of experiences she garnered as a child especially, how her military doctor father used to treat people free of charge.
To her, that humility drove her into establishing “Walk Tall Africa Foundation,” a philanthropic organisation which seeks to empower women and all socially handicapped people in the society.
She notes that factors such as cultural constraints, financial impediments and perception that society holds about women has kept women backward but it was time women were given their due in the society.
“Women are naturally responsible, reliable and have the power to repair things,” she adds.
The CEO of Image Consortium, an event management and logistics company, hopes to change the economic and the social architecture of her constituents if she gets the nod to represent them in parliament on November 7.
The aspiring legislator is passionate about education; building the capacity of the youth and the elderly, and lobbying for construction of roads in her constituency.
She is already catering for 100 children which she hopes to take through basic education.
“If you adopt children at age six and assist them in their basic education, the benefit goes to the state. I always believe if someone gets the basics right, the person can always better his or her lot in life by spurring on to greater heights.
I want to be the feminine voice not just for my constituents but for all women and the marginalised”.
She says her outfit would liaise with corporate and benevolent entities to assist women by providing them with credit facilities to complement their business.
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With women empowerment as her top priority, she hopes to give more women employable skills in bakery, catering and other vocational skills that would make them self-reliant.
“I seem to have many skills in that area owing to my background as a businesswoman,” she notes.
The mother of two hopes to be the solution to the bad road network, poor drainage system and other problems facing the people of Trobu.
Ms Sekyi-Aidoo has her motto as “putting you first, changing lives.” She believes criticisms are good but only constructive ones can influence lives positively.
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Ms Sekyi-Aidoo is a graduate of the Ghana Institute of Journalism and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, (GIMPA). She is currently pursuing a Master’s programme in Project Management from Coventry University, UK.
Dr Bernice Adiku Heloo
NDC parliamentary candidate, Hohoe Constituency, Volta Region
Dr Bernice Adiku Heloo, the current Member of Parliament for the Hohoe Constituency, is a woman of many parts with vast experiences in the different disciplines that she has handled.
She can best be described as a teacher, social worker and development consultant all rolled into one.
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Currently she is on her way to retaining the parliamentary seat for the second time for the Hohoe Constituency, one of the safe seats for the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
On her second journey, Dr Bernice Adiku Heloo defeated two other male contestants at the parliamentary primary held in November last year, to stand on the ticket of the NDC in the forthcoming election.
She started her primary education in rural Volta at Ahamansu, Taviepe and Hohoe.
She thereafter proceeded to the Ho Kpodzi Middle School and continued at Mawuli Senior High School in Ho in 1968 and obtained the Ordinary Level in 1973 and ended at OLA Girls Senior High School in Ho for the “Advanced” level certificate in 1975.
She graduated from the University of Ghana in 1978 with Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Religious Studies and History.
Thereafter, she obtained a postgraduate diploma in Adult Education at the University of Ghana, Masters in Philosophy at the same university and Master’s in Education Literacy for Rural Development at the University of Manchester in 1993; she topped it all with a Doctorate in Political Economy at the Swiss Management University.
Dr Adiku Heloo had developed human-centred managerial, political and technical skills in her career and several years of work experience with international and local non-governmental organisations on gender issues, organisational development, social work, HIV/AIDS, projects and human resource management.
She is a development consultant, a Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) and the current Member of Parliament for Hohoe, positions that had taken her to many parts of Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe.
She is the chairperson for the Volta Regional Lands Commission, a member of the COCOBOD board of directors, a member of board of directors for National Commission on Culture, founder of Pro-Link Organisation and President of Society of Women and AIDS in Africa.
She taught at the Teshie Presbyterian Secondary School in 1986 and Kaneshie Secondary Technical School in 1979-80.
Her hobbies are reading real-life stories and charity. She believes she has made an impact on her constituents that is why she has been given the nod again.
Diamond Nannah Appiah
UPP parliamentary candidate,Trobu constituency, Greater Accra
Call her a woman of many passions. Diamond Nannah Appiah, the United Progressive Party (UPP) Parliamentary candidate for the Trobu constituency in Greater Accra, in addition to her show business: singing and acting; humanitarian acts, lifestyle management among others, has decided to add politics to her collection of passions.
Miss Appiah started her political journey five years ago as a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“I was one of the celebrities who endorsed President Mahama by campaigning for him on various platforms because he presented himself as a youthful leader and one who had a vision for Ghana,” she said.
While most people join the winning party, Diamond Appiah on the other hand, after the NDC won the 2012 elections, left the party and joined the UPP.
“The President’s performance after coming into power, to me, hasn’t been impressive so I decided to join Akwasi Addai Odike’s party,” she said.
Although UPP is new on the political scene, Appiah joined because her orientation conforms better to the ideologies of the party – a hybrid of socialism and capitalism with the core focus on private sector development.
Miss Appiah’s decision to join the race to contest for a parliamentary seat stems from her ambition to liberate the residents of Trobu constituency from their economic and social hardships.
“I am passionate about progressive development and have partnered with some foreign investors to invest in building factories to create jobs in the constituency and being a member of parliament will give me the platform to bid for more,” she explained.
She is also passionate about education as well as the wellbeing of people in her community and beyond which reflects in some of her philanthropic works in her community and beyond.
“Two years ago, I provided scholarships for two children from deprived homes in the constituency,” she mentioned.
Aside from the scholarships, Miss Appiah has also on a number of occasions, donated to homes and orphanages including the Teshie Orphanage and the Weija Leprosarium.
Working with the slogan, “a voice for the youth, women and children,” she is ready to fight for the rights of people whose rights are abused, especially women, children and the helpless who cannot fend for themselves.
Miss Appiah is a graduate of Accra Girls’ Senior High School and has a degree in Child Psychology from East London University, United Kingdom.
She also has a National Vocational Qualification Level Three and Four in Social Healthcare at the Lewisham College also in the United Kingdom.
MrsAngela Alorwu-Tay
NDC parliamentary candidate, Afadjato South Constituency, Volta Region
Currently the District Chief Executive of the newly created Afadjato South District, Mrs Angela Alorwu-Tay is from Nyagbo-Sroe.
Born in 1971, she had her primary school education at Likpe -Nkwanta and Juapong Methodist School from where she gained admission to Nkonya Senior High School and completed in 1990.
She entered the West Africa Computer Science Institute at Kokomlemle. After graduation, she entered the world of work as a secretary with an international company, Adolf Lupp Gmbh.
She later joined Unique Insurance Company Limited as a secretary and rose to the position of an administrative assistant.
After her stint in Unique Insurance Company, she became the managing director at Tahnaf Services Company in Accra from 2010 until she was appointed the District Chief Executive.
Mrs Alorwu-Tay contested the NDC primary with five other contestants made up of two women and three men.
She had been an active participant in party activities and also held branch executive positions including membership of the Accra City campus Tertiary Education and Institutions and Network (TEIN).
If elected at the next parliamentary election, she would have made a successful crossover from the executive to the legislature. According to her, it would be a chance for her to serve in various capacities.