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| Hon. Helen Adjoa Ntoso, a former Eastern Regional Minister |
The
name is Hon. Helen Adjoa Ntoso and her designation was Eastern Regional
Minister responsible, among others for overseeing the administration of all the
municipalities and districts in the region including Lower Manya.
Her
position made her the automatic Chairman (or if you like Chairwoman) of the
Eastern Regional Security Council (REGSEC) and that meant she was responsible
for maintaining peace and security in the region, for that matter the districts
and municipalities under her jurisdiction. That was how she became involved in
the myriad of boiling issues that made Lower Manya Krobo literally a hot spot a
couple of months ago.
Without
mincing words, my opinion is that she was not as skillful as expected in her
approach to the issues that landed on her table from Lower Manya and that was
why simple issues such as Assembly Elections and ill treatment of “poor”
traders and women on the Agormanya market literally escalated to the point
where, for the first time in Ghana’s history a community, municipality, and a
whole traditional area declared SELF GOVERNANCE to protest against unfair
treatment.
Hers
was the buga buga military junta tactics of silencing the gallant youth of the
area who would not accept the status quo and the glaring abuse not only of
their rights but that of the many voiceless market women and indigenes of Manya
Krobo.
She
believed in flogging into silence those who were courageous enough to demand
that the right thing was done. She saw the Jack Chan approach proving more
effective than giving listening ears and finding a lasting solutions to the
genuine concerns and demands of the people and who would not settle for
anything less than what they (people of Krobo), like any other citizen of
Ghana, deserve.
Otherwise
why would she openly threaten to arrest the people and virtually prepare her
gloves in the open for an “Ayittey Powers vrs Bukom Banku bout” with the
harmless youth (and at a point, the chiefs) who were tired of a government that
would not listen to appeals to correct a simple anomaly?
I
dare say that she was tactless in handling that Assembly elections and its
related issues otherwise the people wouldn’t have boycotted the payment of
tolls; they wouldn’t have followed in Nkrumah’s step of declaring
“self-governance”. And finally, they wouldn’t have gotten to the point where
old and visibly weary market women in the sixties and seventies were dragged to
court for boycotting the payment of tolls in protest against ill-treatment on
the market.
Hasn’t
calm returned to the Municipality now that the assembly elections have been
conducted? Hasn’t the youth/people gone silent now that they have their
Assemblymen, a Presiding Member and a substantive Chief Executive?
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| Agormanya market women embarking on a demonstration |
Hasn’t
calm returned to the Agormanya market (and the entire municipality) now that
the heartless officers at the assembly have been called to order to stop
harassing and hounding our mothers/traders out of trade?
All
that was needed from you was a simple sincere effort on your part and an act to
show that you understood the issues and was working to solve them, but that was
not to be. I want to believe that now that you are in your home region (as the
Volta Regional Minister), you will prove more sensitive to their needs, develop
the skill to nip issues in the bud before they erupt and even when they do,
adopt a “consensus-building” approach to solving them, relying on the useful
lessons and experience from your “below-the-bar” handling of the (concerns of)
people of Lower Manya.
Remember,
an issue IGNORED (or if you like, badly handled) is CRISIS ENSURED.
Lest
I forget, one of the seven electoral areas, Natriku, still remains illegally
locked in the Greater Accra Region and that is yet another issue the people may
have to aggressively fight if and when the loud appeal/plea come to naught.
Over to you the new Eastern Regional Minister.
Henking
Klono-Bi Kwabla Duasah Nyumu-Teye Anyingmor Adjase-Adjase-Kodjo
And
Hilary
Klonene Saki Kodji
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| The Agormanya market women warming up for a demonstration in protest against the ill-treatment on the market |
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| This was how she chose to demonstrate |
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| They were there in their numbers |
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| DSP Ackah, Akuse District Police Commander interacting with the market women after the demonstration |
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| The physically challenged were not left out. |
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