One year in office: MP for Chiana/Paga prioritizes Education, Health and Youth Empowerment
Marking his first anniversary as Member of Parliament for Chiana/Paga Constituency in the Upper East Region, Hon Thomas Adda Dalu reaffirmed his commitment to deliver human centered policies to propel the needed development by focusing on education, health, women and youth empowerment as his priority.
The move, according to him, is to increase literacy, improve living condition of his constituents, attend to their health needs and to build the youth for the future.
Hon Dalu disclosed this to EXPRESSNEWSGHANA, while recounting some of the interventions he made within his one year after he was elected to represent the good people of Chiana/Paga Constituency in parliament on December 7, 2020.
The Constituency which is the Kassena/Nankana West District is one of the agrarian districts in the country and produces several cash and food crops in quantities.
Most common crops grown in the area include: Shea nut, groundnuts, Millets, Sorghum, Maize, Beans, and animals like cattle, Goats, Sheep, Donkeys as well as fowls and guinea fowls.
Nonetheless, access to quality healthcare and education remained a mirage as most of the communities can not easily access education and primary healthcare within their localities. As such, children and residents have to trek several kilometers to schools or to seek health care.
Similarly, the teeming youth although with many talents lack the opportunities to unlock their God given talents and have to loiter in and around. The MP is therefore working hard to create opportunities for the youth to explore.
Most of these challenges spurred him to rethink of prioritizing education, health, youth empowerment and other interventions policies through his shares of MPs Common Fund and other statutory funds to help bridge the gap in development, he said.
Within his first year, Hon. Thomas Dalu said he has disbursed funds for school fees for over 70 students at various levels of education, supplied over 10 packs of roofing sheets for Kalvio Community schools and other schools that have their roofs rift off by rainstorm. He also provided over 65 bags of cements to support the construction of a basic school at Boania, Paga.
In addition to help mitigate the challenges facing education in the Constituency, he supported the District Directorate of Education to conduct district wide Mock Examination for the 2021 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) which enabled the candidates to prepare very well for the exams.
He said as part of his vision to increase security against criminals in the entire constituency, some communities and selected institutions were also provided with street lights to illuminates the advantage points in the communities to expose criminals who hide in darkness in the night to launch their heinous activities.
Touching on the youth empowerment and the Health sector, the MP who sounded passionately about the needs of his constituents said he has plans of empowering the youths and women groups in the constituency as part of his poverty reduction policies as the constituency is predominately subsistence farming enclave.
He explained that as part of the youth empowerment policy, the various football clubs in the constituency would be supported to help the teeming youth unlock their talents, while the females also be enrolled on apprentices for various professional training including hairdressing, Fashion Designs, etc.
The lawmaker noted that during the 2020 elections campaigns, the constituents made two major demands from him including ensuring that, he is always around with them and not staying in Accra and only showing up during elections seasons, adding that, the other concern the electorates demanded from him before he was elected was to consider their welfare, especially in time of sickness and bereavement.
As a lawmaker who needed counseling from the elders to be able to implement his vision, Hon Dalu said he honoured those demands and organized periodic tours to the Constituency where he seized the opportunity to express his gratitude to them for voting for him and also sympathizes with the bereaved families.
The “Thank you Tour” which started in April 2021, was to ensure that we are with the people after the election, we are concern about them. We appreciate what they have done for the Party (NDC) and that the party is very happy and grateful for their performance in the recent and past elections.
“We also renewed our commitment to keep the promises we made. A lot of resources were spent on this “thank you tour’ but I am convinced that it was right doing it, because the people will only continue to vote for the party when they know the party is concerned about them. I believed it is one of the best ways that we can use to increase our vote in the future elections,” Hon Dalu said.
At the close of polls on December 7, Hon Thomas Dalu secured 21, 954 out of total votes cast representing 57.79 percent against his closed competitor, Robert Apechira Aloo, who managed to obtained 15,540 votes representing 40.91 percent of total votes cast.
He however expressed his gratitude to the people of Chiana/Paga Constituency for the opportunity to serve them by voting massively for him on the December 7, 2020, elections.
According to him, the constituency would be well represented in parliament to bring the needed development, noting that, though his predecessors have done their best, the constituency is still engulfed with deprivation and abject poverty which he promised to tackle.
He said despite the overwhelming economic hardship imposed on Ghanaians by the current government, he would work hard to honour his campaign promises to justify the confidence response in him.
Currently in parliament, Hon Dalu is a member of Foreign Affairs Committees of Parliament.
He said his focus is to also work hard to secure presidential victory for his Party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to complement his victory for development of the constituency and Ghana as a whole.
Source: expressnewsghana.com
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