Residents in the Upper East Region have taken on all 15 members of parliament of the Upper East Region for their seeming disinterest in the citizen-led advocacy for the establishment of a dialysis centre in the region.
It would be recalled that the thoughtfulness of Members of Parliament from the Upper East Region was questioned. This followed the seeming silence and disinterest in well-meaning residents’ advocacy and fund-raising efforts to construct a dialysis centre at the Upper East Regional Hospital.
A social commentator and media practitioner, Stanley Abopam raised these concerns when he spoke with Mark Smith on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show today, Tuesday, April 18, 2023.
Mr. Abopam’s comments were in relation to the roles MPs are expected to play in the development of the Upper East Region.
“Ideally, they [MPs] are supposed to be advocates of development. Any other addons are certainly added advantages. So if the people of the Upper East Region are crying for a dialysis centre, I thought that one of them would have filed an urgent question in Parliament, especially now that the revelations we’re getting are very staggering; the number of people from the region who are dying from kidney related issues. Have you heard any of them [MPs] speak?”
“They are coming home to contest the primaries, how much they would spend, I do not know, but it would be colossal. There are 15 of them, and they all have a common fund. If all 15 decide, we are going to give Ghc10,000 each from our common fund, that is Ghc150,000,” he lamented.
Mr. Abopam again wondered why the MPs had not taken it upon themselves to raise funds in their various constituencies towards the establishment of the regional dialysis centre.
Mr. Abopam’s position on the matter gained extensive support from residents within the region.
Francis Adingo, in response to Mr. Abopam’s concerns, wrote, “[It] is greed and nothing else, very soon they will tell you that you didn’t inform them officially.”
Another Facebook user bearing the name, Lovely Kizzy, wrote, “They won’t ooo, [heartbreak emoji]. Meanwhile, they would be the very people to come and worry us with chronic diseases during their old age.”
Awonnore Ayine wrote, “I think we should elevate this debate to say, Parliament should set a date for its members to account to their constituents, what they did with MP’s common fund. We know the releases are supposed to be on a quarterly basis, depending on the amounts released to them. We can do it regionally just as the public accounts committee work is conducted. So that we will be able to scientifically tell how our elected representatives are performing.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
