Upper East Regional Communication Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Jonathan Abdallah Salifu, says establishing and properly equipping constituency party offices across the region will be one of his priorities if elected Regional Secretary.
Mr Salifu, who has declared his intention to contest the position when nominations open, said several constituencies lack adequate office infrastructure for meetings, administration and mobilisation. His bid for Regional Secretary follows more than two decades of service within the party at the branch, constituency and regional levels.
“One of the radical things I will do when delegates give me the mandate as Secretary is to ensure we have constituency offices,” he said on A1 Radio.
Mr Salifu pointed to the New Patriotic Party’s constituency office in Bongo as an example of the kind of infrastructure he believes the NDC should be able to establish across the Upper East Region.
“On your way to Bongo, the NPP, led by Peter Ayinbisa, was able to build a party office for the Bongo constituency. And if the NPP can have a constituency like that in Bongo, what prevents us, the NDC, from having similar ones across all the constituencies in the region?” he asked.
Mr Salifu said some NDC constituencies have made progress in securing office infrastructure, citing the Chiana-Paga Constituency, where he said an office had been constructed with administrative, storage and meeting spaces.
“We have not gotten to a stage where we can build. There are only a few places that I’ve been able to build. Like, go to Chiana-Paga, I remember one of the people there built an office for them, and that office was well designed. It has an administration area for the office, it has a storeroom, and it has a meeting area, very big,” he said.
He recalled that during a visit to the constituency in 2022, he identified inadequate furniture as a challenge and subsequently supported the office with plastic chairs.
Mr Salifu said his plan would go beyond securing buildings to ensuring constituency offices have the furniture and equipment required for the party’s day-to-day activities.
“We need to equip our constituency offices, but all that we do before we move out to the fields are meetings,” he said.
He proposed providing constituency offices with computers, printers, photocopiers and adequate furniture to support administration, meetings and grassroots organisation.
“Membership drive should be key, but meetings are important. So we need to equip the offices, furnishing them, getting decent places, equipping them with electronic gadgets, like the computers at least, small printers and copiers and the rest. And that is going to be my hallmark, I mean, that is an area I will strongly look at,” he said.
Mr Salifu said strengthening constituency offices would complement efforts to increase party membership and provide executives and members with suitable spaces to organise.
“The people still need to be comfortable,” he added.
A1 Radio | 101.1 MHz | Moses Apiah | Bolgatanga
