SEFWI YOUTH GRATEFUL TO PRESIDENT MILLS (PAGE 13)

THE Sekondi/Takoradi metropolis branch of the Sefwi Youth Association has expressed its profound gratitude to President John Evans Atta Mills for nominating the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sefwi Wiawso, Paul Evans Aidoo, as the Western Regional Minister.
The association believes that the nomination is timely, because records show that since independence, successive governments, including the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, appointed the regional ministers from the Ahanta, Nzema or the Wassa ethnic groups, leaving the Sefwi area, the only major ethnic group that had not produced a substantive regional minister.
In a statement signed by the President of the Sekondi/Takoradi branch of the Sefwi Youth Association, Mr Joshua Addae, it said “the good people of Sefwi, therefore, have every reason to be excited about Mr Aidoo’s nomination to the highest office in the region”.
“It is our greatest hope that the Parliamentary Appointment Committee will give Mr Paul Evans Aidoo the nod, so that he will become the first substantive Western Regional minister appointed from the Sefwi area,” it said.
The association was very confident that if he was given the approval, Mr Aidoo would bring his vast experience as a former District Chief Executive and sitting MP to bear on the development policies in the NDC manifesto for election 2008.
“We have no doubt in our minds that Mr Aidoo will work assiduously to justify the confidence reposed in him by the President if he is given the nod as the administrative head of this important region,” the statement added.
The statement indicated that past election results showed that Bia, Bibiani/Anhwiaso/ Bekwai, Juaboso, Sefwi Wiawso and Akontombra constituencies, all in the Sefwi area, had voted massively and consistently for the NDC party more than any other ethnic group in the region.
Quoting figures from the 2004 and 2008 presidential election results in the Western Region to buttress its point, the association explained that the total votes garnered by President Atta Mills in the 2004 election was 334,992, while he obtained 379,822 votes in the 2008 December 7 elections and increased the votes to 415,248 in the run-off. It stated that the total votes from the five constituencies in the Sefwi area in 2004 elections were 132,229, while the votes in the 2008 elections were 123,724 and the votes increased to 133,120 in the run-off.
“From the table above, it is obvious that the Sefwi area is a stronghold of the NDC”, it said adding, “We are, therefore, appealing to the President and his appointment committee to appoint more men and women from the Sefwi area to other key positions, because we are of a firm conviction that our people deserve more prominent positions in his administration”.