The people of Okere are one of the first inhabitants of Ghana but other tribes who came to meet us here in Ghana have managed to pull our national resources to develop their communities leaving Okere behind.
We also deserve a fair share of the national cake. Not only are we taking the Okere MP seat, we are also going to go to Parliament to give the people of Okere proper representation so that we can bring back resources to also develop Okere.
We cannot be the first to come to Ghana and be the last in development.
Things have to change and under my administration as your MP, and by the Grace of God things will change and Okere will be Great Again.
Three things I would do to ensure that we get our fair share of the national cake.
- UNIFICATION OF OKERE AND LARTEH.
- ADDITIONAL CONSTITUENCY.
- OKERE MUNICIPALITY.
UNIFICATION OF OKERE AND LARTEH.
Okere and Larteh are brothers from time immemorial. Ghana is a democracy where the sharing of the national cake is based on population figures in respective communities/areas. In doing this we have government agencies such as the Electoral Commission and the Ministry of Local Government who create electoral areas, polling stations, constituencies, districts, municipalities, etc. This is to enable the government determine how much resource can go to which area.
Unfortunately for Okere, every time this is being done Okere is treated as if it is insignificant or doesn’t matter in the scheme of things. Portions of Okere and Larteh are rather taken and added to other areas to increase their population so those areas can access more resources from the government to the disadvantage of Okere and Larteh. Eg. Adweso is land belonging to the good people of Larteh but it is has been added to the people of Koforidua to create a Municipality in Koforidua so that the people of Koforidua would benefit. Hardly do you see any government project in Adweso except individuals who engage in private development activities. The same way Okorase, Tinkong and Adawso which are all Larteh lands are added to Akropong to create Akuapem North Municipality for Akropong to be developed at the expense of Larteh. My argument is that if any group of people can be put together it is better you put brothers together so they can grow together. It seems it is only Okere and Larteh people that can always be added to other people but not the other way round. It seems it is impossible to add other groups to Larteh or Okere.
This is very unfortunate and a good leader would fight for a reversal of such apparent discrimination that has been going on for decades. In fact at some point because Okere is so insignificant in the affairs of the nation and such a marginalized community by the government, the whole of Okere was added to Akropong to create a Municipality in Akropong so that more resources can go to Akropong at the Expense of Okere. It is clear that whenever the powers that be want to create and push resources somewhere other than Okere or Larteh they quickly come to Okere or Larteh to use us for such business. Okere and Larteh have become so poor because of this. Okere and Larteh are brothers so I would fight for the two of us to be put together again so we can increase our number to obtain better and more resources from the national cake to also begin to develop.
ADDITIONAL CONSTITUENCY.
A small place such as New Juaben has two municipalities and two constituencies. To make it possible to do this Adweso was carved out of Larteh and added to Koforidua to create New Juaben South Municipal so that the people of Koforidua can get more resources to develop at the expense of the people of Larteh or Adweso. However, Adweso shares boundary with Nyerede in Okere and it could have equally been added to Okere so Okere can have a municipality and more resources from government but that didn’t happen. Okere is very huge with only one Constituency. This is unacceptable and my mission would be to fight the persistent and consistent discrimination of the people of Okere and Larteh. Once Larteh and Okere are put together we should have two constituencies created to have two MPS.
In the future once all lands belonging to Okere are recovered we should get more constituencies and more MPS. This is a fight I am going to lead. The more MPs in Okere the more resources would come from government to help us develop.
OKERE MUNICIPALITY.
Okere has lost many of its lands through two problems it consistently encounters.
- Government schemes which allow lands in Okere to be added to other areas so those areas would become a municipality. This is what happened when the whole of Okere itself was added to Akropong so Akropong would become a municipality and develop at the expense of Okere.
- Through boundary neighbours who fight to take over our lands and add it to their areas such as Nkurakan which is highly populated but has been added to Yilo Krobo.
My Mission is to recover our lands and add the people there to our numbers. Once we have been able to recover our lands and succeeded in adding the populations in those areas to Okere, Okere as a District would now move to become a Municipality which in effect would allow us to access more resources from the government to develop our Okere community.
I WOULD FIGHT THE ONGOING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST OKERE AND PUT A STOP TO IT ONCE AND FOR ALL.
