Martin Obeng exits Sunyani West Municipal Assembly with gratitude, solicits support for successor
For many of the outgoing Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), it is a real deal not to have been reconsidered by President Akufo-Addo in his second term of office.
Having allowed them to act in that same capacity for close to a year before the new nominations in September, some are still pointing fingers at some executives of NPP, Chiefs, and Ministers of State for championing their not being re-nominated.
In the Bono Region, three out of 12 Chief Executives were re-nominated. They are for the; Dormaa Central, Dormaa East, and Berekum East Assemblies.
Few of those who exited have publicly expressed their appreciation and thanked the President for the chance to serve their people.
But one man who stands out as the best, is the former MCE for Sunyani West, Martin Obeng, who was also the Dean of MMDCE’s in the Bono Region.
Barely 24hrs after his successor, Evans Kusi Boadum, was named by the President, he issued a comprehensive statement in support of his nomination and thanked the President for the honour done to him in his first term and further appealed to the Assembly Members, who later approved the nominee.
Mr Obeng’s gesture attracted commendation from all manner of people in the Municipality and beyond, with some taking to social media to laud what they described as “his show of maturity”.
“You have a big heart, it takes matured minds to behave the way you did, thumbs up! Martin,” Mr. Ransford Antwi, CEO of Suncity Radio in Sunyani wrote on his Facebook page.
Some said his track record in the areas of infrastructure and Human relations was evident, contributing to emerging as the best performing municipality on two consecutive occasions under his tenure.
Though many still can’t come to terms with the exit of a man who superintended the best performing municipality in the region, Mr Obeng insists “the President has spoken and must be respected as such”.
“The people of Sunyani West deserve the best, therefore a change of leadership does not mean projects I started as MCE should suffer. A true leader must be selfless and dedicated to the development of his people, and that is what I stand for,” he told Mark Abisah on Suncity radio.
Even though 17 out of the 55 Assembly Members voted against Mr Evans Kusi Boadum’s nomination, he still garnered the required votes to be declared as the new Municipal Chief Executive for Sunyani West, and Mr Obeng appealed to all stakeholders to support him to succeed.
Meanwhile, all the President’s nominees in the Bono Region, save Dormaa Central Municipality (yet to be confirmed), have been endorsed by the respective Assembly Members in a confirmation exercise supervised by the Bono Regional Minister, Justina Owusu-Banahene, and Regional executives of the NPP.
Apart from Sunyani East (85.1%) and Sunyani West (69%), all the Assemblies produced 100% endorsements for the nominees.
The confirmed and new MMDCEs in the Bono Region are Francis Kwadwo Oppong (Dormaa West), Emmanuel Kofi Agyeman (Dormaa East), Kofi Adjei (Berekum East), Dominic Oppong (Berekum West), Ansu Kumi (Sunyani East), and Evans Kusi Boadum (Sunyani West).
The rest are; Emmanuel Akone (Banda), Lucy Acheampong (Tain), Alex Oduro Damoah (Wenchi), Solomon Owusu (Jaman North), and Andrews Bediako (Jaman South).
Iddrisu Oatarra (Dormaa Central) is expected to be confirmed this week because it could not come off last Tuesday.
In the Ahafo Region, all 6 nominees – Frank Adusei Poku (Asunafo South), Yaw Osei Boahen (Asunafo North), Anthony Mensah (Asutifi North), Robert Dwomo Mensah (Asutifi South), Ernest Kwarteng (Tano North), and Collins Offinam-Takyi (Tano South), have all been approved.
Source: Ghana News
