NPP questions timing of Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly’s Accountability Forum
Jacob Asomadawine alleges the forum’s scheduling clash limited stakeholder participation and raises concerns over the Regional Minister’s reported response on the unfinished Navrongo Youth Resource Centre.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Navrongo Central Constituency has criticised the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly for holding its Accounting to the People Forum on the same day as a major development dialogue in Navrongo, arguing that the scheduling clash prevented key stakeholders from participating fully in both engagements.
The party’s Constituency Communications Director, Jacob Asomadawine, raised the concern while speaking on the Big Mike Breakfast Show on Wednesday, October 14.
He questioned why the Assembly could not have selected an alternative date to enable residents, traditional authorities and other stakeholders to participate in both programmes.
According to him, the development dialogue offered an important platform for discussing community concerns and generating recommendations to support sustainable development in the area.
“The timing was bad,” Asomadawine said, arguing that an accountability forum intended to promote transparency and participatory governance should be organised at a time that allows residents and other relevant stakeholders to attend and ask questions.
He further questioned whether the scheduling was deliberate, suggesting that the Assembly might have been reluctant to face critical questions from residents.
“The NDC organised their own people to account. The major stakeholders were missing in the engagement,” he alleged.
Asomadawine also expressed concern over the reported response regarding the Navrongo Youth Resource Centre, a facility he said was initiated under the previous NPP administration but remained incomplete when the party left office.
He noted that young people in Navrongo had staged demonstrations demanding the completion of the facility, while the NDC had reportedly assured residents during its campaign that it would address the project.
The NPP communicator expressed disappointment over what he described as the Regional Minister’s response at the forum concerning the project’s records and the circumstances surrounding its handling.
He questioned the explanation attributed to the minister that he had no records of the project and that the matter had been handled privately.
“To look into their faces and tell them that I don’t have records of it… it was done in private,” he said, expressing frustration over the reported response to an issue he considers important to the development of young people in the municipality.
Asomadawine maintained that accountability engagements should provide clear answers on inherited projects, outstanding commitments and development priorities, particularly those directly affecting residents.
The Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly’s Accounting to the People Forum was held on Friday, October 9.
The Assembly’s response to the NPP’s concerns over the timing of the forum and the issues raised regarding the Navrongo Youth Resource Centre was not included in the information available for this report.
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