Ransford Antwi, The Rising Star Of Sunyani East Constituency
During the 1969 general elections, the Chairman of the erstwhile National Liberation Council (NLC) Brigadier Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa made a profound statement at the Sunyani Coronation Park which resonated throughout the electioneering campaign.
He said “ENTI, ABONOFO, MO NSROMA APUE YI, MO NHUYE”? This can be loosely translated as “SO THE PEOPLE OF BONO, HAVEN’T YOU SEEN YOUR RISING STAR”? He was referring to Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, a Bono man who was the leader of the Progress Party and was running as the parliamentary candidate for Wenchi. Let us fast forward to 2024, and the same clarion call is being made but this time to the people of Sunyani East constituency.
This time the call is “So the people of Sunyani East Constituency, haven’t you seen your rising star? The rising star of Sunyani East constituency is no other than Mr. RANSFORD ANTWI, the independent candidate for Sunyani East in the December general election. Ransford is a native of Sunyani and the CEO of the Suncity group of companies. He has declared his intentions to contest the Sunyani East Constituency seat as an independent candidate.
The occupant of the then Sunyani Constituency (before it was split in to Sunyani East and Sunyani West) parliamentary seat at the start of the fourth republic was Hon. J.H. Mensah until 2008 when he was in a way “forced” not to contest the seat by the present occupant and his supporters.
The argument Hon. Ameyaw Cheremeh put up that time was that, the seat is not a family stool whereby one person should occupy it for life. Even during the 2004 elections, leadership of the NPP in the constituency has to convince Ameyaw Cheremeh that, the 2004 will be the last time J.H. Mensah will contest again.
So in the 2008 elections, Ameyaw Cheremeh was the heir apparent to represent the party in the constituency. For sixteen years, he has occupied the seat and he has been doing everything possible to make the seat which he described as “not a family stool” to be one. From appointing his stooges to form the electoral college to intimidation of the would be competitors, this Honorable MP wants to make the seat his bona fide property. Anybody who will come up within the party to contest him will suffer all sorts of harassment and intimidation.
This time, the people of Sunyani East are saying that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. He has occupy the seat long enough and it is time he allowed someone else the chance. What happened during the last NPP primaries in the constituency is a testament to what I am saying here. Some of us don’t have any problem with him occupying the seat for thousand years if he is bringing development to the good people of Sunyani East constituency. The problem comes in where he is there and nothing is seen in the constituency when we talk about development.
Talking about the development of Sunyani in relation to the two major political parties, each of them has never taken Sunyani as a serious place when it comes to development projects.
To the NDC, they think that no matter what they will do in terms of projects and development for the constituency, they can never win the seat so even when they are in power, they don’t take the development of the area serious. To the NPP on the other hand, they also think that whether they bring projects to Sunyani East or not, they will win the seat. Little do they think about the constituency when it comes to the development of the constituency. Being caught in that position, the city of Sunyani and its environs need a political leader who has the constituency at heart and not thinks of how he or she can amass wealth, build radio stations and filling stations to the neglect of the people he leads. This and many other reasons should guide and inform the people of Sunyani East when they go to vote come December.
I am not against a serving MP who represents the interest of his people neither am I against an MP who can point to projects and developments as his legacy and whose actions and deeds reflect the present needs of the people and envisions their future. The people of Sunyani East can bear with me that the sixteen years of Honorable Ameyaw Cheremeh has been a period where the constituency has seen literary no development. We cannot point to one finished project initiated by this MP for all the sixteen years he has been our MP.
In the mid-year budget presented to parliament in July, 2024, the Finance Minister said “the government constructed more public libraries and increase in the total of public libraries from 61 in 2017 to 115 by 2023”. What came into my mind was the Sunyani (Regional) library which was started by Hon. J.H. Mensah so I was checking to see whether Sunyani library was among the 115 that the government is boasting as constructed during the period stated by the Finance Minister.
To my surprise, my Sunyani library wasn’t there. Whilst other regional capitals are boasting of interchanges and flyovers, Sunyani cannot even boast of good tarred roads, our ring road has been in that state for years, Sunyani inner city roads leaves much to be desired.
Our coronation park has been the same way since I was a boy sneaking through the fence to watch my idol club Tano Bofoakwa games. I may be wrong, but I am yet to see one infrastructural project that is attached to his name. Recently, when Ransford Antwi visited some villages in the constituency, they were complaining about faulty water pumps, burnt bulbs of their street lights and many more. So where in the constituency did he develop? Our elders say that “if you go to two markets, then you will know which one is good”, we have as it were, carried “nsuo” so now we want to carry “nsa” to see which one is heavier.
We have an MP who is not approachable and has little or no respect for the traditional leaders in his constituency. I belong to the Sunyani For Development Association and on several occasions, we have written to our MP for a meeting to discuss our concerns and talk about the development of Sunyani. Not even acknowledgements of those letters were received from the MP, though those letters were hand delivered at his constituency office.
The rising star of the Sunyani Constituency is no new to the people in the constituency. He has been in the forefront when it comes to the development of the constituency and indeed the Bono region.
To mention some few of what he has done for the people, in the area of sports, he has been organizing the old Players association in the region and assisting them with their health issues, he led the people’s project to get the Sunyani Coronation Park acceptable for premier league matches when Tano Bofoakwa qualified for the premier league.
Other things he has championed in the area of sports are well noted by the people of Ghana as a whole and Sunyani in particular. In the health front, he has been organizing an annual free eye surgeries medical outreach at Kwatire, has partnered the Okomfo Anokye Hospital Teaching Hospital Breast Cancer unit to conduct breast screening for hundreds of women within Sunyani and the Bono Region. He has again in conjunction with MTN organized blood donation campaign to support patients requiring blood transfusion at the Sunyani Hospital.
He led the “Bono Deserves Better” demonstration and we all know the outcome of that demonstration. The list is endless and the evidence of what he has done and can do is clear in the minds of the good people of Sunyani East constituency.
We have a saying that whoever climbs the good tree deserves a push so if even he in his private and personal capacity has been able to accomplish all these and many more, then let us imagine what he can do when he becomes the Member of Parliament. It must be said without any shade of doubt that Sunyani, compared to other regional capitals in the country has been lacking behind in terms of infrastructural development and I sometimes ask myself whether we have political leader in our city.
In this era where political leaders love their political party more than their regions and their constituencies, if one doesn’t have strong political leaders who can lobby and fight for projects and infrastructures, that area will always be lacking behind when it comes to developmental projects. This coming elections, as far as Sunyani East is concerned is about the societal good for the people verses personal and parochial interest.
It is about our desire to have what others are getting in other parts of the country which are lacking in Sunyani East. It is about how we can get our fair share of the so-called national cake. It is time we put away the unnecessary polarization of our society along the NPP/ NDC lines and think about our future and that of our children.
Let us for once, look at the independent candidate in the person of Ransford Antwi and see what he can do for us. What Sunyani East needs is somebody who is easily approachable, a people’s person and above all somebody who thinks, breaths and sleeps with the development of Sunyani East.
I know as the campaign gathers steam, many people will start to throw out many unfounded allegations against this noble man and may even use state institutions to bring down his campaign. Some of us are ready if the other camp starts with such unhealthy inferior tactics.
We are not going to sit down when it gets that nasty. I pray that this campaign will be that of issues. Show us what you have done for the people who entrusted their power into your care for sixteen years and we will show you what HE in his personal capacity has done for the people of Sunyani East and the electorate will make an informed decision.
I am therefore calling on my mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and all those who want to see Sunyani and its environs also be counted when we talk about infrastructural development to join the rising star of Sunyani East, Mr. Randsford Antwi, to redeem us from the land of under development.
Once again as Brigadier Afrifa said in 1969 which is true and applicable today, Sunyani, haven’t you seen your rising star? If you haven’t, then I am presenting him to you and on 7th of December, make history by voting for him and by so doing, we will be released from the shackles of underdevelopment. ME MAN NTI, ENYE ME NTI.
Augustine Boahen
76 Saddlelake Place NE Calgary, Canada
