Dr. Esmond Agurgo Balfour says all parliamentary representatives in the region are failing their constituents
The Regional Chairman of BONABOTO, Dr. Esmond Agurgo Balfour, has delivered a sharp criticism of Members of Parliament in the Upper East Region, accusing them of lacking the developmental mindset needed to drive progress for their constituents and the region as a whole.
Speaking on the state of development in the area, Dr. Balfour declared that the failure cuts across the board. “All our parliamentary representatives are failing us,” he said.
He stressed that genuine regional unity and the ability to bargain effectively for national resources must begin at the constituency level. Invoking the saying “charity begins at home,” Dr. Balfour argued that MPs must first prioritise the needs of the people who elected them.
“It takes you first of all, having that developmental mindset, having the needs of your people at heart, starting and pursuing the developmental agenda of the very people who put you in parliament,” he stated.
Without that local commitment, he warned, broader collaboration becomes impossible. “Failure to deliver even to the few people who have sent you to parliament… don’t expect it to expand or to come by magic.”
Dr. Balfour also highlighted the limits of advocacy groups such as BONABOTO. While the organisation develops strategies and plans for the region’s development, he noted that it can only go so far. “We have a limit. You can have all the strategy. However, presenting that strategy, you get to the boundary where you now require the politicians to carry on from there,” he explained.
He added that it is not the role of an advocacy group to continually lobby ministers for roads, health facilities and other infrastructure, as doing so risks creating friction and overstepping its mandate.
Citing a concrete example, Dr. Balfour pointed to the reconstruction of the Upper East Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga. He expressed surprise that the Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central did not use the opportunity to push for a municipal hospital for his own constituency.
“It was surprising that not even the MP for the Bolgatanga Central could sit up and say, ‘look, we do not even as yet have a municipal hospital in my constituency. Can we get a virgin land to reconstruct the regional hospital?’” he recounted.
Dr. Balfour’s remarks amount to a direct challenge to the region’s political leadership, urging a renewed focus on local development as the essential foundation for wider regional progress.
By Gayheart Abraham
Source: Mybluewavesonline.com|Maurice Duncan |Bolgatanga
