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Make yourselves more visible, MCE urges assembly members

Ms Odoley Sowah, Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assemby in the Greater Accra Region, has advised assembly and unit committee members to make themselves more visible in helping people access governance at the grassroots.

Date Created : 3/15/2016 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : GNA

She said assembly men and women in particular, must avail themselves to the people within their communities and link them to the necessary quarters for redress on any development issues.

In an interview with the GNA at the just-ended 19th biennial national delegates conference of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) held in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region, Ms Sowah said the work of an assembly man or woman becomes a bit difficult and unnoticed in the big cities because people do not even know how to locate them for their needs.

However, in the much smaller towns, the work of an assembly man or woman is so valuable and important that people cannot just do without them. They lead the people in accessing governance at the local level, be it a broken down bridge, bad road, water facility and school or health infrastructure.

Ms Sowah, who was elected unopposed, as the Treasurer of NALAG at the conference, said because of the invaluable services of the assembly men and women, she would as part of her work, team up with the new NALAG executives to raise funds to build the capacity of the assembly men and women so they could work more effectively.

Together with my team will raise funds from partners and other stakeholders to build the capacity of assembly members to enable them work efficiently and more visibly within the communities.

On what she was bringing on board as the new Treasurer of NALAG, Ms Sowah said she believed in team work and as such she would be working with the executive team in collaboration with the media to raise the image and showcase the Association and the work it does in the development of local communities and Ghana in general.

On challenges women in leadership face, Ms Sowah said it is very challenging out there. The men always want to dominate so they impress on women to step down. Housekeeping also restrains many women [from taking] leadership positions.

The MCE, however, called on women to take up leadership positions as part of their contribution to national development saying men should also encourage their women-folks as partners in nation building.

On some of her achievement chalked as an MCE, she said under her leadership, many schools which were in deplorable states have been renovated, with most of the black boards replaced with white boards and all the schools were being fenced, while extensive road works have been carried out within some communities.

Ms Sowah was appointed as an MCE in 2013 having worked with National Lottery Authority as a Computer Operator.

She also worked as administrator of Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly after working as the Administrative Secretary with the National Premix Secretariat.

The three-day delegate conference was held under the theme, â€œLocalizing the Post-2015 Agenda: The Role of MMDAs in the Effective Delivery of the SDGs in Ghana, and it was attended by 1,080 delegates, comprising of five members from each of the 216 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the country.

GNA