Wamey Panky
31 March 2008
The Misaje market square Monday, March 24, suddenly transformed into a court of sorts for the Mayor, Simon Nkenda.
This public 'trial' was at the instance of Dr. Calistus Fuh Gentry, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Mines, Industries and Technological Development.After a thrilling cross-country race to mark the 23rd anniversary of the CPDM party, Fuh Gentry brought the Mayor to the market square to face the music.
He told the people gathered that he had brought the Mayor to them to right his wrongs publicly for the sake of transparency, democracy and progress of that municipality. Questions and grievances were then hurled at the Mayor.
Some of the youths said they were not at ease with the Mayor because he abandoned those who worked hard for the CPDM to win the council; others were discontented with his biased recruitments.
They blamed the disorder at the Misaje motor park on the Mayor's wrong choice of leadership. The motorcyclists and drivers equally expressed their own grievances.In defence, the Mayor told them it was too early to feel abandoned.
He said together with the MPs and the Secretary of State, they were scheming for a better way to reward them for their hard work during the last elections. In this light, a committee was immediately created to take care of those who worked hard during the elections.
Nkenda said it did not entail giving them money which would help them momentarily but they were thinking of long term rewards. He, however, refuted the allegation of biased employment, challenging the youths to revisit the list of his council workers.
On the grievances raised by motorcyclists and drivers, Nkenda turned it on the President of the Drivers' Union, Musa Balla, who he said engaged the contract to take care of the park but later exploited the drivers and riders for his personal gain.
Fuh Donates FCFA 430,000
As part of the anniversary, Dr. Fuh visited the one-year old Government Technical College Misaje where he donated FCFA 430,000.According to him, FCFA 405,000 was to support the construction of the school which was still operating in private buildings.
For encouragement sake, the best over all student received FCFA 15,000 and the best female student grabbed FCFA 10,000.Fuh said his ambition was to raise the educational standards in the Ako/Misaje constituency since his constituency was backward because the people were less educated.
He said it was for this reason that he launched the FCFA 60 million scholarship award for the constituency. He said through his efforts, the government had awarded FCFA 35 million for the construction of two classrooms and provision of benches and other equipment.
In appreciation, GTC Misaje Principal, Mrs. Patricia Chu, said out of the 85 enrolled students, 60 were being sponsored by Fuh.The students, who considered themselves pioneer beneficiaries of Fuh's largess, promised hard work, diligence and good morale.
Fuh reminded the people that besides the several structural achievements by the CPDM, democracy had grown tall within the period. He told them that the electricity he promised them during campaigns has been approved in the 2008 budget and that road projects within the municipality were already in the European fund to be executed soon.
Fuh equally announced the setting up of a small scale mining centre between Fonfuka and Misaje where traces of gold have been found. All these, he said would develop the area.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Post. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
