News:
January 19, 2012
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Talensi Constituency, Mr. John Akologu Tia, has attributed his attempt to represent his people for the sixth time to the various calls by the constituents on him to continue the excellent work he has done over the years as their representative.
Mr. Tia, who is also the Minister of Information, said the people he represented considered his achievements in the area of education, health, road construction, peace, energy, agriculture, social services and personal support to the people as laurels that necessitated his re-election as the area’s parliamentary candidate and subsequently MP, come December 2012.
Mr. Tia said this when he spoke to the Daily Graphic to discount claims that his constituents had benefited little from his five terms in office as their representative.
He said his continuous humility and policy of non-interference in the chieftaincy and other communal and traditional matters within the constituency had endeared him to his people and also fostered unity among the people.
Since his election to Parliament, Mr. Tia has risen through being a back bencher in Parliament to the Deputy Minority Whip from 2001 to 2004; the Minority Whip from 2005 to 2008; Deputy Majority from 2009 to 2010 and then the Minister of Information.
“My human relations with the people have been such that it is not only NDC faithful who enjoy my social life, but all people across the political divide,” he said, adding that such credentials had endeared him to the entire electorate in Talensi.
Expatiating on education, he said there was no single community within the constituency that had no school. “I have always preached education, education and education, and my first intervention in 1994 when I entered parliament was the assistance I sought from USAID to establish a school at Nungu, a fishing community; the first of its kind”.
The Information Minister, who is a journalist by profession, said he personally paid the salaries of teachers who taught at the school for the first five years before the Ghana Education Service took over.
He indicated that enrolment into the school had been increasing by leaps and bounds, resulting in the need to expand it.
He also mentioned his personal assistance in the form of paying school fees for hundreds of students who gained admission to both secondary and tertiary institutions.
On health, Mr. Tia said before he went to parliament, there was only one health centre in Tongo, the constituency capital, making it difficult for the people to access health services. “They (the constituents) only enjoyed health care when health personnel organized medical outreach in the area but today, I can boast of 12 health facilities within the constituency,” facilities, Mr. Tia said, had been constructed through his efforts as an MP.
He also mentioned his major role in ensuring that communities within the area were connected to the national grid.
“About 85 per cent of the constituency has been connected to the national grid and this greatly helps students to study and has also enabled people to establish their small businesses. That has really brought tremendous positive impact on education and health,” he emphasised.
Mr. Tia noted that apart from supporting small farmer groups, he had also facilitated the building and repairing of dams for various communities, some of which are Duusi, Geri, Tongo-Beo, Duulugu, Zong, Pusu-Namango and the re-dredging of the Winkogo and Balungu dams, as well as the provision of tractor services for the people.
He mentioned some of the roads that he helped to construct as the Zuarungu-Kpatia-Gbea-Tindongo road, Sheaga-Duusi-Pelungu road, Tonogo-Yameriga-Duusi road, Sheaga-Datuku road, Tongo-Tenzuk road which was tarred, and the Sheaga-Nungu road which is currently under construction.
Daily Graphic