We always say in Ghana that we lack leaders who inspire followers to act in ways that help the country to progress.
Leaders might not have all the answers to our problems, but their attitudes towards them inspire hope that things will get better.
Sitting back and monitoring how Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor, Member of Parliament for Damango Constituency, relates to his constituents and the things he does there, I get so much hope that he will make Damango a better Constituency, if he stays on for a long time.
Just this morning, I read on Facebook that after all the tumultuous activities at his Ministry in the height of the fight against illegal mining, popularly called ‘galamsey’, he still managed to make time to visit his Constituency to hold public engagements with his people. Interesting. Isn’t it?
One would expect that, like many of his compatriots, he will use his role at his Ministry as an excuse not to be regular in his Constituency to understand the concerns of his people in order to help provide solutions to the ones he can, and get the Assembly to address the ones that lie in their domain. But no! He has found the avenue to make the needed time for his constituents in the most challenging moments of his tenure as Minister for Ghana’s Lands and Natural Resources Ministry.
For him to acknowledge that the most important people in his life now, are the very people who gave him the mandate to be their representative in Ghana’s Parliament – which comes with certain duties and responsibilities – and so need to meet them occasionally to render accounts of his stewardship and to get to know their concerns at first hand, shows how he cares about the people he represents. Kudos to him. He inspires many with this attitude.
On his Facebook wall, he wrote “Yesterday, Friday, 7th October, 2022, amidst the daunting work at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, I made time to visit my beloved Constituency of Damongo to connect with the people I represent in Parliament”.
According to him, such encounters help him and other leaders to listen to the most important needs of their constituents and to fashion out how they can be dealt with to bring the needed developments to the Damango Constituency.
“Constituency engagements afford us the opportunity to listen and share ideas with our constituents to bring the much-needed development to the constituency and the country at large,” he wrote.
Being awake to current trends, it was fascinating to see the sense of responsibility he exhibited when he organized his ‘Best Teacher Awards’ – a creation of his office for appreciating teachers teaching in the Constituency
“Later in the day, at the newly constructed astroturf park in Damongo, we held the 2022 Best Teacher Awards, organised by the Office of the Member of Parliament, as part of the World Teachers’ Day celebration, which occurred on Wednesday October 5.
“Teachers are transforming the world through the knowledge they impact, and they need our support to train, groom and nurture our future leaders,” Samuel Abu Jinapor wrote.
He might not really appreciate the enormity of how this gesture motivates the teachers in his constituency to keep doing their best for the pupils and students of the area, but I can say that people are motivated to give off their best due to some of these very interesting initiatives. He must be encouraged to keep leading his constituency the way he is doing now, to serve as motivation for others.
The beautiful part of his soul is the awareness around his responsibility. He could not have put it any better when he wrote “as elected representatives, we must listen to the people who elected us, and I assure the good people of Damongo that we will never renege on that duty”.
Keep this mentality up, Hon Samuel Abu Jinapor, and your people will reward you bountifully for that. Don’t stop. Keep leading.
