Meet William Adu-Oduro, The Man Tipped To Win NDC Parliamentary Primaries For Asikuma Odoben Brakwa

A 37-year-old William Adu-Oduro, an Cyber Security Expert and IT Programmer, has been tipped to win the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary primaries for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa Constituency and subsequently retain parliamentary seat for the party in the area for the 2024 general elections.

  
The young business tycoon is popular among the National Democratic Congress Youth Wing in the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa Constituency and many of the youth cannot wait to see him become MP for the area.

Although the incumbent NDC MP for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa Constituency, Alhaji Alhassan Kobina Ghansah has pledged to still run for Parliament in 2024, the majority of delegates including members and supporters of the NDC in the constituency have tipped Mr. Adu-Oduro to win the NDC primaries and battle with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to retain the seat for the party in the 2024 election to become the MP.

“Honourable Alhaji Alhassan Kobina Ghansah has been a good leader and he has diligently represented the good people of Asikuma Odoben Brakwa well but the delegates, members and supporters of the NDC in the area pointed out that the NDC cannot win the 2024 parliamentary elections with the incumbent MP and that the NDC needs a young workaholics person like  William Adu-Oduro who has what it takes to retain the seat for the party. 

What the good members, supporters and sympathisers of the NDC in Asikuma Odoben Brakwa Constituency need right now is a delusional son with the heart of David, and that son is no other person than William Adu-Oduro. Thank you,” said some of the members of the NDC in the area who spoke on the condition of anonymity in an interview with Soireenews.com.

The Asikuma Odoben Brakwa Constituency 
 seat will ultimately be a seat to watch in 2024.

The constituency parliamentary seat is one of the seats that has been occupied by both the ruling New Patriotic Party and the opposition National Democratic Congress since the commencement of the fourth republican constitution in 1992.

Whereas the NPP has occupied the seat for almost 16 years, their main contender, the NDC, on the other hand, had held onto the seat for 12 years. Therefore, the constituency could be described as a swing constituency.

When the NPP boycotted the 1992 parliamentary election, Mr Ebenezer Kobina Fosu, was elected MP for the constituency, and served a four-year term.

Previous elections

Subsequently, in the 1996 election, Mr Fosu retained the seat for the NDC after polling 19,523 to beat Mr Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori of the NPP, who managed 13, 641 votes.

In the 2000 elections, Mr Appiah-Ofori managed to win the seat for the NPP for the first time with 16,225 votes to defeat Mr Fosu who had 13,559.

In the 2000 general election, Mr Appiah-Ofori maintained the NPP’s dominance in the constituency and retained the seat with 21, 843 votes to beat Mrs Georgina Nkrumah Aboah of the NDC who secured 15, 037 votes.

Mr Appiah-Ofori again won the seat for the NPP in the 2008 election with 18,195 votes while his main contender, Mrs Aboah had 17,724 votes to close the gap between them as compared to the 2004 results.

Mrs Aboah of the NDC by dint of hardwork managed to overturn the deficit to win the seat in 2012 with 23,705 votes to beat Mr Anthony Effah of the NPP who polled 21,087.

Unfortunately, Mrs Aboah lost the NDC primary to Alhaji Alhassan Kobina Ghansah who battled it out with Mr Effah in the 2016 election. Mr Effah recaptured the seat for the NPP with a vote margin of 430. He had 23,760 votes, while Alhaji Ghansah also secured 23,330 votes.

However, in 2020 election, the NDC  parliamentary candidate for Asikuma Odoben –Brakwa Alhaji Alhassan Kobina Ghansah, has won the the seat after beating parliamentary representative for the NPP,  Mr. Emmanuel Adjei Domson.

He polled 28,175 votes out of 83,629 total valid votes cast to beat Mr Adeji Doomson for over 2,700 plus of votes. Mr Adeji Doomson managed 25,454 votes.

The battle for parliamentary thrown in the constituency was keenly contested with this great political leaders but Alhaji Ghansah came out to hit most nods.

However, per the electoral records in the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa constituency for major two political parties, NPP and NDC, it clearly shows that if the NDC goes to the 2024 general election with its incumbent MP, Alhaji Ghansah, the party would likely to lose the seat to the NPP again, the situation which the members and supporters of the NDC have saw, hence their decision to endorse the parliamentary candidature of William Adu-Oduro to retain the seat for the party.

In the 2024 general elections, the candidates presented by both parties would largely determine who would win.

And that since the political wining grounds are not good for Alhaji Ghansah again for the upcoming election, who according to some electorate was very unpopular across the constituency, the onus now lies on the NDC to elect a parliamentary candidate like the young William Adu-Oduro who would be able to match the NPP’s candidate to retain the seat for the party.

Upcoming NDC primary

Interestingly, in the upcoming NDC primary, the constituency would produce the highest number of aspirants in the Central Region. The incumbent NDC MP,  would being challenged by other male party stalwarts.

The calibre of individuals who are seeking to unseat the MP makes it very difficult for one to predict the outcome of the primary as none of the aspirants can be written off.

But Mr Adu-Oduro who is the people's choice for the NDC parliamentary candidate who is yet to officially declare his intention to contest the NDC primaries since the party has not opened nomination noted that he sees himself as the most competent person among the aspirants to lead the party in the constituency into the 2024 election.

The young businessman said the constituency needed a person at the grassroots who understood the terrain of politics within the area.

According to him, empirical evidence on the ground suggested the party needed to present a new candidate to enable the party to retain the parliamentary seat in the upcoming election.

He believes it was time for a youthful candidate who was ready to work to change the fortunes of the constituency to be elected to champion his vision on education, health, youth and women empowerment.

He acknowledged the lack of development in the district which has been compounded by youth unemployment in the area.

Through his business experiences,  Mr. Adu-Oduro expressed the hope to partner a number of international organisations to help transform the area for the benefit of the people as well as put the youth into apprenticeship and offer them start-up capital to enable them to set up their businesses.

He mentioned that he would come up with innovative ideas and interventions that would have direct impact on the lives of the constituents.

He said he was in the race as a strong force who could unify the divided front of the party to win the parliamentary seat and consolidate the victory in future elections.

He noted that although the NDC won both the Presidential and parliamentary votes in the constituency in 2020, the party suffered from skirt and blouse votes in the parliamentary results.

He stated that the party needed a candidate who was well connected in all the sectors of the economy saying he would contesting the election with the primary objective of helping to address the myriad of challenges confronting the constitueny if elected MP for the constituency.

His message is to tackle the poor state of roads in the area by lobbying for immediate government intervention to enable motorists and particularly farmers to cart their goods to market centres.

A 37-year-old business mogul expressed concern about the high youth unemployment in the area despite the government’s numerous job opportunities and pledged to roll out policies to address it.