Jinapor urges patience: Savannah Region’s turn will come
Patience, not protest. That was the central message Energy Minister Dr. John Abdulai Jinapor carried into the Savannah Region this week, as he joined NDC National Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketia’s thank-you tour through a constituency that helped deliver the party’s election victory, and is now watching closely to see what comes next.
Speaking to supporters in his home Yapei-Kusawgu constituency, Jinapor did not shy away from acknowledging the weight of expectations bearing down on the administration. Jobs are needed. Business support is needed. He said so plainly. But he asked supporters to hold their frustrations in check and give the government room to deliver.
“I will plead with you to be patient with the government. We are barely two years in office. We know you need jobs, we know you need businesses,” he said.
To show the patience he was asking for is not without foundation, Jinapor pointed to concrete commitments already in motion. For farmers in the area, he announced personal funding for the purchase of 2,000 bags of fertiliser and 2,000 bags of weedicides this year, a targeted intervention aimed at easing input costs for smallholder farmers in the region.
“This year, I am funding the purchase of 2,000 bags of fertiliser and 2,000 bags of weedicides, among others, to help farmers. So please exercise patience for the party,” he stated.
He also gave assurances that pipe-borne water and road improvements are in the pipeline for the area, infrastructure needs that have long topped the list of community concerns in the Savannah Region.
Beyond the development promises, Jinapor carried a more pointed message, one aimed squarely at the risk of internal party fractures undermining what the NDC has built.
He cautioned supporters against any actions, including violence or divisive behaviour, that could chip away at the party’s unity and ultimately hand power back to the opposition.
“If we are sharing while in office it is just a matter of time, everybody will get some but when we use violence and it lands the party in opposition, it will be our loss,” he warned.
The message was as much political strategy as it was moral guidance, a reminder that the NDC’s ability to deliver on its promises depends entirely on staying in power long enough to do so.
NDC Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketia, whose thank-you tour provided the platform for Jinapor’s remarks, reinforced the message when he addressed chiefs and residents of the Yapei-Kusawgu constituency. He assured traditional leaders and party loyalists that the Savannah Region is not an afterthought in President John Dramani Mahama’s development agenda, but a priority.
For a region that has historically felt the gap between political promises and tangible delivery, the assurances from both men will be measured not by the words spoken on tour, but by what arrives on the ground in the months ahead.
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