Prior to the Press Conference held by the Obuasi Ministers’ Association earlier on Monday, they issued a press statement outlining 6 Principal qualities they expect in the new Municipal Chief executive to be appointed.
Under The statement released, the chairman of the association-Apostle George Kingsley Amoako layed a presupposition stating that: “The President, Nana Akuffo Addo has started naming his Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief executives (MMDCEs). As is to be expected, we are keenly following the process, to know who eventually becomes the next municipal chief executive (MCE) for obuasi. For a very long time, Obuasi has had the misfortune of having MCEs who have been anything but visionary.”
His statement rolled on further saying: “The current state of obuasi confirms our position that the MCEs in the past have not been proactive in dealing with the numerous daunting development challenges that the municipality faces. We believe that if the President chooses the right person as MCE, obuasi’s problems would be half solved. What qualities do we look out for in our next MCE?”
Here Are The Six Qualities The Association Hopes To See In The New M.C.E To Be Appointed
- First of all, we are looking for a visionary leader. This successful person must be someone who has a vision for the transformation of obuasi. He/She must come to office with a clearly articulated vision that the general citizenry can buy into.
- We are also looking for an accomplished person. We need someone who has made a mark for himself/herself outside of politics. We do not want a situation where people come to office to enrich themselves at the expense of the masses. The next MCE must come to office with a passion to serve.
3. Ladies and gentlemen, our next MCE should be someone who knows Obuasi very well, understands the problems facing the municipality well and has solutions to the problems of the municipality. The MCE should have an innate passion to change the fortunes of obuasi and leave a mark for posterity.
4. Furthermore, the next MCE should be someone who has the ability to mobilize people by inspiring confidence in them, negotiate good deals with the business community on behalf of the Assembly and also commit to doing things differently. The “business-as-usual” type of leadership has not helped. This time we need someone who is radical enough to take bold steps to change the dwindling fortunes of our beloved municipality.
5. We also expect the next MCE to be someone who can galvanize the creative abilities of the youth of obuasi and turn them into entrepreneurial ventures. This is absolutely necessary to deal with the problem of youth unemployment, and also gradually diversify the economy away from core mining businesses.
Obuasi has produced some of the finest graduates in the country, but due to limited economic opportunities they always relocate away from the municipality to other places. Our next MCE should be passionate about creating a corps of successful entrepreneurs who will run the local economy.
6. Finally, ladies and gentlemen: Our next MCE should be a person of integrity and incorruptible. In the past, perceptions of corruptions and connivance with illegal mining or “galamsey” fueled a certain credibility crisis for the political leadership in our municipality. This went a long way to create the mess that the municipality finds itself in right now. We do not want a repeat of that episode. We want an honest MCE who can work with both AGA and small scale miners without compromising himself or herself in the process.