DCE nomination: Upper West gets one female nominee, confirmation in limbo

Only one out of the eight females in the Upper West Region who expressed interest in the District Chief Executive (DCE) positions has been nominated by President John Dramani Mahama as a DCE.

Ms. Mary Haruna emerged as the DCE nominee for the Nadowlo-Kaleo District though she was excluded from the 33 shortlisted applicants submitted by the vetting committee to the President for consideration.

However, the circumstances surrounding Ms. Haruna’s nomination had left her approval and confirmation by the Nadwoli-Kaleo District Assembly in limbo.

It could be recalled that some gender advocates and female leaders in the Upper West Region including the Upper West Regional Female Chiefs Association raised concerns about the exclusion of all eight females DCE aspirants in the region from the shortlisted applicants.

However, prior to her nomination, a section of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) members in the Nadowli-Kaleo Constituency accused the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban S. K. Bagbin, of meddling with the DCE nomination process.

A group of NDC members held a press conference at Nadowli and accused Mr Bagbin of presenting two names including that of Ms. Marry Haruna to the resident for consideration as DCE aside from the three shortlisted aspirants from that District presented by the vetting committee. 

A few days later, another group of NDC members in Kaleo also held a press conference to counter the accusation levelled against Mr Bagbin.

The group said Speaker Bagbin had no hand in the two names that appeared on the President’s desk in Accra but that it was through petitions filed by those aspirants against their disqualification by the vetting committee.

This created a sharp division within the NDC membership in the Nadowli-Kaleo Constituency as they saw the nomination process as lacking transparency and fairness.

Also, the Nadowli-Kaleo District was led by a female DCE, Katherine T. Lankono, for eight consecutive years during the erstwhile President Akufo-Addo’s administration, from 2016 to 2024.

Those two factors were likely to influence the confirmation of Ms Haruna by the District Assembly without any intervention by the party leadership within the Constituency, Regional and National levels.

Granted that Speaker Bagbin influenced the nomination of Ms. Haruna as the DCE, that would suggest that, President John Dramani Mahama did not consider the concerns of the women in the Upper West Region, especially the Queen Mothers to nominate, at least, three females as DCEs in the region.

The nominated DCEs for the Upper West Region were: Daffiama Bussie Issa, James Wor; Nadowli-Kaleo, Mary Haruna; Wa Municipal, Alhaji Nura Issah Danwana; Wa West, Richard Wulo; Wa East, Adamu Sayibu; and Jirapa Municipality, Peter N.N To-Ang.

The rest were: Lawra, Alhaji Adams Muazu; Nandom, Anthony Ziniel; Lambussie, Naawulie Ireneous Basingbie; Sissala East, Adamu Yakubu and Sissala West District, Abudu Fuseini Gbene.