Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana Dr. John Saviour Yaw Eleblu has launched his bid to unseat Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa as the Member of Parliament for the North Tongu constituency.
Flanked by party executives and hundreds of supporters, Dr. Eleblu filed his nominations at the party’s office in Battor last week to contest the NPP parliamentary candidate slot.
“It is with great joy that I offer myself to serve the good people of North Tongu through the great NPP. I want to serve my country, region, and district in a leadership position as I have been serving the University of Ghana, the premier University,” he said after filing the nomination.
“I have what it takes to be a parliamentary candidate to challenge the opposition NDC’s candidate to win the seat. I am very ready to change the narrative of NPP in North Tongu and bring hope to the party folks in the constituency,” he said.
Dr. Eleblu assured that although the NPP has been performing badly in North Tongu, he has the right strategies in place to canvas for votes and topple the NDC. “Our target is to get 30,000 votes in North Tongu and we have mapped out many complementary strategies to achieve this. The first is our membership drive to register a minimum of 10,000 members,” he disclosed.
He said the NPP has contributed hugely to the development of the constituency including investing in the US$34 million Togorme Irrigation project which is expected to serve as a foundational infrastructure for the development of agricultural and agribusiness projects for the needed economic transformation.
He said the NPP has ensured the construction of new roads in the area, 2 new courts for the judiciary to facilitate the quick delivery of justice, the building of a new market complex in Juapong, and many more.
“Vigilante” MP
Dr. Eleblu told supporters the constituency deserves an MP who is committed to improving the lives of the people and not one who is chasing national clout.
“North Tongu deserves a real MP. Somebody who will represent the people and lobby for jobs and development projects. And not somebody who is becoming like a vigilante who is going round chasing people for budget overruns,” he said.
“In fact, NDC has not done anything to lift the people of North Tongu and Volta Region out of poverty. It is only the NPP that cares and we must begin to reward the party with votes,” he added.
Vision for constituency
Dr. Eleblu said he will serve the constituency with transformational leadership of service, transparency, integrity, and honesty. He said he will establish business development centers in all the electoral areas and residents will be supported to create businesses and grow them for wealth creation.
“I will change our constituency into an agricultural hub to feed North Tongu and the entire country and also for export,” he said.
Dr. Eleblu promised to facilitate the establishment of three Technical, Vocational, Engineering, and Technology (TVET) centers in the constituency to train the youths to become entrepreneurs. He also assured he will assist qualified youths in the party to gain admission into tertiary institutions of their choice, as well as get employment opportunities in the security services and other government agencies.
Who is Dr. Eleblu?
Dr. Eleblu has thick political roots and is the son of a former parliamentary candidate in the constituency, Christopher Kofi Eleblu, who previously served as director of internal audit at the Ministry of Health.
He earned a PhD in Plant Biology from the Université Paris Sud 11, Orsay, France on a fully funded scholarship from the University of Ghana and the French Embassy in Ghana. He holds a BSc and MPhil degrees in Agricultural Science from the University of Ghana. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Biotechnology Centre and a Coordinator of Research Programmes at the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Ghana.
He has served as principal investigator on many scientific research projects and has led project teams to train more than 4,000 farmers across West Africa and 300 extension agents.
He has supervised more than 22 Ph.D. students and has over 30 scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals to his credit.
He has won more than 4 grant-funded projects in 8 years of working with the University of Ghana. He has supported and led project proposal development which has contributed towards raising more than US$10 million from prominent donor institutions such as the World Bank, African Union, European Union, International Atomic Energy Agency, and the KGL Foundation, for the University of Ghana.
