I Will Contest Bekwai Parliamentary Seat On NPP Ticket In 2024 - Ralph Poku-Adusei

Lawyer in private practice and Managing Partner at Trent Legal Amansie Chambers, Ralph Poku-Adusei, has declared his intention to contest on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the Bekwai Constituency parliamentary seat in the Ashanti Region in the upcoming December 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The Bekwai seat is currently NPP-held and the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency, Joseph Osei Owusu (Joe Wise), has made known his decision not to contest the seat any longer after representing the constituency for sixteen (16) years, in four different Parliaments (2008 to 2024).

*Nominations opened by NPP*

The National Executive Committee of the NPP in a statement issues on Friday, 10 November 2023, has scheduled the date for the conduct of the Party’s Parliamentary Primaries in constituencies where the Party has sitting MPs. The date for the conduct of the primaries is 20 January 2024. Nomination shall open on 20 and close on 22 December 2023.

*Vision for Amansie*

Having lived all his formative years in the Bekwai Constituency, Ralph Poku-Adusei, a British-trained lawyer, Notary Public in the Republic of Ghana, a well-seasoned legal practitioner with about thirteen (13) years of experience in all facets of corporate and commercial practice, land acquisition, and criminal practice, believes it is his turn to represent the constituency in the country’s law-making chamber and help transform the Bekwai municipality.

As an indigene of Bekwai, Ralph Poku-Adusei lived his early life in the constituency up until he completed his secondary education. After leaving the constituency to pursue higher education in other parts of the country as well as in the United Kingdom (UK), Mr. Poku-Adusei has been mindful to return to the constituency and to give back to it, being the place where he was socialized.

As a result, lawyer Ralph is credited with several socially impactful projects in the Bekwai municipal area, which have gone a long way to improve the living standards and social connectivity of the inhabitants of the constituency.
His vision for Amansie is to create a municipality free from poverty, where everyone has access to the basic needs of life, chances for advancement, and the capacity to live honourably as espoused in seven key thematic areas which include; Job creation, Poverty alleviation & livelihood improvement, Agriculture (commercial & mechanized), Infrastructure Development, Youth Employment, Education and Pensions.

Lawyer Poku-Adusei proposes to prioritise education in order to break the cycle of poverty. His vision is to improve access to high-quality education for all children in the Bekwai Municipality. This will require improving infrastructure, providing scholarships, and implementing programs to improve educational outcomes. He plans to do this by lobbying through government and the private sector (local and international) through advocacy and a well thought through plan to get scholarships, recruitment slots and corporate sponsorships to enhance education in the municipality.

He also proposes to Sustainable Livelihoods: by creating an enabling environment and providing resources for entrepreneurship, skill development, and job creation in order to create sustainable means of subsistence. To enable people and families to escape poverty, he plans to set up vocational training facilities, assist small local enterprises, and allow access to microfinance programs, which he has already started.

Lawyer Ralph also appreciates the value of a strong social welfare system and easily available healthcare. To guarantee the health of our community, we will work in conjunction with pertinent stakeholders to improve social protection programs, build out healthcare infrastructure, and advocate for preventative healthcare practices. He plans to make healthcare accessible to his constituents by building CHIP compounds and other healthcare interventions to bring healthcare closer to the constituents, thereby reducing the pressure on the Bekwai Hospital.

Infrastructure Development is on top of the agenda for Lawyer Ralph. To enhance the quality of life for residents of the Bekwai Municipality, he proposes to concentrate on infrastructure development. This involves enhancing transportation infrastructure, maintaining a steady supply of water and energy, toilet facilities, and funding sustainable housing programs. His objective is to establish a setting that promotes economic development and raises everyone’s standard of living. He further proposes to drive both local and foreign investors to the constituency to put up recreational centres, Shopping malls, Manufacturing companies and tertiary institutions to boost economic activities and subsequently address the issue of Youth unemployment in the constituency.

As a lawyer, he hopes to use Advocacy and Policy Reform to address structural problems that lead to poverty and will aggressively participate in lobbying and policy reform. He intends to collaborate closely with governmental institutions, civil society groups, and local authorities to establish laws and policies that advance social justice, lessen inequality, and end poverty in the Bekwai Municipality.

Another area Lawyer Ralph Poku-Adusei intends to address is the issue of pensions. He has observed that a lot of people in the constituency retire from active service with or without any form of pension. For those that do, it’s woefully inadequate. He proposes to intensify pension education and encourage his constituents to contribute either formally or informally to SSNIT. Further, he proposes to set up a cooperative society for the people to benefit from.

He alludes to the fact that caring for the aged, disabled, and vulnerable is a shared responsibility, and every effort must be put into making their lives worthwhile through value adding programs and interventions.

*Political interventions*

The interventions of Ralph Poku-Adusei in the Bekwai Constituency have been both in support of the NPP and the people of the municipality. Among the interventions to the party are a donation of a sum of GHc 100,000.00 and 1,000 bags of rice to NPP Bekwai delegates for the 2023 Easter celebrations, provision of financial support for the aged (elderly) who have served the party in Bekwai but are inactive due to old age and poor health.

Lawyer Ralph has also provided financial support to Bekwai Constituency executives to embark on a “Thank You Tour” after the party’s internal primaries in 2022. In the same year, he provided financial support to Muslim polling station executives in the Bekwai Constituency during Eid Al-Adha to support their celebrations.
Other support interventions of Mr. Poku – Adusei are financial support to Bekwai Constituency delegates, at the National Delegate Conference held at Koforidua, presentation of GHc 205,200.00 to the Bekwai Constituency executives to be shared to Electoral Area Coordinators, Polling Station Executives as support for Christmas celebrations, GHc 30,000 to NPP Bekwai Constituency towards the building of the constituency office, among others.

*Municipal support*

At the Bekwai municipality level, Lawyer Ralph Poku-Adusei has a long list of interpositions that have come in handy to support the indigenes of the constituency. Lawyer Ralph, on his 41st Birthday2023, distributed 5,000 improved clean cooking stoves to the people of Bekwai into support the clean cooking agenda of the government.
Again, Lawyer Ralph sponsored the “New Year Street Party” in the Bekwai Constituency (2023). Lawyer Ralph also supported the Bekwai annual sports competition with GHS 12,000 and he also presented 10 football jerseys, 20 footballs, and a cash of GHS 500 each to 15 communities participating in the community gala within the Bekwai Constituency.

Other direct support of Lawyer Ralph to the people of Bekwai is; GHc 2,000.00 to the Disable Federation in Bekwai in 2022, the presentation of 2 motorbikes to the Bekwai District Police command to promote visibility in the district (2022), donation of a sum of GHc 50,000 to support Kokofu community centre, and Okogyeasuo JHS works. Provision of GHc 8,000.00 to repair the Bekwai Constituency ambulance (1 constituency 1 ambulance) which was parked for 5 months due to a fault, renovation of an abandoned structure to provide offices and restrooms for the National Ambulance Service in Bekwai Municipality, creation of job opportunities, for over 300 energetic youth of Bekwai Municipality through the ongoing Amansie Youth Project are some other things that the young lawyer has carried out for his beloved constituents in Bekwai.

*Profile of Ralph Poku – Adusei*

Throughout his years as a legal practitioner, he has successfully advised and represented both local and international clients working in Ghana. He is a member of the Ghana Bar, the Bar of England and Wales, and the International Bar Association. Ralph’s alma maters include; The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, UK; Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Law, UK (formerly The College of Law of England and Wales, UK) Ghana School of Law, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana among others.

He doubles up as an entrepreneur with 15 years in business leadership, the founder and chairman of the Board of Directors of First Cedi Investment Ltd, a real estate development company domiciled in the Greater Accra Region.
Ralph is also the proprietor of FirstCedi Micro-Credit Enterprise, which provides lending services to the communities within and around the Bekwai municipality in the Ashanti Region of the Republic of Ghana.

Ralph Poku-Adusei is a relentless optimist, an effective communicator, and a motivator who identifies and leverages assets in teammates to reach organizational goals.
Notwithstanding his academic and entrepreneurial prowess, Ralph Poku-Adusei is a philanthropist who believes in giving back to society hence, he set up a nongovernmental organization in 2018 called the Poku-Adusei Foundation to provide humanitarian support services to the poor and the needy/less privileged in the society.

This organization has been a great support to the orphans, widows, widowers, and the aged in the Bekwai community in the Ashanti Region. Ralph Poku-Adusei hails from the Oyoko family of Kokofu in the Ashanti Region. He is married to Mrs. Gloria Poku-Adusei is blessed with two (2) children; a daughter and a son.

By Wilberforce Asare