The billboard that comes with clocks - unraveling the mystery

THE BILLBOARD THAT COMES WITH CLOCKS - UNRAVELLING THE MYSTERY

He has contested every parliamentary election in the constituency since 1996. Although He won in 1996 on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), He lost out in 2000 to the NPP’s Joe Baidoo Ansah and has since struggled to make it back to Parliament.

Lawyer Nana Abakah has always come up with interesting tag lines and strategies for his campaigns but one of his strategies this time has got people of the constituency talking; ‘the billboards with clocks’.  

These mini billboards come with a clock fixed on the top left corner and they are scattered in the densely populated Kwesimintim Constituency of Takoradi. They are visible from Anaji, Kwesimitim, Asakae to Whindo and other areas which make up the constituency.

When asked by Francis Whajah on why He decided to fix those clocks on each billboard, He laughed and replied; “Normally you have a watch to guide you on time and you must know the time as the days go by so the watch is there first of all to let the populace, that’s my people have knowledge about time, to know where we are at every point in time.”

He also said that it was meant to make the people time conscious as they move towards the elections.

“The primary purpose is to remind my people that time is running and to get them the awareness of time and also to sensitize them well to vote and vote for the one that is conscious of time. So it has political and work motivation”. He added.

The Kwesimintim constituency is one of 45 constituencies which was created by the Electoral Commission in 2012. It was carved from the Effia-Kwesimintim constituency and the NPP’s Joe Baidoo Ansah contested it and won by 15,000 votes against Lawyer Abakah’s 6,000 votes.

But Lawyer Abakah says the time has changed and is confident of winning this time.

“Time changes. A lot of things go into politics. This time they are very conscious. My performance as an MP 16 years ago was better and they think I have to come back. The gap is of no relevance now. There is overwhelming support on the ground. I believe we can break that gap and then exceed that tremendously”. He emphasized.

His renewed hope may lie in the fact that his major contenders from the NPP and NDC, Joe Mensah and Augustine Arthur respectively are all new candidates making a first attempt at the seat.

The Kwesimintim seat is held by the NPP’S Joe Baidoo Ansah but He lost the primaries to Joe Mensah. 

    

It is only a matter of time to discover if indeed the over 33,000 populace in Kwesimintim will respect the clock or maintain their old course