Ball-of-Steel Ursula Deserves Another Term

Ursula Gifty Owusu-Ekuful, the Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West Constituency in the Greater Accra Region is an inspiring testimony of women’s participation in political and public life at the local and national level;  her quest for yet another four-year term as a member of Ghana’s Legislature certainly deserves the support of all well meaning persons.

Her achievements and legacy as a Member of Parliament travels way beyond the funding of the provision of the tall list of critical social amenities in her constituency or lobbying for the facilitation of same. Her legacy, most importantly, is evidenced in the iconic personality of hope,  motivation and inspiration she has become for the ‘girl child’ in her community and the country at large. These are priceless achievements for posterity.

Ursula has not hidden her bias for women empowerment and providing a platform of equity for girls.  It is a personal passion that has inspired her female constituents of heterogeneous backgrounds. Raising capital for women in small scale businesses, facilitating for enrollment of qualified females into the security services and public sector, sponsoring the higher education of brilliant female students from needy backgrounds, defending the rights of abused women and just a few of her daily routine.

It is not to say Ursula displays this bias to the disadvantage of her male constituents because she has kept them as a key priority. The point is that in a country where there is an under representation of women in leadership, Ursula’s never-say-die spirit of optimism has made her a household name across the country as a heart-warming example of  women in positive leadership of inspiration.

In this era of digitization across the globe, Ursula’s brainchild – the Girls in Information and Communication Technology (Girls-In-ICT)  initiative has enhanced the digital skills of young women and girls in the career fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and most importantly, ICT.

Ursula identifies with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) ideology and she is in Parliament on the Party’s ticket yet her Girls-in-ICT initiative has remained apolitical continues to provide equal opportunities for girls from every home across the country.

She is on the move, lobbying to seek expanded funding for the sustainability  and expansion of the Girls-In-ICT programme.

“We need to find a way to sustain it so this year, we’re setting up a Girls-In-ICT trust that will have its own board of trustees. They will be able to write proposals to raise funds. We have funding agencies who are already signed up to be trustees so that they can also factor it into their programming.

“We can extend it beyond the three thousand girls that we train in a year to at least ten thousand a year, sustain and grow the mentorship aspect of it, because that’s what gives them visible role models to aspire to be like”,  Ursula has noted.

For such a Member of Parliament, not retaining her seat would be a big disincentive and heartbreak to the hundreds of thousands of young girls across the country that sees her as their inspiration. It would be a negative testimony that women, no matter how capable they may be, are not meant to be in political or public leadership. It would  be wrong signal not worth taking.

The New Publisher would most certainly associate with such a brilliant achiever and a lad with balls of steel.

It is no surprise she was invited as a special guest and to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Feminine Ghana Achievement Awards.

There is the need to set aside partisan politics and retain Ursula as MP for Ablekuma West come December 7 in the best interest of the Constituency and the country at large.

Vote Ursula; it is possible in unity.