Former MP urges women’s participation in governance

The first female Member of Parliament for Hohoe North in the fourth Republic, Mrs Patience Esi Pomary, has appealed to well-to-do women in the society to strive to contest district assembly and parliamentary elections.

This, she explained, would enable more women to fight for the rights of women and children and the development of their various communities.

The former MP for Hohoe North, whose term was from 1992 to 1996, said it was not easy for females to contest elections and be voted into the assemblies and Parliament since most women were financially handicapped.

She, however, urged women not to allow financial constraints and pressures from their partners  to prevent them from realising their lifetime ambitions as their progress would help develop the country.

Mrs Pomary, who spoke to the Daily Graphic about her past experiences as a pioneer parliamentarian in the Fourth Republic after the ban on party politics had been lifted in 1992, appealed to the current crop of MPs  to put aside partisan politics and support the  government build a strong economy and nation.

She said current parliamentary debates tended to twist issues, with the opposition and the government rarely complementing each other but always attacking each other.

Mrs Pomary stated that this ought not be the case always as the debates ought to be straight forward and the MPs had to face the realities, instead of taking the partisan position, which is not helping the democratic dispensation in the country.

The former MP congratulated the current MP for Hohoe North, Dr Bernice Adiku Heloo, on her achievement and more especially for providing an ambulance to the Hohoe Government Hospital to help in providing quality healthcare to the people in the constituency and beyond.