Story By: Rahamatu Lahi Zakaria
Mohammed Safura, an aspirant for the Kunnaayili electoral area in the Gushegu Municipality of the Northern Region promises to work towards retaining children in school in her electoral area when elected to be the Assemblywoman for her area. She is going to achieve that through sensitisation and engagement with parents and children.
Madam Safura in this interview spoke passionately about education and how it can change the trajectory of a person’s future. She seeks to see a more educated population in her electoral area hence her passion to embark on this journey as assemblywoman to lobby the assembly to do more when it comes to enrolment and retaining children in school.
According to Madam Safura, the number that enrol in the primary is not the same number that will write the B.E.C.E. especially girls in her electoral area. Most of these girls migrate to Accra as Kayaye (head potter) to make money leaving them unprotected and a bleak future.
She has been engaged in this fight for some years and has rescued girls from travelling to Accra. Asana, not her real name, was still in primary drop out of school to go to Accra for Kayaye but Madam Safura intervened, and currently, she is in Junior High School preparing to write her final exams.
She narrates that, she had to engage the girl’s grandmother, who she was living with to convince her to let the girl continue with her education. The grandmother agreed and together they engaged the girl as well and she also agreed to continue with her education in Gushegu. Madam Safura also made contact with the girl’s father to get him involved in the girl’s education so that she would not abandon her education again.


‘’This work is a continuous process. You need to engage them several times. The girls need mentors. And we serve as the mentors for them. So what we do every day is to talk to them about their future and how they can secure a brighter future for themselves. ‘’
‘’If I get the nod to lead, I will use my lobbying and persuasive skills to get my District Chief executive to commit to ensuring that children in my electoral area complete school’’ she added
Other priority areas that Madam Safura intends to work on include sanitation, water and electricity. She had this to say when asked how she would achieve these priorities that she mentioned.
‘’I do not have money to do that but I have lobbying, fundraising, mobilising and persuasive skill. During this campaign, period, I have been able to raise funds and mobilise my community to help renovate and clean around our toilet.’’
‘’So yes when I am elected I will lobby and persuade my assembly to execute them. I will also engage my electoral to add their voice so that we can convince the assembly to look at our electoral.’’
The district assembly has 25 electoral areas under one constituency. The assembly consist of 36 assembly members, 25 elected and 11 appointed. But the assembly is an all-male affair. There is no single woman in the assembly making it less representative of the district which has a larger women population than men.
The district assembly election will take place tomorrow 19th December, 2023 in all the electoral area of the country.