President John Dramani Mahama has nominated a 52-year-old professional teacher, Yakubu Yussif Castro, as the Municipal Chief Executive for the West Gonja District in the Savannah Region.
The nominee hails from Busunu, a suburb of the municipality, and is described in political circles as a gifted grassroots politician.
He is one of the early cadres and a member of the Democratic Youth League of Ghana (DYLG), known as a good listener, a committed NDC party man, and a unifier.
As a grassroots figure, Mr. Castro combined his professional and political careers during his first posting to Pepuso, a suburb of Buipe, on 10th October 1994. There, he served as headteacher and the sole teacher handling four classes.
Despite his workload, he accepted to serve his party as the polling station secretary for Pepuso, which is now within the Central Gonja District.
He was later transferred to his hometown, Busunu, where he became secretary to the Presbyterian Primary Temporary Polling Station and later the Busunu D/A Polling Station. He held this position until the 2012 and 2016 elections, when he contested the Damongo Constituency parliamentary primaries on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
He, however, lost both attempts to Adam Mutawakilu, also known as Garlus, who is now the Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited.
Undeterred by his defeats, Mr. Castro ran again—this time for the position of constituency secretary of Damongo—but lost to the current secretary of the party, Braimah Alhassan.
According to some youth around him, his losses have never discouraged him from working for the NDC in the region.
Having lived and worked in the area for thirty-one (31) years—since 1994—within the former Damongo District (now comprising Central and North Gonja), Mr. Yakubu Yussif Castro is widely regarded as the right person to manage the relatively tense political and chieftaincy atmosphere in Damongo.
He is also expected to address the recurring annual floods in Damongo and Busunu while managing the expectations and concerns of the youth.
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