Tain Comes Alive (Front Page)

AN unassuming constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region, Tain, formally the Wenchi West Constituency, with Nsawkaw as its headquarters, has, for the second time within two years, become the focus of the more than 20 million Ghanaians and the world at large.
The Tain District earned national and international recognition for the time on August 24, 2007 when the sod was cut for the multi-million dollar Bui Hydro Electric Project. On that day, President J. A. Kufuor blasted a mountain of rocks and rubbles to signify the beginning of work on the US$622 million integrated project.
Tain (pronounced Tine or Tyne) shot into national and international prominence for the second time last Tuesday when it was mentioned by the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) as the constituency to determine the fate of two people, one of whom would be the next President of Ghana.
For the second time running, the EC could not declare a winner of the presidential election and by the figures it released, the nation has to wait for Tain, which is yet to make a choice between the two presidential candidates in the run-off.
The contending parties are the New Patriotic Party (NPP), with Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as its presidential candidate, and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which has Professor J.E.A. Mills as its candidate.
Prior to that determination, Tain was the scene of bitter allegations between the NPP and the NDC following the general election of December 7, 2008.
The NPP alleged that the constituency results had been manipulated to favour the NDC.
Days after the polls, the EC office in the constituency headquarters, Nsawkaw, was burnt down in what was suspected to be the work of arsonists.
When the incident occurred, official documents, ballot boxes and the roof of the entire building were reportedly burnt to ashes.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday, the Chairman of the EC, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, said a winner would be determined only after voting had taken place in the Tain Constituency on Friday, January 2, 2008.
For this reason, Tain, with 56,000 registered voters, is now the battleground where the close presidential race between Prof Mills and Nana Akufo-Addo will finally be decided.
Dr Afari-Gyan, in making the announcement on Tuesday, indicated that in last Sunday’s run-off between the two, Prof Mills had 50.13 per cent of the votes, as against Nana Akufo-Addo’s 49.87 per cent.
The Tain District, which doubles as the Tain Constituency, is one of the districts created in June 2004. It is situated at the north-western part of Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo Regional capital.
In terms of land area, Tain covers 4,125 sq kilometres. Nsawkaw, the district capital, is 18 miles from Wenchi, the capital of the Wenchi Municipality, out of which Tain was carved.
The district shares common boundaries with the Wenchi Municipality to the east, the Jaman North District to the west, the Sunyani Municipality to the south and the Berekum Municipality to the south-west. It is also bounded by the Bole District of the Northern Region to the north east and Cote d’Ivoire to the north-west.
The big towns in the district, such as Debibi, Brodi, Seikwa and Badu, are far from the district capital, Nsawkaw, and its closeness to districts such as Berekum, Jaman North and Sunyani deprive the district of the needed revenue, as the big towns in the Tain District transact business with these nearby districts.
One important community in the constituency is where the Bui Hydro project, which is expected to add 400 megawatts of electrical power to the country’s generation mix, is under construction.
The people are mainly farmers, cultivating food crops, especially maize and yam. They also cultivate cashew on a large scale.
Unlike some constituencies where the people usually have a common language, Tain is made up of different ethnic groups, with the people speaking various languages. The people in the Banda side of the constituency who live around Banda Ahenkro and Manje speak Nafana; those in Nsawkaw speak Bono, while those in Seikwa, Badu and its environs speak Kolenge.
The name of the constituency is derived from the River Tain, which flows through a small town in the constituency, Tainso.
Some prominent personalities who hail from the constituency are Alhaji Asuma Banda of Antrak Air; Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, the General Secretary of the NDC, and Nana Kwadwo Seinti, a former Brong Ahafo Regional Minister in the NPP government, who is currently Ghana’s Ambassador to Malaysia.
What is at stake is the difference of 23,055 votes which could not give Prof Mills the presidency, since the number of voters in the Tain Constituency is more than the figure.
Prof Mills won in the Tain Constituency during the 2008 general election. He obtained 16,211 votes, representing 50.7 per cent, while Nana Akufo-Addo got 14,935, representing 46.8 per cent.
Ahmed Ibrahim of the NDC won the parliamentary election with 14,965 votes, representing 48.1 per cent of the valid votes cast, while the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Joe Danquah of the NPP, got 12,048, representing 38.7 per cent.