<<Print>>

Mr Ambrose Dery, a devout Catholic, was born in 1956. He entered the University of Ghana in 1977 after completing Navrongo Secondary School. He graduated with an LL.B and a BL and was called to the Bar in 1982. Though a native of the Upper West Region, Ambrose spent most of his life in the Upper East Region, where he schooled, built his career and business, and made his home. He is a seasoned politician, who was able to wrestle the Lawra-Nandom parliamentary seat from no less a person than Dr Benjamin Kumbuor, the current Minister of the Interior. Ambrose served in two ministerial positions before he entered Parliament in 2008. He was the Regional Minister for the Upper West Region from 2004 � 2006 and Minister of State in the Ministry of Justice from 2006 � 2009. Ambrose Dery has risen even higher as a Parliamentarian, holding the position of Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament and is member of the African Union Parliament in South Africa. As a successful legal practitioner, he co-founded the most successful legal chambers in Bolgatanga with the late Laary Bimi, and went on to establish another successful chamber in Accra. As Regional Minister, Ambrose transformed the Upper West Regional capital. Residents of Wa remember his tenure with great nostalgia. His commitment to poverty alleviation saw him serving for ten years (1993 � 2003) as the Chairman of the Water Aid Partner Round Table, an association of local NGOs funded by Water Aid. He is fluent in four Ghanaian languages, Dagaare, Gurune (frafra), Hausa and Twi. Mr Dery sees political office as a privileged opportunity to serve people �the people who have given you the mandate to be where you find yourself.� �Providing servant leadership should always be our watch word as politicians and by so doing you will be recognized accordingly, just as I was humbled when my colleagues accorded me the enviable privilege to serve them as a deputy minority leader even as a new comer in parliament,� he told the New Statesman yesterday. As a result of his people-centred approach to politics, he remains the only MP from the Upper West region, with a functional office where his constituents can channel their concerns for the necessary redress. His constituents hold him in high esteem for what they see as his exceptional commitment to social intervention programmes, particularly targeted at the poor and vulnerable. For some of his constituents, the provision of ambulances for the both the Nandom and Lawra hospitals are among the things they will forever remember about him.