As a celebrated actor-turned-politician, John Dumelo admits that public expectation weighs heavily on him, but he insists that the real pressure comes not from fame, but from the people’s needs.
“Every MP faces the concerns of their people,” he said in an interview on Joy News monitored by MyNewsGh. “For me, it’s about listening to them every day and attending to what they need.”
Despite Ayawaso West’s image as a privileged enclave, Dumelo argued that the constituency is full of overlooked needs, from faulty streetlights and choked gutters to a surprising lack of a senior high school.
“It would interest you to know that Ayawaso West doesn’t have a single senior high school,” he noted. “There are basic amenities missing, and those are things I want to champion.”
He acknowledged that balancing his public persona with the expectations of parliamentary duty is not easy.
“You can look at the glass half full or half empty,” he said. “But I prefer to see it as an opportunity, to listen, to act, and to get as close to 100 percent as possible when it comes to serving my people.”
Dumelo also challenged the notion that MPs should only make laws and leave development to local assemblies.
“When you stand on the campaign platform and someone tells you, ‘I just want my road fixed,’ you can’t reply that your job is only to pass laws. They’ll ask, then why should I vote for you?” he argued.
For him, politics must be human-centered—about empathy and visible change.
Whether it’s fixing a traffic light or supporting students with transport, he says, those tangible actions define how people measure leadership.
“At the end of my term,” he reflected, “I want my constituents to say that I didn’t just talk. I acted.”
