New U.S. citizen will vote for the first time Saturday

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Noel Ndjie Ntsongo will vote for the first time as a U.S. citizen Saturday.

“I believe that my voice can count for my kids,” Ndjie Ntsongo said.

Noel moved to Baton Rouge from Cameroon in 2016.

“I had a choice either to stay there and maybe apply for a job or to come here and try and see if it’s better. So, I decided to take the risk. I came with my daughter she was four and we’ve been down here since 2016 I have no regrets,” Noel said.

This election is important to him, not only because it’s his first one, but also for the importance it has for his family.

“That is, it means a lot to me because I’ve been here for six years now. I have a family, I have my children here and I can see the impact that I may have by voting,” Noel said.

After living here for six years, Noel decided to get his citizenship to help out his children.

“I came here with my daughter, she’s now 10, and my wife came here with my first son, he’s six now, and we just had a newborn baby boy. He is the first citizen in the house. He was born on April 1st, and I became a citizen on April 1st.”

Noel said getting his citizenship was so important, he had to miss his youngest son’s birth for the ceremony.

“I had to make a choice, to show you how valuable that citizenship is for me, because I could push it back, but I decided to go up there to get it for the family,” Noel said.

When he votes Saturday, Noel said he’s doing it for all of his kids.

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