The question often asked is that “should the Youth and students be involved in politics and promoting a peaceful and credible election in 2016”?
The C.E.O of Youth Web Ghana, Mr. Richmond Amofa – Sarpong said that in his view, the answer to this question is yes, and for our purposes let us regard the youth as the portion of the population, and the 1992 Constitution of Ghana has clearly defined the Youth of Ghana as between the ages of 15years to 35years.
He said that the following reasons are why the youth and the Tertiary students should be involved in politics:
In our country, the youth constitute more than 60% (check) of the population, and since democratic governance is about numbers, the youth should have a role to play in the decision making process.
The youth are the portion of the population most directly affected by the political, social and economic decisions taken for now and the future.
They therefore need to be involved in the political process. But they must be adequately prepared for the roles they are expected to play.
The youth bring fresh thinking, energy and idealism to the political process, and these are factors beneficial to the society.
But we will again emphasize that the youth allow the experience, the wisdom and the other positive qualities of the senior citizens to nurture and guide them, in their own interest and in the interest of the nation. Since 1957, Ghana has had more or about 10 different regimes each with its own programs and prescriptions. The sum total of the effect these regimes has had on the socio economic development of the country, I will leave to historians to assess.
Except to point out that Malaysia, our classmate in the colonial era, and which had independence in the same year as Ghana, has GDP about 10 times bigger than our own, and she is making giant strides in its economic development.
Again Mr. Richmond Amofa – Sarpong said that since independence, Malaysia has had five or more regimes with no coup.
The question I will leave with you as future leaders of our country, is what went wrong with Ghana, and what lessons can we learn from countries which have been more successful than our own. I hasten to state that Ghana has made giant strides in democratic governance since 1992, and the economy is also gradually picking up. But I am of the view that this is a good opportunity for all of us to reflect on why we are where we are.
But in recent times, however, youth groups within certain parties have been involved in many anti-social activities. These include attacks on persons perceived to be political opponents during elections, snatching of ballot boxes, seizure of public toilets, assaulting high gov’t officials particularly DCEs, locking up of gov’t offices especially those of the National Health Insurance Scheme and even the seizure of the mighty Adomi Bridge to collect tolls, he added.
Lastly the Chief Executive Officer of Youth Web Ghana, Mr. Richmond Amofa – Sarpong called on the youth that the “foot soldier” and ‘’my party is in power’’ phenomena are new and unwelcome features on the political terrain of the country. Patriotic youth who have the welfare of the people and the security of the country at heart should resist these dangerous activities. I call on the police to regard these as criminal activities and deal firmly with them.
The truth of the matter is that the US and Westminster constitutions on which we based our own though good and worthy of emulation by young states such as our own, were written for those societies.
The Ghana Tertiary Awards 2016 will be launched soon for students to grab nominations in a later date to be announced soon to the public. Meanwhile this Outstanding Student Event is Proudly Sponsored by INDOMIE GHANA, BOOM ENTERTAINMENT, DDP OUTDOOR LIMITED (BILL BOARD), ULTIMATE COMPANY, B.B.L CONSULT, ADDICT GROUP and many others…
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