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Opinions of Tuesday, 13 January 2015

Columnist: Alhassan Ahmed

One Small Step For Maazi Okoro

One Small Step For Maazi Okoro, A Wavelength Of Civilization To The Youth Of Nima And Beyond.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”…….Martin Luther king Jr.



Whenever a society is faced with a myriad of problems, whenever a society is sunk into the bottomless pit of underdevelopment, whenever a society finds itself in the doldrums of absolute despondency, whenever a society has no clear cut policy and direction, the only salvation to this society is its new generation. The youth of such a society must make the painstaking effort to take its destiny in their own hands.
A classic example to this effect is when our beloved nation was plunged into the bondage of colonialism and imprisoned in the shackles of imperialism, several efforts to save it and give it a taste of freedom and independence proved downright futile. It took a man with fresh ideas to bring the long awaited dream (freedom) into reality. And this quest was highly successful due to the strong support and concerted effort of the youth to help him. The man was Kwame Nkrumah and the youth was galvanized into the Committee on Youth Organization, CYO. The rest they say “is history”.
We live in a community where we are still been hoodwinked into thinking abnormally. This abnormal thinking has to do with the frivolous and backward conventions and norms that certain positions are meant for the “elders.”
It is baffling and sometimes irritating to find an ignoramus portraying himself as the know-it-all just because he is a man of age.
It is high time we (youth) broke away from this untruthful, vacuous, empty and backward thinking. At least the proverbial case of Solomon (the wisest man ever) and Methuselah (the oldest man ever) is a fountain we can draw inspiration from because “the wisdom of Solomon had nothing to do with the age of Methuselah.”
If we fail to take up the mantle of leadership in our communities, then that will be the very bane of our existence. For too long we have vested power into our so called “elders” and they have failed us woefully.
I find it difficult to comprehend, do we as a community lack competent people in our midst who can represent us at the higher level? We have given enough chance to “foreigners” and their cumulative performance is appalling and nothing to write home about. We the people of Nima have vested our confidence into the hands two DOCTORS as our Members of Parliament and without any modicum of doubt, I will say they have failed us. Why are we failing to think us a community? It’s time we started voting wisely and prudently. We have allowed these people to take us for a ride. Don’t we have people from this community competent enough and conscious of the plight of the community to agitate and champion our cause?

My fellow youth lets wake up from our slumber and fight for this community. It is at this point that I lift my hands up for Inusah Mohammed (Maazi Okoro} for such a bold step in contesting for the Assemblyman. Let us as youth take a great cue from the confidence of this young, hardworking and educated youth.
It’s time we sat and make the right decision by giving our support to the youth.
Barring all unforeseen circumstances, we will sooner than later be going to the polls to elect our assemblymen for the various electoral areas.
I am not trying to be a political chauvinist. Neither am I not been politically jingoistic, but I think it’s time we vested the destiny of this community into the subtle hands of the youth, for I believe the destiny of any community rests on the shoulders of the youth. Let vote wisely. Let’s support the youth and we shall see ourselves raised from the nadir to the zenith of prosperity and development.

Alhassan Ahmed
NB: The writer is a student of Tafsiliyya School for Training and Education and the University of Ghana.