I maintain that the youth alone cannot run the country – K. T Hammond defends 'coconut heads' comment

Member of Parliament for Adanse Asokwa, Kobina Tahir Hammond has maintained his 'controversial' position when it comes to the role of the youth in national leadership.

Appearing before Parliament’s Appointment Committee as minister-designate for trade and industry, K. T. Hammond said while he agrees with participation of the youth in governing the country, he does not believe that leadership should be left in the hands of the youth on the basis that the adults in the country are useless.

“My argument is that, you don’t rule a country without the adults. I maintain it, the youth alone cannot run a country. It's not possible. There can be a mixture of the youth… it’s never been my argument that they cannot have a say in the running of the country. I said they should be tamed, they should be temperate in the kind of things that they say and the suggestion that every adult is useless. You look at me, you think I am useless?” the nominee questioned.

His statement was in response to a member of the committee who was seeking to find out his real position a statement he made some months back that attracted wide criticism.

K. T. Hammond in September 2022 cautioned the youth to calm down after some patrons at a concert held at the Independence Square booed at President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo whiles he addressed the event.

“Let’s exercise restraint a little. Akufo-Addo is the executive President overseeing all the affairs of the country. When he arrived on the stage, he didn’t say anything untoward. Besides, it wasn’t even a political platform. He was only expressing his satisfaction with the event”, he said.

“We will continue to admonish you the young men and women to be patient. When there’s an issue to be addressed, society always consults the elderly. Not you the young ones, whose heads are like coconuts,” K. T. Hammond who described the action of the Global Citizens Festival patrons as disrespectful added.

But appearing before the Appointment Committee on Monday, February 20, 2023, K. T. Hammond clarified that his statement was not to undermine the youth of the country.

“We’ve been young before, so it’s not for anybody to try and castigate the youth unreasonably. What I have been saying is this, and let’s get it right; the youth has all the reason to say what they want to say. They have the right and the entitlement to participate in the governing of the country. What I said was that there is a limit to how these matters are to be handled.

“There has been this whole business and I if you’d recall, I think the communist revolution or so. What it is was that ‘when we come to government the first thing we will do, all the lawyers we will chain them together and then dump them under the sea, we kill all of them.’ It is in one of the communist manifestos,” he said.

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