NPP sidelines and rejects the youth in political participation in Ghana

The New Patriotic Party's (NPP) charge of 16,000 Ghanaian cedis as filing fees is exorbitant and unconscionable. At a time when the same people cry and shout from the rooftops that living conditions are hard, they still expect the Ghanaian youth to be able to raise this kind of amount. This is criminal and insensitive to the thousands of Ghanaian youth aspiring for political positions and participation.



A critical look at this development explicitly confirms the general notion that the NPP is an elitist, bourgeoisie, ''monecary'', and property owning entity, whose thinking and behaviour is based only on wealth creation and opulence. Charging such usurious amounts is an aberration in our political landscape and does not set a good precedence, because it defeats the essence of political participation especially for the youth.



In all these, the lawyers, doctors, business men, old politicians, and other technocrats are able to afford this amount of money; what about the young, capable and competent University graduate who wishes to take part and contribute to input democracy but is unable to do so because he or she can not raise funds. For me, this is just an attempt by the NPP to alienate the youth to the background in our political discourse and involvement.

There is general practise in most if not all Ghanaian homes,where the elderly will always leave that last food in the bowl for the youngest one. The wisdom in this is very simple: to give the feeling that the elderly care and respect the contribution of the child, after all the child is the one to clean the bowl afterwards. This wisdom is grossly lacking in the judgement of the NPP. They have not considered or recognised the contribution of the youth in arriving at the sort of fee they announced last week. I must unequivocally say, that this behaviour of the NPP is tantamount to irresponsibility and lack of vision. Ofcourse the offer of 50 percent for women contestant is a good omen for women in Ghanaian politics, however, politicians and political actors ought to ensure that the youth are considered in any political decision making process, because the youth is the future of the nation and must therefore be groomed to take over affairs.



Trends are changing in world politics as witnessed in the last three years or so. In 2010, the Netherlands voted for the a very youthful leader (Mark Rutte) as the Prime Minister at age 43; in the same year, The UK also saw David Cameron become the youngest Prime Minister of the Downing street in almost 200 years. Earlier, the US had also voted for a young leader- President Obama at 47 years old. These are but a few of young people who were groomed and later took on the mantle to lead their people. Political leadership is not an issue of grey hair. In today’s world, it is not how old you are, but how productive you are. The pace of global developments is dictating the future of all nations, ours should not be an exception else the price will be bigger and extreme.



When I think about our brothers and sister in some of the notable poor regions of Ghana with dreams, determination, and brighter prospects for the future, I just can not imagine or ignore the fact that the NPP is so indifferent to the very youth who are the bases of it strength. If the youth who are willing and ready to participate and contribute to the socio-economic development of our country are sidelined because they have to pay a price for which they can not afford; because they were not born into rich families;because their parents are not part of the political class; or because they have no business associates, then we have a fundamental problem as a nation. As Benjamin Disraeli said, ''We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can no longer be synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the future are represented by suffering millions; and the youth of a Nation are the trustees of posterity''.



Kamara Makama, The Hague University of Applied Science. The Netherlands.

blog: commentaryuncensored.wordpress.com

kamara2002gh@yahoo.com