Give young people the opportunity to participate in governance – Prof. Gyampo

Policy of Saturday, August 3, 2019

Source: Graphic.com.gh

2019-08-03

Professor Ransford Gyampo, a professor of political science at the University of Ghana, said that more young people should be given the opportunity to take part in the government's discourse on development and governance for development.

Describing the current practice that only senior citizens are allowed to play the leading role in the governance process, it is a "gerontocracy", he said.

He therefore called on adult politicians to allow young people to participate in governance and not limit their role to politics to the functions of voting machines, infantrymen and political violence activists.

"They are considered mature and competent enough to determine who should lead them at age 18, but they are described as immature to participate in processes of substantive governance beyond serving as voting machines. It is shamefully a weak logic that should not be maintained because it is ridiculously ridiculous, "said Professor Gyampo.

launching

He spoke at the launch of the youth parity campaign of the Youth Bridge Foundation, a nonprofit organization for youth development, in Accra last Thursday.

The campaign aims to promote equity in youth participation in Parliament and other decision-making platforms.

He observed that more than 70% of the country's population was under 35, of whom 62% in the last elections were between 18 and 35 years old.

Despite the figures mentioned above, Professor Gyampo noted that only 13 people representing 5% of the current members of Parliament were between 21 and 35 years old.

"Is not it fatal for our democracy that this huge slice of our population is seriously underrepresented?", S & he is questioned.

Invite young people

Professor Gyampo also urged young people to take a keen interest in opportunities and seize the opportunity to participate in the next primary parliamentarians in their various political parties in order to improve the representation of young people in the world. political front.

He added that although many obstacles would prevent them from realizing their dreams, they had to remain steadfast.

"So, young people, get out of the ranks, ignore the frustrating obstacles and act as independent candidates if you believe that young people have what it takes to better serve the people," he said.

To call parties

He noted that political parties had the most important role to play regarding the number of young deputies in parliament, as entry into parliament depended almost on the success of a candidate in his primaries.

He therefore asked political parties to support youth participation in the governance process by ensuring that at least 50% of the contestants and winning candidates are young people.

"We call on political parties to encourage young people to challenge their next primaries by rethinking clear and clandestine barriers, including the high cost of filing fees, the high cost of the campaign, accentuated by the almost institutionalized standard of corruption of parties and the fake to refrain from asking young people to give their time, "he said.