NDC To Retire Youth Organizers

The Ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has told its youth organisers who are above 35 years that their days are numbered because they would be asked to retire in the coming days when the party concludes its data base compilation for the youth wing.

According to the NDC, it has become relevant that an “age limit” is set to define who the youth are and the party will be insisting on the age limit for its youth for them to take up their own initiatives in the coming weeks.

The General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, gave the hint during the party’s inauguration of its youth team ahead of the 2016 elections in Accra on Friday.

He said “After we have finished the data base compilation, we will fix the youth age. I think we have agreed on 35 years or 40. So, very soon some of you will be retiring. So when you look at the data base, all the party members who fall within the ages of 18 to 35 or 40 years will belong to the youth wing, and then all the activities will be handled at the youth front,” the NDC scribe noted.

Mr. Nketiah, who is affectionately called General Mosquito, further stated that, “We must make sure that the leadership of the youth is also gender balanced.”

Tradition

General Mosquito explained that the NDC’s way of doing things are far different from the other political parties and stated that, while the NDC provides the youth the platform to develop, the other parties do not.

“One of the differences is our way of doing things and then our core beliefs. So, if you don’t know NDC, watch us and see how we do our things, we are different from the other political parties because of the way we do our things.”

According to him, the NDC as a political party has the belief in their youth and women while “other traditions think that before you can participate actively in politics you have to be a grown up person with property.

We believe that, if the future belongs to the youth, then they must participate to take decisions to shape that future, so it will be unfair for others to shape the future for the youth.

So, as we shape the future, we must add the youth so that together we can shape the future, it doesn’t mean we should throw away the grown-ups,” he asserted.

NDC stands out

According to the NDC scribe, his outfit has a unique way of organizing its activities which the other parties lack, notable among them, he said, was how it elects its youth wing leaders.

“NDC stands out as the only party that organizes our women wing as the semi-autonomous wing of the party. In other words, we don’t allow men to decide who should be women organizer and in the same way we organize our youth wing as a semi-autonomous wing of the party that is guaranteed in our constitution.

The scribe added that he has attended conferences of the other parties and “when they vote for party chairman they vote for general secretary and they also vote for the national youth organizer; we think that, if we want to empower the youth, we must give them their right of choice, as to who should lead them. That is why we insist on separate organization of the youth from the branches up to the top,” he stated to buttress his point.

Support

Former Youth Organizer of the party, Ludwig Hlodze, in an interview with the DAILY HERITAGE supported the policy of age limit for the youth wings of the party but cautioned that such must be done steadily.

“The General Secretary’s idea is perfectly right, there have been some discussions in the party circles that we must have a limit for the youth wing positions and I think I agree with the General Secretary. We must discuss and the part