Story:Donald Ato Dapatem
Four political parties with representatives in Parliament yesterday inaugurated an inter-party youth committee to foster peaceful co-existence and decorous exchange of ideas among them for national unity.
It also aims at reducing the suspicion of animosity and violence that were associated with the politically-active youth and to establsih a common platform for the discussion of common ideas of national importance in a frank and non-partisan manner among their membership.
It will also seek to ensure that policies and programmes instituted by authorities were in the best interest of the youth.
The parties that formed the committee are the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), the People’s National Convention (PNC) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP), with the help of the Youth Network for Human Rights and Democracy (You-net), facilitated and sponsored by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
Various speakers also commended the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) for their role to bring the youth of various political parties together.
Leaders of the four political parties who graced the occasion commended the youth for the initiative to move away from the confrontational stance during engagements to the use of civil and mutual respect during exchanges.
They also expressed their readiness to ensure the success of the committee and urged the youth not to allow themselves to be used as agents for formenting trouble during electioneering.
Launching the committee, Messrs Haruna Iddrisu and Mr George Sarpong, the NDC National Youth Organiser and Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr Dan Botwe, a presidential aspirant of the NPP, called on the youth to sustain the committee for the benefit of the nation.
The National Chairman of the NPP, Mr Peter Mac Manu, said the party believed in freedom of the individual and democracy as well as tolerance for the ideas of its opponents and commended the youth groups for promoting such ideals.
He advised that those political parties that were seeking power must embark on their journey to capture power within the confines of the democratic process and with peaceful means.
He said those seeking the mandate of the people must endeavour to be decorous, courteous, tolerant of divergent opinions and ideas and not resort to the use of brute force and cohesion to achieve their aims.
Mr Mac Manu advised the youth that as the future leaders of the country, they should always shun such anti-democratic intents which could undermine the current democratic dispensation which was the envy of many unstable nations in Africa.
He commended the National Youth Organiser of the NPP, Mr John Buadu, for always advocating the need to respect and tolerate the views of ones opponents in all the NPP fora and meetings he found himself.
A deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, traced the hostile nature of political discourse in the country to the 1950s and said unfortunately those negative tendencies had been carried over to the current political era.
He advised the current generation to endeavour to eschew such pronouncements and actions that had the tendency to erupt into nasty confrontations which culminated in loss of limbs and lives.
He expressed the view that the youth in the various political parties must muster courage and tell those who used them as weapons to attack their opponents caused trouble and that such attitudes were not good.
Mr Ankrah said such committees must include political stakeholders such as the Electoral Commission (EC), the Police Service, the media and representatives of the larger society to find solutions to the root causes of such political confrontations.
The General Secretary of the PNC, Mr Gabriel Pwamang, advised the youth of the political parties in government and in opposition not to use their incumbency to the disadvantage of the others, and added that politicians must not behave as if winning or losing an election was the end of their lives.
The National Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Dr Edmund Delle, said the CPP was created mainly by the youth because the party believed that they were the future leaders of the country and must be included in all decision making processes.
He expressed regret that it was the youth who were used by politicians to foment trouble at all times and advised them to channel their strengths and time to areas that the nation would benefit .
Mr Iddrisu called on the leadership of various political parties to strengthen the youth groups within their political parties to enable them actively and fully participate in all the parties activities. END
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