The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye has urged Ghanaian youth to emulate the good qualities of President Barack Hussein Obama in order to become effective leaders and agents of change in their communities and the entire country.
He said the US President was able to weather the storm whilst he was growing up, educated himself, served his community and through persistence and obedience to the rules, became the first African-American President of the USA.
Prof. Oquaye who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dome-Kwabenya was commenting on a statement he made on the Floor of Parliament said, “the youth must make the sky their limit and not to allow themselves to be misled, especially into false ideologies, extremism and also be used as ponds by politicians.”
He said in this era of information, communication and technology, it behoved on the youth to educate themselves, especially in ICT as well as the requisite expertise, to be in good stead to take up responsible positions just as President Obama did through the media to raise resources for his campaign.
He said the youth must also copy President Obama’s ability to stay focused in the face of some disappointments to realise his vision; he was committed to his cause and succeeded.
Prof. Oquaye said President Obama had broken myth, by being the first African-American President and “this should be a perpetual encouragement for the youth of Ghana, especially those from broken homes.”
He expressed worry about the dwindling communal work spirit of the youth and cited the example of President Obama, who after law school decided to work for his community instead of working at a lucrative law firm for better remuneration.
Prof. Oquaye noted that through his commitment to succeed, Obama was able to win election in a country where his fellow blacks constituted just 20 per cent of the population.
On the lessons the Ghanaian legislature could derive from President Obama’s experience, Prof. Oquaye said the US President relied on his legislative records, among others, the introduction of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act signed in September 2007.
He, therefore, called for a system to record the various votes of individual MPs on all issues on the floor of the House.
???He also called for the preservation of the country’s heritage like what pertained in the USA, because through President Obama who had Abraham Lincoln as his hero in his political career was able to use the bible Abraham Lincoln used in 1861 for his presidential oath in 2009.???
Prof. Oquaye wondered if in Ghana’s case a future CPP President-elect would be able to have access to the bible President Nkrumah used in 1960 for his inauguration.
He said President Obama’s rejection of state funding and big money from money bags for his campaign and his reliance on small contributions from ordinary people through the Internet was an ample indication that individual parties could raise funds from the ordinary electorate.
This he said would give the contributors a sense of ownership and disabuse their minds that politicians were there to dish out money for votes during elections.
Prof. Oquaye also commended President Obama for re-emphasising the point that public office was a call to service and not self-aggrandisement adding that African leaders must learn a great deal from this.
He said Africa in general and Ghana in particular were not expecting magic from Obama’s administration but expressed the hope that the USA would extend equity to developing nations and ensure a new world economic order which was fair and just.
He also called for the revision of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) because it had too many inhibitive technicalities that eroded the aim of benefiting African exporters.
No comments:
Post a Comment