Members of Harvest Youth Movement, a youth wing of Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana, an NGO based in the Upper East Region are calling on politicians in the country to be weary of their language and actions since they have an influence on the youth.
They were speaking at an engagement at the Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana Secretariat as part of events to mark the International Youth Day which was under the theme: Youth engagement for Global Action.
This year’s theme, seeks to highlight the ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes, as well as draw lessons on how their representation and engagement in formal institutional politics can be significantly enhanced.
Speaking in an interview, Agambire Audrey, a Member of the group urged politicians to be mindful of their conduct ahead of the December 7 polls. She bemoaned the low participation of Ghana’s Youth in the country’s political dispensation.
“We are the majority but they’re are not giving is the opportunity to be part of decision making. On the part of our politicians, I know everyone would want to win power but in their campaign and whatever they do, they should also consider the youth. They should be careful in their campaign because sometimes they do influence the youth to engage in activities that do not help them, you end up destroying their lives and whatever potential that they have and when any of them come into power, they should not ignore the voice of the youth,” she said.
Potia Nyaaba, another member of the group decried the exploitation of young people.
“Well I think over the years, politicians have capitalized on the fact that the youth are the majority and make promises targeting them but when they win, they don’t address the issues that confront young people. So What they should focus on now is addressing unemployment because if young people are hungry and roaming and thinking of what to eat, where to sleep and all that, they wouldn’t have the needed peace of mind to get involved in decision making and community development so they should focus on creating jobs and capacity building,” she admonished.
They further called on Ghanaian Youth to build their capacity to be able to play a significant role in decision making.
Khadija Hamidu an Assistant Project Manager at the Foundation, explained that the youth are creative but lack little opportunities to fully utilize their potential. She underscored the need for them to be allowed to take part in decision making since they know their problems better.
