Accra, July 7, GNA - The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has initiated a project dubbed: 93Citizen Ghana" to get the youth to participate fully in the country's democratic process. The project is being sponsored by the Centre for Civic Education in the US and administered by the NCCE.

As part of the project, a pilot one was held on Friday on the theme:" Consolidating Democracy Through Youth Participation" for four senior secondary schools - Accra High School, Tema Girls Senior Secondary, Presbyterian Senior Secondary and Accra Girls Secondary selected from the southern part of the country.

It involved competitive presentation of papers on national issues by senior secondary schools throughout the country on the various aspects of the democratic process.

Mr Larry Bimi, Chairman of NCCE, noted that the project was aimed at equipping the Ghanaian youth with the skills and ability to empower them to question public policies and propose action plan of State institutions with the view to making them accountable. He said such programmes would also enable the youth to approach agencies, which have links with the development of the State, to implement policies that were beneficial to the society.

"The era where democracy was selective is no more and that participatory democracy required that individuals especially the youth, who are the future leaders, are enlightened on State policies to make them active participants, who have the responsibility of ensuring that things are done right by State institutions and development agencies" he stated Citing the Nima refuse dump, which had become a 'mountain', Mr Bimi said the youth through the project would be able to research and question the appropriate authorities for such a failure that was a health hazard.

He said that the issue of democracy was not a "one man show" but an issue, which needed the collective efforts from all quarters to address for the country to develop.

Mr Bimi called for the reintroduction of Civic Education in the curricular of schools to inculcate in the youth civic responsibility. Dr Samuel Nii Ashong, Research Fellow at the Centre for policy Analysis, called on the youth to deepen their knowledge by using the internet for research on social issues to make constructive criticisms on national issues. He said knowledge and the fear of God was a key to a better life in today's fast moving world and called on the youth particularly the girls to take education seriously. 7 July 06