Ahead of this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections, the youth of this country have demonstrated that they are no longer interested in the “lies and propaganda” of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Sammi Awuku, National Youth Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has said.

The youth wing of the NPP, as part of campaign activities, held a public forum on Thursday at Agbogbloshie, a suburb of Accra, to interact with the youth, especially the unemployed and itinerant porters (‘Kayayei’). The event is in line with International Youth Day, which falls on Friday August 12.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Awuku said: “We mark International Youth Day tomorrow [Friday] on the theme: ‘Eradicating Poverty and Attaining Sustainable Production and Consumption’, and for us in Ghana, the issue of poverty [and] unemployment is very high.”

He continued: “We could not pay celebrities to come and endorse this forum, [but] the biggest celebrity will be the ‘kayayei’, who will make the difference in this year’s elections.

The biggest celebrities we have are the teacher trainees and the nurse trainees, who have nowhere to go. Our biggest celebrity this year and in this elections is the scrap dealer who cannot make ends meet, and the biggest celebrity we will need in this year’s elections is the Ghanaian youth, who will not only vote for change [but] organise for change and mobilise for change.”

Mr Awuku said: “…Our friends [kayayei and other participants] have just testified to the crisis our dear country faces today, the crisis that is affecting every young Ghanaian as they try to make their way in life. What we have just said represents the voice of the real Ghanaian youth.

These are the voices that John Mahama and the NDC refuse to hear. We are forced to listen and endure ministers of state, paid NDC communicators and propagandists, and NDC big men all the time on radio where they paint a picture of Ghana being like Dubai…after they have driven in their big cars, collected their fat salaries from the Flagstaff House – a clear case of Animal Farm in this country. But judging from the mood in this country today, I am certain; we are certain that Ghana’s youth are no longer interested in the…propaganda, rhetoric, and lies.”

Class FM’s Paa Kwesi Parker-Wilson, who covered the event, reported that some of the participants said erratic power supply had collapsed their businesses, hence would not hesitate to vote for the NPP to change the trend. According to them, there was no end in sight for the problem, hence their decision to vote out the current government.