‘Educate public on role of parliamentarians’

The Deputy Clerk of Parliament, Mr Robert Apodollo, has urged members of the Youth Parliament to use their activities to educate the public on the role of parliamentarians to correct the misconceptions about Parliament in the public domain.

He said the role of Parliament and that of parliamentarians must be made clear to the public.

“As youth who aspire to become leaders in the future, it is important that you use the Youth Parliament at the various institutions as a platform to educate the public”, Mr Apodollo said.

The deputy clerk gave the advice at a conference of Youth Parliament from the various institutions and regions in the country held in Koforidua on the theme: ‘Youth Parliament for Inclusive Governance: the Role of Ghana’s Parliament’.

The Youth Parliament concept

The Youth Parliament concept is an initiative by the National Youth Authority (NYA) to provide single formalised youth structure at the district, regional and national levels for the youth to deliberate on matters of importance to youth development and hold duty bearers accountable.

The conference was to among others develop a national framework as a model to establish the guidelines for the national Youth Parliament and was attended by over 100 participants from across the country and is being supported by Star Ghana and the Westminster Foundation.

Mr Joseph Osei Owusu, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, said the level of success and continuous sustenance of Ghana’s democracy depended on the strength of the Parliament of Ghana and, therefore, it was laudable that the youth, who were the future leaders, were being introduced to the concept of parliament.

He explained that the Youth Parliament was under the ambit of the Parliament of Ghana with the aim of engaging the youth who made up about 57 per cent of the nation’s population to be guided in the processes of one of the key arms of government for the growth of our democracy.

Providing alternatives

The deputy speaker urged the conference to as part of their considerations deliberate on how to provide alternatives to election or how to elect the leadership of the Youth Parliament and pledged the support of the speaker and the entire Parliament to the Youth Parliament initiative.

The National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, said democracy and good governance were no longer a luxury but a fundamental requirement to achieve development and advised the members of the Youth Parliament to take their time to learn the acts of leadership to shape their future discourse. — GNA