A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Steven Nhyira Odarteifio, has announced his candidature to contest the position of National Youth Organiser of the party.
“We need youth leadership that knows how to mobilise young people not only for political power, but for economic freedom.
Leadership that can reach beyond those who already carry an NDC card to the millions of young Ghanaians asking a very simple question: what can the party of Jerry John Rawlings, Professor John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama mean for my life,” he said at a press conference last Monday to officially announce his candidature for the youth organiser slot.
He said a new dawn of youth leadership must emerge — leadership prepared to multiply, amplify and accelerate access to the opportunities the government was creating.
Mr Odarteifio said his campaign would focus on helping the youth wing connect young Ghanaians to jobs, capital, skills, enterprise, agriculture, technology and markets, with the aim of helping the government economically impact an additional one million young people before the end of the John Dramani Mahama administration.
He said the NDC needed a new approach to youth mobilisation that could translate political power into tangible economic opportunities.
He said although programmes such as Adwumawura, the National Apprenticeship Programme and One Million Coders were creating opportunities, more needed to be done to ensure that young people knew about and could access them.
Economic mobilisation
Mr Odarteifio said the Youth Wing should move beyond mobilising young people solely for elections and develop systems that helped them benefit from economic opportunities between elections.
“I want a Youth Wing that does not merely help the NDC acquire political power.
I want a Youth Wing that helps convert political power into economic opportunity,” he said.
He said his vision included supporting productive agricultural enclaves, connecting young people to capital and markets and creating opportunities in agriculture, technology and enterprise.
Mr Odarteifio said his interest in youth empowerment was informed by his experience in agriculture, enterprise and youth development, which he said had helped create opportunities and improve livelihoods for more than 100,000 young people across the country.
“When I speak about jobs and opportunity, I am not assuring you for the sake of it.
I have seen the problems.
I have built solutions. I have persisted,” he said.
Leadership
Mr Odarteifio stressed the need for the NDC to create space for young people to be judged by their ideas, service, character and ability to deliver rather than their financial r
He said he was particularly concerned about young people who felt excluded because they lacked money, connections or political prominence.
He said his campaign would seek to give hope to unemployed graduates, struggling entrepreneurs, party foot soldiers and young activists who felt their years of service had not translated into opportunities.
“If we empower our youth, we will convince every Ghanaian to keep voting for us and secure 20 years of consecutive power for the NDC.
