Africa Centre for Democracy and Socio-economic Development (CDS Africa) is organizing a youth democracy forum, which has been structured into series, to be held at four prestigious universities in Accra namely GIMPA, Wisconsin, University of Ghana and UPSA.
The series of fora is intended at educating the youth on democracy and how it can be used for effective development of the community.
In an interview on Campus Exclusive, the CDS Africa Programs Manager, Mad. Edna Asante, emphasized on the importance of youth inclusion to encourage youth participation in governance.
“So basically, when you look at the voting population you realize that the youth form a very huge chunk of it but when it comes to other aspect of our democratic processes, the youth sort of abstain from it at all. They vote and once voting is over, everybody just goes back, and sits, folds their arms and the watch, ‘the older people’ run the government.”
“We believe that there are so many things that young people can bring on board because putting them together, I mean definitely, it is quite a huge population that can actually drive change. So, we thought, okay, let us actually remind young people of their responsibility to actually get involved in conversations that matter with regards to governance especially, so that is why we came about with the youth democratic forum.”
The Programs Director, Mr. Emmanuel Mensah also disclosed that, as a result of the upcoming elections, it is necessary that students are involved in civic matters to help them utilize their power and make the right decision when choosing leaders for government.
“It is important, and I must emphasize this, that the chunk of our youth population being the bulk of voters running around about 60%, in terms of those that have the power to elect our representatives across our country, they are given the power and the mandate, not to say that they do not have it already. We go, we exercise in our voting, our right to our civic responsibilities.”
“People who have aspirations to want to be involved in the political sphere will always emphasize, to get involved and the more you are involved, the more people get to see you, and maybe get to promote you because of how well you do. We as an organization say that as a student, as a youth, who has been a ‘target’, we are quickly empowered to do many things, both positive and negative.”
CDS Africa is an independent think tank, free from government control, aimed on educating the youth on the benefits of democracy as an effective tool in the society.
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Story by: Joycelyn Makafui Agbo | univers.ug.edu.gh
