Don’t blame young NDC ministers for defeat-Mahama

Former President John Mahama has cautioned members of the party to stop criticising young members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the party’s heavy loss in the December 2016 polls.

“Some say the young people [are to blame]; just say: ‘I don’t like the people’ and not that they are young,” Mr Mahama said at a meeting with his former appointees on March 28.

One of such critics, Yunyoo MP Joseph Bipoba Naabu, in an interview with Class FM’s parliamentary correspondent, Ekow Annan, blamed the party’s loss on young appointees whom he said were “inexperienced” yet were given sensitive positions in the party.

But Mr Mahama told his former appointees at a meeting on 28 March that he could not understand why people say “young men surrounding the president [are the cause]”.

Using himself as an example, he said he became a Deputy Minister to Ekwow Spio Garbrah at age 39, adding that even though he and his other colleagues were young “we served and served properly”.

He continued: “I’m sure Spio was in his forties at the time; you can’t say he was a small boy.

“In the revolutionary period, all those surrounding Rawlings were in their twenties and thirties… It is not about age, our party has always given opportunities to young people and that is what we are, and so if we lose we should not blame the young people. The demographics of Ghana is shifting in favour of young people, with [persons] 35 years and below forming about 60 per cent of our population. So when you want appointees, where are you going to get them from? And you need those people to gain experience to become what you consider as older and experienced people.”

He charged party members to “stop chasing the wind and stand together” and ensure “reorganisation” for the future.