Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Adansi Asokwa, Kobina Tahir (K.T.) Hammond has defended his description of the youth who jeered at President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, "coconut heads with nothing in your heads."
According to him, he was only trying to make the point that the youth have to respect the elderly because they, on their own, cannot rule the country.
Speaking in a Multimedia interview monitored by GhanaWeb, on Thursday, K.T. Hammond intimated that no Ghanaian would like to live in a country governed by only youth.
The MP made these remarks while reacting to criticism of his comments against the youth by some Ghanaians, including his colleague MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who described K.T. Hammond's comments as fallacious, 'outlandish' and 'terribly wrong.'
"Is Sammy (the M.P. for North Tongu) saying that when he was a minister, he was 30 years, and the president was 35, the minister of finance was 35 years, and the other ministers were 20 years, 30 years and so on?
"Who will live in such a country? Will you like to live in such a country? If you listen to the remarks, I said that we are not going to give the country to only the youth. Because the youth on their own cannot govern it. That was the point I was making.
"Sammy, you were added to a team when you became a minister. There were experienced people in your team. A government appointed people who were in their 20s, 30s, didn't you see the end results," he said in Twi.
He added that "When I was appointed minister during the era of President Kufuor, I was the youngest; I was 40 going on 41. But I was part of a team that had a lot of elders."
Background
K.T Hammond expressed disgust at how President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was booed at the recently held Global Citizen Festival.
In an interview with journalists shared by Accra-based Joy FM, the legislator argued that it was not right for the youth to disrespect the president and, by extension, elders in the society, especially for political reasons.
"He only said the event has brought the attention of the world on Ghana and the youth started booing at him. We will always tell the youth to be humble. When a matter comes up, we say we are going to consult elders. We don't say we are coming to consult the youth whose heads are like coconut.
"The youth should respect the elderly. We shouldn't let it be that because of politics we can insult everyone. It's not possible for the youth to be left to manage the affairs of the country.
"They won't know how to do it in the first place. You don't understand. You are galivanting about in this town with beard, nothing is in your heads," he said in the Twi parlance.
Listen to the interview below:
You can also watch this episode of People & Places here:
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