Mfantseman youths discuss the vision of parliamentary aspirants
Youth associations in the Mfantseman Municipality, in conjunction with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) , have held a forum to discuss the vision of the constituencies’ parliamentary candidates.
Mr Henry Kweku Hayfron, the Municipal Chief Executive, commended the youth for organising the forum to know what the candidates have for the people of the municipality.
He said the nation belonged to the youth and that it was important that they took keen interest in issues concerning its governance.
“Get involved in national affairs,” he said and added that, “by so doing you would not be tempted to do anything that would disturb the peace the nation is enjoying.”
It was only the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) aspirants who participated in the forum. The NPP and the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP) candidates failed to attend.
Mr Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, the Member of Parliament for Mfantseman and candidate for the NDC, said no country could develop without its youth getting involved in governance.
He appealed to the youth not to allow themselves to be used by politicians to create confusion before, during and after the election.
Mr Quansah, who is the Deputy Central Regional Minister, said he had made education, job creation and health his priority areas.
He said not all students could pursue education to the highest level and that provision had been made for such people to acquire vocational skills to make them self-employed.
Mr Quansah said some investors had acquired the Saltpond Ceramics to be converted into a paper packaging factory for export and for domestic use.
He said some Indian investors had started putting up a fruits processing factory at Anokye near Saltpond and said a number of the youth in the municipality would be employed when the two factories start production.
Mr Quansah appealed to the youth to register with the Local Enterprises and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP) to enable them to acquire skills.
Mr Ernest Baiden, the PPP candidate, said he had set up four thematic areas namely, health, education, job creation and good governance.
He said his party is dedicated to make education free and compulsory from Kindergarten to SHS.
The PPP aspirant criticised the NPP’s policy to make SHS education free and said he wondered how secondary education could be made free when the basic education is not free.
Mr Baiden promised to establish mobile clinic which would go round the constituency to cater for the health needs of the people.
Mr John M. Aggrey, Chairman of the Municipal Inter-Party Dialogue Committee who was the moderator, stressed on the usefulness of such fora in strengthening democracy and commended the organisers for a good work done.
Mr Emmanuel Eshun, the Organiser of the youth associations commended the participating aspirants for the good show that they put up.
He appealed to the electorate to comport themselves to make the elections incident-free.
Source: GNA