The status quo will prevail if the youth doesn’t start taking on the system. It is somewhat an oddity that with one of the youngest populations in Africa, politics in Ghana is still a game of chess dominated by the old guard – mostly aged barristers, bankers and academics, almost all of them male.

How can power-wielding millennial voters expect elected officials to deliver upon their promises?

To state the obvious, it is clear that Ghana is in desperate need of new ideas and new people in politics to revive our outmoded democracy. The government fell at the wheel, crushed the economy and continues to impose punitive taxes on citizens to fix their mess. But that’s what unchecked power leads to –– poor public administration.

Ghana’s under-35s are mostly affected by a quiet and deadly economic depression that has plagued the Republic. The cost of rent is ridiculously high, wages are terribly low, and the new generation, under 35s, will be paying for the hefty loans borrowed by politicians of the old guard, while grey-haired statesmen enjoy retirement on six-figure account balances.

However, simply increasing the proportion of young Ghanaians in politics is not enough. Younger people need to participate in the electoral process more, pay attention to politics and current affairs both nationally and locally, and need to keenly monitor, how our Republic is governed.

Until politicians are made to made to respect their masters –  the citizens who vote them into the power, and then pay their wages and expenses – it will be corruption as usual.

Young people of Ghana take note: democracy is not for citizens prepared to sit on the fence, it’s for those that choose to get up and fix things.

Data Politics

The upcoming polls, in December 2020, is bound to be a digital election. Political parties, especially the NDC and NPP, are expected to pump millions of cedis into social media.

I am certain that the political parties, depending on how tech-savvy they may be, should have a database that would make it easier to target young voters with campaign ads.