The increasing rate at which some politicians are using the youth for violent purposes is a great threat to the future of the country's democracy; a Deputy Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mrs. Augustina Akosua Akumanyi, has pointed out. She cautioned that if care was not taken, the youth who would be taking over from the current leading members of the various political parties would be destructive and disoriented in their leadership styles and consequently plunge the country into destruction. She therefore challenged the leadership of all the political parties to exhibit their love and care for the youth by using them as useful tools for party and national development. Mrs. Akumanyi who expressed these concerns in an interview in Accra said apart from the chaotic scenes that were witnessed in some parts of the country during the 2008 general election, the recent violent clashes involving deadly weapons such as guns and machetes, resulting in deaths, should be of concern to all well-meaning Ghanaians. She expressed worry that Ghanaians were behaving as if nothing dangerous happened during the 2008 general election and were not learning from what nearly destroyed the country but were rather basking in the praises being showered on the nation by outsiders for organising successful elections. She called on the stakeholders to help find the root causes of such politically motivated clashes and ensure that they did not happen again in 2012. She said that the stakes would be higher in 2012 and therefore, the earlier concrete solutions were found for such occurrences the better. Mrs. Akumanyi said if those political party leaders who employed the youth as thugs during political campaigns and voting periods, believed that what they did was right, "they should use their own children and relatives for such unhealthy activities". Mrs. Akumanyi said another way to ensure that the youth avoided violent activities was to capture them young as was being done in the United Kingdom. She explained that in the United Kingdom, political parties go for the names and addresses of people who had attained the voting age and either met them 'personally or wrote to them. In such interactions, she said the political parties educated the youth about why they should become members of their party, and because they were captured young, they did not perceive political party activity as being violent, but an organisation in which people could nurture their leadership ambitions and contribute to the development of their country. Mrs. Akumanyi urged the youth to take their education seriously, and that those who could not attain greater heights in education must endeavour to learn some vocation so that they would not be ready tools for violent activities by the politician. She said such moves to capture the youth was very practical and useful because from the experience of the NCCE in Ghana, some young persons who were part of the educative NCCE programmes had become leading members of some political parties. She said national figures like Messrs Haruna Iddrisu and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Minister of Information and Deputy Minister of Information respectively and George Kuntu Blankson, Member of Parliament (MP) for Mfantsiman East, were some of the per-sons NCCE worked with when they were in school. Mrs. Akumanyi said the NCCE would sustain its campaign at both primary and second cycle institutions to educate the youth about their civic responsibility and rights and the need to be civil in all their dealings. She said in most instances the youth, especially the children, were introduced to the national Constitution and the need to defend it at all times as well as the need to offer themselves for public office in order to bring their experience and patriotism to bear on the country. Source: Daily Graphic