By Hafsa Obeng, GNA
Accra, Feb. 24, GNA – The Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly (KoKMA) in collaboration with the National Youth Authority (NYA) has inaugurated the KoKMA youth parliament in Accra.
The initiative is to identify young people from the ages of 15 to 35 years to constitute a non- partisan district youth parliament who are to identify issues in the local communities, discuss them, dispassionately and possibly come out with solutions.
Mr Mathias Blay, Greater Regional Coordinator NYA said 30 young people were drawn from all electoral areas in the district, and religious organisations, PWDs, to constitute the youth parliament of the assembly.
He said young people were to identify peculiar problems affecting the Assembly and discuss, and later submit suggestions to the Assembly for consideration.
He said all over the world, democracy had become a widely accepted doctrine in the governance process, and once Ghana adopted it and still harnessing its gains and consolidating them, it was appropriate to groom young people to be on top of issues that affected their growth, education, health and social life.
“We are constituting these youth parliament in all 29 districts in the Greater Accra Region. Once they pick up an issue and discuss it, they will discuss same with the leadership of the district, come out with solutions, for leadership of the assemblies and corporate organisations to implement, so that together we have a better future for the district and the younger people.”
Mr Blay said lots of challenges affected young people, especially unemployment, and once this happens they end up engaging themselves in some social vices, and this was one of the reasons why we have created this platform where they would all come together to identify issues they think affect them within their district and discuss them and come out with solutions.
He congratulated them on their first session, which was on the theme “Streetism, its effects on the Economy, social, security, finance and the way forward” and urged them to do more research since they would be having these sessions once in every quarter.
He also urged them to be mindful of their language, show a lot of maturity in their language, which should be devoid of insults, assuring that the NYA was always there to support in organising their quarterly meetings.
Mr Bernar Yingura, Coordinating Director, KoKMA congratulated them on their inauguration, saying the youth within the Assembly now have the right platform to bring change within the Assembly and assured them of the Assembly’s support at all times.
Ms Anita Nhyira Bonzy, Speaker, KoKMA Youth Parliament lauded the initiative to put the youth on their stands to contribute to the development in the municipality and Ghana as a whole.
That, she said, would go a long way to help the development of the youth, adding, it was a learning process to have an idea of what happened in parliament, and try their best to do more to better the tradition.
She said the theme for their first sitting was a sensitive one in their municipality and the nation at large and there was the need for government to pay attention.
“It is not an issue that we have to raise occasionally, but should consistently be addressed so that it can be solved in the near future,” she added.
Ms Bonzy expressed the hope that after their deliberation, the outcome would be adopted by the Assembly and implemented to help solve the menace.
GNA