I have followed with keen interest the parliamentary primaries of the political parties we have in Ayawaso East and Ayawaso North constituencies in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. In one word, I will describe the entire caboodle as “interesting”. For the first time we have seen the youth of these twin-constituencies show unusual and untold interest in the contests. The most recent one is the parliamentary primaries of the National Democratic Congress.
The reason it attracted profound interest is because of the springing up of a lot of youthful contestants in both contests.
Since 1992, when the country decided to say “adieu” to military rule and embrace politics by the ballot, the affairs of these constituencies have been administered by the National Democratic Congress. One can confidently say without any shred of doubt that winning the primaries at that party level automatically secures your seat as a Member of Parliament just like the place of the alphabet ‘t’ is secured in the word ‘the’. Unfortunately, in communities such as ours, those who win political office hardly win it based on the message they give when garnering for votes. Mostly, the incumbents win because they have more money to dole out to ensure more ‘noise’ from their supporters. In other words, the noisiest candidate usually gets the nod.
The youth that contested both primaries injected some gusto into the contests. This attracted a whole lot of criticisms from the camps of the incumbents who are a bit old and men of years than their youthful competitors. One of the many issues labeled against these youth was that they are ‘too young’ and ‘not matured enough’ for holding such a reputable office. And this is the statement that absolutely generates a contortion of my face due to the disdain with which I hold it.
Most Ghanaians are very religious though very ungodly so let me tow along religious lines. I have been a Christian before and I have never joked with my Sunday school at the Word Miracle Church now Perez chapel at Dzorwulu and the now defunct Circle branch. I am a Muslim now and a very staunch one of course. The little knowledge I acquired in my Islamic school, Tafsiliyya School for Training and Education in Nima though has not landed me on the moon, yet it has been able to make me the local Imam of Ar-Rida mosque in Alajo, a suburb of Accra.
I learnt many stories in the Bible. One of the numerous wisdom-laden stories I learnt is the story of Methuselah. Methuselah surpasses every human being in the number of years spent on earth. We are told he lived as old as Methuselah. The Bible mentions Methuselah only in one passage specifically in the Mosaic Book of Genesis. It reads:
- And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:
- And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
- And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
- And Enoch walked with God: and he [was] not; for God took him.
- And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech:
- And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:
- And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
I also learnt the story of Solomon in the Bible. I learnt how David his dad acted on the advice of the Prophet Nathan and proclaimed Solomon King though he was younger than his brothers. As a matter of fact, the heir apparent, Adonijah did all he could to get himself proclaimed as king yet he never got the nod.
In the Qur’an also, much premium is given to the wisdom of Suleiman (the Arabic equivalent of Solomon) who was able to right a wrong judgment given by his father at a very tender age. Before Prophet Muhammad emigrated to Yathrib, he had to appoint someone as his ambassador to bring the light of Islam to the two tribes of Yathrib (Aws and Khazraj), unite them and prepare them for the salvation that is coming to them. The one appointed was a youth in the person of Mus’ab ibn Umayr. He became the first ambassador of Islam before he died a few more years later. In all he lived a score and one on earth.
The point I am trying to establish is very simple. When wisdom is mentioned in the Bible, the name that readily comes into mind is Solomon and not Methuselah though he was the oldest to have ever lived. Likewise in the Qur’an, the name Solomon is symptomatic of wisdom. One can comfortably say that “”the wisdom of Solomon has nothing to do with the age of Methuselah”.” Maturity they say comes with the taking of responsibility and not with age.
Almost all the youthful aspirants have had their Tertiary education successfully with some having their Master’s degree and more.
One of them has a very successful NGO that blazed the trail of the passage of the law that places ban on Tobacco smoking in public.
One too has been the National Treasurer of the National Union of Ghana Students before and has successful workings within the highest echelons of power in this country.
Another too has been able to rise to the position of clerk for the Parliamentary select committee on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs as well as Parliamentary select committee on Privileges in Ghana’s Parliament and is a very successful lawyer.
Another too is the Deputy Public Relations Officer of the National Hajj Board and a very successful Sports Journalist in the country.
With all these heights that these youth have reached, one will be seriously wrong, shamefully mischievous and absolutely discouraging to say that they are too young and not matured enough for the position of Parliamentary member. After all, there is nothing extra-special about those who have held it in the past which handicaps these youth.
Statements such as these and the likes have contributed to stifling the progress of the youth in our communities.
The youth of Nima must rise up. This contest is the dawn of a new era. The political contests starting from the District Assembly Elections should herald a new era in our daily lives. Previously, it was very difficult to find a youth running for political office in Nima. This year had seen a complete departure from that. The youth must follow suit in other spheres of life. If for nothing at all, we have shown that we are masters of following the latest fads in town at different stages life in our community.
If you want the community that epitomizes the Nigerian proverb that “when mother cow is chewing, its young ones watch its mouth”, you do not have to look beyond Nima. The youth of Nima can follow the latest fads in town to a hilt when they find their grown-ups into it.
When our parents were growing up as they relayed to us, the ‘successful’ person you ever find then was a person who had ‘beaten’ the Sahara desert to seek greener pastures in Europe or United States of America via the then Gaddafi- prosperous Libya. All the youth that grew up at that time had the ultimate aim of also ‘beating’ the desert to make it out there because that was the crave of those times then. An Imam can never wrap up his communal supplications without mentioning the names of people from his community who are abroad seeking greener pastures. His prayer will be incomplete without praying for them. This phenomenon though on the low now, still happens.
When I was growing up, hardly will you find a teenager smoking weed with impunity. Those who smoke are usually grown and they do that in the outskirts of town or in our ‘lungus’ as we refer to corners in town. Now, the youth have followed suit. It is now a natural predilection of the commonplace in Nima to find a child as young as the age of twelve smoking weed with impunity on the street.
‘Sakawa’ which started with the elderly has taken a lot of the young ones in its fold. We have a host of other examples that space will not allow us to mention.
My point here again is very simple. Nima Youth must rise up. Now that we have our youths also running for political office, it should be a rallying point, it should magnetize we the youth all to rise up to the occasion in whatever chosen field of endeavor we find ourselves in.
I see our youth with massive potentialities which when used usefully will unleash overwhelming productivity in our lives. However, the types of community we come from always want to clamp down on youth who decide to blaze the trail of breaking the frontiers of human achievements. This has resulted in most often than not, we bringing in people we think are already established to come and administer our affairs for us and this always leads to catastrophic dereliction of duty by them.
For the first time, we have a real Nima boy going to Parliament.
This should pull us all to make manifest the massive potentialities we have in us. We must not always sit down and waste our energies arguing over frivolities, we must also make the waves with our diligence so that others will also argue over us.
If you care to know, if our energies were to electricity, we could power Africa and beyond.
Inusah Mohammed
NB: The writer is a Youth-Activist and a Student of knowledge.
THOUGHTS OF A NIMA BOY 