Convener of #FixTheCountry, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, says young people would be hesitant to throw their support behind now-independent candidate, John Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, following his resignation from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to him, while Alan Kyerematen in his declaration to contest in the 2024 presidential elections as an independent candidate stated emphatically that his campaign and governance will be geared towards the youth, Barker-Vormawor insists Alan’s message falls short of addressing the concerns of youthful Ghanaians.
“Any party that is looking going back into the elections and fielding candidates that are not or do not speak to the constituency of young people or the interest of the young people are not going to appeal them, I think,” he said.
He noted that while Alan had touted the viability of his ‘Great Transformational Plan’ to move the nation forward, he had failed to elaborate on any solution to the country’s present problem; the IMF programme and the country’s unsustainable debt crisis.
“This is what is unclear for me; it seems to me that he is promising, as one of our conveners; Nii Kotey called it, more neoliberalism without providing us how do we get out of this IMF, World Bank and all these kind of traps and rethink the economic structure that we have.
“How do we push our politics more to the left that makes our politics more empathetic, that makes it more genuine and that makes it more concerned about the welfare of everyday Ghanaians? I do not get a clear path, I’m not very convinced that GTP offers that way forward,” he said.
Mr. Barker-Vormawor further stated that Alan throughout his speech failed to connect with the common man.
He said, “one of the things that Alan is talking about seems to me to be a litany of grievances he has with the processes by which he did not become the candidate of the NPP. It doesn’t appear to me that a lot of what he’s saying is grounded in the identification of the common man and the common young people in this country for so long.
“He’s part of the elites, he’s part of that class and so this idea that he was going to catapult and jump on the back of a youth organization and mobilization tool to launch his political career, I think he might find the constituency a bit more hesitant than he’ll meet.”
Expatiating on his earlier point, he said “These are person who have been disappointed, these are persons whose aspirations have been coopted to launch people into political offices and they’re not very, very keen on doing that again.
“Going forward, all three candidates that are going to be presented, we know at least John Mahama is going to be running, we’re not clear whether it’s going to be Bawumia or Kennedy Agyapong or Addai Nimoh or any of those options on the ruling government side and we know that Alan has thrown his hat into the race.
“So of all these options on that table, I think the candidate that speaks to the young people’s desire for a new constitution for a new generation, that understands the generational shift and the demands we’re making and how we reform our politics is going to be the candidate of things that appeal to us.
“And we are going to be open to having conversations across board as to who really is interested in reforming our politics. That for me is going to be the key determinant of how young people vote.”
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